Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

"Top 10 Reasons Why I, Homer Simpson, Should be the Next President"

From The Late Show with David Letterman:

Emergency cheese

NewTeeVee profiles James Kotechki:

While Jon Stewart does it nightly with razor wit and Steven Colbert does it with truthiness, James Kotecki does political media revue with pencil puppets and a webcam. The Economist cites Kotecki, who posts as “EmergencyCheese” on YouTube, as “probably the world’s foremost expert on YouTube videos posted by presidential candidates.”

Mr. Kotecki, a 2007 Georgetown University graduate and former Congressional page, started posting at the start of this year. “The first few videos were just me parroting what the mainstream media was saying and it was pretty terrible in content, delivery, everything,” Kotecki admitted in a phone interview. “Then I realized that some of the candidates had their own [YouTube] channels and I saw a wide disparity in the content. I didn’t see anyone talking about this, so I thought I’d post a video response.”

Artfully positioning himself as a political media analyst, Kotecki, an international politics major, offers advice to candidates attempting to navigate the politically uncharted viral video waters. Commenting on everything from camera angels and backdrop decisions to conversational cadence and discussion point poignancy, Kotecki mixes Stephanopoulos topicality with Ze Frank delivery.

Read more here.  And here are some of his videos (see here and here):

The Foxhole Manifesto

A striking work from Amsterdam based animinator Nick Fox-Geig:

(Hat tip: The Daily Reel.)

Chinese censorship

Writing for CNET News.com, Michael Kanellos asks, how good are the censors in China?

If the experiment is any indication, the Great Firewall of China is more thorough than I thought. It keeps sensitive information off of the sites most residents will use. Meanwhile, it makes accommodations for foreigners.

Read more here.

Beware of your ISP

Wired wonders which ISPs are spying on you?

The few souls that attempt to read and understand website privacy policies know they are almost universally unintelligible and shot through with clever loopholes. But one of the most important policies to know is your internet service provider's -- the company that ferries all your traffic to and from the internet, from search queries to BitTorrent uploads, flirty IMs to porn.

Wired News, with help from some readers, attempted to get real answers from the largest United States-based ISPs about what information they gather on their customers' use of the internet, and how long they retain records like IP addresses, e-mail and real-time browsing activity. Most importantly, we asked what they require from law-enforcement agencies before coughing up the data, and whether they sell your data to marketers.

Read more here.

The M rated ad from Quit

From The Courier Mail:

ANTI-smoking group Quit has launched a new television campaign so explicit that it's been banned from Australian screens in peak viewing times.

The shocking television campaign highlights how smoking can lead to a stroke, by featuring a surgical procedure that clears out blockages in the neck artery.

The ad has been given an M rating, making it the first quit smoking message in Australia to be banned at specific times because of its confronting nature.

The material could be screened only after 8.30pm and then only during programs with an M rating, a Quit spokeswoman said.

Quit acting director Suzie Stillman said the uncompromising scenes were reality television at its most powerful.

Read more here and watch the ad:

Michael Cera gets "fired" from Knocked Up

Fans of Michael Cera (of Arrested Development and Clark and Michael fame) must watch this very clever and very funny piece of viral marketing for the upcoming film Knocked Up:

Michael Cera gets fired from Knocked Up
Uploaded by TstarV

If you don't get it, Cinematical explains here.

Daily News Links: update

• News Corp will soon be able to track and monitor online donations made to presidential candidates through its MySpace subsidiary, giving the media group an increasingly prominent role in the 2008 presidential election.  This involvement in candidates’ fundraising is new territory for News Corp, which, until now, has limited its interest in presidential elections to media coverage via its print and broadcast outlets.  Read more here (from the Financial Times).
• A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers has been arrested in the US.  US federal authorities said computer users across the web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk email.  Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam emails.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
  
• Venezuela says it will file charges against CNN for linking President Hugo Chavez to Al Qaeda. It says it will also sue a Venezuelan TV network for encouraging Chavez's assassination. The move comes a day after popular Venezuelan TV network RCTV went off the air after the Chavez Government cancelled its broadcast license. CNN issued a statement strongly denying being engaged in a campaign to discredit or attack Venezuela. The network has acknowledged a video mix-up and "aired a detailed correction and expressed regret for the involuntary error."  Read more here (from ABC News).
• The West Australian Government has backed off from its threats to tie its support for new laws to protect journalists' sources to the sacking of The West Australian's editor Paul Armstrong.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Some of Firefox's most popular third party extensions, including toolbars from Google, Yahoo and Facebook, create a massive security hole by failing to use secure update servers, according to a security researcher.  Read more here (from Wired).
• eBay has announced its $75 million acquisition of social discovery service StumbleUpon.   Read more here (from Mashable).
• The commercial free-to-air television broadcasters are bracing themselves for higher-than-expected growth of 6 to 7 per cent in the $2.7 billion annual advertising market, spurred by the federal Government's advertising splurge.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Google launches a technology designed to enable web-based programs to work without an internet connection.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• More than one million telephone numbers have been listed on the Australian Do Not Call Register which came into effect at midnight last night, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, announced today.  Read more here (Media Releases).
• A Long Island, NY, man is being charged with burglary after police tracked him down through an advertisement for a stolen Apple computer on Craigslist. The investigation was launched after detectives received information about the post on the free online classifieds site.  Read more here (from Newsday).
• NEC agreed to make accounting changes on Tuesday after Japanese tax auditors found that employees had run a kickback scheme.  Read more here (from PC World).
• John Singleton, the most famous name in advertising, sold his ad agency last night, on the eve of celebrating 50 years in the business.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Despite earlier suggestions that it might scrap its struggling online entertainment channel Bud.TV, Anheuser-Busch is deciding instead to revamp the Web site to make it edgier. The changes will include features such as social networking and shorter videos.  Read more here (from the Wall Street Journal).
• Online retailer CD-Wow must pay £41m to British record companies after breaking a deal to stop selling illegally imported cheap albums in the UK. The High Court in London ruled in March that the site's owners, Music Trading Online, were "in substantial breach" of a 2004 agreement to stop importing CDs. It has now ordered Hong Kong-based CD-Wow to pay £37m plus interest to the British Phonographic Industry.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• Sony has announced that it will support HD Radio over the next several years with various AM/FM/HD tuners. Free, high-quality digital radio seems to be taking off, but the RIAA is still lurking in the background.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Ben Silverman, the driving force behind Ugly Betty, is to be co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Yahoo’s Panama Ad Search Platform, which was released in the US last October, has been released in the UK and is now live.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• West Australian Newspapers is keeping an eye on east coast rival Fairfax Media, concerned it may launch a Perth-based internet site as it has in Brisbane.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• AOL is launching a "jargon-free" consumer tech news site, called Switched.com, which will be a part of AOL News. Switched will feature breaking news, gossip, buying guides, celebrity interviews, editor's picks, and other features in a blog-style format.  Read more here (from WebProNews.com).
• Viacom is selling its Famous Music publishing business, which owns such hits as "Stand By Me" and "Jailhouse Rock," to Sony unit Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Famous Music was seen as a "poor strategic fit" for Viacom, the owner of cable networks and the Paramount movie studio.  Read more here (from Smartmoney.com).
• CBS/20th Century Fox will stream full episodes of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, as well as original online content, on the show's page on MySpace. Producers hope that Emmy Award voters will find the material by following tags on television and print ads.  Read more here (from Variety).
• YouTube is participating in a revenue sharing deal with Major League Soccer, becoming the third major U.S. sports league to partner up with the video sharing site for this type of a deal. Read more here (from Mashable).
• Columbus, Ohio-based discount air carrier Skybus is looking to derive ancillary revenue from all sources. It will be the first airline in the US to take outside advertising on its Web site--and seeks to follow on the successful model in Europe of Ryanair. Travel Ad Network will sell the inventory.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Apple is now selling digital music from EMI without copyright protection on its iTunes store, giving chief Steve Jobs a victory in his campaign to see all online songs sold that way. Separately, Apple is creating an area on iTunes to offer free course lectures from top universities.  Read more here (from Bloomberg).
• Google is open to new acquisitions and remains hopeful it can close its purchase of DoubleClick by the end of 2007 despite a US federal probe, says CEO Eric Schmidt. He adds that Google is unlikely to buy a media company. "We made a decision to focus on what we're good at."  Read more here (from Reuters).
• The Huffington Post's expansion of its coverage into five new sections, combined with a "cleaner, less cluttered" look, provides increased opportunities for the site's growing roster of blue-chip advertisers--including CNN, The New York Times, Xerox, Audi and Discovery.  Read more here (from Media Post).

