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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Piracy and Privacy

Dr. Media says, this issue of copyrights is huge, not only for the entertainment companies, but for all writers, artists, filmmakers musicians,journalists, etc. All creative people who hope to make a living plying their trade. It is the root of the writers strike, simply put, why should the studios pay for product when they can cherry pick it for free from the net, since creative type want to create? Then if a project gets distributed, who collects, youtube, megavid,etc., and what do the creators get, pennies.So what a dilemma. You want talented people to produce, but you don;t want to pay them. Well here is the rub the old bromide, "information wants to be free", is fine for those who have jobs . But what about those who want their job to be creating "information". If you don't pay them, they stop working, because will info wants to be free, they need to eat, so they get other jobs, UNLESS, they are hired by information creators to create, thus the writers strike. Will musicians strike, no , they will self distribute like Radiohead`, if they are well known enough.Why not, all music will be downloadable , then movies, TV, books(see Kindle). Who pays advances now??

What’s Online


Piracy and Privacy









IN an effort to stymie
Internet pirates, the International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry, a music industry group, is asking European lawmakers to
require Internet service providers to use filters to block the illicit
transfer of copyrighted material (dslreports.com).


The Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a privacy advocate, responded by sending a letter to the European Parliament
arguing that such filters would be an “ineffective measure that will do
little to practically address the concerns of major rights holders
while imposing serious costs on the individual rights of European
citizens.”


The filtering technology would not be effective, according to the
foundation, because pirates would simply encrypt files to bypass it in
the same way that banks encrypt credit card information. Meanwhile,
legitimate users of copyrighted material would be hampered in their
ability to post video and music clips. And the costs would most likely
be borne by service providers, and, by extension, their customers, the
foundation said.


Media companies and trade groups in the United States have sought similar measures. In a widely ridiculed letter to the Federal Communications Commission last summer, NBC Universal
said such filters would help American corn farmers because Internet
users, unable to watch pirated movies, would head to theaters and buy
popcorn (publicknowledge.org).


The recording industry group is asking that service providers use
filtering technology like that made by Audible Magic, which identifies
and blocks audio files bearing a digital “fingerprint.” It further asks
that service providers block users’ access to specific peer-to-peer
file-sharing services — those that “have refused to implement steps to
prevent infringement,” according to a copy of the group’s request
obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.


“This is the latest in an ongoing effort for the entertainment
industry to pretend that the Internet needs to conform to the way it
wants the world to act, rather than conforming to the way the Internet
actually works,” wrote Mike Masnick (techdirt.com).


ADVERTISERS’ DILEMMA As ratings continue to sag for the major television networks, advertising rates are going ... up?


“Although it seems counterintuitive, it’s the law of supply and
demand,” Holly M. Sanders of The New York Post reported this week (nypost.com).
“As the TV audience shrinks, advertisers have to buy more ads to reach
their target number of viewers. But that increased demand for ad slots
creates scarcity, which in turn leads to rate hikes.”


The situation highlights “the strategic blindness of advertisers,”
according to Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine. To reach the people they want,
advertisers have to “work a little harder and move past the one-stop
shopping of TV,” Mr. Jarvis wrote (buzzmachine.com). “Actual work? Heaven forbid.”


DOWN ON MAIN STREET MainStreet.com, the forthcoming site from the people who run the business news site TheStreet.com, will combine news with advice on personal finance.


According to a recent help wanted ad seeking journalists (journalismjobs.com),
MainStreet.com “will cover breaking news, including celebrity and
entertainment news, as a means to get into personal finance.”


So, an article might be something like this, according to the ad: “Jamie Lynn Spears
is having a baby.” The article would then say: “Suddenly finding
yourself with an unplanned bun in the oven? Here’s how to start
preparing yourself financially to have and raise a child.”


One of the requirements listed in the ad is “great news judgment.” DAN MITCHELL




E-mail: whatsonline@nytimes.com.




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