Chicago Media Declares War On Flash Mobs, Mayor/Police Not So Much

from the meet-me-in-the-comments-section-in-five-minutes dept

Flash mobs are an odd sort of creature in the internet age. Normally, we associate them with some creative ways to entertain others or as a way to organize protests big and small. But now the esteemed Chicago media is reporting that several crimes in the Magnificent Mile area of downtown Chicago "have stoked growing fears of criminal teen flash mobs." And who has been stoking those fears?

The Chicago newspapers, of course -- who have declared that these crimes are all due to "flash mobs."

Last weekend there were four violent robberies in the city's famous shopping district, most or all of which appear to have been committed by relatively large groups of people (5-15). One such incident, which has been getting the most attention, resulted in a 68 year old man having his iPad and phone stolen by a group of teenagers. In addition, a new tactic for young thieves in the shopping districts appears to be to flood a store, disperse, and coordinate a mass grab-and-run via text message. This tactic has been noticed for the past three to four years.

The result has been a mini-media frenzy around "flash mobs", even though most of the crimes reported aren't anything of the sort. Most are your standard everyday robberies, occurring in a neighborhood in Chicago where shops and shoppers (theoretically those with money to spend) are located. But four robberies resulted in a couple of press conferences, one including new Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who cautioned reporters not to...you know...make stuff up:

The new superintendent cautioned reporters not to lump all of the incidents into the same category. Some are shoplifting. Others are robberies. And on Tuesday night, there was an incident that he called completely unrelated. One group of young men solicited cigarettes from another group of young men. When one man took out his wallet to pay, a member of the other group snatched the wallet and ran.

“These three men chased ten men to get the wallet back and eventually caught up to the ten men and lost the fight. That in no way shape or form represents anything that we’ve been talking about,” he said.

But thanks to this media attention, police are being diverted to the Magnificent Mile, an area with a relatively low violent crime rate, historically. What's interesting is how associations with certain terms can change. Flash mobs were fun. Now, thanks to a local press with an overactive imagination during a slow news week (ah, Chicago baseball teams...), Chicago is beginning to associate negativity with the term, so much so that police are being diverted from truly violent neighborhoods to the shopping district to stave off the fear of unruly teenagers coordinating their crimes via text message and social media. And if the police are reacting this way now, at the start of the summer season, what in the world are they going to do during the festival season, when destinations like the Taste of Chicago and Lollapolooza spring up?

Filed Under: blame, chicago, flash mobs, media

U2 Manager Still Blaming Everyone Else For Not Giving Him More Money... As U2 Sets Record For Highest Grossing Tour Ever

from the contrast dept

Ah, Paul McGuinness. U2's manager has been on something of a crusade over the past few years. Every few months, he pops up to blame every other industry for not paying musicians enough money. There was Google, ISPs and device makers, governments and, of course, evil bloggers. He's also claimed that free is the enemy. Anyway, he's at it again. In an interview with Sky News, he once again says that tech firms aren't doing enough to give money to musicians:

"I really wish those geniuses who bring us Google, Facebook, Amazon and Spotify would get their act together," he said.

"It's not the downloading that's the problem. It's a bit of ingenuity and generosity that's required from the people who are making money from the internet."

The very next sentence in that article:

Mr McGuinness was speaking after learning that U2's 360 tour, which began in Barcelona in June 2009, has now become the highest grossing of all time.

So, let me get this straight. He wants the people who are making money to "get their act together" and start figuring it out how to share with others because of "generosity." So... um... can I ask, how much of this tour revenue is U2 sharing with other musicians? Just curious. And how much are they sharing it with the internet companies whose services they used to spread the news of the tour and the album? Again... just curious.

Filed Under: blame, music industry, paul mcguinness, u2

BPI Effectively Admits That Digital Economy Act Was Useless

from the reading-between-the-lines dept

Every time I come across BPI, the UK's version of the RIAA, I'm amazed at how single-minded its focus seems to be. There's little interest in improving profitability for record labels. There's little interest in creating better music. There's little interest in smart new business models. It's only about "piracy" and how evil it is. What's funny is I saw the BPI's Geoff Taylor on a panel a couple years ago, and he was one of the people who would say two sentences in a row that would contradict each other. It was always something along the lines of: "We should stop 'going to war' with our customers... but first we have to stop piracy!"

This past year was a banner year for BPI. The UK market has bucked the trend in pretty much every other part of the world and has seen recorded music sales growing, while its overall music industry (if you count how much money musicians actually make -- beyond just recorded music sales) has been growing for quite some time. Even with all of that, BPI was able to push through the incredibly draconian Digital Economy Act in the UK via questionable means.

So BPI should be thrilled, right? In the midst of a recession, and a massive decline in recorded music sales everywhere else in the world, it was able to buck that trend even before it got this new law passed.

But no, to BPI, absolutely everything is about "piracy." It's put out a new report whining that "piracy" is still increasing and saying it's all Google's fault. Of course, this isn't a surprise as BPI has been trying to set Google up for a lawsuit.

