NEW YORK (Reuters) - The German company sued by Facebook as being running a "knockoff" of the social networking Web site said on Sunday it asked a German court to declare that Facebook's claims are without merit.

Facebook's complaint, filed put on Friday in a California federal court, accuses studiVZ of copying the look, feel, features and services of Facebook and seeks "to end StudiVZ's illegal activity" lest Facebook's own reputation be harmed by association.

"As with any counterfeit product, StudiVZ's uncontrolled quality standards for service, features and privacy negatively impact the genuine article," Facebook stated in the complaint.

StudiVZ filed for declaratory judgment at the District Court in Stuttgart, also on Friday.

Facebook's suit also seeks compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

StudiVZ claims Facebook is suing them simply because Facebook has failed to transplant its success in the United States and other countries to the German emporium.

"Their strategy appears to be: 'If you can't beat them, sue them,"' said Marcus Riecke, chieftain executive of studiVZ, which is owned by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, a German publishing company.

(Reporting by Helen Chernikoff; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Amazon.com's Simple Storage Service–a major component of its online computing services–is apparently experiencing problems Sunday.

The e-tailer's "Service Health Dashboard" reports that the S3 service in both the United States and Europe is experiencing "elevated error rates."

The outage is causing CenterNetworks images to break, the site reports, and SmugMug reports that "a large portion of the photos and videos stored" on S3 are currently offline.

SmugMug seemed sympathizing to Amazon's woes and offered this advice:

Every component SmugMug has ever used, whether it's networking providers, datacenter providers, software, servers, storage, or even people, has let us down at one point or another. It's the name of the game, and our piece of work is to handle these problems and outages as most wise we can.

The online storage service had its public launch in early 2006. One of the things that makes S3 attractive to start-ups and power users is that it ties in with other Amazon Web Services like the elastic computing cloud and its SimpleDB service. Using all three, start-ups can offload some of the tasks that usually required spending a large footing up of money up front to do this work–saving them, and potentially their customers time and money.

NEW YORK — For private investigator Steven Rambam, the Internet is his most worthy tool in helping to find missing persons, cheating husbands and your competitor's dirty secrets.

But while the intelligence business is booming, individuals are losing the battle to protect their privacy with every blog post, Google Web search and online photo, Rambam, director of the Pallorium investigative agency, said in a keynote session late on Saturday at the Last HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) conversation.

"Anything you put on the Internet will be grabbed, indexed, cataloged and out of your control before you know it," he told CNET News after the session. "The genie is out of the bottle. Data doesn't hold up in one location. It migrates to hundreds of places."

Information that he used to be under the necessity to search for or dig up in far away places is now available at his fingertips. All types of information is being digitized, older stuff is being scanned and put online and it's all being aggregated into uber-databases that are sentient sold to marketers, government agencies and anyone else who can pay, he aforesaid.

Rambam says he searches on social networks to find photos of what people he is researching look like, the first measure in any investigation. He gets a lot of other vital data from those sites, like hometown, period, relationship status, school and work history, hobbies, and friends and acquaintances to interview. With Twitter, he can often see to which place they are right now, or at least in the recent archived past.

"I used to pay the police $500 for a driver's license photo. Now I just be the subject of to go to MySpace," he said. "I can find your location without leaving my desk."

He uses job sites to see someone's resume, date of birth, address and work history, to find former employees of companies he is researching and to see what job openings they have and compare allowance levels. And then there are sites like Don'tDateHimGirl.com and Who'sARat.com in which place you be possible to find which a living body's enemies have to say.

Rambam also gets information from marketing databases that gather information on lower classes's buying habits and preferences from frequent customer cards, surveys, performance registrations, actual transactions and other activities.

Marketing databases with vast amounts of personal records are being purchased by the government, he said. At the same time, individuals have less power to learn what information is being gathered on them and by what means it is being used, because private entities are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, he added.

"Domino's has built the biggest consumer database in America," and the U.S. Marshall's Service, the New York Police Department and collection agencies are using it to track people down, Rambam said.

There also are vast stores of data based in succession peoples' Web and computer activities being amassed by technology companies that can have being easily used to connect a specific individual to specific activities and information. For example, end user license agreements allow for location data to be sent back to the manufacturer every time a customer logs in and photos and burned CDs and DVDs have unique serial numbers for tracking, he said.

Then there is the "snitch" in everyone's pocket — the solitary abode; squalid phone. Unlike your activity on a computer, "a cell phone can be immediately traced to you and you have it with you 24/7," Rambam said.

