It’s privacy not piracy…. or is it?
February 17, 2009 by Chinatex
Old Chinatex has often warned his friends and clients about the dangers of unsecure computer networks and allowing employees, children, and others to visit certain websites. The internet is really cool and has opened the world in ways that could not have been imagined when it was created by Al Gore! However, governments and othere nefarious characters are able to use it to access personal and confidential information. Facebook has reasons for their new policy that they will never disclose to the public. I’ve often warned y’all about Facebook and I hate to say “I told you so” so i won’t, just check out the below article and if you are running a company, make sure your network security is solid. Yeeha Chinatex!
Facebook Privacy Change Sparks Federal Complaint
The backlash against Facebook’s updated privacy policies is about to expand. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is preparing to file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over thesocial network’s updated licenses, PC World has learned.
“We think that Facebook should go back to its original terms of service,” says EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg.
EPIC expects to have its complaint submitted to the FTC by the end of Tuesday.
Wide-Reaching Reaction
The wave of reaction, of course, is hardly limited to official organizations. More than 38,000 Facebook users have joined a user group protesting the change, and countless blogs and news sites havewritten extensively about their concerns. The issue comes down to a couple of alterations within the company’s terms of use that, it would seem, give Facebook eternal ownership of your personal content–even if you decide to delete your account.
The changes were actually made in early February but not widely noticed until Sunday, when The Consumerist’s Chris Walters stumbled upon the subtly shifted language. The section in question explains how Facebook has an “irrevocable, perpetual” license to use your “name, likeness, and image” in essentially any way, including within promotions or external advertising.
That clause, Walters noted, wasn’t new. What had changed was that a sentence at the end of the paragraph was now mysteriously missing. The deleted line stated that the license would “automatically expire” if you removed your content. With that line omitted, Facebook’s license to use your content is simply “perpetual” and “irrevocable,” even decades after you delete your stuff.
Damage Control Doubt
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has attempted to calm the concerns, posting a blog entry stating that “people own their information” and that Facebook “wouldn’t share [it] in a way you wouldn’t want.” As an example of why the controversial clause is needed in its updated form, Zuckerberg explains that even if you were to delete your account, any messages you had sent to a friend would still remain in his inbox–so Facebook requires the expanded rights to make sure that could happen.
Isn’t that a far cry, though, from anything that’d warrant retaining a “perpetual” license to “use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, [and] adapt” any content you’ve ever uploaded, including the option to “use your name, likeness and image for any purpose”?
Something doesn’t quite add up.
Social Network Comparisons
Hey, maybe I’m misreading this. Could Facebook just be catching up with social network standards? Could everyone be overreacting?
Turns out, no. MySpace’s terms of use agreement grants the company the license to use your non-private content only within MySpace-related services. Moreover–and perhaps more important–MySpace notes that once you delete something from its site, it “will cease distribution as soon as practicable, and at such time when distribution ceases, the license will terminate.”
With Twitter, the company’s terms of service state it “claim[s] no intellectual property rights over the material you provide” and that “you can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account.”
Even YouTube, owned by privacy advocate punching bag Google, limits its license to use your content at will. The license will “terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your user videos,” the service’s terms of service say.
Facebook’s neverending lease on your online life, then, isn’t exactly the norm. Perhaps you can take comfort in the fact, though, that Facebook could change its policies again without ever telling you. “We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change or delete portions of these terms at any time without further notice,” Facebook’s agreement says. “Your continued use of the Facebook service after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new terms.”
Well, that’s at least reassuring. Anyone else having Beacon flashbacks right now?
On the labor front
February 10, 2009 by Chinatex
This just in from the central government. Looks like it will need some clarification which we may or may not receive. If you have more than 20 employees or will lay off more than 10% of your staff, you should know about this new regulation. Remember that it isn’t always about getting on the wrong side of laws and regulations that are not very clear, it can also be about being in the crosshairs of a new breed of hungry Chinese lawyers. Be careful out there. Yeeha Chinatex!
Companies to inform govt of layoffs 30 days prior
By Chen Jia (China Daily) February 11, 2009
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-02/11/content_7463470.htm
As layoffs and labor disputes become frequent with the global economic slowdown wiping out more businesses, the central government yesterday told employers to inform trade unions of their plans of mass layoffs at least 30 days in advance.
