Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim

Stephen Colbert on the Slate Political Gabfest

The Slate Political Gabfest is my favourite podcast:

The Drum 5 March 2013

Last night I was on The Drum on ABC News 24 discussing the news of the day, including visas for foreign workers, a funding boost for the aged care sector and should there be limits to executive pay?

The Drum 5 March 2013 from Peter Black on Vimeo.

The Drum 14 February 2013

Tonight I was on The Drum on ABC News 24 discussing the news of the day, including the Coalition's leaked plan for 100 dams across Australia, Wayne Swan's refusal to rule out an income tax rise, and how far does the British royal family's right to privacy extend?

The Drum 14 February 2013 from Peter Black on Vimeo.

 

The Drum 28 June 2012

Tonight I was on The Drum on ABC News 24 discussing the news of the day, including asylum seekers and the future of News Limited and Fairfax:

Too Much Copyright

"This disconnect between the public's view of copyright and fair use and what should and should not be prosecuted, versus the 'copyright maximist' view of the law, is our generation's Prohibition," says Ben Huh, CEO and founder of Cheezburger and a loud voice in the recent backlash to SOPA and PIPA, two congressional bills aimed at curbing internet piracy.

Copyright exists to "promote the useful arts" according to the US Constitution. But is it still doing that? And should the government protect so-called "intellectual property" in the same way it protects other forms of property? Reason.tv posed these questions to Ben Huh, as well as a professor and a movie studio representative.

Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod

Comic author Rob Reid unveils Copyright Math (TM), a remarkable new field of study based on actual numbers from entertainment industry lawyers and lobbyists.

Everything is a Remix Part 4

Over the past few years New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson has been working on a project called Everything is a Remix, which looks at "remix" within our culture.  His first video looked at remix remix within music, his second video looked at remix within film, focusing on Star Wars, and his third video looked at the elements of creativity.

His fourth video is on system failure:

Our system of law doesn't acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity. Instead, ideas are regarded as property, as unique and original lots with distinct boundaries. But ideas aren't so tidy. They're layered, they’re interwoven, they're tangled. And when the system conflicts with the reality... the system starts to fail.

The Drum 16 February 2012

Tonight I was on The Drum ABC News 24 discussing the news of the day, including unemployment numbers, the week in federal politics, the Queensland election, cooperatives and racism in TV soaps:

Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut

Star Wars Uncut, a complete, feature-length replication of the original Star Wars film, completely crowd-sourced and edited together using submitted 15-second snippets, has been released online after years of production:

In 2009, Casey Pugh asked thousands of Internet users to remake "Star Wars: A New Hope" into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.

SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010 we won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media. 

There is more information at http://StarWarsUncut.com.

Watch the movie:

Carr and Stelter on Wikipedia's Day of Protest

David Carr and Brian Stelter, in this TimesCast video, discuss the decision by Wikipedia to close on Wednesday to educate its audience about proposed antipiracy legislation in Congress that it considers a threat to an open Internet. Time to crack open those old copies of Encyclopedia Britannica.

via mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

PROTECT IP / SOPA Act Breaks the Internet

This video does a good job explaining what is wrong with the PROTECT IPA / SOPA Act:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

 

Video on the Rule of Law

The US Bill of Rights Institute has created a short, engaging video for Bill of Rights Day on the constitutional principle of the rule of law.

The Drum 1 November 2011

Tonight I was on The Drum on ABC News 24 discussing the news of the day, including interest rates, the fallout from the Qantas grounding and hipsters:

Everything Is a Remix: The Matrix

I've blogged a few times about a proect called Everything is a Remix by New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson, which looks at "remix" within our culture.  His first video looked at remix remix within music, his second video looked at remix within film, focusing on Star Wars, and his third video looked at the elements of creativity. 

He has now posted a new video, which isn't technically a part of the series, but was made by Rob G. Wilson to highlight a variety of things in the movie The Matrix that appear quite similar to works in other movies:

Everything Is A Remix: THE MATRIX from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.

Techdirt blogs about this latest video here.

The Drum 1 September 2011

Tonight I was on The Drum on ABC News 24 discussing the news of the day, including the High Court's decision on the Malaysia Solution:

The Drum 1 September 2011 from Peter Black on Vimeo.

