Morning Tech Wrap: Facebook, Sprint, Google

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at Davos; Image via Wikipedia

Facebook says it’s found strong evidence that Paul Ceglia, the New York man who claims he’s entitled to half of Mark Zuckerberg’s stake in the social network, is a fraud.

The company said its inspection of the computers and devices handed over by Paul Ceglia show “smoking gun” evidence of fraud. The forensic tests run by Facebook were court-ordered. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio in Buffalo, New York, ordered Ceglia to turn over his computers, hard drives and electronic storage media for tests. The contract and email that Ceglia says support his claim were also tested.

“Defendants have uncovered smoking-gun evidence that the purported contract at the heart of this case is a fabrication,” Facebook said in its court filing yesterday. The case began last year, when Ceglia sued Facebook and Zuckerberg over claims of a contract signed by Zuckerberg in 2003 that entitled Ceglia to half of the social networking site, Bloomberg reports.

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Sprint has unveiled its first $100 4G Android phone, the Samsung Conquer 4G. According to Tech Crunch, the launch of the Samsung Conquer 4G will be August 21, costing $100 provided customers sign a two-year deal.

The phone comes with a low-res front-facing camera, just 1.3 megapixels, and will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The rear camera is better though, at 3.2 megapixels and with flash and zoom.

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Photos posted online appear to show evidence of the first accident caused by Google’s self-drive car. A picture taken near Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters shows the company’s prototype self-drive car rear-ending another Toyota Prius. According to an eye-witness, the Prius hit a Honda Accord in turn, which then hit another Accord and a third Prius.

While self-drive cars are limited by law across the U.S., they are allowed with restrictions in California. Google recently persuaded the state legislature of Nevada to allow a special license permitting self-driving cars on the state’s freeways, Jalopnik reports.

“Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to avoid fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car,” Google said in a statement to Business Insider.

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A self-described spam king has surrendered to the FBI after being indicted for breaking into Facebook accounts to send 27 million spam emails. Sanford Wallace, 43, allegedly used a phishing attack to steal usernames and passwords from victims before using the credentials to spam victims’ Facebook walls.

Wallace allegedly made money using this method to drive traffic to sites that pay for referrals. According to PC World, the self-professed “spam king” has faced previous lawsuits from Myspace, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Facebook. Facebook won its $711 million civil judgment against Wallace, and he was banned from the social networking site as part of that judgment. The latest criminal indictment accuses Wallace of contempt of court for allegedly logging on during a 2009 flight to Las Vegas.

“We applaud the efforts of the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI to bring spammers to justice,” Facebook said in a statement. “Now Wallace faces serious jail time for this illegal conduct.” Wallace reportedly could get more than 16 years in prison, if convicted.

 

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Social Networking and Educators: New Law Creates Controversy

Earlier in July, the Missouri State legislature passed a bill aimed at protecting students against inappropriate relationships with teachers.

“Every teacher organization in the state of Missouri supported this bill in session.  So did every educational organization like school boards, superintendents, etc.  It passed unanimously in the House and the Senate,” explains State Senator Jane Cunningham, who sponsored what is now called the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act.

But one section of Senate Bill 54, near the bottom of the bill, is gaining controversy nationwide.

Section 162.069 states:

“Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian. Teachers also cannot have a non work-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student.”

This section has many critics.

“We think the bill is not only overstepping; it’s also unneeded.  This one section is very vague and most schools already have a social media policy in place,” says Cameron Carlson, the leader of the rapidly-growing Facebook group Students, Parents, and Teachers Against MO Senate Bill #54, Sec. 162.069 http://www.facebook.com/groups/repealmobill54/.

The group is vehemently against these few sentences in the bill, which they say are vague and make unfair assumptions about educators.

“The bill also assumes that teachers don’t have the right judgment when acting online.  Any employer should just assume that its employees act with the right ethical and moral decisions in any instance.  This shows the lack of faith we have in our educators. The passage is worded in such a way that disallows them from even using the website,” Carlson said.

But Senator Cunningham says that’s not at all the case.

She says even when the new law takes effect, it would not even prohibit teachers from being friends with students on a site like Facebook.

“The only thing that we stop is any hidden, exclusive access and communication between an educator and a student-as long as there are third parties like parents or school personnel who have access to that communication, you are fine,” Cunningham explains.

Cunningham says Facebook groups, Twitter updates, and all the main avenues for communication are okay, as long as they’re used properly.

“Some of the social media, if used improperly, not only facilitates an inappropriate relationship, it is also a pathway to an inappropriate relationship,” Cunningham said.

But those against section 162.069 still say they support the rest of the bill and only wish the few sentences they find vague and overreaching to eventually be repealed.

The group’s online petition only has a few hundred electronic signatures; but that’s after only a few days of existence.

Carlson says the group has received massive feedback since its inception.

Cunningham says she’s received calls from reporters nationwide and from overseas to explain the details of the Student Protection Act.

The new legislation will take effect on August 28.

School districts statewide are required to have a new policy concerning teacher-student communication and employee-student communications by January 1, 2012.

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