Of course, by my reading of this new study, BPI is effectively admitting that the Digital Economy Act was useless. The industry was already growing before it, so the main reason behind it was to help slow down the dreaded "piracy." And it failed in doing that. So, shouldn't BPI now support a repeal of the Digital Economy Act?

Filed Under: blame, copyright, downloads, piracy, uk
Companies: bpi, google

Michael Jackson's Family Sues Touring Company For His Death

from the finger-pointing dept

Sooner or later someone was going to get sued, but it does seem a bit surprising to find out that Michael Jackson's family is now suing AEG, the concert promotions company, for Jackson's death.

"By the nature of their contractual, joint-venture, and special relationship, AEG had legal duties to Michael Jackson to treat him safely and to not put him in harms' way," the lawsuit alleges. "But AEG, despite its knowledge of Michael Jackson's physical condition, breached those duties by putting its desire for massive profits from the tour over the health and safety of Michael Jackson."

The main issue is that the doctor who treated Jackson was apparently pushed on Jackson by AEG. This seems like a longshot no matter how you look at it. Even if there was negligence somewhere in Jackson's treatment, going so far as to sue the concert promoter for recommending the doctor seems extreme.

Filed Under: blame, michael jackson
Companies: aeg

Lehman Brothers ex-CEO Wants Everyone To Know That It Was Everyone Else's Fault Lehman Failed

from the well-that's-convincing dept

At a public hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission -- the group put together to investigate the Wall Street implosion of 2008 -- former Lehman Brothers' CEO, Dick Fuld, wants everyone to know that Lehman was not at fault in its failure. No, it turns out the problem was all of you. You didn't believe strongly enough in Lehman, and then the government didn't bail him out because of it. As the crew at Planet Money notes:

In fact, in 1,680 words of prepared testimony, Fuld devotes exactly 15 words to what Lehman did wrong. And those 15 words are immediately followed by an explanation of why Lehman's errors didn't contribute to the bankruptcy:

In retrospect, there is no question we made some poorly timed business decisions and investments, but we addressed those mistakes and got ourselves back to a strong equity position ... There is nothing about this profile that would indicate a bankrupt company.

Of course, part of his reasoning is that the government did proceed to bail out most of the other big Wall Street firms. However, just because the government decided to save those other guys, it doesn't mean that all of Wall Street didn't make some serious mistakes in creating their own downfall. In fact, a recent report from Planet Money and Pro Publica, that came out just last week, showed how ridiculous levels of self-dealing among banks not only prolonged the mess, but actually made the eventual impact much, much worse. Basically the banks created fake demand for the very worst parts of the mortgage-backed securities they were trying to sell, in order to keep on selling.

Filed Under: blame, dick fuld
Companies: lehman brothers

Craigslist's Response To Adult Service Criticisms: Hey, eBay's Worse Than Us!

from the um...-a-bit-tone-deaf dept

While I think the political and media campaign against Craigslist's adult services section is seriously misguided, I'm not so sure the company's latest strategy will help win over its critics. CEO Jim Buckmaster has taken to the Craigslist blog to point out that eBay is a hell of a lot worse at policing that type of content, highlighting multiple cases where classified ads on eBay owned sites blatantly (and in very not-safe-for-work fashion) pitch prostitution. This came about after Buckmaster was pointed to a Facebook group laughably claiming that using eBay's classifieds will help stop human trafficking. That's obviously ridiculous -- and even more ridiculous as Buckmaster points out how eBay's classifieds' sites do seem to be used for much worse than the questionable behavior that Craigslist is accused of enabling.

So I understand the reasoning behind Buckmaster's post. It's certainly a pretty ridiculous situation when you're accused of doing something downright evil, and your competitors are being promoted for doing the opposite -- when the actual evidence suggests quite a different story. On top of that, there's a bit of a nasty history between Craigslist and eBay (which owns a percentage of Craigslist, which Craigslist is not at all happy about). However, I'm not so sure the "hey, they're worse than us, even though everyone thinks they're golden," response is going to win over many people. It comes off a bit tone deaf, honestly. Yes, the situation is ridiculous, but this is an emotionally driven topic, and the response people want to see is what Craigslist is doing proactively, not how others are worse.

Filed Under: adult services, blame
Companies: craigslist, ebay

Blaming Users When You Screw Up

from the not-cool dept

We're always amazed when we see companies blame their users for their own screwups. The latest company to do this, as reported on TechCrunch, is Zynga, who gave out some codes to certain users for $120 worth of in-game currency in one of its games if those users moved off of one social networking platform to another. However, Zynga didn't take the most basic technical precautions to stop anyone and everyone from using the codes. So, of course, anyone and everyone started using the codes. These things happen and even though it's embarrassing, the company can just turn off the code and get on with life. Instead, it not only rolled back user accounts, deleting lots of things many had done, but also tried to blame them for "exploiting" their system:

Attention:

Our records indicate you have redeemed Rewards Points using an exploit. Please note that future use of exploits may result in disciplinary actions, up to and including the permanent banning of your account.

