Some Teachers Embracing Wikipedia, While Others Blame It

from the time-to-join-this-century dept

We've seen this before, of course. There are teachers and professors out there who blame Wikipedia for mistakes students make, and even those who demand that the entire Wikipedia be blocked in schools. However, there are those who are a lot more reasonable about it, recognizing that Wikipedia is just one source among many, and there's value in embracing Wikipedia: teaching kids what it is and how to use it reliably. That seems likely to be a lot more effective and useful for training kids how to critically judge the reliability of information out in the real world. Blocking, banning or blaming Wikipedia seems only designed to put one's head in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist. That's not preparing anyone for the real world.

Techdirt reader cram writes in to point out two contrasting articles that show this dichotomy of thought in action. First is a report out of Scotland last week blaming Wikipedia for kids getting failing grades. This, of course, seems ridiculous. What it really means is that teachers have failed to actually teach kids how to use Wikipedia properly. It's not the fault of Wikipedia -- which is merely an information source. It's a failure of teachers to teach kids how to properly use it. That's why it's nice to see the corresponding article, where students in Australia are now going to have a course available on how to use Wikipedia. That seems a lot smarter than just blaming Wikipedia.

Filed Under: australia, blame, scotland, teaching, wikipedia

Australia Tells eBay It Can't Require Auction Users Only Use PayPal

from the competition-is-good dept

Slashdot points us to the news that Australian regulators have slapped down eBay's attempt to require users to use PayPal as a payment system, noting:

"Given eBay's position as Australia's leading online marketplace, the notified conduct will substantially reduce competition to supply online payment services to users of online marketplaces more generally. The ACCC acknowledges that having PayPal as the only payment provider has the potential to deliver some benefits to users, such as increased buyer protection insurance in certain circumstances. However, the ACCC believes that consumers are in the best position to decide which payment method is most suitable for them."

eBay's plan to ban all other payment system received a ton of negative publicity when first announced, so perhaps Australia's response isn't all that surprising. However, is it really necessary for the Australian government to step in? The anger from eBay users was quite strong, and you would think that the end result would be eBay users leaving for other online e-commerce options -- and that, alone, should be enough to get eBay to reconsider this decision. eBay shouldn't need to have the Australian government tell it that restricting payment options is a dumb idea. Consumers were already doing so. And, if we go by the ACCC's own words, it supposedly "believes that consumers are in the best position to decide" which e-commerce platform is most suitable as well.

Filed Under: accc, auctions, australia, competition, payment services
Companies: ebay, paypal

Australian Officials Accidentally Reveal Google As Responsible For Anti-eBay Filing

from the jockeying-for-position dept

Last month, we wrote about plans by eBay in Australia to ban all non-PayPal payment solutions from the auction site. This has set off quite a firestorm, especially from folks who don't particularly like PayPal. Australian regulators are looking into the matter, and have asked for comments from anyone interested, some of which it's posting online. Most of the comments come with the name of the individual and/or company who sent it in -- but a few were posted anonymously, at the submitter's request. However, it appears that regulators didn't do a very good job scouring for metadata, as someone who looked more closely at the PDF file discovered that it clearly says "Submission by Google re eBay" in the metadata (found via Slashdot).

While this has some wondering if "tensions" are escalating between the two companies, I think it's safe to say that tensions were already quite high between the two companies concerning their competing payment solutions. After all, when Google first launched Google Checkout, eBay quickly banned it from use on the site, claiming (with a straight face) that Google wasn't trustworthy enough, since it didn't have a track record of payment solutions. Then, you may recall a year ago, that Google (childishly) planned a "protest" outside of eBay's own user conference, which resulted in eBay removing all ads from Google for a little while. Considering that eBay is Google's largest advertiser, this was no small move. So, somehow, I doubt the fact that Google filed a comment against banning other payment systems in Australia is going to be seen by either party as an "escalation" of the tension between the two companies.

Filed Under: anonymity, australia, google checkout, metadata, paypal
Companies: ebay, google

Australian Court Says Creating Your Own TV Program Listing Is Copyright Infringement

from the fine,-then-we-won't-watch-tv dept

William Patry points us to a court ruling in Australia that says, in effect, that television program guides are copyrighted material and anyone producing their own program guide needs to license that information from the TV networks. On this, it would appear that Australian law differs from US law, which doesn't consider factual information by itself to be copyrightable. However, the Australian ruling basically found that program guide information isn't quite "factual" information, but "created." Thus the copyright is on the creative decisions the TV network execs made in choosing when to show each show (yes, they're apparently serious about this). If that sounds a bit extreme (and a bit ridiculous), you're not the only one who thinks so. While the court didn't directly address the question, from this ruling it certainly sounds like you could be found to have violated copyright if you just sat in front of your TV and wrote down what played when -- and then predicted a similar schedule going forward.

Filed Under: australia, compilations, copyright, facts, tv guides

eBay Exec Explains How Not Using PayPal Is Like Dealing Heroin...

from the work-on-those-analogies-a-bit dept

Down in Australia, eBay has apparently decided to require sellers to use eBay-owned PayPal for electronic transactions, blocking out a number of other solution providers in the space. Understandably, this has upset a bunch of eBay customers who, for whatever reason, prefer other payment solutions (often because they've had bad experiences with PayPal). eBay's Australian execs, to their credit, decided to hold a "town hall" meeting to discuss the changed proposal -- and it didn't go particularly well, from the sound of it (thanks to an anonymous reader for sending that in). Apparently, the booing and hissing started early (well, late, because the eBay team opened the doors quite late) and things just spiraled downhill from there. But the key point of ridiculousness was when regional VP Simon Smith explained the reasoning as follows: "We're not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can't go out and buy heroin on the streets." Now, you can understand what he was saying... but, clearly, there's a bit of a difference between using a non-PayPal electronic payments solution and dealing heroin. And, of course, if this were really about "protecting" buyers and sellers, then shouldn't eBay at least offer a path for third party providers to become "certified" as being safe?