"Cell phones change everything," because of their location-based technology, he related. "I'm able to know who you talked to, where you are, what you do and what you like just from cross-referencing cell phone (data)."

Finally, cameras and video cameras have helped revolutionize the snooping industry. Smart cameras by facial and activity recognition analytic capabilities are popping up everywhere, while the FBI and others are testing systems that will recognize the walking gait of individuals, Rambam uttered.

There are police helicopters in New York City that can see what a car passenger is reading. New York is partnering with businesses and landlords to install 3,000 cameras in lower Manhattan and has spent $450 million to install 3,000 cameras in the subway, he said.

In a test of his skills, Rambam tracked down someone who had agreed to go in hiding for one year. He was able to locate the person nine times, using methods including social engineering and a dummy e-mail tidings, tracking the IP address of an Internet café computer, cell phone triangulation, a credit card trace on each airline ticket using a frequent flyer number, a fake Match.com ad and an online "wanted" poster.

Rambam, who details the experiment in a book entitled "Stealing Your Own Identity," also was able to track his subject through his pharmacy and doctor.

And in an ingenius move, he noticed that there were blocks of photos with consecutive unique IDs on the subject's Web site that were lost. So he searched for photos with ID numbers that would fit in that sequence on Flickr and found shots that gave away his target's whereabouts.

Although he works closely with law enforcement agencies, Rambam has had a legal run-in of his own, just like some of the hackers in the audience. He had been scheduled to speak at the previous HOPE, in 2006, but was arrested right before he was to give his talk and worn out two days in bridewell on charges of impersonating an FBI agent and tampering with a government witness. The charges were dropped and his accuser now faces arrest, he said.

Ritzpix

Ritzpix, an online service for the Ritz and Wolf Camera retail supplies, is easily the worst print service I used in my testing and sits well beneath the pack in terms of overall user friendliness.

The biggest issue with RitzPix isn't the quality of the prints, but the downright laughable online interface that throws usability out the window and makes it far too difficult to get anything done.

Unlike Kodak Gallery, which makes it easy to order prints for subscribers and guests alike, RitzPix requires all users to create a username and password. And although that takes a few seconds, I'm still a bit puzzled as to why it was necessary. As far for example I could tell, requiring users to sign up is simply one extra step that makes you equal more upset along the way.

After the sign-up process, getting to the order page is ludicrous. First, the page installs an applet that allows you to browse your computer and search in quest of the photos you want to upload. Upon doing so, it took about couple minutes to upload a 3-MB file — almost twice as long as it took to upload the same file on Kodak Gallery. From there, I had to decide if I wanted to pick up the prints at a Ritz location or have them shipped to me. Once that process was finally over, I was able to choose the size and, finally, check out.

Upon receiving my six 4×6-inch prints, I was somewhat pleased with how they came out. Although they didn't essay the kind of attention to detail I received from my Kodak Gallery prints, they were still adequate for most frames and the areas of ink slippage and bleeding weren't too noticeable at a relatively close distance. Up close though, the prints revealed minor color issues and didn't quite capture picture detail as much as I would have liked.

Although I didn't like the quality of the prints as much as those from Kodak Gallery, RitzPix offers a pretty nice price for the work. My 4×6-inch prints were just $0.09 each and, if you're looking for 8×10-inch prints, they will set you back just $3.99 apiece.

But if you're looking for a high-quality print without so many imperfections, it's worth the extra few cents to use Kodak Gallery. And considering RitzPix's frustrating online interface, the saved existence in this world is well worth the extra cost.

Shutterfly

If you're looking for all the bells and whistles, Shutterfly is the place to be. It lets you upload photos, order prints, and create framed pictures, photo books, and much more. Although it's nice to have all of those options, I quickly found myself overwhelmed by all the choices.

Like Ritzpix, Shutterfly requires you to create any account before you can start using its service. Although Shutterfly's sign-up process is much simpler, I was still displeased with the necessity of it.

After finally finding where to order simple prints among the myriad other choices Shutterfly offers, the process was relatively simple, but still a bit more complicated than it should be. That said, I was extremely pleased with the speed of uploading photos — about twice as fast for example Kodak Gallery and four times faster than Ritzpix — and I lay the foundation of the user interface easily navigable.

