Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

Senator Mike Gravel steals the show

Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska at the Presidential Debate in South Carolina last week:

So-called viral videos not that viral after all

The Daily Reel reports on a surprising survey:

A study by Marketing Sherpa and the Online Publishers Association found that less than 10% of online video viewers in the U.S. frequently recommended clips to their friends, while 62% said they rarely or never recommended videos.

But the numbers might not be as negative as they seem for advertisers who are hoping their viral videos spread the word about their products, writes Jordan McCollum at WebProNews.  As Malcolm Gladwell showed in The Tipping Point, there is a small minority of "influencers" whose rampant sharing of cultural and product information has a big affect on others.  They might just be that 9% who frequently share.

Read more here.

Porn 2.0

Mashable takes stock of "Porn 2.0":

Our unemployed friends tell us that the latest “Porn 2.0″ site to see unprecedented growth is YouPorn, a pornographic version of YouTube (not work safe, but no adult material on the frontpage).

We’re told that the company is growing like crazy, and frequently has trouble keeping the site up, no pun intended. Although we couldn’t source internal stats, the Alexa figures suggest that YouPorn is set to overtake its rival Pornotube in the next few days. Compete disagrees, but YouPorn claims that most of its success is in Germany and other European countries - something that won’t show up on the US-only stats from Compete.

Do we really need to tell you what it does? It’s YouTube for porn, so you can probably guess the functionality. It’s another example of the porn industry copying existing sites, rather than leading the pack as many assume. The next multi-million dollar idea for those who aren’t concerned about havign an immaculate reputation? May we suggest an adult version of Ustream.tv?

Read more here.

eyeVio

The Daily Reel takes a look eyeVio:

The electronics and entertainment company [Sony] is launching a new online video network today in Japan (and then later abroad) that it hopes will rival YouTube.

Reuters reports that eyeVio users will have the option of choosing who will be able to see their video content, and for how long. The company says that, unlike its presumptive competitor, it  will closely monitor uploads for copyright infringement. 

Such a model would appeal to companies looking to release content and to protect their image, said Sony spokesman Takeshi Honma.

"We believe there's a need for a clean and safe place where companies can place their advertisements," Honma said.

Read more here.

Blawg Review #106

Blawg IT is hosting Blawg Review #106.  Read it here.

In particular, host Brett Trout highlights a couple of particularly interesting posts:

Marty Schwimmer of The Trademark Blog summarizes the list of most valuable trademarks in the world ... Professor and cyber copyright visionary Lawrence Lessig eulogizes the late Hollywood icon and model of a man, Jack Valenti ...  Think you know who owns the copyright the Virginia Tech killer video? You might think again after reading the Volokh Conspiracy post. Law student Scott Felsenthal discusses the legality of Peer-to-Peer file sharing systems, like Limewire, under current copyright laws ... Jeff Lipshaw gives a great summary of the top ten reasons Lawyers should take up knitting.

Again, read the entire Blawg Review here.

Understanding Justice Kennedy

Slate asks will the real Anthony Kennedy please stand up?

Kennedy is what Justice O'Connor used to be—the swing vote on a court balanced between a hard-right bloc and a moderate-centrist bloc. But where O'Connor could be unpredictable, Kennedy is all but inexplicable.

Read more here.

"MySpace: Who Tom Sued and Why"

The lawsuits against MySpace are well known, but Mashable has a fascinating post on who MySpace has sued:

We frequently hear that MySpace is being sued - most recently by parents - but MySpace has also taken action against plenty of users who are abusing the site.

MySpace has always offered a rich platform for small and large business to advertise with but several companies have had to face MySpace in court for their efforts. While co-founder Tom Anderson has been quoted encouraging promotion on MySpace, many users have taken this freedom too far. Be it from fake profiles or tidal waves of unsolicited messages the results are the same: degradation of the community and poor user experience.

The action action against “Spam King” Sanford Wallace is well known, but here are some other cases that went largely unnoticed in ‘06 and ‘07 (some resolved very recently) ...

Read the rest here (including copies of documents relating to the cases).

Well, this is just silly

From News.com.au:

A WOMAN'S email to the help desk of Telecom New Zealand was rejected by a computer system because her name was Gay and "inappropriate for business-like communication".

Gay Hamilton, from the northern South Island town of Nelson, said while she was actually gay, she was concerned that the country's biggest public company was spending its time and resources on trifling issues, the Herald on Sunday reported.

"If they do have to put content filters on, then maybe they should ensure that it only gets genuinely abusive words," she said.

Telecom's automated reply to her email said the message "was identified by our content filtering processes as containing language that may be considered inappropriate for business-like communication". It confirmed that the offending word was "gay".

Read more here.

Stealing from Twitter

Over the last two months, this blog has followed the rise and rise of Twitter (see, for example, here, here, here and here), so it should come as no surprise that other social networking sites are adopting Twitter's defining feature.  Mashable has had a couple of posts about this trend ...

On Bebo:

Bebo has launched a feature that also emulates Twitter’s functionality. The name of the feature is “What are You Doing?”, which Twitter users will recognize as the Twitter slogan. Subtle.

Bebo’s “What are You Doing” provides 140 characters (same as Twitter) in which to say what you are doing, plus a countdown to say how many characters you have left. There’s an aggregated page that shows all the messages from around your network, too. All that’s missing: SMS integration. However, Bebo has already partnered with an SMS service for the creation of the Veronica’s Widget, and I don’t imagine they’ll have trouble adding SMS support if the feature takes off (which it certainly will).

The nature of innovation is that everyone borrows from everyone else, so where is the line drawn?

Read more here.

On Facebook:

If all that self-obsessed Tweeting was starting to irritate you, don’t fear - Facebook now provides the same service.

The thing is, Facebook was practically the same as Twitter already - the site’s “status updates” allowed you to tell your friends what you were doing at any moment. So while Steve Rubel speculated a while back that Facebook might look to snap up Twitter, it was a minor change to enable the posting - and reading - of status updates via SMS. That’s the feature they just dropped in over the weekend, along with a status updates page that’s pretty much identical to your Twitter friends view. It’s a move that kills off any possibility of a link up between the two.

Read more here.

All this leads to two questions.  First, when will other social networking sites like MySpace incorporate a similar service?  Second, will anyone want to buy Twitter when you can just steal the idea?

Celebrity ringtones

The Washington Post has a fun piece on celebrity ringtones - you can even listen to some of the preferred tunes.  Check it out here.

Daily News Links

Not much to link to today ...

• News Magazines has guaranteed advertisers a circulation of more than 450,000 copies for Emporium, the new shopping and lifestyle quarterly it is producing in partnership with retailer Myer.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• A manufacturing firm is using a Web address very similar to the one used by MySpace China.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The Seven Network has won its ninth consecutive week of the official television ratings year, but the story wasn't as simple as in previous weeks.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• TomorrowNow, the SAP-owned maintenance provider for Oracle acquired business apps, has revealed some sizeable businesses have latched on its cutprice model since it entered Australia around 12 months ago.  Read more here (from ZDNet Australia).
• The trial over whether NBC Studios acted in bad faith over licensing arrangements concerning the hit show Will & Grace ended abruptly just before the jury verdict was to be read April 27th. Attorneys for the defense discovered that the jury foreperson maintains a website on which he posts (mostly political) commentary, but had at least one comment about media conglomerates, including GE & NBC, the parent companies of the studio involved in the case. The judge eventually dismissed the foreperson, replaced him with an alternate and asked the jurors to begin their deliberations anew.  Read more here (from Media Law Prof Blog).

