BoingBoing reader Larry sends an interesting "loophole" for Orkut's much-bemoaned TOS:
I noticed that people have been making a stink about Orkut.com's TOS lately, saying that it reserves the right to do pretty much anything with content posted to Orkut.com. I was actually a little more disturbed by another item from the TOS. Orkut.com forbids "directing any user (for example, by linking) to any Materials of any third party without such third party's prior written consent." That runs counter to the ethics of practically everyone on the Web, right on up to Tim Berners-Lee himself. So I made a PHP hack so Orkut users can strictly comply with the letter of the law in the TOS, but still point to any site they want on the Web without guilt. The URL I give here is just an example of how it works; as you can see, it refers to bOING bOING. There are no specific instructions on my site yet for using my hack, but I may remedy that if needed. In the meantime, anyone on Orkut has my permission to use it. Link... while Jason Schultz sends us a link to something that wins my vote for zaniest/most paranoid Orkut community ever:
"PONZI: For those who believe orkut is a Ponzi scheme, fans of Ponzi schemes, or those who think Ponzi was on Happy Days. It's all about the Ponzi is all we're sayin." Link
Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.










