links for 2008-02-26
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“Privacy advocates around the world, however, worry that the millions of people entrusting their personal information to social networking sites, of which Facebook is just an example, have almost no control over how it is used.”
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“Amnesty International said today it was “shocked” by a three-year jail term handed down by a Moroccan court to a man who registered a false internet Facebook profile as King Mohammed VI’s brother.”
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“Pakistan has ordered local internet service providers to block access to the popular Youtube website because of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have outraged many Muslims, an industry official said.”
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Freeconomics?
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“The Federal Government says it is considering introducing an ‘R’ rating for video games, which would allow the sale of more explicit titles in Australia.” (And let games be licensed in a way which actually reflects their content!!)
links for 2008-02-23
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Social networking site Facebook has seen its first drop in UK users in January, new industry data indicates. Users fell 5% to 8.5 million in January from 8.9 million in December, according to data from Nielsen Online.
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“Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits … On the contrary, the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls.”
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“Molly Ringwald turns 40 today.” [Via Chuck] A tribute here.
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Lawrence Lessig wants to change Congress – he might run for it, or change it from the outside. Lessig 08 is the hub – watch and participate!
UWA Science Fiction/Fantasy Discussion Group
For any interested Perth folk, a SF/F discussion group re-emerges:
After a long hiatus, the UWA science fiction/fantasy discussion group is restarting in 2008. Meetings will be held on the last Tuesday of each month in Arts G.05, and undergraduate students, postgraduate students, staff and anyone else interested are welcome to attend.
We have two speakers presenting papers in the next two weeks, but are looking for volunteers to fill the rest of the year. Please contact Karen Hall if you would like to give a paper.
26 February (Next Tuesday)
Gotham Central
Presented by David Medlen
A short lived award winning comic set in the world of superheroes but not about superheroes. What does this short lived title tell us about the genre in the 21st Century? A summary of the comic is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_Central, and source material will be available in the Scholars Centre at UWA’s Reid Library.4 March
“Against heritage: Invented identities in science fiction film”
Presented by Dr Sky Marsen, Victoria University of Wellington
Pre-reading material for this talk is available from Karen Hall.
Australia’s Peer-to-Peer TV Underbelly
While Australians have long been noted as some of the most voracious downloaders of television, using bittorrent-based peer-to-peer sources has generally been focused on accessing UK and US shows which don’t screen in Australia until some time (from weeks to years) after the original airdates. However, the recent case of the Australian production Underbelly is a little bit different.
Underbelly dramatises the infamous events in Melbourne, Victoria between 1995 and 2004 which encompassed a gangland war and a series of murders. However, at least one criminal trial from these events is still underway, and so just prior to the screening of the first episode of Underbelly, a court injunction prevented the Nine Network from screening the tv series in Melbourne, on the grounds it could prejudice any potential Victorian jury. So, on February 13, every other Australian state except Victoria could view the show, while Victorians could not. Also, as it’s pretty much impossible to limit websites on a state-by-state basis, the ban also prevents promotional material, trailers and episodes of Underbelly being hosted online. Thus, the official website currently sports a great many “This functionality is not available due to current legal restrictions” (screenshot) signs and not that much else.
Yet in the era of bittorent and peer-to-peer networks, that’s far from the end of the story. As soon as the ban was issued, media reports appeared highlighting the fact that Underbelly was sure to be available as a download in Victoria within hours of its screening in every other state. As the Herald Sun reported:
… the explosion of video on the internet, through websites and through file sharing, may allow Victorians to see the drama within hours of its broadcast interstate. A scan of one site today revealed several copies of the promotional clips from the series on the website, despite their removal from Nine’s site. “This is a great problem on the internet,” University of NSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre executive director David Vaile said. “Legal jurisdiction is typically limited by geography, and by its nature the internet doesn’t place much regard to geography.”
Mr Vaile believed the judge may have taken into consideration the possibility that copies of the drama would appear on the internet, but that it would have limited impact on potential jurors. “(The judge) may well have decided that something that is not the official publisher’s website will not have the same sort of impact,” he said. However watching illegal versions of the underworld drama will not be without risk. Mr Vaile said people caught uploading clips from Underbelly could face copyright and contempt of court charges.
