Geek News and Musings

Ohio Legislator Wants To Criminalize Kids Taking Nude Pics Of Themselves
The uproar over “sexting” — kids taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them with their cameraphones — is in full swing, with lots of politicians looking to wring some publicity out of it. In our earlier post about the Pennsylvania prosecutor who threatened to bring child-porn charges against some kids for taking their own pictures, Steve L left a comment noting that a politician in Ohio plans to introduce legislation that would make sexting a misdemeanor offense. He says he wants to criminalize the activity to protect kids from the “extra burden” of being charged with felony sex offenses. It’s bizarre, though, as he says that teen sexters “did something stupid, but I don’t think anyone wants for them to be called sex offenders,” and “I think what these teens need is education about how this type of behavior could affect their lives.” So the way to educate them is to make them criminals?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Prosecutor Who Threatened Teens With Child Porn Charges For Taking Pics Of Themselves Gets Sued
Back in January, we got a tremendous response in the comments to a post about some teens in Pennsylvania who were facing the potential of child porn charges from an overzealous local prosecutor. Three girls had snapped nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves, and and faced charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography; the two boys they sent the photos faced possession raps. Now, the ACLU has sued the prosecutor on the girls’ behalf, saying he shouldn’t have threatened them with baseless charges — which haven’t yet been filed — if they wouldn’t agree to probation and a counseling program. The prosecutor says he was being “proactive” in offering them a choice, but the ACLU says he shouldn’t be using “heavy artillery” to make the threats. As its attorney points out, teaching kids that this sort of behavior can bring all sorts of unwanted and unforeseen ramifications is a good idea, but threatening them with child-porn charges isn’t the best way to do it. Of course, in neighboring New Jersey, it seems like prosecutors didn’t just stick to threats of such charges: a 14-year-old girl has now been arrested for child porn possession and distribution for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace for her boyfriend to see. At least in that case, they say they won’t charge friends who viewed the photos as well.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Prosecutor Who Threatened Teens With Child Porn Charges For Taking Pics Of Themselves Gets Sued
Back in January, we got a tremendous response in the comments to a post about some teens in Pennsylvania who were facing the potential of child porn charges from an overzealous local prosecutor. Three girls had snapped nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves, and and faced charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography; the two boys they sent the photos faced possession raps. Now, the ACLU has sued the prosecutor on the girls’ behalf, saying he shouldn’t have threatened them with baseless charges — which haven’t yet been filed — if they wouldn’t agree to probation and a counseling program. The prosecutor says he was being “proactive” in offering them a choice, but the ACLU says he shouldn’t be using “heavy artillery” to make the threats. As its attorney points out, teaching kids that this sort of behavior can bring all sorts of unwanted and unforeseen ramifications is a good idea, but threatening them with child-porn charges isn’t the best way to do it. Of course, in neighboring New Jersey, it seems like prosecutors didn’t just stick to threats of such charges: a 14-year-old girl has now been arrested for child porn possession and distribution for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace for her boyfriend to see. At least in that case, they say they won’t charge friends who viewed the photos as well.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Prosecutor Who Threatened Teens With Child Porn Charges For Taking Pics Of Themselves Gets Sued
Back in January, we got a tremendous response in the comments to a post about some teens in Pennsylvania who were facing the potential of child porn charges from an overzealous local prosecutor. Three girls had snapped nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves, and and faced charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography; the two boys they sent the photos faced possession raps. Now, the ACLU has sued the prosecutor on the girls’ behalf, saying he shouldn’t have threatened them with baseless charges — which haven’t yet been filed — if they wouldn’t agree to probation and a counseling program. The prosecutor says he was being “proactive” in offering them a choice, but the ACLU says he shouldn’t be using “heavy artillery” to make the threats. As its attorney points out, teaching kids that this sort of behavior can bring all sorts of unwanted and unforeseen ramifications is a good idea, but threatening them with child-porn charges isn’t the best way to do it. Of course, in neighboring New Jersey, it seems like prosecutors didn’t just stick to threats of such charges: a 14-year-old girl has now been arrested for child porn possession and distribution for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace for her boyfriend to see. At least in that case, they say they won’t charge friends who viewed the photos as well.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

End-of-Quarter Layoffs Hit Amazon, IBM, Google, and The New York Times

With the end of the first quarter of the 2009 almost here, even the strongest companies companies are making last-minute layoffs to shave costs. Today, layoffs were announced across the tech sector, from IBM to Google to Amazon. The biggest layoffs came from IBM, where 5,000 people are losing their jobs in the U.S.. Amazon cut 210 people at three distribution centers in Nevada, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Google also announced layoffs of 200 people from sales and marketing (so far, engineers have been spared). In all three cases, the job cuts amounted to roughly one percent of each company’s global workforce. The New York Times also announced a 5 percent cut of its newsroom business operations, or 100 people.

It is not as if the payroll reductions will help save the quarter or even have a material impact on it. But the companies can point to the measures during their conference calls with investors and analysts and project the savings going forward.

We’ve added the job cuts to our Layoff Tracker. To see who is hiring, check out our CrunchBoard.

• Total Layoffs Since August 27, 2008: 448
• Total Employees: 316,246

Company	Date	Location	#	%	Source
Amazon	March 26, 2009	Red Rock, Nev.; Munster, Ind.; and Chambersburg, Pa.	210	1%	NYT
The New York Times	March 26, 2009	New York, NY	100	5%	NYT
Google	March 26, 2009	Mountain View, CA	200	1%	NYT
IBM	March 26, 2009	USA	5,000	1%	LA Times
Imeem	March 25, 2009	San Francisco, CA	6	4%	TechCrunch

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