 

Soften the Fck Up

Congratulations to my friend Ehon Chan for launching yesterday Soften the Fck Up, a timely and important campaign for Australian men:

Meet the Ministers

Meet The Ministers is a new program from 31 Digital in Brisbane that delves into the many personalities that make up our State politicians:

We know about their political agenda, but what about what got them to where they are. This show will give the viewer a more personal insight into the person behind the job.

Hosted by Shaun Bindley, the first episode of this program features Deputy Premier Paul Lucas:

Meet the Ministers

Meet The Ministers is a new program from 31 Digital in Brisbane that into the many personalities that make up our State politicians:

We know about their political agenda, but what about what got them to where they are. This show will give the viewer a more personal insight into the person behind the job.

Hosted by Shaun Bindley, the first episode of this program features Deputy Premier Paul Lucas:

"Hot Coffee" documentary

I'm looking forward to when this documentary airs in Australia:

Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.

Visions of Students of Today

Michael Wesch, the famed anthropologist focused on digital culture behind the videos The Machine is Us/Ing Us and A Vision of Students Today) and his Digital Ethnography Research Team of 2011 at Kansas State University has released Visions of Students Today: a “video collage” about student life created by students themselves and presented using HTML5, allowing them to “cite” books and videos that are being presented in the remix as they are being shown. 

View the full video collage here or watch this YouTube video to get the gist of it:

Read all about the project and the videos here.

Everything Is a Remix: update

Last year New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson started project called Everything is a Remix, which looks at "remix" within our culture.  His first video looked at remix remix within music and his second video looked at remix within film, focusing on Star Wars.  

His third video looks at the elements of creativity:

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

 

 

Learning Experience Survey (LEX): Hitler reacts to some bad student feedback

At the university where I work, QUT, it is that time of semester where once again students are asked to fill out a short survey where they evaluate their teachers.  The survey at QUT is known as the Learning Experience Survey (LEX):

Let’s talk! The QUT Learning Experience Survey (LEX).  It’s quick, it’s confidential and it will make a difference.

Your feedback through LEX starts a conversation with your teachers.

It’s an important way to help improves different aspects of your units and an opportunity to provide your lecturers and tutors constructive feedback about their teaching. If you have a great teacher – let them know they’re making an impact.

Although the survey doesn’t take long to complete, it can make a world of difference to the student experience, both now and for future graduates.

Complete the LEX online

To access the survey:

1. Go to QUT Virtual at https://qutvirtual.qut.edu.au
2. In the student messages box, a Learning Experience Survey message will appear
3. Click on the link: “Complete the survey”

To complete the survey, follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Select a unit you wish to comment on.
2. Select the teachers you wish to evaluate from the list provided on the screen.
3. Complete the survey questions.

View the sample LEX Survey to preview what the it looks like.

Win a $200 gift voucher

By completing all the questionnaires, you can go into the draw to win one of 15 JB Hi-Fi gift vouchers valued at $200. Before clicking the SUBMIT button on the last questionnaire, remember to tick ‘yes’ if you wish to enter the prize draw. Please refer to the prize draw conditions for details. You can also view who the winners were in previous semesters.

Your confidentiality is protected

The responses you give are totally confidential. QUT faculty staff cannot see student names or any other identifying information in relation to the survey results. For more information, visit the QUT Privacy website or email the QUT Privacy Officer at privacy@qut.edu.au.

Don’t miss out

The survey is administered in approximately week 9 or 10 of each semester. In Semester 1, the survey is available from Monday 9 May to Monday 6 June 2011.

If you are a QUT student, I would encourage you to take the time to complete the LEX for your teachers and units, we really do take your feedback very seriously:

 

 

LEX - PG Version from Random Academic on Vimeo.

 

Everything Is a Remix

Last year New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson started project called Everything is a Remix, which looks at "remix" within our culture.  His first video looked at remix remix within music:

Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

 

And now he has released his second video, which looks at remix within film, focusing on Star Wars:

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

10 best legal shows in TV history

The Criminal Justice Degrees Program has posted its 10 Best Legal Shows in TV History, along with YouTube clips from each show.  Here are my favourites from the list:

1. Law & Order: Law & Order is the longest-running crime drama on American television since it premiered on NBC in 1990 and finished its 20th season on May 24, 2010. Law & Order is also tied with Gunsmoke as the longest-running American drama series of all time. The wildly popular criminal-legal series was set and filmed in New York City and many of the story lines were based on real cases that made headlines. Every episode begins with a criminal investigation and suspect arrest by NYPDs and the last half hour focuses on the prosecution of the defendant by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The show was praised and awarded for its talented cast, including Sam Waterston, Chris Noth, S. Epatha Merkerson and the late Jerry Orbach.