LawFont is back

According to this post today, the Australian blawg LawFont is back:

Although our frequency of posts has dropped off since the second half of 2006, things have been going on behind the scenes at LawFont.

Kim has recovered from her 2006 overload, and will be blogging primarily on Australian intellectual property issues. Sarah hopes to be back soon, and will be blogging again on a range of issues, mostly on developments outside of Australia.

Finally, we’d like to formally welcome our new blogger. Susanne is particularly interested in the regulation of communications and media content, counter-terrorism and national security regulation, and administrative law. We are very happy to have her with us!

Read it here.  It will be good to have Kim blogging occasionally again and welcome to the blogosphere Susanne Lloyd-Jones.

While welcoming new Australian bloggers, check out these two newish blogs:

• Stephen Warne's The Australian Professional Liability Blog, on professional negligence, regulation and discipline around the world; and
• Malik's Law, a look at content, technology and the legal system from Alex Malik.

Blog and wiki etiquette: Ten Commandments

PC World presents The Ten Commandments of Blog and Wiki Etiquette:

Fueled in large part by the usercentric Web 2.0 trend, the Internet has evolved considerably as a communications platform, offering people innovative means for keeping in touch and sharing knowledge instantly with others across the globe. Blogs and wikis, which enable folks to broadcast their thoughts to the Web at large and to collaborate on documents, respectively, are the heavyweights of this movement. And though they are wonderful tools for bringing disparate people together and for accumulating knowledge, they can also quickly devolve into the online equivalent of grunting apes. And you don't want to be an unruly ape, do you? Of course not.

As we demonstrated with " The Ten Commandments of cell phone etiquette," new modes of communication require new codes for behavior. Just keep these Ten Commandments of blogs and wikis in mind as you type, and you will rise above the fray -- and help facilitate fruitful, lively discussion.

Read the Commandments here.

Australia's Right To Know

The Media Report on ABC Radio National this morning had an excellent discussion of Australia's Right To Know campaign:

The Australia's Right To Know campaign was launched earlier this month by a coalition of media organisations, including News limited, the ABC, Fairfax, the SBS, and AAP.

And the campaign's aim is to draw public attention to the tightening of restrictions on journalists and free speech in Australia.

Read the transcript or download a podcast of the show here.

Clark and Michael: episode 2

The second episode of Clark and Michael, a web-only documentary series about two young guys trying to pitch a TV series that stars Michael Cera (who was Jason Bateman's son i n Arrested Development) is now online here. 

See my post about the first episode here.

Daily News Links

• TiVo, the time-shifting digital video recorder that became a household name in the US, will come to Australia in 2008.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• Poland's conservative government is to ask psychologists whether the Teletubbies promote homosexuality.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• MySpace Australia has confirmed it has enlisted various Federal Government ministers and shadow ministers to create MySpace profiles before the election.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• In the Internet age, interest groups seeking influence in Washington are joining presidential candidates in discovering a new electronic tool to press their agenda: YouTube.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Earlier this week, the US House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at fighting the fraudulent use of the Internet through spyware and other harmful scams.  Read more here (from the Berkman Blog).
• Toshiba says it will buy microprocessors from AMD, ending its exclusive ties with Intel for it supply of chips.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• Data provided by the Communication Workers of America shows that the "average" speed of broadband in the US is a paltry 1.9Mbit. When compared to Canada's 7Mbit and Japan's intimidating 61Mbit, that number seems freakishly low. Perhaps a little too low.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Deutsche Telekom is investing $20m in hotly tipped internet telephony startup Jajah.com.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• According to comScore, Facebook is experiencing some rapid growth, representing the top gainer in the UK during April, with a 38% increase for the second consecutive month, to 3.7 million UK visitors.  Bebo is also on the upswing, increasing 6% since March, and is another top gainer for social networks being accessed in the UK. Photobucket is up 5%, reaching 2.5 million visitors, and RockYou has also increased in visitors.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• eBay and Sanook to launch Thai e-commerce site that will enable cross-border trade through eBay's global sites.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• An ad in which Australian cricketer Shane Warne endorsed a hair-loss remedy has been branded misleading.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• OKI Electric Industry is testing a Safety Mobile Phone technology that could help pedestrians avoid being hit by vehicles.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Hong Kong spammers will face big fines and a long jail terms under a new law to control unsolicited advertising, officials said Monday. A new ordinance in the southern Chinese city will regulate all messages sent by electronic means that advertise or promote goods or services, including faxes, emails, SMS text and pre-recorded voice messages.  Violators could be fined up to one million Hong Kong dollars and face up to five years in jail.  Read more here (from Yahoo News).
• A Chinese campaign to clean up online pornography has reached college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school Web sites for making money from porn.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
•  World powers vowed last Thursday to increase efforts to combat sexual exploitation of children by Internet pornographers but said governments alone could not stamp out the Web crime. After their first working session in Munich, ministers from current Group of Eight countries Germany, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia called on the private sector for help.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• ICANN, RegisterFly, and GoDaddy.com have announced an agreement under which all RegisterFly-managed domains will be transferred to GoDaddy.com.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• ABC has given the green light to “i-Caught,” a show that’s based on video submitted by the public and produced by ABC News. Correspondents will build stories around video captured by users that’s getting widespread play on sites like YouTube as well as video uploaded to the show’s companion site, i-Caught.com.  Read more here (from Lost Remote).
• Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division reveals that they will reach 1 million Zune MP3 player sales by the end of June.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• A Dutch reality show in which a terminally ill woman selects a contestant to receive her kidneys is to air despite criticism.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• MySpace is finally announcing the acquisition on Wednesday of Photobucket, for a price of $250 million.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Philadelphia has finished testing its wireless Internet project, setting the stage for America's biggest citywide Wi-Fi network that will also offer access to low-income households. The city government last week approved results from a 15-square-mile test zone where people can access the Internet for $21.95 a month or $9.95 if they qualify for low-income assistance.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• In the UK Ofcom has delayed two of its largest spectrum auctions, which were expected to attract interest from mobile firms and broadcasters.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• CBS will announce today the acquisition of Last.fm for $280 million.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary investigation into Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• A recent rule for embedded journalists in Iraq bans any video or photographs that show dead soldiers, and wounded troops must sign a consent form before their images can be broadcast or published. “They are not letting us cover the reality of war,” said Ashley Gilbertson, a freelance photographer for NY Times and Newsweek, among others. “I think this has got little to do with the families or the soldiers and everything to do with politics.” Meanwhile, Iraqi police are beginning to confiscate cameras on sight.  Read more here (from Lost Remote).
• In the chaotic world of modern marketing, the Internet is touted as the best medium for determining the effectiveness of ads. So why is there so much controversy over a measurement as simple as how many people visit a site? The firms that measure online traffic have been accused of undercounting minority Web surfers, overestimating visitors by more than double and ignoring Web users at work.  Read more here (from the Los Angeles Times).
• Almost 40% of Chinese own mobile phones, and the number of subscribers is likely to hit 500 million before the end of June. 
• Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D renderings of famous landmarks can be seen from the Web browser, including Firefox. Read more here (from CNET News.com).  New street-level view in Google Maps shows panoramas and offers zoom-in feature to read signs.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Google has quietly acquired GreenBorder Technologies, which makes an anti-malware desktop app that prevents Web downloads from associating themselves with the internal components of a PC.  Read more here (from Google Watch).
• Novell's SEC filing reveals details of the company's controversial agreement with Microsoft. A previously unknown condition of the deal could mean that "clone" programs like Wine and OpenOffice are excluded from patent protection because they mimic Microsoft software.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• US political blog the Huffington Post has launched five new sections in the runup to the presidential election.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Mozilla has invested in the non-profit, Participatory Culture Foundation, the makers of the Democracy Player, which is soon to be renamed Miro. Terms for this investment were not disclosed.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Protest have been broken in Venezuela as the government prepared to pull the plug on a TV channel opposed to the president.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).