Filed Under: auctions, australia, paypal
Companies: ebay, paypal

Musician Claims He Was Tricked Into Appearing In Anti-Piracy Video

from the duped dept

Australian guitarist Lindsay McDougall was asked to appear in a film that he was told would be about what it was like to try surviving as a musician -- and only later realized that it was actually part of an industry-backed anti-piracy campaign. He's quite upset about it, as he claims he would never take part in an anti-piracy campaign if he'd known that's what it was:

"I have never come out against internet piracy and illegal downloading and I wouldn't do that - I would never put my name to something that is against downloading and is against piracy and stuff, it's something that I believe is a personal thing from artist to artist.... I would never be part of this big record industry funded campaign to crush illegal downloads, I'm not like [Metallica drummer] Lars Ulrich. I think it's bullshit, I think it's record companies crying poor and I don't agree with it....I'm from a punk rock band, it's all about getting your music out any way you can - you don't make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can't make money these days because they haven't come onside with the way the world is going, it's their own problem."

The folks who put together the movie claim that they were clear upfront about the movie and who was making it. They also say that the movie only has a small segment that's anti-piracy -- but that's not quite accurate. The rest of the movie basically just plays up how tough it is to be a musician on a major label and how difficult it is to make money as a musician. While there are some segments about how useful the internet is, the overriding message is definitely a combination of "think of the poor musician" and "don't file share." It's definitely not a pure anti-piracy film, and it does have some balance -- but it definitely does push the anti-piracy message.

Filed Under: anti-piracy, australia, lindsay mcdougall, musicians, recording industry

Is It That Difficult To Understand The Difference Between Public Data And Private Data?

from the apparently-so... dept

Just a little while after some folks in Pittsburgh, PA sued Google over its Street View offering, it appears that Google is getting ready to launch a similar offering in Australia. However, rather than celebrate a rather useful service, there's a somewhat ridiculous newspaper article in Australia charging Google execs with hypocrisy for not revealing private data about Australian Google execs. It's hard to see where the hypocrisy is here. Google is creating a database of public info, and the newspaper, by its own admission, was asking Google to give up private data on its execs. Despite what the newspaper implies, Google's Street View doesn't reveal who lives where -- it just shows photos taken from public roadways, just as anyone would see driving up and down those same roads. To equate that with private data about executives is simply wrong.

Filed Under: australia, google maps, private data, public data, street view
Companies: google

Australian Police: Cracking Down On Piracy... Except When The Police Are The Pirates

from the double-standards-much? dept

Just days after Australian police participated in a headline generating raid to stop music piracy, an audit of police computers not only found DVD piracy is rife throughout many police department computers, but the police have decided not to prosecute because the activity was so widespread. Apparently, the fact that unauthorized file sharing is also widespread throughout the wider population doesn't stop the police... but when it's their own doing the sharing, it gets forgiven.

Filed Under: australia, piracy, police

That Didn't Take Long At All: $89 Million Australian Internet Filters Called A Failure

from the that-was-fast dept

Last August the Australian Prime Minister announced plans to spend many millions of dollars to offer free internet filters that parents could use to keep their kids from surfing porn. The filters were cracked by kids in a matter of days. While we noted that this should have made politicians realize what a waste the program was, instead they just said it explained why they needed to spend even more. Reader Stack writes in to let us know that the Australian government has now declared the entire program to be a failure. While the government had predicted that 2.5 million households would make use of the filters, only 144,000 were downloaded or ordered on CD-ROM and only about 29,000 were actually being used -- a wee bit under the targeted amount. Of course, rather than recognize that maybe spending money on filters isn't the best way to deal with this issue, the new government sees this as more evidence to go ahead with its plan to force ISPs to censor the internet instead. How many more millions will get wasted before that program is declared a failure as well?

Filed Under: australia, failure, filters, porn, regulations

Australia Latest To Consider Kicking People Off The Internet For File Sharing

from the three-strikes-and-your-shooting-yourself-in-the-foot dept

Never let it be said that the entertainment industry lobby isn't comprehensive. Over the past decade plus of watching them at work, you begin to see some patterns that are unmistakable. When the industry has a new idea it plans to push through as a law, it quietly works the concept through a variety of politicians around the world, and then will have one representative of the industry slip the concept into conversation at a public event somewhere. Then, while everyone's debating the concept, it suddenly shows up in pre-written legislation around the world before anyone knows what's going on. That appears to be happening again. Over the summer, entertainment industry execs (mainly from NBC Universal) started buzzing about how ISPs needed to take more responsibility for punishing those who were sharing unauthorized files on their networks. It seemed so outlandish that people were kind of surprised that it was even brought up. But then the laws started popping up. First there was a French proposal that would have ISPs ban users after being caught sharing unauthorized files three times. Then a similar proposal popped up in the UK last week. Now, down in Australia the government is now considering a similar proposal. Rest assured that these ideas didn't suddenly occur to the politicians in each of these countries.

Filed Under: australia, bans, copyright, file sharing, isp, mpaa, riaa, three strikes