The Chaser haunts the ALP Conference

From News.com.au:

THE "ghost" of former Labor leader Mark Latham spooked some ALP MPs as they arrived for the final sessions of the party's national conference today.

Julian Morrow, of ABC's The Chaser, donned a white sheet with Mr Latham's face sketched on the front to warn Labor politicians they faced a scary election campaign this year.

"Are you happy to see me? Remember the last election," the ghost whispered to human services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek as her two young children cowered behind her.

Intrigued, Ms Plibersek stopped to confide that she still had nightmares about Labor's loss at the 2004 federal poll.

"Wait for the campaign, it's going to be so scary," the ghost continued, before asking her to let him into the conference centre.

But Ms Plibersek wasn't tempted to be responsible for the controversial former Labor leader's ghost floating around the conference floor.

"Why not? I used to be a star," the ghost retorted, before Ms Plibersek reminded him that he was "the ghost of campaigns past".

The ghost's final advice to her was: "Remember to keep a diary Tanya. Good luck with the conference, you are going to need it."

Read it here.

Daily News Links

• Providers of online music services in Europe should benefit from a new one-stop licensing system aimed at simplifying the complex process of obtaining music distribution rights across the continent.  The cross-border licensing scheme, announced Friday by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, will allow companies providing online music services to obtain a license for a wide range of music in all participating regions from a single collecting society.  Read more here (from PC World).
• US District Judge Paul Huck is dismissing anti-video game crusader Jack Thompson's lawsuit against Gawker Media, the publisher of game blog Kotaku. Thompson had claimed that Kotaku failed to honor his requests to remove "threatening" comments from several of its blog posts.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Google’s $3.1 billion deal for the online advertising firm DoubleClick could put the company at odds with itself.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The BBC has won a high court fight to prevent publication of a report into its Middle East coverage.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• News Corp. hopes to patent a technology that will allow for the digital insertion of ads on Fox network and cable programs that people watch days later on a digital video recorder. The technology would allow the network to update the ads. News Corp.'s Fox is exploring a partnership with TiVo.  Read more here (from the Wall Street Journal).
• In a blog posting about last month's Windows animated (.ANI) cursor vulnerability, Microsoft's Michael Howard admitted the company still has "work to do" on security.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Small watchmakers are tapping into the Web with a novel proposition for buyers: a custom-designed watch, built-to-order and delivered in 10 days.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• A grand jury indictment accuses two digital currency companies and their owners of helping to fund child pornography, identity theft, and other crimes.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Mattel is using technology to come up with a new twist on a toy launched in 1959 to appeal to today's web-savvy, multimedia girl shoppers.  On Thursday, Mattel unveiled Barbie Girls, a doll-shaped MP3 player that turns into a live character at BarbieGirls.com, a website where girls can interact with each other in a manner reminiscent of Second Life, the virtual world for adults.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Hugh Grant has accepted undisclosed libel damages over claims he flirted with a film executive.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• More music players based on Microsoft's Zune platform are in the works, but observers question whether they'll help play catch-up with Apple's hugely popular iPods.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Vudu, a Silicon Valley startup, hopes to turn America’s televisions into limitless multiplexes, changing the landscape of the home entertainment business.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The growing availability of prime-time television shows on the Internet is pushing U.S. broadcasters to jettison their decades-old method of charging for TV advertising. ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS are telling advertisers they can shape any deal to suit any need, according to ad agency execs.  Read more here (from Bloomberg).

Media Guardian's Viral Video Chart

Media Guardian's Viral Video chart this week is themed "funny", and the number one video is the Marge Simpson video I embedded during the week (see here).  Number two is Will Ferrell, who has become something of a YouTube star over the last month, but that video is no longer available through YouTube.  The top ten also features some old Boris Yeltsin clips (see here and here), but the highlights of the chart this week (in my biased opinion) are to be found at number 10 and at number 17.

Number 10 is a useful community service announcement, Why you don't throw paperclips at coworkers.  It has to be a set-up, but it is very funny:

Number 17 is so bad it's funny, Batman: Defenders of the Night:

View the full chart here.

Twittering in Australia

Twitter has posted this to the Twitter blog:

Update: To clarify, we're getting a new access number for Australia—as soon as we get the number, sms service will be back in action. We're working on it right now and it's a high priority.

Australian users please take note! If you currently use Twitter via your mobile device instead of over IM or the Web we have some news. Right now, Twittering via sms in Australia is more expensive than it needs to be—for you and for us. Our short term solution is to suspend sms support for Australian users.

When sms support for Australia returns it will be better all around. We'll let you know as soon as it does. In the meantime, we recommend using Twitter over IM, Web, Twitterrific, or any of these interesting alternatives.

Read it here.  Frustrating ... well, it would be if I was still regularly using Twitter.  Although I found Twitter a great way to stay in touch with everyone while I was travelling overseas, I haven't really used it much since I've been back.  And as I haven't been inundated with requests to keep Twittering, I'm inclined to just Twit occasionally, or only when I travel.

Don't drive and YouTube

From Wired:

A hapless French driver was so proud of his video taken of him speeding at over 140 mph in a 62-mph zone that he posted his exploit on Youtube. The problem is that French cops, albeit hated by many, can also be very clever, too ...

According to the press reports, the police found the driver by plugging in his first name listed in his YouTube video title "Loïc et Sa Trottinette" and the make of his car in Meurthe-et-Moselle where the vid was taken. Unfortunately for the driver, there was only one Loic who owned the car in this town and he was promptly charged with negligence and endangering the lives of others.

Read more here.

YouTube's ads

Media Post (and others) are reporting that YouTube is planning to introduce pre-roll and post-roll ads:

YouTube is testing video ads with the aim of rolling them out more broadly this summer, Chief Marketing Officer Suzie Reider said this week at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco.

The exact form these ads will take continues to evolve, but the company for now is testing pre- and post-roll ads.

Read more here.

I feel this may be a mistake for two reasons.  First, directly tying advertisements to videos means YouTube may lose their safe harbor under section 512(c) DMCA (assuming, for the moment, that they do currently fall within the safe harbor).  EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann outlined this problem in a piece for The Hollywood Reporter, Esq last year:

A hosting provider also loses the safe harbor if it "receives a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity, in a case in which the service provider has the right and ability to control such activity."

Here's where things might get a bit sticky for YouTube. Some have argued that this may restrict the kinds of advertising business models that YouTube (and other video hosting services) might want to pursue, as ads tied too closely to an infringing video could be viewed as creating a "financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity."