Debating Twitter

CNET News.com is running dueling perspectives on Twitter.  Caroline McCarthy defends Twitter:

The beauty of Twitter is that, unlike a full-out blog, there's no obligation to be philosophical, thought-provoking or grammatically sound. Because it doesn't require that kind of extra effort, it's great for people like me who want to jump on the social-media bandwagon but don't have the time to set up something elaborate on WordPress. And unlike social-networking profiles like those on Facebook and MySpace, it's free-form. Instead of filling in a text field to add "running" to a list of interests, I can announce on Twitter that I just ran 6 miles and am desperately seeking pizza. (Twitter tip No. 2: You can learn a lot from your own "tweets." Me, I learned that I post a lot about food.)

Read more here.

Elinor Mills thinks the service is a pointless waste of time:

For one, what is up with this obsession the Twitter generation has with expressing itself and monitoring each others' lives? I don't understand the need to spew out personal information and random thoughts to the world. And that's just what Twitter is designed for: to be a medium through which you can share stream-of-conscious babblings with your friends and with anyone who has time to lurk on the Web site and read inane musings of strangers.

Read more here.

Surface

Check out Microsoft Surface.  Very cool ...

p2pnet talks to AllofMP3.com

P2PNet interviews the controversial Allofmp3.com.  Read it here.

(Hat tip: Michael Geist.)

Cross blogging

Tim Dunlop at Blogocracy has started a trial aimed at generating some cross-blog conversations on specific questions.  He’s posed the first one, and asked a number of different bloggers to post an answer on their own sites.

My first question is picking up on something said by both John Howard and Paul Keating, namely, that when the government changes, so does the country. Both made the comment at a time when it looked to them like they might be about to lose power and so there was, of course, a sense of warning in their observation. So that’s my question: Does the country really change when the government changes?

Read some of the answers from:

• Andrew Bartlett - Bartlett Diaries
• Ken Parish - Club Troppo
• Kim Jameson - Larvatus Prodeo
• Harry Clarke - Harry Clarke blog
• tigtog - Hoyden About Town
• Joshua Gans - CoreEcon
• Robert Merkel - View from Benambra

 

Daily News Links

Sorry today's links are a bit late ...

• Jessica Davis, a 29-year-old University of Colorado senior, finds herself falsely branded a sex offender and kicked off MySpace.  Read more here (from Wired).
• A British  television channel has sparked an angry reaction by deciding to screen graphic images of the car crash which killed Princess Diana next week, the Observer newspaper reported today.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The Audiovisual Media Services Directive passed the European Council this week and will regulate Europe's broadcasters for the foreseeable future. Among the changes: product placement is allowed, daily ad limits are out, and hate speech continues to be verboten.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Competition from wireless handsets may push traditional land lines off the corporate desk.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The debut of Microsoft and Sanity's digital music store - due out in April - has been inexplicably delayed until at least mid-June.  Read more here (from The Age).
• eBay is teaming with portal Sanook Online to launch a Thai language site.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The Nine network has finally won a week of the official television ratings year - albeit by the slimmest of margins.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The removal of a Soviet statue in Estonia prompted cyberassaults that nearly crippled the country.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Eliot van Buskirk interviews Anthony Volodkin, 21-year-old creator of Hype Machine: a live index and music-streaming station consisting of whatever's being talked about on MP3 blogs.  Read more here (from Wired).
• Germany has just tightened up its criminal code to make hacking into computer networks a more serious crime; hackers cried foul, claiming that this will affect legitimate security research.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• A campaign to clean up online pornography in China reaches college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school Web sites for making money from porn.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• Hundreds of All Nippon Airways flights were cancelled or delayed Sunday because of computer error.  Read more here (from PC World).
• James Packer's PBL empire has confirmed it is in discussions to once more halve its stake in PBL Media, in a move that would see it relinquish management control of its flagship assets and move the family fortune away from "old media" assets.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The Defense Department reports China is building cyberwarfare units and developing viruses.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The US FTC has opened an antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The high-definition DVD format battle is far from over, according to figures released by independent online DVD rental company Quickflix.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Verifying kids' ages is tough, so North Carolina proposes a law to verify a parent's age before allowing children to sign up for social networking sites like MySpace.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Google has been testing a new YouTube player.  Read more here (from Mashable).

Daily News Links

• Chatroom users who watched a man apparently commit suicide over the internet will not face charges.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• Cell phones will soon be the biggest destination for music downloads, Napster says.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Continuing the banning trend across the world, over 2000 schools in New Zealand have taken measures of some sort to ban social networking sites like Bebo, MySpace and YouTube.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• A horde of decaying zombies invaded San Francisco's downtown Apple store on Friday evening, hunting for brains, terrifying the customers, and gnawing on iMacs.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Morocco has banned YouTube.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• The Rockfeller family's venture capital fund has signalled its intent to buy into leading British technology firms with its first ever investment in a UK company.  Read more here (from Technology Guardian).
• Novell has released details of its landmark partnership with Microsoft.  Read more here (from PC World).
• A new universal remote is designed to be lord of the living room, and connects to a computer so consumers can set it up and maintain it themselves.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• After Virginia Tech shootings, college CIOs evaluate wireless communications.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Electronic Arts has sold the movie rights for The Sims, the best-selling computer game of all time, to 20th Century Fox, Variety said Friday.  Read more here (from ZDNet).

The Australian: Campus's disabled film row pops up on net

There is a controversy growing at the university where I work, QUT.  From The Australian:

A BITTER dispute at Brisbane's creative industries campus, home to tomorrow's filmmakers, has ended up, naturally enough, on YouTube.

Adrian Strong, a film student at the Queensland University of Technology, has uploaded the first clips of a freelance documentary about the debate over another contentious QUT film.

The furore began after a gathering of academics, meeting to approve students' PhD projects, was shown rushes of the first film -- Michael Noonan's reality TV style comedy Laughing at the disabled. This prompted two QUT academics to write an article in The Australian last month condemning the project as exploitation of its intellectually disabled stars. The creative industries faculty in Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, has since been arguing about ethics, academic freedom and whistleblowing.

After the article, by Gary MacLennan and John Hookham, QUT changed Mr Noonan's thesis film title to Laughing with the disabled. Mr Noonan and disability group Spectrum defended the project, but another disability organisation, Queensland Advocacy Incorporated, has questioned it.