Subsequent reports noted that it took less than half an hour for Underbelly to hit bittorrent networks and a quick search on isohunt this morning revealed more than a dozen active bittorrent sources for the first two episodes of Underbelly still available almost a week later. Vaile’s comments do note a new potential avenue for prosecuting uploaders in this case, namely contempt of court, but as Alex Malik notes, it seems unlikely that option will be pursued:
While it is probably illegal for viewers to upload Underbelly to these [peer-to-peer] services, it is unlikely that the Nine Network and other rights owners will undertake any enforcement activity to stop them. They may be too busy enjoying the viral marketing buzz associated with internet TV show access. Or they may be thinking about DVD sales down the road. In short, this ban by the Supreme Court may result in Underbelly being one of the internet events of the year. And of course once the TV show hits the internet, it’s fame can then become international fame.
Strangely enough, the only mainstream article which suggests that Australian filesharers are in any way worried about potential court action is on the NineMSN website (co-owned by Microsoft and the Nine Network), while most other reports simply note that a lot of Victorians were accessing peer-to-peer networks in the past week!
Underbelly has certainly focused the spotlight on the wide use of peer-to-peer networks in Australia. The hype and attention that the banned show has received may very well work in the producers’ favour in the long run, ensuring that the people who do see the show in Victoria keep the buzz alive, even if the ban does last the entire 13 episodes. Such buzz should make any DVD sales which are eventually allowed a huge success.
Overall, though, the attempt to ban any sort of digital media on a state by state basis in Australia is clearly impossible, and the attempt to restrict this series in Australia may very well have led a number of Victorians to avail themselves of bittorrent files for the first time. It seems unlikely that once Pandora’s peer-to-peer networks are opened that Victorians will simply put this newfound resource back in the box.
Update (26 March 08): Despite an appeal by Channel 9, the ban on Underbelly screening in Victoria has been upheld. In at least once Victorian town, though, unusual weather conditions have allowed Victorians to watch an episode that was being broadcast in Tasmania!
links for 2008-02-18
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An interesting online social movement aimed at getting the fantastic Lawrence Lessig (founder and former chair of the Creative Commons) to run for Congress.
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In Australia, “the Rudd Government is considering a three-strikes policy against computer users who download songs illegally.”
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“A series of arrests here for posting sexually explicit images of what appear to be some of Asia’s best-known pop stars has led to a division among Internet users over free speech, and questions of selective police enforcement of obscenity laws.”
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A Victorian man has published public apologies in two major papers after comments he made about a family through his Facebook page. … cost the man about $400 after he was threatened with suits for defamatory allegations …”
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“What started out as a cautionary tale about storing lurid digital photos of past lovers on the computer has become one of Asia’s biggest internet celebrity sex scandals and a focal point for censorship in Hong Kong.”
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Long post which looks at the King of Kong documentary and catalogues the many problems and questionable choices made in the production process.
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Great little piece summarizing the “mobisodes” (mobile phone mini episodes) that became available in the lead-up to Lost’s fourth season.
Sorry
Saying sorry to the Stolen Generations isn’t the solution, but it is the beginning of a solution. Like Jean, I choose to be optimistic that this apology is an important and substantial step in the right direction for all Australians.
Update: Kevin Rudd has said sorry on behalf of all Australians, which is long overdue and most welcome. You can read the apology or watch it here.
[Photo by Spud Murphy]
Still bubbling …
While it hasn’t really been a conscious decision, I seem to have taken a rather extended break from blogging without really intending to do so. After my last six posts were just annotated del.icio.us links I did think I should make sure the next post has a little more substance, but you’re getting this instead. Really, I just thought I should check in and say I’m alive and well, just very busy. In January this year I returned to the Communication Studies discipline here at UWA and am finally getting my head around the new position, as well as all my new teaching commitments. It has also been one of the hottest summers I can remember which really doesn’t make for any more time behind the computer screen that is absolutely necessary!
I do intend to get back into blogging properly soon. Toward the end of last year I think I had a bit of blog lethargy plus a considerable information overload. I’ve now scaled back my Twitter network to 1/4 it’s original size. I also read Jean’s post on leaving Facebook and seriously considered it (yes, as Axel lamented last year, my closed network is getting more attention that my open ones), but there are just too many people who communicate through Facebook that I would find it too hard right now to let those connections fizzle away. That said, as I will have been blogging for five years this May, perhaps a little break was due, anyway. However, I guess if the WGA are getting back to writing, I should try to as well!
More soon … ish.