If a company plans to layoff more than 20 employees, or over 10 percent of the total staff in one go, it must submit written reports to the local labor and social security department 30 days prior to the action, the State Council said in a statement issued on its official website (www.gov.cn) yesterday.
The State Council emphasized that priority should be given to ensure the legal rights of the employees. Priority should be given to ensure the legal rights of employees!
Moreover, employers should not does this mean have to? refuse to pay for social insurance as long as the working relations still exist, it said.
Local labor officials should keep a watch on such companies to ensure employers do not flee or postpone wages and insurance payment, it said.
Mo Rong, deputy chief of the labor science research institute under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said stable employment should be the top priority under the current financial circumstances.”In the long term, mass layoffs are not good for the development of an enterprise,” he said.
The government has launched a series of favorable policies “to either reduce or postpone five types of social security insurance fees to give private enterprises some relief”, he added.
“The State Council’s notice reiterated the regulation of Labor Law, and it is a good reminder to both enterprises and employers,” Li Kui, a lawyer of the Beijing-based Yingke Law Firm, told China Daily.
“But I hope the regulation would be further clarified, as different scales of companies and official organizations that manage layoffs need to be more clear,” he said.
Meng Qinghuan, an employer of a Beijing-based fund management company, said he was doubtful if the new regulation would be implemented successfully.
“Some small enterprises have no ability to anticipate the crisis and go bankrupt overnight,” he said.
Some good news
February 10, 2009 by Chinatex
Here’s a good story about good people being entrepreneurial in China. They are also friends of old Chinatex and indeed Angels. Read the story below or click on the link. Otherwise things are fast and furious here in the wild east as Chinese New Year has officially ended and people from all over the world are looking to the Chinese economy to carry them through these tough economic times. Old Chinatex’s email is bursting with inquiries from people wanting to tap this market. As I tell them all, be patient, invest in relationships, understand China and of course – get a good lawyer.
Yeeha!! Chinatex.
http://paper.sznews.com/szdaily/20080205/ca2885176.htm
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Australian husband, Chinese wife make a perfect business match |
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2008年02月05日 06:31 Shenzhen Daily |
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Newman Huo AUSTRALIAN Ian Jones and his Chinese wife Shirley Wu are a perfect match not only in marriage but also in business. The couple owns two businesses in Shekou in Nanshan District. One is Dial-an-Angel, which offers an extensive range of relocation and real estate service for expatriates coming to Shekou. The other is the Thai Orchid, a restaurant providing fine dining for foreigners and middle-class Chinese residents. With more than 25 years’ work experience in marketing, sales, management and information technology, Ian, 52, is in charge of Dial-an-Angel. With about 10 years’ experiences in the restaurant business, Shirley manages the Thai Orchid. Before starting work for an IT company in Hong Kong in 2002, Ian had been traveling around Asia for five years working as a marketing executive with an IT company in Sydney, Australia. He came to Shenzhen for the first time in April 2002 staying in an apartment in Futian District. When he went to a restaurant in Shekou, he met with his Chinese wife, Shirley, who was managing a restaurant. Ian worked for the Hong Kong company for a further two years, and then became self-employed as an IT consultant from 2004 through 2006. Shirley, from Hunan Province, began to operate a restaurant and bar in Kunming, Yunnan Province at the age of 20. She moved to Shenzhen in September 1999. She and Ian were married in June last year. Before they opened the Thai Orchid last September, Shirley had worked in almost every major Western restaurant in Shekou to familiarize herself with foreign cuisine and the catering business in this highly competitive area. Two years ago, Shirley had many of Ian’s foreign friends ask her for assistance on little things, like getting a driver, a maid or translation. One day a foreigner asked for an apartment to rent, and she found one for him and helped him get all the utilities and bank books organized. “Then we recognized there was a business opportunity in doing this, as foreigners had nobody to help them and were often being cheated by real estate agents,” Ian said. One of their first customers once said “Thanks, Shirley! You’re an angel,” after she had helped them with a taxi driver who got lost trying to get them home. That’s how the couple finally came up with the name Dial-an-Angel. In December 2006 the couple bought a small real estate agency in the Rose Garden in Nanshan District. “The big real estate agencies next door laughed at us, one guilao (Chinese nickname for foreigners) and two girls opening a new store next to them, and we didn’t even have uniforms.” said Ian. But now, one of them has gone out of business and Dial-an-Angel has expanded to twice the size and moved to a much larger office nearby. “Now we have a toilet, but we still don’t have uniforms as we believe this will suppress our individuality,” Ian said. Dial-an-Angel now has four Chinese girls as full-time employees. All speak English and understand what foreigners need in terms of accommodation and services. “Moving to China is a very scary experience for a foreigner as they cannot speak the language and do not understand how things operate or who they can trust,” Ian said. “We know the local area very well and have good contacts in schools, medical services and community groups, so we are able to provide a complete offering and not just arrange an apartment rental and then forget about the client,” he said. More than 80 percent of the Dial-an-Angel’s clients come from referrals of customers whom the company has helped settle into Shekou. “It is a fun business as we meet new people from all over the world every day and help them in moving their families here,” Jones said. |
Time to get back to business
February 1, 2009 by Chinatex
The Chinese New Year holiday is officially over. Just take a look at all these people heading home from the long holiday at a train station in China. 