The university laid misconduct charges against Dr Hookham and Dr MacLennan, allegedly because of lack of respect towards Mr Noonan and his academic supervisors. Mr Strong's 10-minute clip on YouTube features Dr Hookham and Dr MacLennan, who say they were offended by the Noonan project partly because they each have schizophrenics in their families.

Read it here.

And here is the video, Freedom of Speech disabled at QUT:

Kevin Rudd dubbed

Kevin Rudd gets The Chaser treatment:

Women in Art

500 years of female portraits in western art is Women in Art:

(Hat tip: All for Women.)

Daily News Links

• More than a third of podcast users do not bother to listen to the recordings they download, a survey has found.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• The Helsinki District Court has dealt another blow to CSS, the copy-protection scheme used in commercial DVDs. In a ruling issued today, the court found that CSS is "ineffective" as a form of DRM and that the two defendants cited for violating Finnish copyright law were not guilty.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• The Japanese government is looking to change copyright laws to allow anyone to repost broadcast TV online without permission -- just as long as they pay a compulsory license fee. The idea is to help promote the distribution of TV content.  Read more here (from Variety).
• The EU is stepping up the fight against cybercrime, outlining plans to create more meaningful legislation and
  promote greater, cross-border cooperation. European Commission said legislation and law enforcement - especially across borders - needs to keep pace with new and evolving opportunities for criminals. It said cybercrime comes in three forms: established crimes such as fraud, publication of illegal content, and crimes unique to the Internet, such as denial-of-service attacks and hacking.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant says some court proceedings will soon be webcast over the Internet and
  archived online for 90 days. Bryant says webcasting court cases and providing copies to the media on DVD will increase the openness of the justice system.  Read more here (from CBC).
• Hoping to tackle the growing problem of pump-and-dump stock scams Microsoft Corp. has quietly filed lawsuits against at least three alleged perpetrators who it says used its MSN Hotmail networks to promote stocks.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Microsoft is receiving a patent for a car stereo that will include a docking station for an MP3 player or other handheld device. While the station is likely to support Microsoft's Zune portable media player, the patent indicates that the dock also would support third party devices.  Read more here (from Information Week).
  
• John Byrne, BusinessWeek executive editor and the acting editor-in-chief for Businessweek.com, says the McGraw-Hill magazine is looking to create a "business YouTube," essentially an online video hub for wannabe moguls to post short pitch videos for a new ventures or companies. Read more here (from Media Week).
• Target Technology is suing Sony for patent infringement over a reflective alloy used in the manufacture of Blu-ray discs.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Hackers may want to avoid Germany, after the approval of a law that makes their activity a punishable crime.  The legislation, which the German government proposed earlier last year and approved Friday with no changes, aims to crack down on the sharp rise in computer attacks in the public and private sectors.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Japan's Parliament has passed a law banning people from recording new movies in cinemas, an official of the lower house said. The official said the new law prohibits the taping of movies in theaters until eight months after a film's first release. Anyone who violates the law will face up to 10 years in prison or a maximum fine of 10 million yen.  Read more here (from Forbes).
• comScore says Google search market share has risen to 49.7%.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Dell has given the strongest hint yet it will shed its direct sales model and begin selling computers through major Australian retail chains.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• Apple has banned customers from accessing MySpace in its stores.  Read more here (from Crave).
• The New York Times will reduce its size by an inch and a half at the end of summer, as part of a "reallocation of resources from print towards digital," says top editor Bill Keller in a staff meeting. "I heartily believe we will" make money online. "How, is a lot more complicated."  Read more here (from Gawker).
• Apple unveiled the year's fifth major security update for Mac OS X to patch 17 vulnerabilities.  Read more here (from PC World).
• French media giant Vivendi plans to launch a paid content portal to broadcast music, video or games on computers, television and mobile phones, competing against YouTube and MySpace. A new unit called Vivendi Mobile Entertainment is being created to launch the service.  Read more here (from Reuters).
• Gavin O'Reilly, the heir to the Independent News & Media empire, yesterday hinted at a "Lazarus-like" resurrection of the group's offer with private equity interests for APN News & Media, after the bid's failure at a shareholder meeting in Sydney yesterday.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The US Broadband Data Improvement Act would require the FCC to collect more granular ZIP+4 data on broadband usage in America, and it also lays out a definition for "second generation broadband." Plus, there's $40 million a year on the table for states that want better broadband access.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Some Google Analytics users suffered hours-long outages this week, and are peeved that the company has yet to offer any information about the situation.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Some DVR users were cut off from the announcement of the new "idol" on the season finale of Fox's "American Idol"  because the broadcast ran 9 minutes overtime. Fox issued a statement apologizing to viewers: "We're sorry that DVR users may have missed the conclusion."  Read more here (from the Los Angeles Times).
  
• The New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday issued astatement critical of the Thai authorities who have been active in silencing cyber critics and dissidents, in stark contradiction of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's pledges to create an atmosphere conducive to democratisation and political reform. Censorship of the Internet, which currently is being carried out by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Royal Thai Police, in collaboration with the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) and the Telecommunications Authority, has blocked many political websites and blogs.  Read more here (from the Bangkok Post).

Al Gore on The Daily Show

Jon Stewart interviewed Al Gore this week (see here and here):

Open Cola

WikiHow has a recipe for Open Cola:

While Pepsi and Coca-Cola (and others) closely guard their secrets to making cola beverages, several organizations have released their own recipes. Below is the recipe for homemade "OpenCola," an open-source cola beverage that invites makers to create and modify their recipe to achieve a better beverage. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

View the recipe here.

The cost of free ads

The New York Times explains that user-generated advertisements are not all they cracked up to be:

Consumer brand companies have been busy introducing campaigns ... that rely on user-generated content, an approach that combines the populist appeal of reality television with the old-fashioned gimmick of a sweepstakes to select a new advertising jingle. Pepsi, Jeep, Dove and Sprint have all staged promotions of this sort, as has Doritos, which proudly publicized in February that the consumers who made one of its Super Bowl ad did so on a $12 budget.

But these companies have found that inviting consumers to create their advertising is often more stressful, costly and time-consuming than just rolling up their sleeves and doing the work themselves. Many entries are mediocre, if not downright bad, and sifting through them requires full-time attention. And even the most well-known brands often spend millions of dollars upfront to get the word out to consumers.

Read more here.

Fighting movie piracy

Malaysia has some innovative methods to restrict movie piracy:

Malaysian cinemas have found a powerful weapon in their fight against movie pirates--military-style night vision goggles.

After showing people to their seats, trained ushers are strapping on the goggles and scanning darkened cinemas around the country to spot anyone trying to make illegal copies of movies with handheld video recorders or mobile phones.

...

Malaysia is on the U.S. watch list for movie and software piracy, but local authorities have launched a major crackdown on producers and retailers of illegal DVDs since the country began free-trade talks with the United States a year ago.

The association, which represents the big Hollywood studios, recently brought to Malaysia two dogs trained to sniff out DVDs--with stunning results. The two labradors, Lucky and Flo, have sniffed out more than a million DVDs and have broken a fake DVD ring.

They have been so successful that authorities believe that Malaysian pirates have put a bounty on the dogs' heads.

Read more here (from ZDNet).

The political impact of YouTube in Croatia

NewTeeVee has an interesting story from Croatia:

Croatia’s Social Democratic Party walked out of parliament after Interior Minister Ivica Kirin levied accusations of posting clips showing him in a poor light to YouTube. It’s not exactly the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, but it’s an indication of the impact YouTube is having on politics worldwide.