2. Boston Legal: Boston Legal was a popular legal drama-comedy that premiered in 2004 and came to an end in 2008. The show was a spinoff of the creator David E. Kelley’s other legal television series, The Practice, in which it followed former cast character Alan Shore, as he joins the firm Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Boston Legal had a star-studded cast, including Candice Bergen and funny guys William Shatner and James Spader. This award-winning show brought a great deal of humor and fun to the courtroom, while handling many serious cases.

...

6. Ally McBeal: The comedy-drama series, Ally McBeal, was quite the hit from 1997 to 2002. People loved tuning in to watch Ally McBeal, played by Calista Flockhart, a young, lovable attorney who worked at a Boston law firm, called Cage Fish with other young and eccentric lawyers like herself. Much of the show focused on romance, relationships and the personal lives of Ally and her fellow attorneys, but always maintained its lightheartedness with slapstick humor and surreal images like the dancing baby.

Read the full list here.

The Drum 15 December 2010

On Wednesday night I was on The Drum again on ABC News 24 for a special episode focusing on Twitter and social media in 2010:

The Drum 15 December 2010 from Peter Black on Vimeo.

 

At the Gabba for Peter Siddle's hat trick

Today I was lucky enough to be at the Gabba for the First Test of the Ashes series against England.  The highlight of the day was Peter Siddle's hat trick after tea.  I was filming on my iPhone as the Gabba went berserk in celebration of Siddle's hat trick wicket:

Larry Lessig calls for WIPO to lead radical overhaul of copyright law

On 4 November, Professor Larry Lessig Lessig gave the keynote address at the WIPO Global Meeting on Emerging Copyright Licensing Modalities – Facilitating Access to Culture in the Digital Age, where he called overhaul of the copyright system which will "never work on the internet":

Intellectual Property Watch offered this summary of Lessig's address:

Influential copyright scholar Larry Lessig yesterday issued a call for the World Intellectual Property Organization to lead an overhaul of the copyright system which he says does not and never will make sense in the digital environment.

A functioning copyright system must provide the incentives needed for creative professionals, but must also protect the freedoms necessary for scientific research and amateur creativity flourish.

In the digital environment, copyright has failed at both, said Lessig.

“And its failure is not an accident,” he said. “It’s implicit in the architecture of copyright as we inherited it. It does not make sense in a digital environment.”

The copyright system will “never work on the internet. It’ll either cause people to stop creating or it’ll cause a revolution,” said Lessig, citing a growing system of copyright “abolitionism” online in response to a worrying tendency to criminalise the younger generation.

“If and only if WIPO [the World Intellectual Property Organization] leads in this debate will we have a chance” at fixing the copyright system, he said.

Lessig also spoke on video with Intellectual Property Watch after his speech:

Larry Lessig: WIPO Must Lead Overhaul of Copyright System from Intellectual Property Watch on Vimeo.

So I was on TV ...

Some of you may be aware that I was on The Drum on ABC News 24 on Thursday night.  If you want to see my first awkward experience of live TV, you can watch it here:

The Drum 30 September 2010 from Peter Black on Vimeo.

Stephen Colbert testifies before Congress

In one of the more bizarre pieces of political theatre you will ever see, Stephen Colbert last week testified in character before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security.  Colbert was part of a United Farm Workers campaign calling on unemployed Americans to take jobs in the agriculture sector.  As part of the program he spent a day laboring at a vegetable farm in New York in August 2010.  You can watch his opening statement below:

Technology and the way it frames our world

Every Tuesday morning I have a regular weekly segment on Breakfast with Spencer Howson on 612 ABC Brisbane talking about technology and how it frames our world. In this segment we talk about @Can_do_Campbell, instantised searching and a juror in trouble:

YouTube fun with Google Instant

Here are two fun YouTube videos that feature Google Instant:

hitRECord.org

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has an interesting new website and production company called hitRECord:

RegularJOE here. The old media tends to call me Joseph Gordon-Levitt, that being my name and all. Here in the new media, I hit that round red REC button on a regular basis.

