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Syndication, Widgets, Aggregation, Social Overlay and Personalization are the new buzzwords being put into play at the Times online. Monetizing these new-media techniques is a low priority as it is for most Silicon Valley start-ups in these early years of development.Â
Far beyond other old-media newspapers the Times has enough of a foothold online to give other social news aggregator sites like Readburner and Techmeme real competition.
Variety is reporting on a study that concludes that the average TV viewer age is now 50. Old people watch TV, young people interact on the internet I guess.
In Canada, the Conservative federal government is “updating” the copyright laws and part of their insane plan is basically to make anyone under 50 a criminal. Here’s a summary of the backwards bill.
-There is a $500 statutory damage minimum for possession of a single file freed from crippling DRM. With some audiobooks each CD has 99 tracks. That’s $49,500 for one CD. WTF!?
-Any circumvention of DRM, even on files you’ve owned for decades, files you’ve purchased, been given as a gift, or inherited, will be deemed a violation and subject you to a $500 statutory damage minimum (per file). WTF!?
-It will be illegal to transfer DRM’d files to your own iPod or portable media player (you can’t strip-out the forced ads out of DVD that you own either). WTF!?
Here’s a Q&A session in parliament:
France is finally going through with its threat to impose a “three strikes and you’re out” policy when it comes to illegal downloading. Offenders will have their be blocked from their ISP provider for up to a year. This is certainly a good plan as there aren’t like a million ways to get around this really brilliant legislation…
via /.
On Thursday June 12, Canada’s Digital Milliennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Bill C-61 was barfed out of generic politician Jim Prentice’s mouth. It was simultaneously vomit and the sputum of an industry that voraciously profited from inefficient music delivery systems to become the bloated, pussy mess it is today. Read more about it here
Facebook users delayed the bill before and on Thursday morning it is time for protests to grow even louder. Minister of Industry Jim Prentice and the Minister of Canadian Heritage Josée Verner want to lock up all data and destroy the very soul of the internet – sharing and collaboration. They obviously need to read Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business and go back to their other oppressive activities:
The government is ready to introduce controversial new copyright legislation that experts believe will introduce harsh new restrictions on downloading, copying songs to CDs and music players, unlocking cellphones and time-shifting of television shows.
Minister of Industry Jim Prentice and the Minister of Canadian Heritage Josée Verner will unveil the bill to amend the Copyright Act on Thursday at 10:45 a.m. ET with brief statements, followed by a question-and-answer session with the media.
Virgin Media plans to spy on users in order to curb illegal downloading. It will begin by sending letters to households suspected of hosting P2P files. This is a joint venture with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which has been pushing ISPs to implement a “three strikes and you’re out” rule when it comes to file sharing.
I suspect that there will be many confused British parents receiving letters from Virgin Media in the next while…
via /.
Online socialized broadcasting service Hulu just got a huge advantage over other online viewing services by scooping online favourites The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Viacom sued Youtube for illegally distributing the shows and in response, Youtube pulled them down.
Of course, like all the major American television networks, viewing is only available within the United States so Canadians and the rest of the world will have to spoof their ip address in order to watch.
The latest Bitch magazine has a fem slanted second life article, that examines, among other things the burgeoning SL sex trade: “Same Shit, Different Life—Second Life may be an online utopia, but its social politics look awfully familiar. ”
Unfortunately the text is not available online but its worth a quick read in the store at least.
The Youtube blog announced today the start of a new kind of channel: The Reporter Channel.
Touting the media revolution, the channels are for:
Is this truly a revolution in democracy? Is it Youtube further monetizing it’s future? I think it has to be satisfy both cultural and economic orders in order to function within the metanarrative netizens use.
Microsoft CEO Ballmer lets the Washington Post know how obsolete it is:
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There will be no media consumption left in ten years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.
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He identifies not just a change in delivery, but even more devastating to old media, in content. Search is the only game in town. And no newspaper can even compete in that areana.