The news made it Stateside thanks to BoingBoing reader Mrak, who’s done all of the English reporting on the subject I can find so far.

Read more here.

Now this is ridiculous ...

From Techdirt:

Greg Beck writes "Public Citizen late yesterday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit in Florida by two affiliated infomercial companies that are attempting to shut down negative reviews of their day trading software on the website InfomercialScams.com. They are claiming that running a website where consumers can post reviews of their products constitutes trademark infringement and a variety of other wrongs, and are seeking triple damages and attorneys' fees against the site's owner. In its motion to dismiss, Public Citizen argues that the Arizona-based website operator is not subject to jurisdiction in Florida, that the websites are protected by the First Amendment, that posting reviews is not trademark infringement, and that the Communications Decency Act protects a website owner from liability for what users post on the site."  Once again, it looks like companies are trying to misuse intellectual property laws to prevent legal free speech.

Read it here.

Daily News Links

• More than a third of UK bloggers are risking the sack by posting derogatory details about their job, a study claims.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• UK police busted a London man earlier this week for reselling AllOfMP3 vouchers and passing the money back to the site's owners. AllOfMP3 says that claim is nonsense and accuses the IFPI of sensationalizing the raid.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project:More than a third of American adult internet users (36%) consult the citizen-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia, according to a new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet American Life Project.  Read more here (from Law Blog Metrics).
• Report finds that many of the hack attacks reported in Australia appear to come from Turkey.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• CBS is partnering with several social networking sites and social application providers to add more user capabilities to the CBS Audience Network.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Microsoft UK's national technology officer suggests discipling IT professions like they do doctors with sanctions for failures or incompetence.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• The EU agrees on new rules for TV and on-demand internet video, allowing more advertising.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• An independent European Union panel has launched an investigation into whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• A new Google patent outlines the company's plans to make the mobile search experience on small devices much more rich and user-friendly.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Cross-platform worm targeted at OpenOffice.org and StarOffice riles up open-source advocates, but does little damage.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Local TV station websites in the US are making gains in their markets in terms of their reach, according to a new study from Editor & Publisher and MediaWeek.  Read more here (from Lost Remote).
• A flawed Symantec update quarantined two critical system files in the Simplified Chinese version of Windows XP, affecting computers throughout China.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• British gambling web site operator BetOnSports has pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in the US.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• World powers look to Internet service providers, IT professionals and financial institutions for help in protecting children.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• A series of newspaper articles that allegedly "named and shamed" the people who provided character references for disgraced crown prosecutor Patrick Power endangered the justice system, a court has heard.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• European governments are becoming increasingly concerned about Google's data retention policy, telling the search giant that they think its new two-year retention policy is excessive.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• In the UK the divide between the digital haves and have-nots has narrowed, according to an Ofcom survey.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it has filed its first patent countersuit against Qualcomm, seeking damages and an injunction against the U.S. company's chipsets. Nokia said it also responded to the lawsuit filed by Qualcomm in Wisconsin on April 2.  Nokia said it remains confident that its products do not infringe either of the two Qualcomm patents at issue and said that both patents are invalid.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• IAC Chairman and CEO Barry Diller wouldn't make any predictions about a possible Microsoft buy of Yahoo, but said such a transaction would be good for IAC's Ask.com, which still gets its ads from Google under a deal that expires at the end of this year.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• The point of her work, the best-selling writer Patricia Cornwell recently told an interviewer, is to speak up for victims of crime. This week a Virginia courtroom heard the 50-year-old writer speak up for herself, as she described how another, less celebrated author, had stalked her on the internet, causing emotional distress and damaging her reputation.  Cornwell was testifying in the libel suit she brought against Leslie Sachs, who alleged on his website that the author of the Kay Scarpetta series of crime novels was a "Jew hater" and "neo Nazi".  Read more here (from Technology Guardian).
• Sony releases a software update that boosts the PlayStation 3 to 1080p resolution and enhances remote play.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Keira Knightley has won £3,000 damages and her legal costs from the Daily Mail over allegations that she had an eating disorder and contributed to the death of a young anorexia sufferer.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Dell's "aggressive" retail strategy begins to take shape as the company announces that two new Dimension desktops will soon appear on the shelves of a Wal-Mart and Sam's Club near you.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• A tool that could help in the battle against spam and phishing attacks receives industry approval.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• In the UK Danielle Lloyd is threatening to sue Big Brother producer Endemol over the way she was edited in the show.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• A year after it set the goal for Wall Street, eBay says it is still comfortable with its long-term target of annual operating margins of 35 percent or better, Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan said Wednesday. Speaking to investors at the Goldman Sachs Global Internet Conference in Las Vegas, Swan said improvements in its slower-growing but bigger auction businesses were offsetting lower margins in faster-growing businesses, a persistent issue.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• The Walt Disney Internet Group will bring in $1.5 billion in revenue this year, and is expecting 30% annual growth rates in the areas of media, services and mobile, according to president Steven Wadsworth.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• A new twist to an old e-mail authentication scheme could help cut down on spam and phishing by cryptographically verifying senders. The Internet Engineering Task Force is on board, and service providers are interested.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• A university has written to all its students threatening them with disciplinary action for comments made about staff on the internet.  Keele University said the remarks on Myspace and Facebook were unacceptable, and students may face legal action from the members of staff concerned.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• Intel Corp. says it is stripping out the tiny amount of lead still contained in its chips.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Online video's popularity with consumers is driving the development of cost-effective video advertising options for local and small business advertisers, according to a new report from The Kelsey Group.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Allegations of deceptive marketing and bait-and-switch practices have been leveled at Best Buy before, but it seems Connecticut's AG has found enough evidence to bring charges against the company.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Rupert Murdoch's UK empire will be under scrutiny with BSkyB's referral to the Competition Commission.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).

National Schools Debating Championship

The final of the Australian National Schools Debating Championship will be held tomorrow in Melbourne.  Congratulations and good luck to the two finalists - Victoria and Western Australia.

Congratulations also the Queensland team of Kaerlin McCormick, Anthony Brownlie-Smith, Emily Chalk and Sarida McLeod, who reached the semi-finals.

Hillary Clinton: "Pick My Campaign Song: Round 2"

Earlier this week I blogged about Hillary Clinton's quest for a campaign theme song (see here).  Now, Hillary provides this video update:

Media Guardian's Viral Video Chart

Media Guardian's Viral Video Chart this week doesn't really have anything worth embedding, and Jemima Kiss explains why:

I'm not sure if armies of the world's bloggers are linking to Paris Hilton clips to through pity, scorn or - God forbid - because they actually genuinely like her. But she accounts for a quarter of this week's viral video chart.

We're sinking to new lows. Shades and over-sized handbags to the ready: it's the top twenty celebrity viral videos.

Read more and view the chart here.

A new and improved Facebook

The New York Times reports on Facebook's expansion:

With an ambitious strategy for expansion, Facebook is getting in MySpace’s face.

Facebook, the Internet’s second-largest social network, was originally popular on college campuses, but over the last year it has opened its dorm-room doors to all, and its membership rolls have exploded at triple-digit growth rates.

Now Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is inviting thousands of technology companies and programmers to contribute features to its service. They can even make money from the site’s users by doing so, and, at least for now, Facebook will not take a cut.

Some of the new features, demonstrated by software developers at a Facebook event here on Thursday, will allow members to recommend and listen to music, insert Amazon book reviews onto their pages, play games and join charity drives, all without leaving the site.

Read more here.  Also, Mashable has more details here.