HITRECORD.ORG is a project I started almost five years ago now, and in 2010, we've evolved into a professional open collaborative production company. We create and develop art and media collaboratively here on our site. Even this introductory video is the remixed result of a great many contributions. So rather than just exhibiting and admiring each other's work as individuals, we gather here to collectively work on projects together. Videos, writing, photography, music, anything -- we call them all RECords.

Now and then, when I think something we've made has come out especially well, I approach the traditional entertainment industry to turn our work into money-making productions; and then we share any profits with the contributing artists.

Thanks for coming by. Hope you join us, I'd love to work with you. Are you RECording?

He describes the project in this video:

And here is a short film this project, entitled "Morgan and Destiny’s Eleventeeth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo":

Good question: what does a media planner do anyway?

I was amused to see this post on mUmBRELLA, "What does a planner do anyway?", because my sister is a media planner and still don't really understand exactly what it is that she does.  Unfortunately, the post and the video don't really make things any clearer for me, but maybe the entries in the competition announced in this post and video will:

If people working in the media and marketing industry have one thing in common, it’s the fact that their families have almost no idea what they do.

Which is why I love the insight behind this call for entries video from Account Planning Group chairman Jeremy Nicholas’s mum.

The APG Awards - Call For Entries from APG Australia on Vimeo.

 

Remembering Google Wave

With the news this morning that Google is shutting down Google Wave, I thought it seemed to appropriate to watch once again one of the developers of Google Wave, Lars Rasmussen, talk about the experience (among other things) at TEDx Sydney earlier this year:

"American" from "The $trip"

I love this song.  Alan Cumming sings Lance Horne's "American" from "The $trip", with visuals by Ned Stresen-Reuter:

 

 

Alan Cumming/Lance Horne/Ned Stresen-Reuter - American from on Vimeo.

Before the cameras roll on Insiders

One of my favourite TV shows is the ABC Sunday morning political talk show, Insiders, so I am always interested to gain an insight into what goes on behind the scenes.  This almost ten minute video records what happens before the cameras roll on Insiders:

Hat tip: @glen2005.

Remembering Robert Byrd: where is my worthy adversary?

This week America has paid tribute to the legacy of the Robert Byrd.  The New York Times, in particular, published a nice collection of reflections from politicians, journalists and others paying tribute to his life.  While I don't mean in any way to diminish his contribution to American politics and public life, I will always remember him from this speech on the Senate floor towards the end of his career:

iPorn: the pornography industry seduces the iPad

According to Google Analytics, one of the most common search terms that lead people to this blog is "Porn 2.0".  That is because of these two posts from a few years back: Porn 2.0 in April 2007 and Porn 2.0 on the rise in January 2008.  So it is with a mix of trepidation (as well as secret delight that this provocatively titled post might also generate traffic in the future), that I draw your attention to this post on GigaOM that explains why porn and the iPad are key for HTML5:

Apple’s move to ban Adobe Flash from its iOS has opened a huge window for any technology that can deliver a top-notch multimedia experience on the iPad and other Apple gadgets. And as I discuss in my weekly column over at GigaOM Pro, porn purveyors are starting to tilt the balance in favor of HTML5.

Increasingly, it looks like HTML5 will inherit the torch from Flash. The emergence of HTML5 is largely being spurred by the iPad and its big, high-resolution screen, which offers a far more immersive (read: porn-friendly) experience than any handset can deliver. So adult sites are moving quickly to re-encode their video content for the new, video-friendly device. YouPorn.com announced a few weeks ago that it’s targeting iPad users by re-encoding its entire video archive in HTML5. Pink Visual has launched a pair of sites (barely safe for work) that offer HTML5 video content for both straight and gay consumers, and the gay site RocketTube was iPad-ready before the device even came to market.

Mobile porn has never found much of a market here in the U.S. thanks to carrier prohibitions and handsets that make for poor platforms to view it. The rise of the iPad will change that, though, providing an easy way for users to access adult content online wherever they are. And there’s no question that demand for online porn is immense: the worldwide adult web industry has an estimated value of $37.2 billion. The rise of the iPad will only fuel that fire.

