terms

iPhone SDK terms relaxed to allow lotteries (Poll)

Updated February 25, 2010 at 8:06 a.m. PST: Update and correction to reflect that the app is now free and the prize is up to $1,000 daily.

According to a report by RegHardware, Apple is now allowing developers to add contests, lotteries, or sweepstakes to iPhone and iPod Touch apps, thanks to a new SDK rule, if those contests follow some strict guidelines:

Developers must be the sole sponsor of a promotion. The app promotion must comply with all local laws. Developers must clearly state that Apple has no sponsorship or responsibility for the in-app promotion.

This … Read more

Clearwire adds more subscribers, cuts losses

Clearwire saw a huge uptick in 4G wireless subscribers in the fourth quarter, which helped the company narrow its losses.

The company, which is building a nationwide 4G wireless network, added 87,000 new subscribers in the fourth quarter, it reported Wednesday. This is up from the 5,000 it signed up in the fourth quarter of 2008. Clearwire ended the year with a total of 688,000 customers.

These subscribers also included wholesale customers, which use the Clearwire service through one of its partners, such as Sprint, Comcast, or Time Warner Cable. Clearwire said that its wholesale subscribers jumped … Read more

New Facebook craze can violate terms of service

If you're one of Facebook's 350-million-plus members, you've probably noticed a handful of people on your friends list changing their profile photos to pictures of celebrities, cartoon characters, Muppets, and other notable figures recently.

That's because an unofficial viral craze called "Doppelganger Week" has arisen on the social network. To participate, you change your profile picture to a celebrity or otherwise notable figure whom you resemble (or like to think you resemble).

Nobody's really sure where Doppelganger Week came from or who started it. It's particularly funny considering the recent emergence of more photos … Read more

Clearwire may consider 4G alternatives to WiMax

WiMax may be Clearwire's technology of choice today as it builds out its nationwide 4G wireless network, but the upstart carrier may eventually migrate to a competing technology that's expected to be used by most of the world's major wireless operators.

Clearwire's willingness to add additional 4G technologies to its network in the future will likely help it compete more aggressively in the future with other 4G wireless providers, such as Verizon Wireless. And ultimately this could mean more choices, better services, and more competitive pricing for wireless broadband services for consumers.

In an interview with … Read more

Sex, porn, Jacko top kids' searches in 2009

Sex, porn, and Michael Jackson were among the most popular items kids searched for online in 2009, as tracked by Symantec's OnlineFamily.Norton.

Symantec on Thursday revealed the top 100 favorite search terms among children 18 and under found by its free OnlineFamily.Norton service, which helps parents monitor their kids' online searches. Though innocuous terms like Sesame Street and "New Moon"--a popular movie in the Twilight vampire series--made the cut, sex showed up fourth on the list for boys and fifth for girls, following YouTube, Google, and Facebook as the three top terms.

For boys, … Read more

MySpace changes terms of use to combat app scams

In the wake of a firestorm over just how much of social-gaming companies' profits can be attributed to potentially scammy offers and incentives, News Corp.'s MySpace has taken a stand (and, it could be said, taken advantage of the PR opportunity) by coming out vocally against them.

"We're adding a fifth principle (to our developer terms of use) that clarifies a specific use case that we feel is particularly damaging to the user experience: promotions that include hidden renewals without specific opt-in will not be permitted," a company blog post by CEO Owen Van Natta read. &… Read more

Twitter tweaks terms of service

Twitter posted changes to its terms of service Thursday, assuring users that they own their tweets while leaving "the door open for advertising" opportunities.

"The revisions more appropriately reflect the nature of Twitter and convey key issues such as ownership," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a company blog. "For example, your tweets belong to you, not to Twitter."

In announcing the new terms of service, Stone also addressed the topics of abusive behavior and spam. These are four highlights Stone called out:

Advertising--In the Terms, we leave the door open for advertising. We'… Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: The Pirate Bay's death rattle

In today's podcast we get CNET News reporter Greg Sandoval in the studio to chat about what's happening to popular BitTorrent sharing site The Pirate Bay, including why it's back up, though probably not for long.

We also cover celebrity search terms that might end up infecting your computer with malware, along with Yahoo's latest acquisition that puts the company in a space to go after a larger market segment than before.

Today's stories:

Jessica Biel most 'dangerous' celeb in cyberspace

Yahoo reaches Arab world with acquisition

U.K. government eyes sanctions for file sharers… Read more

Facebook tweaks its terms to address ads, privacy

Facebook on Tuesday proposed a new version of its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities document, which acts as a terms of service for its users.

One of the larger changes is clearer language of Facebook's share to everyone feature, which is now an integral part of the social network's updated search engine. The new wording makes it pretty clear that anything users post with the "everyone" designation can be seen by the entire world, not just users on the service.

The company also added a new section which details proper use of its pages features, including … Read more