Another new feature for Facebook is video.  Once again, from Mashable:

There’s a huge announcement buried under all the Facebook Platform buzz today: Facebook is launching a video service to compete with all the major video sharing sites. So not only should MySpace be shaking in its boots, but YouTube also has cause for concern.

The service, which isn’t yet live (we assume today or within the next week), will support video uploading as well as direct webcam recording. The Flash Recorder application also lets you record and send video messages to friends instantly through their Facebook inbox. It supports cellphones, too - send a clip to video@facebook.com to post it to your Facebook profile.

...

But we’re surprised to hear that unlike other video properties, Facebook Video won’t let you embed videos elsewhere - linking, yes, but no embedding. If this is the case, it’s probably the first move by Facebook that we actually disagree with.

Read more here.

Googburner? Feedboogle? Fondleburger?

Google Watch's Steve Bryant on Google's acquisition of Feedburner:

The Internet? You Mean That Old Thing Google Bought?

                                

The news yesterday evening: Google will buy RSS publisher Feedburner for $100 million. What to call it? Googburner? Feedboogle? Fondleburger?

Whatever. Let's just call the Internet Google and get it over with. That's only half a joke: Google buys or invests in growth trends online. Whatever technology has the potential of bringing more people online (mobile ads, video) or manages their online experience (blogs, iGoogle, maps) is a target for acquisition.

...

Of course here's ye olde note of caution: The Internet is quickly becoming Google's company town. And here's ye olde dose of reality: Not much you can do about that.

Read more here.

i'm initiative

i'm is a new initiative from Windows Live Messenger so that every time you start a conversation using i'm, Microsoft will share a portion of the program's advertising revenue to whichever charity you select.  The charities are:

Also, check out these two ads for i'm:

Video: The Benefactors

Video: The Philanthropists

Clark and Michael

Check out Clark and Michael, a web-only documentary series about two young guys trying to pitch a TV series that stars Michael Cera (who was Jason Bateman's son i n Arrested Development) - it is a very clever and funny behind the scenes look at Hollywood.  You can watch the first episode here.

Here is the series trailer:

The latest Big Brother controversy

The latest Big Brother controversy surrounding the death of Emma's father and the decision not to notify Emma of her loss, has attracted quite a bif of media attention over the last 24 hours or so.  Emma's brother has written a response that has been posted on the Big Brother website:

Emma was aware of the possibility that our dads impending death may occur whilst she was in the Big Brother production. Our dad had been ill for a considerable amount of time and wasn’t taken from us suddenly; the family did have time to prepare themselves.We reassured Emma that, in the event that this did happen, grieving our dad’s death when she was released from Big Brother would be no less meaningful or significant than when he actually passed away.

I personally spent the last week of dad's life by his side and one thing he was absolutely certain about was the fact that he didn't want his death to impose either negatively or positively on Emma's Big Brother experience.

He made us promise him that no-one would notify Emma of his death. He was adamant and clear in expressing this request. He also requested that his death remain private from the Big Brother ‘hype’ but unfortunately due to the indecency of the person who leaked the information to the media we have been unable to honor this wish.

Emma and I have maintained a close friendship for many years. We have previously and recently in 'lock down', discussed the possibility of dad’s death thoroughly.  I can confirm with absolute confidence that Emma has prepared herself and her views have been considered in the family’s decision-making process.

People may cast their own views and opinions but these people are not privy to Emma and dad’s relationship. We as a family wouldn’t want to interfere with anyone else’s family affairs especially in their time of sadness so we’re stunned by the reaction of so many that have based their opinions on a total lack of knowledge of our family’s internal workings. As Emma’s family we know her very well and are confident we have made the right decision.

Our dad was extremely proud of Emma’s achievements so far on Big Brother. He would watch her each night proudly from his hospital bed heckling rivals and laughing at Emma’s wicked attitude and antics. Without you guys and this Big Brother experience he wouldn’t otherwise have had this opportunity and insight into his daughter’s life, thank you.

Rest assured that the family has made arrangements to postpone dad’s final service until Emma departs the house to ensure Emma is still given the opportunity to participate.  As you are aware the funeral has already taken place however the family will reconvene with Emma to lay dads ashes to rest.

On behalf of Emma’s family including Tim [her partner], we sincerely thank the Big Brother production team for supporting and respecting our family’s decision. Our family is not familiar with all this media attention and we are extremely grateful and appreciative of Big Brother's discretion and tact in dealing with this issue.

Regards
Matt (Emma’s brother)

I have bolded what I think is the most important paragraph in this letter.  This was a family decision and we should respect that decision.  And this should be the end of the matter.

Real snakes on a plane

From Brisbane Times:

Security personnel at Cairo international airport became suspicious of the hissing and the movement emerging from a large case being checked in by an Egyptian flying to Riyadh.

Witnesses said the shock was complete when the case was opened - to reveal 700 live snakes, including a cobra, which had been pressed in there.

The would-be passenger, who reportedly intended selling the snakes in Saudi Arabia, was being prosecuted, officials said.

Read it here.

(Hat tip: David Starkoff.)

Daily News Links: update

• Facebook is set to announce the "unveiling of the next evolution" of the No. 2 social-networking site. Could it be the television show the company is considering doing with Cox Communications? According to sources, the show would focus on the members of the service.  Read more here (from All Things Digital).
• Lucasfilm plans to make clips of Star Wars available to fans on the Internet to mash up at will. The clips -- about 250 of them, from all six Star Wars movies -- will land on the Starwars.com Web site tomorrow, part of this week's 30th-anniversary celebrations of the release of his hit movie. Working with an easy-to-use editing program from Eyespot Corp. of San Diego, fans can cut, add to and retool

  the clips. Then they can post their creations to blogs or social-networking sites like MySpace.  Read more here (from the Wall Street Journal).
• Big Brother has again ignited community outrage after a contestant made a pact with her family not to be informed in the event of her cancer-stricken father's death.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• NHN Corp., South Korea's top Web portal, may seek to acquire an Internet company or to be taken over by a rival if that helps it become a global player, CEO Chae Hwi-young said.  Read more here (from CNN).
• The firm behind Morpheus online file-sharing software renewed a legal claim yesterday against eBay and other defendants in a dispute over technology that makes it easier to place Internet phone calls and watch videos on the Web. The lawsuit filed by StreamCast Networks in Los Angeles County Superior Court claims Morpheus had the right of first refusal when the founders of Kazaa sold the company and transferred its P2P technology, known as FastTrack, to another firm.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• Advertising giant WPP is to pay the full $2 million cost of a libel case brought by its chairman, Martin Sorrell. Sorrell had sued two former Italian colleagues after he accused them of an online hate campaign. He has since accepted $235,000 in damages.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• Apple diapproves of a vibrating sex toy accessory for the iPod.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Private equity firm Corvus Capital, run by British financier Andrew Regan, took itself out of the running for music giant EMI Group yesterday — leaving a group of former music executives to resurrect a planned $5 billion bid. Corvus confirmed yesterday that it "actively considered making an offer for EMI" and had access to the necessary funding to make a bid.  Read more here (from the New York Post).
• Inform Technologies says that 16 online publications plan to include its new search function. Among them are Newsweek.com and Portfolio.com. The move is aimed at boosting traffic by encouraging readers to use them as a first stop for information gathering, just like Google or Yahoo.  Read more here (from the Wall Street Journal).
• The heir to Irish tycoon Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media empire, Gavin O'Reilly, arrived in Sydney early yesterday, resigned to the failure today of a bid for APN News & Media, despite overwhelming support from small shareholders.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has claimed a copyright on surveillance video of a horrific, fatal car crash and filed suit for infringement against three Web sites where the video was posted. The video was captured May 10 at the Great Egg Harbor Toll Plaza on the Garden State Parkway by a camera high on a pole just north of the toll booths. It shows a car approaching the booths without slowing, crashing into a concrete barrier and bursting into a ball of flames.  Read more here (from The Star-Ledger).
• MTV Networks is developing several more virtual worlds with an eye on integrating online avatars into linear TV programming, says digital head Mika Salmi. MTV currently has five virtual worlds including one tied to the "Laguna Beach" program and another to the Nickelodeon brand.  Read more here (from Broadcasting & Cable).
• CNN is giving up on the idea of charging for CNN Pipeline, launched in late 2005 as a $25-a-year service providing four "streams" of video with footage of breaking news. CNN plans to redesign and repackage its Internet offerings, folding Pipeline into that new format in July.  Read more here (from the Atlanta Journal Constitution).
• Google is interested in making news video "available and easily discoverable" to its Google News service, says product manager Nathan Stoll. "With the YouTube team, working hard, it's certainly an area we'd like to make progress in."  Read more here (from Info World).
• AMD subpoenaed arch-rival Intel's lawyers as part of an antitrust suit. The subpoenas come amidst a serious dispute over Intel's alleged loss of documents related to the case, in which AMD sued Intel for allegedly coercing computer makers, retailers and distributors to buy its chips instead of AMD's.  Read more here (from SiliconValley.com).
• Turner Classic Movies is launching an online video destination devoted to classic films. Dubbed the Media Room, the new video portal lives on the TCM.com site and is launching with more than 3,000 short films, movie clips, trailers and interstitials from TCM programming.  Read more here (from the Hollywood Reporter).
• The ABC has sacked the woman behind the children's hit Bananas in Pyjamas, which has made $70 million in profits for the national broadcaster.  Read more here (from The Australian).

Is that binding?

It's not often I get to scoop David Starkoff, but here is an amusing moment in the High Court from oral argument in Santos Limited v Chaffey:

MR BENNETT: We would submit that that is simply something that is so far from the concept of acquisition of property, even though that may be its apparent affect on a particular person, that it is outside the prohibition. To argue to the contrary and to say that one looks only at the effect on the particular person, is to pick up – there is only one case I know which picks up that argument and that of course is The Castle where it was argued that the nature of one’s home was such that it was something the acquisition of which was in a different category because of its significance to the owner. The argument succeeded in that case, but the case is not generally regarded as authoritative for that proposition. Those, your Honours, are the submissions for the Attorney-General.

GLEESON CJ: Thank you, Mr Solicitor. Yes, Mr Walker?

(Hat tip: Ryan.)

Daily News Links

• The Australian federal Government has considered using Commonwealth powers to force states and territories to introduce porn filters in government institutions such as libraries.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Eben Moglen, the law professor and open-source legal expert who has helped lead the revision of the General Public License, is predicting broad success for the upcoming new version.  Read more here (from ZDNet).
• MySpace is pressing Australian authorities to establish a system that would allow it to share information about sex offenders.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Rumors about Google acquiring RSS management company Feedburner from last week, started by ex-TechCrunch UK editor Sam Sethi, are accurate and are now confirmed according to a source close to the deal. Feedburner is in the closing stages of being acquired by Google for around $100 million.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Telstra is being investigated by Uluru's administrators and the Sydney Opera House Trust after cashing in on the images of Australia's two most famous landmarks as part of its massive investment in the online world Second Life.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• In a rare move by the Chinese government, bloggers may now only be "encouraged" to register their real names with service providers rather than required. But the reason behind the reprieve may be more about money than free speech.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Microsoft said Wednesday that it did not need to buy Yahoo to gain scale in online advertising, because it had “all the pieces” to build a successful ad business.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The tried-and-true Nigerian e-mail scam is still going strong in Australia, and reported losses continue to grow.  Read more here (from PC World).
• "E-government" has entered the chattering class's lexicon, says Michael Cross.  Read more here (from Technology Guardian).
• Stung by criticism of its patent pact with Microsoft, Novell agrees to support Electronic Frontier Foundation's patent-busting work.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Online travel agent Wotif.com Holding Ltd has severed ties with ninemsn and will disappear from its website within 30 days.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Branded display ads and search placements helped the online ad industry post its best year ever, according to numbers released by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• With only months left on a moratorium restricting state governments from taxing Internet access, the US House of Representatives yesterday began a debate over whether the ban should be made permanent or allowed to lapse. At issue is the scheduled expiration on November 1 of a law, initially enacted in 1998, that says local governments generally cannot tax Internet access, including DSL, cable modem and BlackBerry-type wireless transmission services.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• In the UK Channel 4 will be forced to broadcast apologies over Celebrity Big Brother.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Irene Moss, the newly appointed head of Australia's Right to Know, the media industry coalition on freedom of speech, believes some of the laws affecting the media are unbalanced.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The Japanese government plans to establish a new law within two years to facilitate the distribution of movies and video programs on the internet by simplifying procedures to win consent from copyright holders, according to a draft plan.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• As the Senate Commerce Committee discussed the moratorium on taxing Internet connections that is set to expire in November, two senators introduced legislation that would extend the ban another four years.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Google's ambition to maximize its users' data is so great that the search engine envisions a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off. Says CEO Eric Schmidt: "We are very early in the total information we have within Google."  Read more here (from MSNBC).
• Rupert Murdoch has denied allowing political pressure from Beijing to influence the running of his News Corp media empire, London's Financial Times said today.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Microsoft says it is happy with Vista's rate of adoption, but PC manufacturers have yet to see any lasting benefits from the release of the new OS. As expected, businesses are taking a more cautious approach.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Hewlett-Packard broke federal laws when it didn't tell investors why a director abruptly resigned during a probe into boardroom leaks last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• BT and Sony have signed a deal to add Wi-Fi software capable of messaging, voice and video calls on the PlayStationPortable (PSP).  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Network security is getting tougher, according to IBM and McAfee reps, and attacks are increasingly aimed at data and not infrastructure.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The future is in doubt for Bud.TV, Anheuser-Busch's online entertainment site and marketing experiment, which launched on Super Bowl Sunday in February. Tight site controls to stop underage viewers put the company in a "no-win situation." Bud.TV will "probably fade a bit" this year.  Read more here (from STLtoday.com).
• Australian universities applaud Google's decision to ban advertisers spruiking essay-writing services for lazy students.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Spam's on the rise, but US Web users are becoming increasingly nonchalant about it, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.  The report, based on a survey of 2,200 adults, found that spam appeared to be surging in personal accounts; 37% of the respondents said spam had increased in their personal e-mail from last year, while 29% said they were now seeing more spam in their work accounts than one year earlier.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• DomainKeys Identified Mail, a proposed standard for e-mail authentication, would help fight spam and phishing attacks.  Read more here (from PC World).
• A report released Wednesday shows that US internet advertising revenues hit a record high of $US6.9 billion ($8.37 billion) in 2006 and will likely continue to rise.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• WeFi is a recently launched service that will find WiFi spots and connect you with other users using WeFi as well.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Novell will share details of its patent pact with Microsoft this month in a regulatory filing that had been delayed by a stock option investigation.  Novell plans to reveal the details in conjunction with filing its upcoming annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, spokesman Bruce Lowry said Wednesday at the Open Source Business Conference here. The report had been held up by Novell's investigation into its stock option compensation practices.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is handing out $11 million in prize money to bloggers and organizations ranging from MIT to MTV, as winners of the first Knight News Challenge contest. The contest asked applicants to develop ways to use digital media to foster communities.  Read more here (from the Boston Globe).
• British magazine publisher Emap Plc has become the second international magazine group to launch a strategic review of its Australian operations this year, with suggestions it will consider selling parts of its business.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Google’s translation search engine, which was announced at the Searchology event, is now live, letting you set your language preferences for your search query, and receiving a list of results that have been translated to that language.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• MTV was named among the 25 winners of a multimillion-dollar citizen media fund launched by a media foundation in the US.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Amazon.com, the world's biggest online retailer, is buying Brilliance Audio, the largest US independent publisher of audiobooks. The acquisition will allow Amazon.com to work closely with publishers to expand the number of books produced in audio format.  Read more here (from Bloomberg).
• Expenditure on Australian television drama production is expected to rise more than 50 per cent this financial year in a big bounce from last year's below-average spend.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Google AdSense has added some new features for video, and its launched a pilot for a small group of publishers to test streaming video ads with their online content.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Newspaper execs are questioning whether it makes business sense to allow Google to index their news articles for free. But Barry Parr, an analyst with JupiterResearch, warns that Google would likely stop indexing newspapers that complain. And individual newspapers "wouldn't be missed."  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Korean actress Ko So-young has sued 35 netizens for libel through the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, accusing them of spreading false rumors about her private life through Internet message boards, cafes, and blogs.  Read more here (from english.chosun.com).

Broadband speeds and competition

This discussion may help inform the political debate in Australia about broadband speeds and competition:

There has been an interesting discussion this week on Dave Farber's IP List  comparing broadband speeds and linking that to the competitive environment.  The discussion, which references congressional testimony and an ITIF study, notes how much faster, cheaper, and more competitive broadband services are in countries such as Japan and South Korea (the comparison is with the U.S., though the same holds true for Canada, particularly given recent price increases for both cable and DSL broadband).

(Hat tip: Michael Geist.)

What can the mainstream media can learn from Jon Stewart?

The American Journalism Review wonders if the mainstream media can learn something from Jon Stewart:

Whether lampooning President Bush's disastrous Iraq policies or mocking "real" reporters for their credulity, Stewart and his team often seem to steer closer to the truth than traditional journalists. The "Daily Show" satirizes spin, punctures pretense and belittles bombast. When a video clip reveals a politician's backpedaling, verbal contortions or mindless prattle, Stewart can state the obvious--ridiculing such blather as it deserves to be ridiculed--or remain silent but speak volumes merely by arching an eyebrow.

Stewart and his fake correspondents are freed from the media's preoccupation with balance, the fixation with fairness. They have no obligation to deliver the day's most important news, if that news is too depressing, too complicated or too boring. Their sole allegiance is to comedy.

Or, as "The Daily's Show's" Web site puts it: "One anchor, five correspondents, zero credibility. If you're tired of the stodginess of the evening newscasts, if you can't bear to sit through the spinmeisters and shills on the 24-hour cable news networks, don't miss The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a nightly half-hour series unburdened by objectivity, journalistic integrity or even accuracy."

That's funny. And obvious. But does that simple, facetious statement capture a larger truth--one that may contain some lessons for newspapers and networks struggling to hold on to fleeing readers, viewers and advertisers in a tumultuous era of transition for old media?

Has our slavish devotion to journalism fundamentals--particularly our obsession with "objectivity"--so restricted news organizations that a comedian can tell the public what's going on more effectively than a reporter? Has Stewart, whose mission is to be funny, sliced through the daily obfuscation more effectively than his media counterparts, whose mission is to inform?

Read more here.  As for the conclusion?

The mainstream media can not, should not and never will be "The Daily Show." The major news of our time is grimly serious, and only real news organizations will provide the time, commitment and professionalism necessary to ferret out stories such as the Washington Post's exposé of neglected veterans at Walter Reed or the New York Times' disclosures of secret, warrantless wiretapping by the federal government.

But in the midst of a transition, our industry is flailing. Our credibility suffers mightily. The public thinks we're biased despite our reluctance to speak plainly. Our daily newspapers often seem stale. Perhaps "The Daily Show" can teach us little, but remind us of a lot: Don't underestimate your audience. Be relevant. And be bold.

Read the whole piece here.  It is a must-read.

(Hat tip: Creative Economy.)

Blogging and lobbying in Australia

Trevor Cook blogged today about survey of Australian federal parliamentarians that was conducted a year ago by a Canberra company, Client Solutions with some interesting findings:

Only 25% expect the Internet to have a major role in the forthcoming election; only 9% expect blogging to have a major role in future advocacy programs; but, most amazing of all only 55% said they hosted their own website. 

Read more here.

Free speech and the ACLU

In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Wendy Kaminer argues that the ACLU is becoming very selective about what it considers "free" speech:

"ACLU Defends Nazi's Right to Burn Down ACLU Headquarters," the humor magazine The Onion announced in 1999. Those of us who loved the ACLU, and celebrated its willingness to defend the rights of Nazis and others who had no regard for our rights, considered the joke a compliment. Today it's more like a reproach. Once the nation's leading civil liberties group and a reliable defender of everyone's speech rights, the ACLU is being transformed into just another liberal human-rights group that reliably defends the rights of liberal speakers.

This transformation is gradual, unacknowledged and not readily apparent, since evidence of it lies mainly in cases the ACLU does not take. It's naturally easier to know what an organization is doing (and advertising) than what it is not doing. But a review of recent free-speech press releases turns up only a handful of cases in which ACLU state affiliates defended the rights of conservative, antigay or otherwise politically incorrect speakers. And lately the national organization has been remarkably quiet in several important free-speech cases and controversies.

One of the clearest indications of a retreat from defending all speech regardless of content is the ACLU's virtual silence in Harper v. Poway, an important federal case involving a high-school student's right to wear a T-shirt condemning homosexuality.

Read more here.

"Challenging How Knowledge is Created"

The first seminar in the education.au series, Challenging How Knowledge is Created, featured Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. His presentation in Melbourne is available online here (it has been edited into 12 parts to assist with accessibility).

(Hat tip: Creative Economy.)

Prescribing medication in cyberspace

Writing for FindLaw's Writ, Anita Ramasastry asks, it is a crime to prescribe medicine in cyberspace?

Congress is currently considering new legislation that would crack down on online pharmacies that provide prescription medications without patients having to visit a physician.

Meanwhile, a California court recent cracked down in its own way -- holding that a Colorado physician, lacking a California license, could be prosecuted for prescribing medication online to a California resident whom he had never met, and who subsequently died.

In this column, I'll discuss the California holding -- which, while in my view correct; probably will not have far-reaching consequences. In addition, I'll describe some of the proposals Congress is deciding whether to enact into law.

Read it here.

"Internet Governance and Regulation: The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It"

Professor Jonathan Zittrain proposes a theory about what lies around the corner for the Internet, how to avoid it, and how to study and affect the future of the internet using the distributed power of the network itself, using privacy as a signal example.  Watch Zittrain's lecture here.

(Hat tip: Creative Economy.)

Which freedoms do we want online?

We can't take an all or nothing approach to online expression, argues Bill Thompson:

The idea that the internet is an unregulated space where free expression is the guiding principle and we can all talk openly took another blow last week with the latest report on net filtering from the Open Net Initiative.

...

My colleague, Chinese journalist and blogger Michael Anti, pointed out that although political expression is tightly controlled in China the government is not really interested in other aspects of people's lives, while here in the UK we can talk about democracy but other forms of speech are restricted for legal and commercial reasons.

He has a point. The ONI report only looked at official, state-sanctioned filtering, and it did not consider the situation in the UK or US where most controls are imposed by companies trying to protect their reputation or achieve competitive advantage.

Read more here (from BBC News).