Where Law, Technology and Life Meet…
{ Monthly Archives }
This may be the first instance of a web mashup facing litigation based on the manner and effect of the data that it presents.
from cnn.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Zillow.com, a real estate valuation Web site, has been named in a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission by a consumer advocacy group, which charges the site’s home valuations mislead consumers, real estate professionals and lenders.
from The Wannabe Venture Capitalist
Launches:
- Hotsoup.com Launches
- crayon Launches
Fundings:
- WiSpry raises $13.5mm series B
- Right Media raises $45mm with Yahoo! leading the round
- iKobo receives $2mm: innovator in person to person online money xfer
- Vinfolio takes $1.6mm
- NComputing, Inc. closes $8mm series A
- spodradio raises $10mm series B
- Jingle Networks raises another $30mm for 1-800-Free-411
- Box.net gets $1.5mm and now has more than 500k users
from cnet.com
Here is a great article on Google’s evolving strategy.
Google has the leg up on all of them, though, not because it’s markedly easier to use or has more features–it isn’t and it doesn’t–but because of the direct AdSense connection.
Last Thursday I attended the SDForum re-launch of the Open Source Software SIG. For those of you who don’t know, SDForum (Software Developer Forum) is a Silicon Valley not-for-profit organization providing an unbiased source of information and insight to the technology community for the past 23 years. SDForum provides a venue for engineers, executives, researchers, technology leaders, and venture capitalists to exchange information on emerging technologies and best practices.
The Open Source SIG (Special Interest Group) was re-launched after a few month hiatus. The speaker panel included Mark Brewer, CEO Covalent, Munwar Shariff, COO Cignex, Roy Singham, Thoughtworks, and was moderated by Andrew Aitken, Managing Director, The Olliance Group.
Here are some of the top themes that emerged from this meeting:
from The Wannabe Venture Capitalist
New Companies:
- Smalltown launches and has $3mm from Formative Ventures
- Coghead launches: allows for easy online application building
Fundings:
- AirPlay secures $14mm series B: merging mobile gaming and live TV
- Ripe Digital receives a $32mm series B: on demand TV
- Cellfish Media raises $50mm: pioneer in original mobile content creation
- LeadPoint Secures $2mm series C: online leads exchange
- Procore Technologies raises over $2mm series B: software-as-a-service for construction projects
- SolFocus completes a $32mm series A: solar cells
- Amyris gets $20mm: developing alternative fuel
- Indian local search engine Guruji.com gets $7mm from Sequoia
- Practical Instruments raises $8mm: solar energy
- PopSugar takes ~$5mm series A from Sequoia
Here is an interesting post about the political process. Imagine in private commerce, if companies could slip unrelated license terms or conditions in unrelated agreements. This is another example of how the system is broken.
from cnet.com
President Bush just signed into law a bill slapping more restrictions on online gambling. The odd thing, though, is that at his press conference on Friday, Bush mentioned neither gambling nor the Internet.
That’s because the restrictions were buried in Section 801 of a massive port security bill, which had nothing to do with the Internet and became one of those must-pass-before-November-7th political gambits of which Congress becomes so enamored in election years.
If this happened only rarely, perhaps we could forgive our elected representatives for gluing unrelated amendments onto a proposal that’s destined to become law. (With a tight election just weeks away, how many politicians have the mettle to vote against “port security?”)
It sounds funny to me that the regulators are just discussing the danger that this represents.
from reuters.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-tech crooks are hijacking online brokerage accounts using spyware and operating from remote locations, sometimes in Eastern Europe, U.S. market regulators said on Friday.
The computer “incursions” are a growing problem, said Walter Ricciardi, deputy enforcement director at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It’s something we’re very concerned about,” he said in remarks at a legal conference in Washington.
My personal take is that Friendster does not have much relevance today, their community has little added value as far as social networks are concerned.
originally nytimes.com
JONATHAN ABRAMS was in a spot. He could take the safe bet and accept the $30 million that Google was offering him for Friendster, the social networking Web start-up he began only a year earlier, in 2002. Saying yes to Google would provide a quick and stunning payout for relatively little work and instantly place the Friendster Web site in front of hundreds of millions of users across the globe.
Will moving offshore make any real difference? Will there be a new way for these gamers to access these sites?
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Leisure & Gaming and payment processor FireOne joined the list of companies fleeing a U.S. ban on online gaming on Tuesday, as signs emerged that Europe is to open up its gambling market.
Leisure & Gaming said it would stop serving U.S. gamblers if President George W. Bush signed into law a ban that was unexpectedly passed by Congress at the start of this month.
from The Wannabe Venture Capitalist
New Companies:
- Revision3 founded by Digg co-founders and gets $1mm
- stashSpace, full length video editing online, launches
- slideshare launches: powerpoint + youtube
Fundings:
- Voxant: Video Syndication Network - gets $10.5mm
- Ecast: Digital Jukebox Firm, gets $20mm
- Wallop: Social Networking site, gets $10mm second round
- ContextWeb closes $15.5mm series C
- Nexaweb closes $10mm series B
- VideoEgg gets $12mm third round
- BuzzLogic raises $1.5mm
- Demand Media raises $100mm
- Visto secures $51mm
- Mintera secures $10mm
- PayperPost, controversial blog advertising company, raises $3mm
- Fotolog received $4.1mm third round
- Songbird gets $1mm
- Ugobe raises $8mm
- Yelp raises $10mm
- b5 media: blog network, raises $2mm
- CityVoter gets $1.1mm
- Voddler raises $2.2mm
- Ripe raises $32mm second round
New Funds:
- NGEN II Closes at $180mm
- OpenView Venture Partners launches