Read it here.  I remember reading somewhere years ago that the adult entertainment industry generally leads the way for new technologies before they are embraced by the mainstream, and it appears that the early embrace of HTML5, even if fueled by the success of the iPad, is another example of the adult entertainment industry being just ahead of the curve.

Opening monologue at the 14th Annual Webby Awards

Check out this very funny opening monologue by B.J. Novak at the 14th Annual Webby Awards:

Mr Percival

Another highlight of TEDx Sydney was Mr Percival - a simply amazing vocal performer:

Michael Kirby at Tedx Sydney

Another highlight of TEDx Sydney was Michael Kirby's talk:

Citizen Journalism and the Democratisation of News Coverage

Brett Solomon's talk at TEDx Sydney was one of the better talks of the day:

It's Time to Tell Mum

This morning Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) launched a new campaign against the Australian Government's proposed mandatory internet filter: It's Time to Tell Mum.  EFA Vice-Chair Geordie Guy blogged about the new campaign on the EFA website:

We're excited to announce that EFA have today launched a new campaign to raise public awareness of the Government's internet filter: "Time to Tell Mum."

The campaign features well-known comedian Akmal Saleh and exhorts Australians to tell their mums about the filter plan and what it won't do for Australian families.

One of the big challenges in the debate so far has been combating the myth that the filter is - or ever was - a cyber-safety tool designed to keep kids safe online. It's not. It's designed to "harmonise" censorship laws, not protect children from inappropriate content. It's censorship for its own sake.

We know that the more people understand the proposal, the less there are that support it. This is an opportunity for those 'in the know' to help in educating the wider community, with a focus on parents who are the most worried about cyber-safety issues, but won't be helped by the policy. We hope this campaign will reach some new people, and further highlight the myths about Conroy's Filter.

You can watch the video and share it with your friends here at http://www.timetotellmum.com.

And here is the video:

And don't forget to Tell Mum.

Crash! Bang! Wallow?

Check out “Crash! Bang! Wallow?”, the short film that has won the sixth NFB Online Short Film Contest, an annual competition for shorts run by the National Film Board of Canada during the Cannes Film Festival. The choice was made not by a Cannes jury, but by the public, who had 14 days to vote for the films that showed on NFB’s YouTube site.

Crash! Bang! Wallow? is the tale of ex-stuntman Larry LeTan and his fight to find a place in modern world. At the height of his career Larry rubbed shoulders with Hollywood superstars of the 80s. As stuntman to the most popular action heroes, he did all the things the stars couldnt or wouldnt do. He performed Arnies tumbles, Slys leaps and Segals acting. However, with the introduction of computer technology Larry finds himself out of synch with the modern world. Poetry by Luke Wright and Joel Stickley.

Eben Moglen: Freedom in the Cloud

The brilliant Eben Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University, and founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center, recently gave a lecture at the Internet Society of New York on “Freedom in the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing”:

Everyone wants a piece of you these days: Google, Facebook, Flickr, Apple, AT&T, Bing. They’ll give you free e-mail, free photo storage, free web hosting, even a free date. They just want to listen in. And you can’t wait to let them. They’ll store your stuff, they’ll organize your photos, they’ll keep track of your appointments, as long as they can watch. It all goes into the “Cloud.”

How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. Eben Moglen, a Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, warned you about privacy and the cloud before. At a public meeting of the Internet Society of New York on February 5, Moglen asked you to consider how much worse things have become since then and explain what you can do to reclaim your freedom in the era of Web 2.0.

Senator Ludlam's speech on the internet filter

Yesterday, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam comprehensively attacked the filter on the floor of the Senate. The attack was accurate, irrefutable and timely.  EFA have some comments here along with the transcript, but you can watch the speech in its entirety below.

via openinternet.com.au

Web 3.0

This 15 minute documentary provides a good overview of the semantic web:

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

Advise and Consent

The trailer for the documentary Advise and Dissent, which examines the politics behind the nominations of Harriet Miers, Samuel Alito, and John Roberts to the US Supreme Court:

Advise & Dissent Trailer from Lumiere Productions on Vimeo.

Slate's David Plotz on his 15 minutes of FoxNews fame

Slate Editor David Plotz reflects on being turned into a punching bag by commentators on FoxNews: