Shouldn't Al Gore Know That Everyone Is A Journalist These Days?

from the ban-everyone! dept

Al Gore, who, last we checked had founded a "citizen journalism"-based TV channel and internet site, has apparently told the RSA conference that one of the terms of his keynote speech at the event is that no press are allowed (and no photographs or audio or video recording either). That may have made sense years ago, but in this day and age, where everyone is a "reporter" and everyone has an outlet, it seems rather ridiculous to even think that you can ban "press," let alone make it a clause in a speaking agreement. Last year, the same event drew 17,000 people. You have to figure that a decent number of them have blogs, social networking pages, Twitter accounts and whatnot -- and a very high percentage probably have mobile phones with cameras on them as well (and, of course, it doesn't hurt that CNET appears to be offering to give people a free fleece for taping the event). Sorry, Mr. Vice President, even if you ban them, the press will be attending your talk.

Filed Under: al gore, bans, citizen journalism, press, speeches

Turkish Officials Never Learn: Ban Slide Along With YouTube

from the the-definition-of-insanity dept

It would appear that Turkish officials don't seem to understand quite how the internet works these days -- despite having received quite a few lessons already. After all, this is the country that has banned YouTube for a sophomoric video making fun of the country's founder. It's the type of silly video no one would pay attention to... until Turkey decided to block access to all of YouTube because of it. Then, of course, this silly little video that no one cared about was seen everywhere. Eventually Turkey lifted the ban, but having learned nothing put the ban back in place not just once, but two more times. Each time, it provided much more attention to the silly pointless videos. Apparently, that message has not gotten through to Turkish authorities who have now banned the multimedia hosting site Slide as well. Again, they didn't bother to inform Slide or even ask the company to take down the offending content. They just banned the entire site over some content that very few people had probably seen.

Filed Under: bans, content, streisand effect, turkey
Companies: slide, youtube

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

eBay Bans Negative Feedback For Buyers; Everyone Be Good Now

from the here-in-lake-wobegone... dept

eBay has been making some changes lately that aren't sitting well with eBay sellers. First, it announced fee changes that initially were promoted as "lower fees," but the details showed were only lower for goods that didn't sell. The fees on sold goods were actually higher. Now, the company has banned sellers from giving "negative" feedback on buyers. This is quite an interesting move. Years back, eBay was often held up as the epitome of user feedback/rating systems. However, over the years, problems have cropped up, leading to questions about how effective the system really is, as it's often been gamed. A specific complaint is that many buyers are afraid to leave negative feedback, as a seller can retaliate and provide a similarly negative response to the buyers. The hope, then, is that by not allowing negative feedback, buyers can start being more honest about sellers. Of course, from the sellers' standpoint, it also means it's much more likely that buyers can now be problematic, without worrying about a response. eBay claims that it will now personally handle complaints from sellers about problem buyers -- which seems like a pretty big undertaking for the company. Either way, there does seem to be something silly in having a company offer a feedback system if you can only say positive things.

Filed Under: bans, feedback, negative feedback
Companies: ebay

Nick Denton Using The Streisand Effect For All It's Worth

from the silly-facebook dept

Two stories popped up on the radar this morning that involve Gawker publisher/editor Nick Denton using threats of bans to get a lot more attention (which is likely exactly what he wanted). The first one seems minor, but is still important. Just a few weeks ago, Tom Lee was talking about how people need to assume that any info they put online on a social network site should be considered public info. Given that, it's interesting to see Nick Denton is facing a ban from Facebook for publishing some info from someone's Facebook profile on Gawker. While publishing the info may have been mean or tacky, and may have even violated Facebook's terms of service, it's laughable to think that banning Denton would actually stop that kind of activity. If anything, it would make it more common. First of all, it's not even clear if it was Denton himself who found the info, or if it was submitted by someone else. However, if Facebook does go through with a ban, many Gawker fans will take it upon themselves to send him info and screenshots from Facebook. All the ban will do, a la the Streisand Effect, is draw more attention to the fact that Gawker publishes info from Facebook profiles.

The second case, involves the Church of Scientology. Denton posted a video of Tom Cruise talking about Scientology. Scientologists are infamous for their attempts to misuse copyright law to take down any content they don't like. However, Denton is fighting back, and getting the video (and, of course, Gawker) a lot more attention in doing so. It certainly looks like Denton has figured out how to use such threats to his own advantage.

Filed Under: bans, nick denton, streisand effect
Companies: facebook

Student Films Principal Fighting Another Student... School Board Bans Mobile Phones

from the what-are-we-teaching-our-children? dept

A few years ago, we wrote a story about some students filming a teacher's angry outburst in a classroom and putting that film up on the web. Rather than disciplining the teacher for the outburst, the school disciplined the students and banned mobile phones. The lesson? It's okay for teachers to act inappropriately. It's not okay for students to reveal that behavior. It seems other schools want to teach that same lesson. The Agitator points us to another school that has banned mobile phones in school after a student filmed the principal in a physical fight with another student. At least in this case, the principal was put on leave. No matter what you think concerning mobile phones in schools, it seems pretty clear that this change in policy was brought about because of the principal getting filmed. If anything, that should be a reason to encourage more students to have mobile phones -- so that they can expose inappropriate behavior. Apparently, the school board believes its better to just pretend inappropriate behavior doesn't exist rather than to document it.

Filed Under: bans, mobile phones, schools

Turkey Bans YouTube Again; Promoting Dumb Videos Again

from the sorta-goes-against-the-point,-right? dept

Back in March, Turkey banned YouTube over some silly immature videos that portrayed the country's founder in a negative light -- which is against the law. It was basically a lame video with schoolhouse insults. However, by banning all of YouTube, Turkey helped get that video a lot more attention, all over the world. So, in an effort to suppress an insulting video, Turkey managed to make that video quite popular. You would think that the folks in Turkey would have learned their lesson about how trying to suppress something online only makes it more popular. Apparently, they have not. While the original ban was lifted a few days later, apparently the courts have once again ruled that YouTube must be banned due to yet another video insulting various Turkish politicians. Nice of the courts to give this new video worldwide publicity like that.

Filed Under: bans, streisand effect, turkey
Companies: youtube