Do you remember when we did the story a few years ago on LifeLock?  Ya, know the one where the owner who likes to showboat around with his Social Security number on a truck billboard.  All the while claiming how safe he is because that may be his real Social Security number, but he is protected by LifeLock.   Recall how the wheels started to come off when he himself was the victim of identity theft, not by some high profile, high tech super criminal, but by some ordinary schmoe, who took him for a $500 credit card?  Well, it sometimes takes a while, but the Federal Trade commission has decided that maybe theres less truthiness in the adds than there should be.
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Also this week, we have a story that we really aren’t supposed to talk about.  You see, Apple has forbidden anyone  who creates apps for the Apple App Store from talking about the Apple App Store…or even commenting on the very agreement that forbits them from taking about the agreement…are you dizzy yet?

All that and This week in history, and the story you just cant afford to miss if you have a child in school, on Mike Thinks News

The perfect product is hard to make. It can be even harder to find a catchy name. I spent countless hours trying to decide what to name my show, and Mike Thinks what just the best I could do. In retrospect, maybe theres a reason I don’t work for a promotions company. I can honestly say that I would never have names my next big thing the iPad.

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Its not that I think iPad is a bad name, its not…assuming your designing a new feminine hygiene product for the hipster crowd. But how in the heck does Apple pass on names like iSlate but lock onto a name that makes the Nintendo Wii seem downright normal? Now sure, we will get used to the name, not not before rev 2 at least. So this week I give you my detailed take on what I will go out on a limb and call the biggest miss of 2010…and its just barely February!

We also have out regular segment on weird news and this week in history on this weeks Mike Thinks News.

News is coming out that BluWiki is taking a rather aggressive legal stance against what it believes are “Baseless legal threats.”  In a nutshell, Apple is none too pleased with the fact that BluWiki is hosting forums that contain information on how to use your iPhone to run software that has not been approved (or has even been rejected) by Apple.  The complaint raised by Apple is another heavy handed use of the DMCA, claiming that allowing a discussion on how to use an iPhone with unapproved software is in itself violating the law.  It pains me to think, that we have really fallen this far from a free market and a free society, that anyone could even consider that talking about how to use a product you paid for in a way you want is illegal because the manufacturer doesn’t like the idea.  So back in November of 2008, a letter demanding the takedown of all content containing information on ‘hacking’ your legally purchased iPhone be taken off the site.

The interesting thing about this new report is that we are not only seeing a site claim safe harbor, based on the fact that its the users posting the information, not the site itself, but they are actually taking the stance that it is not illegal to talk about such topics at all.   As reported on Ars Technica, this is much like how it does not make you a terrorist just because you describe how to make a firecracker.  More importantly, just because you make a piece of hardware, you do not have the right to tell me I cant talk about how to use it in ways you don’t like.

The DMCA has such a broad and clumsey interpretation as to effectively make legal things illegal because you had to break the almighty encryption to do it.  Imagine if your car had a lock on the hood, and anytime you needed to add oil or do basic maintenance you had to undo a padlock to open the hood…now its perfectly legal to change your oil and service your engine, but for sues you because you broke into the engine compartment by circumventing their ‘lock’ and thats against the law.  In fact the law has been interpreted in ways so broad as to even bring into question the legality of accomplishing the same task without breaking the lock because the effect is the same.  Insanity…yes, and why havn’t you been calling your congressman about it yet?

images modified from original work by jpovey

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