Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »March 01, 2007 — CIO —
MySpace.com faces a new round of lawsuits filed in January alleging that it failed to protect minors. Experts say the cases will enter murky legal territory.
Four families whose underage daughters were sexually assaulted after meeting men in person whom they had met online via MySpace filed separate lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court. Their lawyers contend MySpace waited too long to employ security measures to protect underage users.
MySpace, owned by News Corporation, has upgraded its security features after facing criticism that predators could use the site to target children. The lawsuits were filed the same week that MySpace said it would release software, called Zephyr, for parents to monitor changes in their children’s accounts.
Some of the issues facing MySpace have also confronted operators of chat rooms and message boards. Yahoo pulled some user-created chat rooms in June 2005 after it found content that violated its terms of use.
Social networking sites, like message boards, aren’t bound by law in how they should operate or what security features they must have, says Struan Robertson, senior associate attorney at Pinsent Masons, a U.K. law firm that deals with technology issues.
Illegal activity is banned in terms of use agreements, but it’s up to the sites to determine how to prevent it.
The lawsuits against MySpace pose legal challenges given a lack of previous cases, says Evan D. Brown, an IT attorney with Hinshaw and Culbertson in Chicago.
At least two U.S. cases suggest MySpace could be in the clear. In February, a federal court in Texas dismissed a similar suit filed against MySpace by a teenage girl’s family, after she was assaulted by a man she met via MySpace: The judge ruled that the company was protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Also, in 2001, Florida’s Supreme Court rejected a negligence suit where a mother alleged AOL failed to close the account of a subscriber who used a chat room to sell obscene photos of her son.