. 'I Sue Dead People'
This is one of those scandals that never seem to end. Beginning in
September 2003, the RIAA and MPAA took a new tack in their
anti-swapping crusade by suing consumers for illegally downloading
music and movie files. They hired firms to infiltrate peer-to-peer
networks, capture IP addresses, and force ISPs to reveal the names
of the customers who had been assigned them (though some, like
Verizon, refused).
Twelve-year-old honor students, dead grandmothers, computerless
families, and thousands of John Does are among the 18,000 U.S.
consumers sued so far. The upshot: File sharing is continuing, CD
sales are dwindling, and legal downloads are climbing. And the RIAA
and MPAA are tied for second place as the Dilbert Awards'
Weaseliest Organizations of 2006.
6. The Not-So-Secret Service
In October 2004, Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick account was
hacked by 21-year old Nicholas Jacobsen, who shared her private
photos and address book across the Net. No big deal; by that time
thousands of Netizens had already seen as much of Paris as is
possible to see without the aid of medical equipment.
The real scandal was who else got hacked in the same exploit: U.S.
Secret Service agent Peter Cavicchia, who happened to be
investigating Jacobsen at the time. Jacobsen produced memos that
Cavicchia had e-mailed regarding ongoing investigations of Russian
cybercrooks. In February 2006, Jacobsen pleaded guilty to one count
of hacking, was fined $10,000, and was sentenced to a year of home
detention. By then, Cavicchia had already turned in his badge.
Though the Secret Service says he should not have been using his
personal device for work, Cavicchia said he resigned on his own and
was not asked to leave the agency.
5. Scandalous Feats
In 1986, Paul "Freck" Morgan lost the use of his legs following a
boating accident. Sometime in the summer of 2001, the paraplegic
hit upon a brilliant idea: to cut off his useless feet with a
homemade guillotine and broadcast the deed live on the Internet.
Those interested in the gruesome spectacle could watch Freck's
Webcam for $20 (or $2 a toe); the money would go toward an
operation for Morgan to be fitted for prosthethic limbs. Freck's
site even featured a charming cartoon depiction of what the event,
scheduled for January 2002, might look like.
For a time Freck spurred debate among Netizens: Should someone be
allowed to mutilate themselves solely for money and a sick kind of
fame? But the cut-off date came and went, and Freck's feet were
still attached. Like OurFirstTime.com, where Webpreneur Ken Tipton
boasted he would show two virgins deflowering each other on the
Web, or Manbeef.com, which claimed to sell human flesh for
consumption, CutOffMyFeet.com proved to be just another well-played
hoax. In the end, Freck didn't have a leg to stand on. Or maybe he
just got cold feet.
4. The China Syndrome
Several Net giants found themselves on the wrong side of "the Great
Firewall" last year as they caught heat for cutting deals with
China's Communist regime. Google, for one, announced a new Chinese
version of its search engine that is censored by the Beijing
government. Search for controversial topics like Falun Gong, and
the results will look quite different depending on which side of
the Pacific you're on.
But Google declined to roll out Chinese versions of Blogger or
Gmail, hoping to avoid the scandal that Yahoo brought upon itself
when it turned over subscriber e-mail to the Chinese authorities,
an action that resulted in the arrests of three dissidents. In late
2005, Microsoft voluntarily removed the blog of an outspoken
Chinese journalist from MSN Spaces. Cisco has also come under fire
for selling China the equipment to carefully filter Internet access
for its 132 million Netizens. Rather than get cut out of the
world's largest emerging market, these firms decided to hold their
noses and take the money.
