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Source:Mashable!

Joe Francis, the fellow you see every early morning on Comedy Central pitching DVDs with girls baring their breasts for the low price of $3.95 for first three days and $19 a month after that, has launched a new website under the auspices of championing the first amendment and exacting a bit of retribution against an unfavorable judge.

The website he has launched displays videos of a non pornographic nature, though. In his plea to the public, he says “I recently experienced an unbelievable miscarriage of justice that made a victim of not just me but of all Americans who chirish their constitutional right to free expression,” and that “if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”

While the melodrama and the wide-reaching extent of his claims are debatable, the allegations he makes in the case are particularly eye-popping and admittedly credible. The site also announces that he’s seeking a $300 million lawsuit against Panama City, Florida authorities and opposition lawyers over a 2003 civil suit which saw him jailed without set bail for eleven months.

He alleges that the lawyers and judge worked ‘in cahoots to extort a ransom for Francis’ release from Panama City jail.” The site is also pleading on viewers to write Congress to have the judge from the 2003 case removed from the bench.

Pornography and First Amendment cases have a history, and Joe is likely setting himself up to be the Larry Flynt of the modern age here, and is breaking new ground, along with others like Google and the Sunshine Foundation’s LetOurCongressTweet. Launching a social media component to a lawsuit is becoming almost a pre-requisite, it seems, if imagine your lawsuit or legal action might have more far reaching implications than just your own small world.

Coincidentally, though, this topic came up with a friend of mine over the weekend. My friend has been a contract lawyer for thirty years, and has handled more than his fair share of civil cases. We were discussing a possible civil action for libel and slander that I had in my own future, and he strongly advised against me participating in this sort of action.

In my efforts to gather evidence for my own case, I had worn my journalist had as I plied potential witnesses for my case for information, which I justified by assembling the interviews and raw data I had assembled for a website that would be presented from an investigative journalists’ perspective.

When I discussed this idea with my lawyer friend, he said that it only had the potential to lower any damages I might be awarded in the case significantly (since in this particular case, the damages couldn’t be construed as having damaged my professional reputation since I was rebroadcasting the slanderous words in question), as well as limiting the legal avenues that could be pursued by me down the line.

Clearly, the social media approach to augmenting civil and criminal defenses isn’t a one-size-fits-all, but it is definitely turning into a trend that we can expect to see more of.

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Source:Mashable!

Sosauce, the aesthetically-pleasing network designed for sharing photos and travel adventures, has rolled out two new major updates, both of which revolve around the sharing of media in an enlightening environment.

Expanding on its existing travel features, Sosauce’s new Travel Guide works in conjunction with the site’s travel recording tool for improved journey-sharing capabilities. This reflects Sosauce’s desire to become a more comprehensive service for planning trips, recording trips, and seeking advice from others, whether they are friends or other members of the community.

The specific features that are taking Sosauce in this direction include the ability to search for a destination and review opinions as well as itineraries from others that have shared their experience on Sosauce’s site, as well as the ability to embed your trip album on other sites and blogs for exported story-telling.

On the trip-planning front, there are new Trip Recording capabilities for planning a trip and then layering in media via photos, videos, journals, reviews, and points of interest. This can all be stuck onto a map for geo-location if you’d like, and all of these trip-planning features can be used for groups as well.

While the added trip-planning capabilities are fun, Sosauce’s new Mesa 3D environment is more interesting in my opinion, and combines the majority of the features you’ll find throughout the Sosauce site into a virtual world setting. The result isn’t entirely different from a Second Life home or building that features images from one’s travels boldly displayed on the virtual building’s walls.

But, while the act of media-sharing is becoming rather prominent in the web-based virtual worlds that are popping up, Sosauce’s specific implementation is rather interesting and highly customizable. You can even view a virtual globe for geo-locating media that’s being tagged from places around the world.

So far, Sosauce is working on extending its 3D environment to include virtual travel destinations as well as multiplayer games, and I’m sure another long term goal is to find some way in which to make one’s 3D travels exportable to some degree, just as the service has done with its 2D features in this current release.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Sosauce: Putting Your Travels, Photos, and Thoughts In A Good LightRoadTrip Wizard to Offer Personalized Travel ToolsTravBuddy Reaches One Million Registered UsersSTA Travel Launches Widgets SuiteMy Life of Travel is Now a “Real” SiteTripAdvisor Expands Ad Potential with Acquisition of Two Travel NetworksBBC Worldwide Acquires Lonely Planet

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under News, Sosauce, 3D, mesa, travel guide, virtual environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.