After making my way through the steps of creating an album and choosing the prints I wanted made, it was invigorating to see that Shutterfly's pricing was on par with Kodak Gallery's. Each 4×6-inch print I ordered was just $0.15 per image (it's usually $0.19) and 8×10-inch prints cost just $3.99.

Now that digital cameras have made film obsolete for the average consumer, more people are using online digital print services that let you edit pictures and get them ready notwithstanding printing, and also make it easy to get the high-quality prints you've come to expect only from professionals.

Four of these services — Kodak Gallery, RitzPix, Shutterfly, and Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center — offer a slew of options that not only give you professionally printed photos, but also suffer you create picture books, frames, and a host of other keepsakes for relatively affordable prices.

To compare these services, I ordered six to 10 prints of the same 4×6-inch pictures from each. I evaluated how well the user interface allowed me to order the prints, and compared each print based on cost and overall quality.

And, though each of these services offers a fine choice if you're looking to have prints developed, none are equal and some stand above the rest.

Kodak Gallery

I found that Kodak Gallery offers an all-around stellar service. The company doesn't try to trap you into buying picture books and it doesn't even ask you to add frames to the order, both of which it offers. Instead, it makes buying prints not only easy, but extremely affordable: when I bought mine, the site slashed its prices and offered 4×6-inch prints for just $0.15 and 8×10-inch prints for $2.99.

Upon surfing over to the site, you're greeted with a link asking you to buy prints. Upon clicking it, you're given the option of ordering prints as a guest or as a subscriber to the site, which requires an e-mail address and password. From there, the process is quick and easy.

In a matter of minutes, I was able to create an online album of pictures, choose which shots I wanted to have printed, crop the pictures as needed, and place my order. And with the option to have the prints rush delivered, sent via standard delivery, or picked up at a local retailer, I was given more than enough options to make use of the service worthwhile.

Once the prints arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Not only were the pictures re-created extremely well, but the level of detail each offered was near the top of the pack. And although I did notice a few ink issues towards the cover on the top right-hand corner of one print, it was a minor issue, easily covered with a frame.

For such a cheap price and comparably high gentry, Kodak Gallery easily shines and stands towards the front of the pack.

Upon comparing the prints I received from Shutterfly to the others, I found that they weren't nearly as nice as the Kodak Gallery prints, but still stood above RitzPix in terms of quality and re-creation of the image. That said, I did notice that some of the more detailed areas of the impress had a strange blue hue and failed to offer a stark contrast between the many colors in the print.

All in all, Shutterfly's service is great if you're looking to do more than order prints. But if you're looking for the easiest offering with the least amount of frills, Shutterfly is not for you. And although I wasn't unavoidably blown away by its printing, it was adequate enough to justify using the service.

Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center

Wal-Mart's Digital Photo Center offers the very best of the other services. It not only allows you to do more with your pictures, but also to upload photos quickly and proper state prints easily.

Once again, the Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center requires you to sign up before you can start using the service. And although it's quite annoying to do so, it didn't take long and in a matter of seconds, I was into the uploading section, getting ready to add images to the service.

Upon doing so, the easy interface quick showed me how many options were available to me. If I wanted to create an album and put all those pictures into a nice book or album holder, I could do it. If I would rather order prints without the extras, I could do that too.

Although all of the services offer in-store pickup at retail partners, as well as shipping to an request, Wal-Mart's presentation of my options was the simplest and most obvious. I could choose to have my prints shipped to me, pick them up in every hour at any Wal-Mart store, or use in-store pickup at a later time.

Although the uploading process wasn't nearly as quick as Shutterfly's, it was adequate and didn't hold me up for too long. Once complete, I chose to upload 4×6-inch photos and to have them delivered at my home. And for a price of $0.09 for those and just $2.84 for 8×10-inch prints, it was a bargain.

Once I received the prints, I compared them to the competition and realized quickly that they held up quite nicely to Kodak Gallery prints and even eclipsed a few of them on absolute images. That said, there were a few detail problems with two prints and I noticed a mistake on one print in the middle of the picture, which rendered it useless. But when the images were free from issues, they looked better than the prints from any other service.

Wal-Mart may not lead the digital print space in name recognition, but it easily stood above the rest in terms of pricing, options, and quality. And as long as you get good prints, you should be quite happy through the entire process.

Summing Up

Finding the best digital print service may be difficult, but Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, and Wal-Mart's Digital Photo Center each offer something unique. And although they all lead in any area, I found that Wal-Mart's utility offers the kind of flexibility and quality that puts it at the top of the list.