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At Globe Tech HQ, we are constantly on the lookout for good-news stories. And boy have we found one.
Regular Globe Tech visitors will have noticed a story on our site today about an important court decision. A group of big banks asked a judge to force a financial news website called The Fly On The Wall ( Theflyonthewall.com) to stop posting immediate updates on analyst research from several major banks. TFOTW published its updates so quickly that the big banks often didn't have time to share the research reports with their clients first. We're not entirely sure how this happened - do wealthy investors only communicate by carrier pigeon? - but it obviously was a big problem for the banks. Fortunately, however, a judge sided with the banks, issuing an order this March prohibiting TFOTW from issuing such updates for a set period of time following their release by the banks - essentially, the judge imposed a time-delay.
This is great, great news - it finally recognizes the reality that this whole real-time thing is just a fad, and the Internet will soon revert to its natural state as a means of transmitting information long after that information has become stale - you know, like the telegram, or the 14th-century spice ship.
In fact, we here at Globe Tech HQ are so inspired by this ruling, we're taking action ourselves.
That's right: Globe Tech is suing everybody on Twitter.
For months, Twitter users have been flagrantly misappropriating Globe Tech content by posting it on their feeds, sometimes before we even have a chance to pass that content to our preferred clients - that's you, dear reader! You are the victim! This is, of course, totally unacceptable. Did I mention we're also suing about 3-million bloggers? Because we totally are.
The banks who brought the lawsuit that inspired us have got it right: just because we created some content and made it available to people doesn't give people a right to immediately make it available to other people. C'mon, people.
Of course, it's not just Globe Tech that's taking this approach. Post a Twitter update complaining about all the rain? Bam! - lawsuit from the Weather Network.
This week, the meddlesome busybodies at Google and Twitter issued a filing asking an appeals court to take another look at the banks-TFOTW decision. Their argument is that, in today's Internet-powered world, it's unreasonable to try to block the dissemination of news, and that trying to do so gives the first entity that gets a piece of information a strong incentive to block anyone else from getting the same info.
This is a silly argument. Everybody knows that if you see a hole in a dam, you stick your finger in it. If another hole pops up, you just stick another finger in it. As long as there aren't more than 10 holes, everything will be fine.