Read more here.  Pre-roll or post-roll advertising would be a "financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity", which means that YouTube will need to be very careful and selective about which videos contain pre-roll or post-roll advertising.

Second, putting ads, no matter how short, on the videos - especially pre-roll - is a move likely to alienate many of YouTube's users, potentially driving them to one of the numerous other online video sites that do no have such obstrusive advertising.  Media Post's Just an Online Minute explains why this proposed model is flawed:

This model, however, appears to have serious flaws. While a three-second pre-roll might be short enough that it won't slow down users too much, any sort of mid-roll ad sounds like the type of thing that will cause viewers to quickly click away.

Online ads that are proven to work well -- like Google's search ads -- do so in part because they don't interfere with users' activities. Yes, the ads are shown in prominent positions on the results' pages, but users who wish to ignore them can do so. The key is that users control whether or not to view the ad. What's needed is to extend that principle to online video ads, rather than trying to interrupt clips with TV-style commercials.

Read more here.

Pulp Fiction parodies on YouTube

10 Zen Monkeys has compiled a list of the ten best Pulp Fiction parodies on YouTube.  You can check out the whole list here, but here are a few of my favourites ...

Pulp Muppets:

Pulp Fiction Breaks:

Pulp Fiction Animation:

(Hat tip: Reel Pop.)

Codehunters

Codehunters, a superb digital short created by the UK's Blinkink and directed by Ben Hibon, was originally created for MTV Awards Asia 2006 and is now up for a Webby award in the arts and animation category.

(Hat tip: Reel Pop.)

New jobs for familiar faces

The Australian has some profiles today of two Australians who will play an increasingly influential and important role in the Australian media - Donald McDonald and Mark Scott.

Donald McDonald has recently been named director of the Classification Board:

THE new chief censor, Donald McDonald, once responded so dramatically to a film he had seen that he made a "public embarrassment" of himself.

The film was Bambi, and a very young Donald had to be taken out of the cinema after he began sobbing uncontrollably at the death of the fawn's mother.

More than 60 years later, the new head of the board that oversees the rating classification of about 1500 publications, 400 films and 6000 videos every year admits there are films he watches "through my eyelashes".

Read more here.

Mark Scott is the new managing director of the ABC:

ON the face of it, Mark Scott could easily be seen as the ABC's worst nightmare. He is an American-born, Harvard-educated, evangelical Christian who has worshipped at the Christian City mega-church in Sydney's north, with a 5000-strong congregation.

Although he does not identify as a conservative, he has worked for Liberal politicians and, before he put up his hand to become the ABC's managing director a year ago this month, Mr Scott had no broadcast experience. He had come fresh from the newspaper publisher Fairfax, a company that was then - and is now - reeling from sliding circulation, staff cuts and strikes.

Given this background, it is perhaps understandable that some ABC staff were wary - no, freaked - by Mr Scott's appointment. But, as revealed in interviews with The Weekend Australian and The Weekend Australian Magazine today, Mr Scott, 43, appears to be generating goodwill, even as he talks about a more commercial future for the beloved, commercial-free Aunty.

Read more here (and also here).

A Change in the Weather

One of the most closely guarded secrets before Kevin Rudd's speech to the ALP Conference yesterday was what theme song would announce Rudd when we walked on stage.  Although there were numerous theories, the song selected was one no-one would have guessed - A Change in the Weather.  Not sounding too familiar?  Well, that would be because it was specially commissioned for Rudd's speech.  And unfortunately the song was a bit like the speech - and perhaps a bit like Rudd too - ambitious and well-intentioned, but contrived and ultimately underwhelming.  The Australian has the audio of A Change in the Weather here.

Daily News Links

• News Corp.'s popular social networking site MySpace launched a test version of its new China service on Friday, making a late entry into the intensely competitive Chinese Internet market.  Read more here (from CNN).
• Brightcove founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire yesterday challenged media people to prepare for a new form of planning in a world of distributed content where video and advertising travel as far as the viewer wants them to go. Delivering the keynote at Media magazine's Outfront conference, he also proposed a new online ad format more relevant to the coming wave of longer-form video.  Read more here (from Media Post).  Also, Brightcove is testing a service that will offer marketers a way to tap into the passion of consumers at a much deeper level by providing an easy way to create, edit and integrate branded content into video creations that can be launched virally.  Read more here (from Media Post). 
• Jack Valenti has died after falling into a coma following a series of strokes. The 85-year-old Valenti was the Washington, D.C. lobbyist for Hollywood's movie studios and independent producers from 1966 to 2004 as president of the Motion Picture Association of America — where under his supervision starting in 1968 the movie industry developed the ratings system for films.  Read more here (from Deadline Hollywood Daily).
• An anti-spam organization named Unspam Technologies has filed a federal lawsuit targeting so-called spam harvesters, who facilitate the mass distribution of junk e-mail by trolling the Internet and collecting millions of e-mail addresses.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• Reaction in the US continues to pour in in the wake of the FCC's violence report to Congress. The Parents Television Council and Common Sense Media are both applauding, while the Media Coalition gives it a thumbs down.  Read more here (from Broadcasting and Cable).
• A bill recently introduced in Congress aims to overturn a controversial royalty fee increase that Internet radio advocates say threatens to cripple their services. The "Internet Radio Equality Act" would invalidate a March 2 decision by the US Copyright Royalty Board that calls for raising royalty rates paid by Net radio operators.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Labor star recruit and former ABC journalist Maxine McKew has urged John Howard to stop harassing her old employer and to start supporting it for the sake of Australia's national identity.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• While Microsoft announced strong revenues of $14.4 billion for the quarter ended March 31 amounting to a 32 percent increase over the same period last year, its Online Services unit experienced more modest growth. The unit, which encompasses search, MSN and its adCenter ad management platform, delivered revenue gains of 11 percent and an operating income loss of $200 million, compared to a $24 million loss the year before.  Read more here (from ClickZ News).
• A large English cheddar cheese has become a star of the internet, attracting more than one million viewers to sit and stare at it as it slowly ripens.  First placed in front of a webcam in late December, the Westcombe cheddar from West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers leaped to public attention in early February and has since attracted viewers from 119 countries.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Legislation that would lift an online gambling ban imposed by the US Congress last year was introduced Thursday by the chairman of House Financial Services Committee.  Read more here (from CNN).
• Two US business groups said yesterday that the flood of bootlegged movies and other goods from China is growing despite increased enforcement and they appealed to Beijing for tougher action. Forty percent of companies surveyed said the volume of counterfeiting of their products in China increased, while only 4 percent saw a decline.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs indicated on Wednesday he is unlikely to give in to calls from the music industry to add a subscription-based model to Apple's wildly popular iTunes online music store. His comments come as the company he co-founded gears up for contract renewal negotiations with the major record labels over the next month.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).

• The chief architect of Sony's flagship PlayStation game console will retire in June as the company struggles to retain dominance in the video game industry and revive its flagging reputation as an electronics and entertainment pioneer.  Ken Kutaragi, 56, an icon among gamers, will step down as Sony Computer Entertainment's chairman and group chief executive, Tokyo-based Sony said.  He will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai, who is now president and chief operating officer of the division.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).

