In an examination of downloads that were being ripped just from bit torrent, some 900 computers registered to the Department of Homeland Security had illegally downloaded material attached to them. RIAA, who has screamed the loudest about piracy has 6 of their registered IP addresses bogged down with pirated material – and not just music. These guys like to steal episodes of Dexter and law & Order – which makes no sense because Law & Order is always on somewhere legally and for free.

The people running the site which published their evidence of all this, Youhavedownloaded, says they are not doing this to bring shame upon anyone. All they want to do is demonstrate that people are using torrents to download all kinds of things from everywhere. No one is really able to say they are squeaky clean – including the organizations that want to punish people for theft even though they themselves are stealing just as much. SEOs are going to watch what happens here very closely and see if anyone at Sony, RIAA or the DHS is willing to comment on why they get to illegally download content but no one else does.

For the owners of the 307 websites seized, it is a case of guilty until proved innocent – and if they want to prove their innocence they will have to go to great lengths to do so in court which will be very expensive considering they just lost one of, if not, their biggest revenue day of the year. No one from ICE commented on whether this seizure without proof policy is going to be in force going forward or if this was an isolated incident.

For anyone visiting the sites that were seized, they were greeted with a message that each had been closed down by ICE. ICE estimates that this message was seen by some 77 million people. There is no word as to what the DOJ plans to do for any cases they got wrong or what they plan to do about the foreign citizens who were using US.com, .org and .net addresses so far as legal recourse is concerned.

Currently, streaming anything without the consent of the copyright holder is illegal. That is by the strictest definition which is what the DOJ wants in place. They also want to make this offense a felony charge which is so beyond harsh it is ridiculous. In essence, this would make almost everyone with an internet connection a felon. People that try to avoid illegal streaming often wind up doing it without realizing it.

Add to that, the DOJ is too backward to realize you can’t charge people based on nothing more than illegal streaming being tagged as having occurred on their IP address. An IP address is one of the easiest things to appropriate from someone else and do whatever you want. Even the lamest novice hacker should be able to do that. While it is not assured this bill will pass, it is assured to make the authors of it look as dunderheaded as the authors of SOPA and PIPA.

This was rolled out a few weeks ago, and any sites that do not comply with this Google algorithm change are in all likelihood already affected. The Google Webmaster blog states:

“We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page.

This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads. This algorithmic change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally. That means that in less than one in 100 searches, a typical user might notice a reordering of results on the search page.”

Google suggests their Browser Size tool to show you exactly how much content your users can actually see when your site opens. If you need to make an adjustment, be aware that it may take several weeks for Google to recognize the changes and remove the penalty.

Some say Google is being hypocritical for penalizing ad use when they sponsor ads on their own results.  In response to this and similar accusations, Google released a statement:

“This is a site-based algorithm that looks at all the pages across an entire site in aggregate. Although it’s possible to find a few searches on Google that trigger many ads, it’s vastly more common to have no ads or few ads on a page… Again, this algorithm change is designed to demote sites that make it difficult for a user to get to the content and offer a bad user experience… Having an ad above-the-fold doesn’t imply that you’re affected by this change. It’s that excessive behavior that we’re working to avoid for our users.”

Time Warner Cable, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Cablevision have agreed to implement a 6 strike policy to help stop copyright infringement. The people they are going after with this are those who do not download video or music illegally, but those that view it or listen to it. Even though they don’t have a copy of it, they used it in some manner and that is illegal.

Violators will receive a notice of any infringement. With each notice, their ISP can take punitive measures of their own device such as cutting down their bandwidth cap, speed, or whatever they want to do really. The cable companies claim this is about educating users and not punishing them. They are not bound to turn over information of anyone caught violating a copyright, although they likely will. Mostly though, this is their way to protect their money – if their customers get caught off – they have no customers and a profit margin decrease would mean no new Lear jets each summer for the executives.

In a recent survey, 20% that were polled liked the new timeline while a whopping 70% responded that they hate it. The remaining 10% were undecided or didn’t care. Going by the math, that is a heck of a lot of people that are obviously not pleased – and whether anyone wants to admit it or not, that isn’t good news for Facebook as they enter a world where they have to listen to their users or lose them to someone who will.