We will keep your account active at this point, but have rolled back your account to 06/08/2010, the date prior to the redemption of these unauthorized Reward Points.

It wasn't an exploit, it was poor programming on the part of Zynga. With a company like Zynga that has so many users, I'm sure it doesn't really care that some are quite pissed off, but at some point, the company may realize that cavalierly blaming users for their own mistakes can come back to haunt them in a big way.

Filed Under: blame, users
Companies: zynga

People Get Distracted! Blame Technology!

from the trend-pieces dept

With Nick Carr's book out, misleadingly suggesting that the internet is bad for our brains, it looks like the NY Times has decided to a trend piece on the same concept, except even more misleading. Practically the entire article hinges on one family whose father is sometimes distracted. The article opens with the fact that he once missed an email from someone who wanted to buy his company. And, um, it's because the internet makes us dumb? The connection is never made. The fact that people miss emails all the time, just as they might have missed snail mail in the past, is never made either. Honestly, the guy in the article sounds a lot like me, in terms of how I work, but he also sounds a lot like my Dad back when I was a kid and he would have his desk of papers disorganized. That's not a condemnation of technology. It's just that some people can be a bit absent-minded at times. Of course, the article throws in quotes from neuroscientists and other studies to give it that scientific coating, but what the researchers talk about has absolutely nothing to do with what makes someone miss an email or want to spend some time playing video games. It's one of those newspaper trend pieces that sounds good, but doesn't even come close to holding together its central thesis if you look at the details.

Filed Under: blame, multitasking, technology

Woman Sues Google After She Follows Google Maps Directions And Gets Hit By A Car

from the personal-responsibility? dept

There have been plenty of stories over the years of drivers blindly following their GPS over a cliff or onto railroad tracks. After doing such things, it may be natural for the driver to blame the technology, though it's unlikely to help you out much in court. However, it appears that one pedestrian has taken things a step further. After using Google's "still in beta" (for a good reason) "walking directions" while trying to get somewhere in Park City, Utah, she found herself on a highway, where she was hit by a car. So, in response, she's suing both Google and the driver of the car. Danny Sullivan explores the issue in much greater detail at that link, and comes to the same conclusion I assume many of you already jumped to: at some point, you just have to assume some sense of responsibility if you're the pedestrian. Sullivan pops out the following two Street View images showing the road in question, and wonders why the woman didn't realize that this road was not designed to be crossed. The first photo is of the intersection she would come to before crossing (note: no crosswalk): And then, if she did manage to rush across that street, this is what she would see on the other site: At some point, common sense is supposed to kick in and the pedestrian says, "hey, this is not designed for walking."

But, the woman who filed this lawsuit seems to want to blame everyone else for her own decision to try to cross a street that is obviously not for pedestrian crossing. In fact, the full lawsuit seems to contradict itself at points, since it seeks to blame both the driver who hit her for driving too fast... but at the same time seeks to blame Google for putting her on "a roadway that exhibits motor vehicles traveling at high speeds, that is not reasonably safe for pedestrians." If the road itself involved cars that were too fast for pedestrians, then why is she also blaming the driver for driving too fast? On top of that, the lawsuit asserts that Google should have known that the road was not designed for pedestrians. Which leads me to ask a simple question: if this woman, who was standing on the side of the road herself didn't make that judgment, despite all the evidence in front of her, why does she assume that some routing algorithm at Google should have reasonably known that fact?

In the end, this looks like yet another case of a Steve Dallas lawsuit, where a big company is sued for someone's own mistakes, because that big company has lots of money.

Filed Under: blame, directions, google maps, walking
Companies: google

Get Your Country's Technology-Related Excuses For Not Winning The World Cup In Now

from the there's-always-next-year dept

The next World Cup (wait, can we say that?) soccer tournament begins in less than two months, and it looks like some folks are already lining up the excuses for when their team underperforms on the pitch. The latest one: blaming the use of iPods and video games for preventing teams from building a "collective spirit." An English coach started the riff by saying, "I'm not a big fan of these big earphones on the way to games," and that "my thing with the iPod generation is that when they leave the ground and go away to their closeted little lives they shouldn't forget what's got them where they are and what impact they can have." It should be added that his team currently lies near the bottom of the top English league, and their problems likely run much, much deeper than their players' headphones. But hey, just like when your nation fails at the World Cup, it's a lot easier to blame technology than anything legitimate, like at the last tournament, when Brazil's poor performance was blamed on Ronaldinho's interest in scoring on his PS2 (and his girlfriend) rather than for his team. This pining for the good ol' days also ignores the idea that technology can deliver some benefits to players and their teams as well, and that the current generation of players might be more effective at bonding over some video games than beers, cards or whatever else their forerunners got up to.

Filed Under: blame, technology, world cup