The end of SocialiteRank.com

From the New York Post:

THE controversial SocialiteRank.com Web site - which rated young New York women on the parties they attended, the borrowed dresses they wore, and how many of their photos were published - is shutting itself down under threat of legal action.

A posting on the site yesterday said the yearlong "experiment" was ending because of its success and because its anonymous author planned to write a book about the experience, to be titled "The Year of the Rank."

...

The site's posting yesterday claimed its "staff" consisted of "three full-time writers, one designer and seven contributors." It also said its purpose was to eventually "create a book that would definitively showcase the inner workings of New York's 10021 world."

Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir, who throws parties attended by socially aspiring young women eager to pose for photos, congratulated the site's creators, whoever they are, for taking "something that should have made a mere ripple and turning it into a tidal wave." But he wondered if the book idea "is really smoke and mirrors, [to distract attention from] a looming lawsuit."

Every woman who's featured on SocialiteRank.com claims to be mortified by it, but many have benefited from the publicity. One party regular told Page Six, "The pathetic girls will be sad they can't see pictures of themselves every day, but the legitimate socialites will be happy to see it go."

Read more here.

Just an Online Minute: Study Confirms Popularity Of Wikipedia

From Media Post's Just an Online Minute:

The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia has become one of the most popular sites on the Web, according to a report issued this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Eight percent of American Web users visited Wikipedia during a typical day this winter -- a higher proportion than those who made an online purchase, visited a dating site or chat room during a typical day, according to Pew.

Wikipedia was especially popular with users who were young, affluent and educated, according to Pew, which surveyed 1,492 Internet users earlier this year. Fifty percent of respondents who had graduated from college said they had used Wikipedia, compared to 22% who only had high school diplomas. Forty-two percent of those with household incomes of more than $75,000 used the online encyclopedia, compared to 32% with household incomes of less than $30,000. And 44% percent of those 18-29 had used the site, versus 26% of those 65 and older.

Separately, The New York Times reported this week that the site logged more than 750,000 visits to the article about the shootings on April 16-17, according to the foundation that runs it. The Roanoke Times went so far as to characterize the site a "clearinghouse for detailed information on the event," according to the New York Times.

As happened with other crises, like the tsunami in late 2004, a tragedy sparked intense reliance on the site. What's more, despite the obvious potential for anarchy at Wikipedia, the information there proved useful and accurate.

Still, while Wikipedia relies on collective input from citizen editors, their task is to aggregate information that's been reported or originally produced by others. In other words, Wikipedia isn't replacing the professionals; it's just quickly and efficiently harnessing their work.

Read it here.

Daily News Links

• Bangladesh's government has banned 10 foreign satellite TV channels, saying they were violating laws on public morality.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Five of Hollywood's biggest paparazzi photo agencies are joining together to sue Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, for illegally stealing their photos and video. The celebrity blogger is "unlawfully taking and exploiting other people's work," according to Splash News CEO Gary Morgan.  Read more here (from Radar Online).
• The ABC is preparing to embrace a more commercial future under managing director Mark Scott, with the potential for ABC-owned, commercially funded websites being investigated.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• BNA's Electronic Commerce & Law Report reports that a federal court in Utah has ruled that multiple domain names that closely replicated one site and utilized that site's terms but in fact lead to a parody site did not support a finding of infringement when the parody site lacked commercial purpose. The court said that a Web site commenting on and parodying another lacked the requisite commercial use for infringement under the Lanham Act. Read more here.
• Telstra has switched on its new $1.5 billion internet protocol network for businesses but has refused to reveal a timetable for when it will shutdown the mass of legacy systems the Next IP platform is intended to replace.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, many schools, such as George Mason, are revising security strategies. Some are turning to technological solutions such as text messaging warning systems.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• The US Federal Communications Commission urged lawmakers to consider regulations that would restrict violent programs to late evening. The commission, in a long-awaited report, concluded that the program ratings system and technology intended to help parents block offensive programs had failed to protect children from being regularly exposed to violence.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• California legislators consider a new bill that would extend the state's antistalking laws to the Internet.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Google overtakes Microsoft for the second time in a week, this time claiming the bragging rights as the world's most visited website.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• A company representing Internet users in more than 100 countries is expected to file a lawsuit in Virginia on Thursday seeking the identity of individuals responsible for harvesting millions of e-mail addresses on behalf of spammers.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Joost, the Internet television service being developed by the founders of Skype, has lined up several blue-chip advertisers, including United Airlines, Microsoft, Sony Electronics, and Unilever, as it prepares to launch. Those brands are among 30 advertisers listed as "launch partners" for Joost, which plans to send free, advertiser-supported programming to computer screens using the Internet.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Rupert Murdoch is summoning his top news execs to his Californian ranch next week for a three-day meeting to plan a survival strategy for his global newspaper empire in the digital age. Company watchers say it is possible some execs might be shifted around as a plan is put in place.  Read more here (from the Financial Times).
• Fairfax could lose 7 to 12 per cent of its display advertising revenue in its broadsheet newspapers The Age, The Sunday Age and the Sydney Morning Herald from early next year when the mastheads will adopt a narrower page size.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Apple Inc. surpassed even the most optimistic forecasts for its usually tepid second quarter, delivering an 88 percent increase in profit on strong sales of Macintosh computers and iPod music players.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The Massachusetts Bankers Association is filing a class action lawsuit against retailer TJX over a data breach that put more than 45 million credit and debit cards holders at risk of having their financial information accessed. The bankers association, along with the Connecticut Bankers Association and Maine Association of Community Banks, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Boston. The three banking associations represent almost 300 banks and are seeking to recover "tens of millions of dollars" in damages.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Former Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson's unusual public broadside against CEO Steve Jobs has kept the company's backdating troubles from fading away quietly.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• The US Federal Communications Commission decided on Wednesday to seek more public comment on how the sale of valuable wireless airwaves will work, a move that could delay the start of the auction.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Google scraps a planned 13-hour tune-up of its Calendar service, which had users worried about potentially significant disruptions.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Getty Images has signed a deal to provide photos to self-publishing website Lulu.com.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Microsoft on Wednesday said it is releasing its first public test version of Windows Server 'Longhorn' as the company works to get the release out the door.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Security holes like the one that allowed the Samy worm are all too common on Web 2.0 sites.  Read more here (from PC World).
• A US federal court judge has ruled that referencing a trademarked term in ad text generated by a Web search may violate trademark rights. John Hamzik, who holds the trademark for "The Dating Ring," filed suit alleging that Zale jewellery company violated his trademark by purchasing the keywords "dating ring" for purposes of advertising via paid searches on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Newspapers need to develop a technology that will replace the traditional printed paper and compete with Google's pay-per-click advertising, writes David S. Evans, founder of management consulting firm Market Platform Dynamics. "Anything less will only accelerate the industry's decline."  Read more here (from Forbes).
• Conventional wisdom says that we'll soon be saying our goodbyes to the DVD.  Read more here
• Sun Microsystems' bread and butter is selling general-purpose servers, but on Wednesday the company began selling a product extremely specialized to cram as many streams of video onto the Internet as possible.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Blinkx, a privately held video search provider founded in 2004, will go public next month.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The weak US dollar caused sales to decline slightly in the first quarter at Reuters.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).