Facebook has made no announcement pointing toward turning back the clock that any SEOs have run across so far. At least for the time being, the Facebook timeline is take or leave. There is no middle ground. If a viable site does arise, Facebook may have problems keeping people. As that is however unlikely, if you want to use Facebook you have to take whatever they give you – you just don’t have to smile about it. What is good for Facebook isn’t always good for the user – and this is one case of that being true.

Quality control at Google Adsense has been called into question again in news that every SEO around the world should be paying attention to. Jef Poskanzer, one of the most tenured and successful Adsense users ever, had his account terminated without explanation by Google. There were some rumors that it was click fraud perhaps, but Google refused to go on the record with any answer and deferred to the privacy clauses they toss around when convenient to end any queries.

Luckily for Poskanzer – he’s Jef Poskanzer and had a number of past and present Google employees  scurry to action to try to figure out what went wrong before the news was viral all over the net and not just the SEO community. In all likelihood, Poskanzer will get his account back. Sadly, the many possibilities for the ban occurring in the first place are as old and tired as they are disturbing.

It is a problem that Google relies on software alone to decide who gets closed down. It is disturbing that in 8 ½ years, they have made no attempt to do a better job at this. It’s also disturbing that unless you know a Brad Fitzpatrick or Ben Collins at Google who will take a personal interest, the odds of getting your account reactivated are next to nothing – and that is only after months of appeals while you’re losing money and your SEO is shot.

A recent study conducted in the UK regarding the internet usage habits of children uncovered some very interesting findings that many SEOs have claimed for years – as well as parents. Children that are restricted from using the internet feel sad. That may not sound like big news, but it may help define the way businesses gear their use of the internet for many years into the future. The findings actually uncovered that the attachment young people are forming with the internet goes beyond simple enjoyment, it is actually a deep emotional attachment.

The study which queried 1,000 children found that 48% responded to feeling “lonely” without internet access and 60% responding that they would feel sad. This helps paint a very revealing picture of the role of technology on young people that have grown up in a world where internet access is almost as common as television. The ties are far deeper though.

Eventually analysts will sift through all the data and find a way to use it for marketing purposes. The role of digital technology in the lives of children is not just entertainment, but for finding information and communicating. Nearly 70% of the kids surveyed use Facebook for communications. It is a generation that is in many ways dependant for many of the daily routines a generation ago filled with non-technical means like the use of traditional books, landline phones and face to face interaction. What was surprising to many SEOs and non-tech people however was that the younger the child was, the more attached to digital mediums they tended to be.

A report from the AP Newswire stated: “The group that calls itself “Anonymous Brasil” said on Twitter: “Attention sailors: Target hit! The http://bradesco.com.br is sinking. TANGO DOWN.” Banco Bradesco SA said in a statement that its site suffered “momentary interruptions,” due to high traffic, but that it was never forced offline. However, The Associated Press was unable to access the site in repeated attempts Tuesday. The group said on Twitter that its attacks were a protest against corruption and would continue for at least a week.”

The hack was said to be spurred on by the eviction of some 5,000 people from one of Brazil’s slum areas. The group stated that this would be the first of several hacks performed on Brazilian entities. Brazil can do little to curb such attacks as the Brazilian government has never actually made electronic hacks a criminal offense. They do have calls for such legislation, but to date nothing is actually pending. Last summer, Brazils government was hacked to the extent that their revenue service and senate were compromised along with the sports agency and Petrobas, an oil company doing business out of Brazil.

It is estimated that the epidemic of overcharging costs Mexican citizens about $25.8 billion annually – half of which winds up in a Helu owned or controlled company the OECD alleges. This is not the only problem Helu has been facing for shady business practices, he has also had a record $1 billion fine levied against him as well. This is all thought to be possible because Helu has monopolized the mobile communications market in Latin America, particularly Mexico.

Helu has issued statements that the allegations are false and he will be vindicated. Neither side is issuing any further statements at the time as proceedings move forward. If Helu is found at fault, the fine would likely break the record setting fines he has already paid, but it would also serve to help return money to consumers that have been defrauded and possibly break up his latin American monopoly.