I’m glad I am not in that line and that it’s over. But that doesn’t mean that the fireworks are going to stop going off outside of my bedroom window. It seems that no matter what floor old Chinatex lives on, the fireworks explode just outside my window. 6th floor, 26th floor, just like everything else annoying here, it’s planned to mess with the foreigners. You know, C *O* N spiracy. There hasn’t been a lot of news during the holiday but I thought this article below is interesting and speaks for itself. Steelers 20 Arizona 12 my prediction for the Super Bowl, which we will be watching at 7:20 a.m. and of course we won’t be drinking because it’s a workday – another conspiracy putting the Super Bowl on a workday. Yee ha!! Chinatex
Divorce verdicts witness changing Chinese life
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-28 11:31
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-01/28/content_7430280.htm
From daily necessities in late 1970s to nowaday’s house and stock ownership, the list in property settlement verdicts in divorce proceedings have vividly echoed changing concept of the Chinese on marriage and property.
“Property settlement in divorce cases is becoming more complicated,” Hu Jianyong, a judge with the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court, told the Beijing Daily.
A recent case handled by Hu involved several real estate properties, debts, stock, and some sporadic investment, and the litigation object exceeded 50 million yuan (US$7.31 million).
A verdict meted out by the local court in 1983 showed a contrasting picture:
A cupboard, a cocktail cabinet, a table, a clothes-rack, a suitcase, a mosquito net, a basin, eight plates, five quilts, two pillows, two pillow covers, a blanket, a bedspread, two shirts, one cotton-padded clothes, two trousers, and three pairs of shoes belong to the plaintiff; while the rest property in the room, including a electric fan, two chairs, a bed, and two dictionaries belong to the defendant.
The defendant was also responsible for 500 yuan of the family’s 730-yuan debt, the verdict reads.
The list, representing all the family belongings, was too simple for youngsters nowadays to believe, Hu said.
“30 years on, it’s no longer a luxury for ordinary Chinese people to own property such as an apartment and a car,” Hu said.
“In the 1980s, the court focused mainly on ruling whether the couple should be divorced,” said Li Junye, another judge of the court. “We can often see a pan or a bowl on the list of property settlement verdicts.”
“But now, with the increasing private property value, the disputes gradually shifted to partition of houses or other more valuable items,” Li said.
“People seem to care less about who owns the television or washing machine.”
Divorce is traditionally discouraged in China.
In late 1970s, some divorce cases might drag on for one or two years, according to Li. “The court got to be cautious for fear some divorcees might commit suicide because of social pressure.”
But as the women become more independent financially, with divorce procedures now much simplified, and attitudes to divorce and divorcees becoming more tolerant, the number of divorces has been rising since 1980 when the figure was 341,000.
“Now we can mete out verdict even in a day if the couple reach a consensus on child raising and property settlement,” Li said.
About 1.4 million couples divorced through civil affairs bureaus across the country in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 18.2 percent, latest figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.
There were 694,000 court-sanctioned divorces in the same period, according to the ministry.
Chinese people can now marry or divorce much more easily as employers do not have to be notified or asked to provide recommendations on the suitability of an employee’s marriage plans.