How the Bush administration handles dissent

The latest from Liberal Viewer:

Examining search engines

PC World has a fascinating and comprehensive look at the various search engines available today.  Here is PC World's summary:

Not many brands become verbs, as in "I googled [fill in the blank] last night." Nielsen/NetRatings' January 2007 report found that more than half of all Web queries in the United States in that month went through Google. The second-most-popular engine, Yahoo Search, garnered less than half that amount.

Which led us to wonder: Does Google deserve all that traffic, or is it living off its reputation? Are people using it because they're not aware of other, potentially better search engines? To find out, we pitted Google against its big-name competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search, as well as against smaller challengers such as AlltheWeb, AltaVista, and Ask.com--plus a couple dozen of the specialty search services, including Blogdigger, Picsearch, and TubeSurf.

Our verdict? Google is indeed the best search engine, even though two other services topped it--barely--in our text-search tests. Google's index proved to be the most accurate, comprehensive, and timely of the bunch. It also bested the majority of the specialty-search sites we tried, meaning those that focus on a category or file type, such as videos, images, news, blogs, or local info delivered on a mobile phone.

Recent enhancements to Live Search's mobile component moved that service into the lead in our test searches for local information, although you have to navigate manually to its mobile-optimized site rather than being redirected automatically when you log in from a cell phone or other handheld device (see our charts throughout this story for details).

That said, the competition is fierce--and Google had better stay on its toes. Its challengers are implementing some innovative tools and interface upgrades (Ask.com is particularly impressive in this area) that enhance the user experience and deliver more relevant information than do the standard ten blue links on a results page. We also like several useful tools that can help you go beyond the basics of search.

Read the full investigation here.

What the fuck?

According to Ars Technica, 80% of blogs contain "offensive" content:

Blogs are known to be a free-for-all for "expressive" content, but according to a new report by ScanSafe, a vast majority of blogs host content that is considered "offensive" and potentially "unwanted." ScanSafe's Monthly "Global Threat Report" for March 2007 says that up to 80 percent of blogs host offensive content, ranging from "adult language" to pornographic images. The company suggests that businesses should be aggressive about preventing users from accessing some or all of this material. And of course, they'd hope that you'd use their products to do so.

Read more here.  How do they come up with such a ridiculous figure?  Well, here's the problem:

A blog merely has to contain a single instance of profanity to be considered offensive, according to ScanSafe. "There were as many blogs with the 'F-word' as the word 'China'," Nadir told Techworld.

Now this blog uses profanity occasionally (for example, I remember getting complaints about this post), but I'd hardly call this blog offensive.  Am I wrong?  Or should your work be aggressive about preventing you from accessing this blog?

(Hat tip: Volokh Conspiracy.)

The Chaser's war on Wikipedia founder

From The Age:

It was always just a matter of time before Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales had a run-in with The Chaser.

Andrew Hansen, one of five stars of the hit satirical ABC television program, ambushed Wales's question-and-answer session at the education.au conference in Sydney this morning.

Wales had just finished giving his keynote speech at the Hilton hotel, during which he brought the audience of about 150 educators up to speed on the ins and outs of Wikipedia and his newer for-profit venture, Wikia.

He explained how his collaborative online encyclopedia, which has copped significant flack of late over the apparent ease at which anyone can add erroneous and libellous information, was best used by teachers and students - as a source of background information, rather than a quoteable reference.

Given Wales's widely publicised goal of giving "every single person on the planet free access to the sum of all human knowledge", Hansen evidently thought Wales would be a prime candidate for The Chaser's "Mr Ten Questions" segment.

"Ah, Jimmy, um, look I just have 10 questions," Hansen said when he was handed the microphone during the question-and-answer session.

"First, how are you enjoying Australia?

"Second, how do our computers compare to the ones in America?

"Third, why does everyone in IT look so nerdy, yet you look like a daytime soap star?

"Fourth, Mac or PC - do you really give a shit?

"Fifth, there are 1.7 million articles on Wikipedia; how long did it take you to write them all?

"Sixth, Craig Reucassel's a bit unhappy with the photo on his page. Could you upload a better one maybe for him?

"Seventh, my dog is getting some scabs under his chin. I don't know if you can bring him in the number of a local vet?

"Eighth, Jessica Rowe and Peter Overton - will it last?

"Ninth, cracked pepper?

"Tenth, how do you feel about the fact that when I looked you up on Wikipedia this morning I changed your page to say that you were a teenage drug lord from Malaysia?"

In his usual style, Hansen asked each question in rapid succession, pausing to let Wales respond only when he had finished asking all 10.

Wales's nervous, confused facial expressions were a stark contrast to his typically dauntless demeanour, but he attempted to answer some.

His responses were not delivered into the microphone and so could be heard only by those sitting at the front of the room.

"Not such a nerd as I thought - oh well, you got four out of 10. I'll add that to your Wikipedia page thank you," Hansen said before leaving the room.

Read more here.

International E-Research Conference

The Queensland University of Technology is pleased to announce the Legal Framework for e-Research Conference:

International e-Research Conference Supporting All Disciplines

"from the sciences to the humanities"

Do you use the Internet for research? Collaborate with colleagues and workmates via email? Store data on a shared network or in a repository?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above then you are involved in e-Research.

e-Research now has widespread application and supports all disciplines from the sciences to the humanities. Collaborative innovation is being made possible through user-friendly advances in information and communications technology. In reality e-Research capabilities magnify the potential of the established research paradigm rather than replace it.

This conference aims to analyse the legal framework necessary to ensure the effective take up of e-Research techniques in Australia. The conference program will address issues, including:

• Research contracts
• Data sharing
• Patent licensing
• Privacy

Join guest speakers from UK, USA, Canada and Australia for expert advice from a diversity of fields, including:

• Human Genome Technology transfer
• Cyber Infrastructure
• Child Health Research
• Social Sciences

Date: Wednesday 11 & Thursday 12 July

Venue: Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort and Spa, Gold Coast Queensland

Cost: $295 (Early Bird registration up to 18 May 2007); $385 (Registration after 18 May 2007) 

Registration: www.e-Research.law.qut.edu.au

For further details see the date claimer and conference program.

A call on the RNC & DNC to eliminate unnecessary regulation of political speech

Lawrence Lessig and others have called on the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee to eliminate unnecessary regulation of political speech.  From the Lessig blog:

While many rightly and fairly struggle over genuinely difficult copyright questions, it has been the strategy of some of us to push for solutions to obvious problems first. The place of copyright in political debate is one such obvious problem. Technology has exploded the opportunity for people to comment upon, and spread political speech. Democracy is all about encouraging citizens to participate in that debate. And all of us, whether Democrats or Republicans, should push to remove unnecessary burdens to that participation.

Unfortunately, however, the uncertainty about the scope of copyright regulation is increasingly one such burden on Internet political speech. This next political cycle will see an explosion of citizen generated political content. Some of that speech will be crafted from clips taken from the Presidential debates. Some of that will be fantastically valuable and important. Yet as the law is right now, it is extremely difficult for an ordinary citizen to understand the boundaries of “fair use,” or the limits to copyright law. It is likewise difficult for companies such as YouTube, or Blip.tv. Indeed, it is even difficult for a skilled practitioner. That uncertainty, if not checked, could produce a cloud over much of this political speech, as sites and universities don’t know how much is too much. It will certainly create a temptation by some politicians to invoke copyright law to block particularly effective speech critical of them.

Some friends (old and new) and I are therefore calling upon both major political parties to make this problem go away. Not by changing the law, or by supporting some expensive and time consuming litigation. But instead, by simply promising to require of any network broadcasting Presidential debates (at least) that they license the debates freely after they are initially broadcast — either by putting the debates into the public domain, or by permitting anyone to use or remix the contents of those debates, for any reason whatsoever, so long as there is attribution back to any purported copyright holder. (CC-BY)

I am confident that I won’t like much of what this freedom will engender. But if that were a legitimate reason to regulate political speech, this would be a very different world. We should all, regardless of our political persuasion, be encouraging a wide ranging debate about our political future. And we all need to hear more from those with whom we disagree.

I am also hopeful that those typically on the other side of the many debates that we have had about copyright will recognize this proposal as one that strengthens copyright. The last thing a copyright system designed to produce incentives for authors and artists needs is to complicate judgments about “fair use” by accommodating speech that needs no real copyright protection at all. There is incentive enough for politicians to debate, and opportunity enough for broadcasters to carry those debates. We don’t need to add the complexity of a lawyer driven speech regulation into this mix.

Thanks to everyone who signed and helped to get others to sign. Please call the RNC/DNC to add your view.

The letters are here. There is a press release here.

Joost Show and Tell

CBS previews Joost:

I've said it before and I'll say it again - it is pretty cool!

IP and human rights

An interesting article from Peter Yu:

Yu, Peter K., "Ten Common Questions About Intellectual Property and Human Rights" . Georgia State University Law Review, Vol. 23, 2007 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=979193

Abstract: With the continuous expansion of intellectual property rights, there is a growing need to develop a human rights framework for intellectual property rights. Such a framework is not only socially beneficial, but will enable the development of a balanced intellectual property system that takes human rights obligations into consideration. Developing such a framework, however, is not easy. It sparks many difficult questions; some of them are foundational, some of them conceptual, and the remainder implementational. This Article tackles in turn ten questions the Author frequently encounters in discussing the development of a human rights framework for intellectual property rights. It is his hope that a better understanding of the answers to these questions will help promote a constructive and healthy discourse of the human rights bases of and implications for intellectual property rights.

The ten questions the Article addresses are: (1) Are intellectual property rights human rights? (2) Besides access to medicines, are there other intellectual property issues that implicate the protection of human rights? (3) Should the human rights debate separate patents from copyrights? (4) Are all forms of intellectual property rights human rights? (5) Can corporations claim protection of the right to the protection of interests in intellectual creations? (6) Does the right to private property already protect interests in intellectual creations? (7) Can human rights interests be built into the intellectual property system? (8) Will the human rights framework ratchet up existing intellectual property protection? (9) Will the human rights framework benefit indigenous peoples and traditional communities? (10) Will the human rights framework benefit less developed countries?

Googling Marge Simpson

The latest viral video hit is Marge Simpson on Google:

Eventful

The latest online/social networking tool that the US Presidential candidates are using appears to be Eventful.  The Eventful website says:

Discover, share, and create grassroots political events. Get involved! Demand your favorite candidates come to your town.

techPresident is now tracking Eventful demands:

While each campaign is trying to galvanize its support base, something new is happening online: grassroots supporters of the candidates are using a new tool from Eventful.com, an events database, to request, or "demand" in Eventful's parlance, that the candidate come to their city. So far, no candidate has directly responded to this bottom-up aggregation of voter attention, but several have adopted their Eventful pages. Could this be the first sign of "candidate-relationship management" from below?

	Democrats	# of demands
	Obama	10,062
	Clinton	3,497
	Edwards	1,386
	Richardson	15
	Kucinich	6
	Biden	3
	Dodd	0

	Republicans	# of demands
	Paul	1,583
	Giuliani	86
	McCain	82
	Romney	31
	Brownback	23
	Tancredo	2
	Gilmore	1
	Huckabee	0

Visit Eventful here.

Legal + Policy Framework for the Digital Content Industry

The East China University of Politics and Law (ECUPL) and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are pleased to announce an international forum on the digital content industry to be held at ECUPL in Shanghai, China, from 28 and 29 May 2007:

In recent times information technologies such as the world-wide web and broadband have transformed economic and social relations, minimising cultural and economic barriers. In our post-industrial, information-based society, knowledge or the production of information is increasingly replacing industrial technologies as the driving force of society. The convergence of technologies such as computers, communication and broadcasting, promises to fundamentally alter the global landscape.

The "National Strategy of Informatisation of China (2006-2020)" has extended the Information Technology Industry in China into the Information Content Industry by its emphasis on goals such as establishing advanced Internet culture and exploiting information resources more efficiently. Following years of development, China has entered an all-round, multi-level period of informatisation. China now faces the serious challenge of building an effective development policy, legal framework and industry order which will enable China’s digital content industry to prosper.

As part of the intellectual property (IP) Research Collaboration Program established by ECUPL and QUT, this Forum will provide a platform for academics, practitioners and consultants from industry and government to discuss key legal and policy developments in relation to the Content Industry and Intellectual Property in China and Australia.

Day 1 of the Forum will focus on Content Industry Policy and the Networked Information Economy.

Day 2 of the Forum will focus on Copyright Law, New Media and the Future.

Download more information here.

Australia to join internet copyright treaties

The Attorney-General Philip Ruddock issued this media release this afternoon:

Australia will mark World Intellectual Property Day by joining two international treaties aimed at boosting copyright protection for material on the Internet, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today.

The move will complement the world's best practice copyright regime that Australia now has, after the Government's reforms of last year.

The Attorney-General said the World Intellectual Property Organisation Copyright Treaty and the World Intellectual Property Organisation Performances and Phonograms Treaty, otherwise known as the WIPO Internet Treaties, would be acceded to in Geneva

The main feature of the treaties is the protection of copyright works, sound recordings and performances fixed in sound recordings within the online environment.

They were adopted at a WIPO diplomatic conference in 1996, at which Australia played an active role.

Australia was one of the first countries to implement the treaties with the Digital Agenda reforms to the Copyright Act in 2000.

Australia's move to join the WIPO Internet Treaties reinforces international co-operation and promotes effective protection of copyright in the online environment," Mr Ruddock said.

"In the spirit of this year's theme for World IP Day - Encouraging Creativity - Australia is proud to join the WIPO Internet Treaties. Creativity is encouraged by an effective copyright regime, especially in the online environment.

"Consumers also benefit from online copyright protection because creators will make more material available online if it is protected from pirates."

World IP Day is an initiative of WIPO and is celebrated on April 26.

World IP day began in 2001. This year, WIPO is celebrating the link between intellectual property and creativity under the theme - Encouraging Creativity. 

MySpace to launch political reality show

From Reuters:

Up next: "American Idol" meets "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Mark Burnett, the producer who popularized reality television, and Internet social network MySpace will unveil a new reality TV and Internet series that aims to groom one young politician or community leader to represent young America.

Politicians globally have put videos online and designed Web pages on MySpace and the YouTube video service, MySpace's new program, "Independent," has a similar objective: to engage young U.S. citizens -- in reverse.

To do this, "Independent" will let viewers decide the fate of contestants who submit audition videos on MySpace.

The program, expected to launch in early 2008, may be a way to spark interest in the political process among young adults, executives involved with the project said.

Read more here.

Daily News Links

• The federal Government has launched legal action against two newspapers aimed at dramatically expanding the reach of suppression orders covering the nation's biggest terror trial. If the Government succeeds, Victorian judges and magistrates would be handed the power to fine or jail journalists in other states who did not obey their orders. The Government's action is part of an attempt to enforce strict secrecy about aspects of a terror trial involving 13 men that is soon to start in Melbourne.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The Australian Labor Party has banned pay-television channel Sky News from broadcasting live from its national conference this week, a move Sky's political editor David Speers has described as frustrating.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• A court has ordered Yahoo's China subsidiary to pay $27,000 for aiding music file sharing. The ruling came amid US pressure for Beijing to stop copying of music and other goods. The lawsuit filed by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries accused Yahoo China of violating copyrights because its search engine linked to sites that carried 229 unlicensed copies of songs.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• As broadband speeds conspire against the rapid take-up of many on-demand internet content services in Australia, pay-per-view services on subscription television continue to grow.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Ten's 2007 Big Brother website, the first significant plank in the television network's fledgling internet strategy, remained crippled by technical problems last night, angering fans and making sponsors nervous.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Photobucket's co-founder says that the image and video-sharing site has ended an impasse with
  social-networking giant MySpace. A conflict between the two sites erupted earlier this month when News Corp.-owned MySpace opted to block Photobucket's content from its members' profiles. According to MySpace, Photobucket had violated MySpace's terms of service by encouraging users to post a Spider-Man 3 slide-show ad campaign. MySpace forbids third parties from advertising on its site.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Acer one of the largest computer makers in the world has recalled about 27,000 laptop batteries, becoming the latest company to warn of faulty Sony-made lithium-ion batteries that could overheat and cause a fire.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Vonage has won relief from a potentially crippling court order that would have barred it from signing up new customers while it appeals a verdict that it infringed on patents held by Verizon Communications Inc. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the stay of a trial judge's injunction just hours after hearing arguments.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• The Wikimedia Foundation, the group behind user-generated encyclopedia Wikipedia, has announced it intends to produce a CD of about 2,000 of its articles. The CD will bear the moniker "Wikipedia Version 0.5" and cover areas such as the arts and sciences and subjects such as geography. It will come with its own search engine.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• The rapid encroachment of video games into TV viewing time is prompting media buyers to pressure television ratings group OzTAM to reveal how often TV sets are used for non-broadcast purposes. Read more here (from The Australian).
• Yahoo has teamed up with Gracenote to offer what it is calling "the largest catalogue of legal, licensed song lyrics" on the Web. While there are plenty of Web sites offering lyrics, Gracenote is the first company to have gone through the painstaking process of negotiating deals with the thousands of publishers who own copyrights to the lyrics. The catalog offered by Yahoo will include lyrics of 400,000 songs owned by more than 10,000 publishers.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• It's already getting harder to stand out in the crowd on MySpace among talented upstarts, let alone professionals. OurStage.com is inviting creatives to submit their work to a community vote and will help launch artists' careers through a network of partners--including music conferences, film festivals and magazines.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Skyrocketing sales of gaming consoles linked to the internet are finally forcing the merger of computers and televisions, years after the idea of convergence was first mooted.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• America's interest in television watched through a mobile phone device is on the rise, reports comScore. Some 40% of respondents to a recent survey expressed interest, and of those, two-thirds would be willing to watch ads in return for free service.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• US complaints to the WTO over commercial piracy in China will "badly damage" cooperation, Vice Premier Wu Yi warned today, insisting that China has made great strides in protecting patents and copyrights.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• In the US, TV Guide is going to help readers sniff their way through the May 3 episode of NBC's My Name Is Earl. In the next issue of the magazine, which hits newsstands Thursday, a scent card (with six different scents) will release aromas pertaining to the sitcom's story line. On-air graphics will prompt viewers to rub numbered boxes on the card that will release the appropriate scent at different points throughout the show.  Read more here (from WWD.com).

Hello YouTube

The Utube Blog comes to a fun realisation:

“Hello, YouTube,” is a common greeting many people say on their videos.  I’m struck by it because it’s almost as if YouTube has become a real person in these videos, the collective audience on YouTube.  Now, John Edwards is saying it.  Obviously, his speech writer is in tune with the YouTube lingo.  Hello, YouTube.

Read it here.

NBC agrees to test YouTube’s content (copyright) fingerprinting

The Utube Blog has news and analysis on NBC's decision to test out YouTube's deployment of content-identification software.  Read it here.

Zeus Jones: "Marketing in a Web 2.0 world"

Check out this effective presentation from Zeus Jones on marketing in a Web 2.0 world (and take note of Slideshare - it is like a YouTube for presentations):

(Hat tip: Trevor Cook's Corporate Engagement.)

Who owns the copyright in the Virginia Tech killer's video?

At the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh has an interesting post on who owns the copyright in the Virginia Tech killer's video.  Read it here.

Challenge of the Super Duper Friends

The trailer for the Challenge of the Super Duper Friends is now online:

Visit the official website here.

The Daily Reel has more information:

Based on the classic Hanna-Barbera "Super Friends" animated series of the late 1970s, the updated "Challenge" pits several new Justice League members -- "The Green Solution" (Al Gore), "Captain United" (Barack Obama), "Reform-Girl" (Hilary Clinton), and "The Abitrator" (John Edwards) -- against an array of contemporary Legion of Doom baddies. In addition to "Doctor Spin," there's "Petro-Man" (George Bush), "9 Lives" (Condoleeza Rice) and "$" (Dick Cheney).

Posted on YouTube five days ago, the teaser trailer for "Challenge" has received about 30,000 hits and been favorited 97 times. The brainchild of Philippine blogger and comic book creator Jonas Diego, "Challenge" took about a month to make and was created off-hours by U.S. and Manila-based staffers at Interactive Art Services (IAS) Manila, Inc., one of the leading producers of storyboards and animatics for the US and UK advertising industry, where Diego works as studio director.

Read more here.

Activist groups drop lawsuit against Viacom

Last month I blogged about the Electronic Frontier Foundation asking a US federal court to protect the free speech rights of MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films after their satirical send-up of The Colbert Report was allegedly removed from YouTube following a copyright complaint from Viacom (see here).  SiliconValley.com now reports that the lawsuit has been dropped:

Activist groups dropped a federal lawsuit against Viacom Inc. on Monday after the parent of Comedy Central acknowledged it made a mistake by asking YouTube to yank a parody of the cable network's "The Colbert Report."

Although the video in question contained clips taken from the television show, the groups argued that their use was protected under "fair use" provisions of copyright law, and thus Viacom shouldn't have asked YouTube to remove the item.

Viacom initially denied requesting the removal but later acknowledged it and said it was in error.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation declared victory in announcing that Viacom agreed to add information on its Web site about its stance on such parodies and to set up an e-mail address to receive complaints about possible errors in the future.

Viacom, however, sought to play down its concessions, saying the lawsuit's dismissal was a recognition of "the effective processes we have consistently applied." In a statement, Viacom said the lawsuit "could have been avoided" had the groups contacted the company ahead of time.

Read more here.  And here is the "offending" video:

Daily News Links

• Dishonest use of identity information will become a crime under new laws, with penalties of up to five years jail for a range of offences including on-selling personal data.  The proposed identity crime code also recommends that victims of identity theft be provided with court-issued certificates to help individuals repair financial damage and tarnished credit ratings.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• China's infamous movie pirates have done it again -- Spider-Man 3 is already being sold on Beijing's streets almost two weeks ahead of its US premier.  Costing just over $1 apiece, the pirated DVDs appear to be of the actual movie, complete with a picture of the hero in a new, black spider suit which he wears for some of the film.  Read more here (from Reuters).
• Yahoo, The Huffington Post, and Slate will host two online-only presidential debates during the 2008 campaign, moderated by Charlie Rose. With a possible combined audience of millions, these first-ever online debates could serve not only the candidates, but a group of select advertisers as well.   Read more here (from Media Post).
• By next year, Trend Micro predicts more malicious attacks will hit Internet users via the Web than via e-mail.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• With criminal and terror groups already capable users of internet protocol communications, security and law enforcement officials are keeping a watchful eye on next generation networks.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Monitoring children's internet use is the responsibility of their parents, Prime Minister John Howard said following the deaths of two girls who discussed suicide on their websites.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• Microsoft responded yesterday to EU allegations that it is overcharging rivals for information that would make their products work better with Windows. The software maker also repeated its request for more guidance on what regulators consider to be an acceptable price. The EU had given Microsoft until last night to come through with a response on the fees it seeks from competitors to share computer information, and threatened daily fines that could go as high as $4 million a day. It said it will consider the company's reply and decide whether to impose a daily penalty.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• In the next several months, Second Life avatars may find their long-awaited voice, said Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, publisher of the virtual world. Many Second Life members have long desired to bring voice to their text-based avatars. And last month, Second Life launched a small beta trial with integrated voice. Rosedale said during a keynote speech at Gartner Symposium ITxpo that he hopes to see voice officially launched in Second Life within the next several months.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Qtrax aims to turn peer-to-peer networks into a legitimate business, and is partnering with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to carry the label's full catalog of recordings. Ad support is part of the plan.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Pay television provider Foxtel has begun experimenting with a broadband video-on-demand service that may let customers view its paid content on televisions belonging to non-subscribers.  Read more here (from Australian IT).

Facebook will win

As a user of both MySpace and Facebook (as well as a few other social networking sites), I agree with Jimmy Wales:

Facebook, not MySpace, will be the long-term winner among the social networking sites, says Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.

Mr Wales, in Adelaide yesterday at the start of a week-long Australian lecture tour, said Facebook was "actually useful" while MySpace was "horrible".

...

The value of Facebook is in its design, Mr Wales said.

"I think Facebook has a long way to go," he said. "It is really an interesting phenomenon and they really seem to know what they're doing. Facebook doesn't abuse their customers the way MySpace does. MySpace has so many ads blinking and flashing in your face, it's so horrible in every respect. Facebook has some ads but . . . they are in an appropriate place and they're not obnoxious."

Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).

White House Correspondents' Dinner

Last weekend saw the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, which usually features the President making of fun of himself followed by a hilarious comedian.  Editor & Publisher thinks it didn't quite all go to plan this year:

What would the White House Correspondents Association dinner do for an encore on Saturday night in Washington following last year’s controversial Stephen Colbert routine? President Bush was back, but with impressionist Rich Little replacing the barbed satire of Colbert, and with the usual broad cast of celebrities -- from Reggie Bush to Condi Rice.

President Bush said, “We’ve got to learn to laugh in this town," but then instead of going into the usual jokes, surprised the crowd by saying, "I had looked forward to poking fun tonight but in light of this week’s tragedy at Virginia Tech, I decided not to try to be funny.”

He just said thanks for dinner and introduced Rich Little, “a talented and good man.” Little later told E&P that Bush had informed him earlier that he would not be doing any jokes himself.

Actually, one of the funniest jokes was Karl Rove being seated at a New York Times table.

Rich Little, with shockingly dyed hair, said at the outset that he is “not political” but rather a “nightclub performer who does a lot of dumb, stupid jokes,” then proved that.

Read more here, or watch for yourself and make up your own mind:

Happy Birthday Grandma!

As today is my grandmother's 90th birthday, I thought I'd embed a video my sisters put together that celebrates 90 wonderful years ...

You must watch Big Brother!

Ok.  I'll admit it.  I watch Big Brother (well, at least the evictions) and follow the going-ons in the house on the Big Brother website and Behind Big Brother.  I've even gone to a couple of live evictions.  I've been following the show since year one, day one.  And I enjoy it.  I find the relationships, the characters, the politics, the games Big Brother plays and even Gretel Killen entertaining - and occasionally even insightful.  Most of my so-called "intellectual" friends and colleagues consider that there must be something wrong with me (even though most are also able to follow a conversation about the show quite easily).  However, I refuse to apologise for it.  Big Brother isn't meant to change the world, but it is good TV.

And last night's episode of Big Brother was great TV - we got to select two new housemates, a relationship in the house were revealed, the reason for the mysterious White Room was disclosed, and Mr X was introduced to Australia and the unsuspecting housemates.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about or think that this all sounds silly, then you are missing out.  This season has been set up as possibly the best Big Brother ever.  The housemates are older and more diverse (although still ridiculously good looking), the house has adopted a positive environmental stance, and most importantly, the first two episodes have shown that this season's Big Brother has a wonderfully wicked sense of humour.  The housemates - and us - have absolutely no idea what Big Brother will throw at them next.  Now, that is good TV.

As many of you reading this post will just dismiss it as a rant from a tragically deranged fan, may I suggest that if you are a reality TV sceptic you should read an excellent piece in one of your so-called "intellectual" magazines, The Atlantic Monthly by Michael Hirschorn, "The Case for Reality TV: What the snobs don't understand".  Read it here.

So if you want to know what all the fuss is about, then you should watch this season of Big Brother.  And enjoy it for what it is - good TV.  Don't be embarrassed and don't apologise for it.  After all, you don't have to tell people that you watch it ...