VirginonMedia Blog

Why we’re taking Wikipedia down for a day

steve virgin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:17:34 +0000

Over the last few weeks, the Wikipedia community has been discussing proposed actions that the community might take in protest to proposed legislation in the United States called Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (Pipa) in the US Senate.

If passed, these laws would seriously damage the free and open internet, including Wikipedia. With more than 2,000 Wikipedians commenting on this legislation from all over the world, and a clear majority in favour of taking action, this will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. From midnight on America’s East Coast and from 5am in the UK, Wikipedia will go dark for 24 hours.

It was felt that both Sopa and Pipa are pieces of clumsily drafted legislation that are dangerous for the internet and freedom of speech. It provides powers to regulatory authorities to force internet companies to block foreign sites offering “pirated” material that violates US copyright laws. If implemented, ad networks could be required to stop online ads and search engines would be barred from directly linking to websites “found” to be in breach of copyright.

However, leaving to one side the fact that there are more than enough adequate remedies for policing copyright violations under existing laws in most jurisdictions, these draft bills go too far and in their framing. Sopa and Pipa totally undermine the notion of due process in law and place the burden of proof on the distributor of content in the case of any dispute over copyright ownership.

Therefore, any legitimate issues that copyright holders may have get drowned out by poorly-framed draconian powers to block, bar, or shut down sites as requested by industry bodies or their legal representatives.

Wikipedia depends on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. This needs other sites to be able to host user-contributed material; all Wikipedia then does is to frame the information in context and make sense of it for its millions of users.

Knowledge freely shared has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikipedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or, if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, will mean that the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.

All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy — and regulate the internet in other ways — that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond Sopa and Pipa: they are just part of the problem. We want the internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

Steve Virgin is a Board member and Trustee of Wikimedia UK (published 17 January 2011)

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/01/wikipedia-copyright-community (as author I’d like to thank Staggers for agreeing to allow this to be published elsewhere)

Microsoft eclipses Yahoo in US search for 1st time

steve virgin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:24:12 +0000

Microsoft Corp. has finally reached a long-sought and expensive goal – its Bing search engine now ranks second behind Google in the Internet’s most lucrative market. Bing and Microsoft’s other websites fielded 2.75 billion search requests in the U.S. during December, catapulting in front of Yahoo Inc. for the first time in the jockeying for runner up to Google Inc., according to statistics released Wednesday by comScore Inc. Bing’s December volume translated into a 15.1 percent share of the U.S. search traffic, comScore said. Yahoo processed 2.65 billion search requests, representing 14.5 percent of the U.S. market. Google remained Internet’s go-to place for information, with 12 billion U.S. requests in December. That works out to a 65.9 percent market share. Other research firms track the Internet search market. But comScore’s numbers matter the most to industry analysts and the companies trying to attract queries so they can make more money from the ads that appear alongside the results. Google’s dominance of online search is the main reason it has established itself as the Internet’s most profitable company. Analysts have expected Microsoft and Yahoo to flip-flop their positions in Internet search since they announced a partnership in July 2009. The 10-year agreement has enabled Yahoo to save money by relying on Microsoft to provide the bulk of its search technology. Microsoft wanted the deal so it would have billions more search requests to analyze each year, giving it a better chance to learn about people’s tendencies and preferences.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/12/microsoft-eclipses-yahoo-in-us-search-for-1st-time/

Generic top-level internet domain name sale begins on web

steve virgin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:30:49 +0000

A revamp of the web begins on Thursday to allow companies, organisations and individuals who can come up with USD 185,000 to buy specific words that will replace .com, .net and the other usual suffixes on their website addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) will start accepting applications for “top-level domains” such as .Pepsi or .London rather than just the traditional .com and .net . Organisations that can afford it are expected to apply so they can secure their own generic top-level domain (gTLD) but law enforcement agencies are wary that the proliferation of a whole new level of addresses will further complicate policing of the web. Many corporations view the proliferation of top-level domains as a giant problem. Companies already hire lawyers to defend their trademarks online and most were forced to spend money recently to ensure trademarks were not on the sexually oriented .xxx domain when it was introduced. Verisign, which runs the registry for .com addresses, has estimated there will be up to 1,500 applications for gTLDs. Icann has said the new system will offer many ways for website owners to protect their trademarks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/12/new-web-addresses-on-sale

Microsoft Web TV subscription plan on hold

steve virgin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:24:42 +0000

Microsoft Corp has put its talks with media companies about an online subscription service for TV shows and movies on hold, according to people familiar with the discussions. The technology giant had been in intense talks with potential programming partners for over a year and was hoping to roll out the service in the next few months. But it pulled back after deciding that the licensing costs were too high for the business model Microsoft envisaged, according to these people. Early versions of Microsoft’s TV service included a range of advanced features such as being able to change channels with voice and motion control. Similar to Netflix Inc, Microsoft’s service also would have allowed users the option of paying a monthly fee for a package of programming from someone other than a local cable or satellite TV company. But unlike Netflix, Microsoft had hoped to offer current shows and live networks on its service, which made it a much higher cost proposition. Microsoft is still working closely with the TV business to distribute shows over the Web, but rather than playing a role in helping consumers replace their cable TV packages it is focusing on delivering programming via its Xbox gaming system to existing cable subscribers

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/us-microsoft-video-idUSTRE80A1KL20120111

100 Italian newspapers under threat of closure due to Italian government cuts

steve virgin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:14:15 +0000

Up to 100 newspaper titles in Italy are facing closure because of the government’s subsidy cuts – down from EUR 170m a year to EUR 53m. The include Liberazione, a communist daily; L’Unita, the paper founded by Antonio Gramsci; Il Manifesto, an independent left-wing paper; and Avvenire, a popular Catholic daily. But the bulk of the closures will involve local papers across the country. According to the Financial Times’s report, The subsidies are now viewed as a wasteful abuse of taxpayers’ money to prop up a declining industry with limited readership (Liberazione publishes about 5,000 copies). The cuts, ordered by the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi, have been confirmed by Mario Monti’s administration. Mainstream newspapers – such as Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica – will continue to benefit from indirect subsidies, such as VAT waivers on copies sold by subscription and reduced postal delivery costs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2012/jan/03/italy-newspapers?CMP=twt_fd

German president tried to block home loan story: report

steve virgin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:06:57 +0000

German President Christian Wulff came under renewed fire Monday over a report he tried to stop a newspaper revealing details of a private home loan that has prompted widespread criticism. Wulff allegedly left an answerphone message for Bild’s chief editor threatening to break all contact with the paper’s publishers if the story appeared, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said. It said the call to the editor-in-chief of the mass circulation Bild daily took place on December 12, a day before the paper broke the story about the EUR 500,000 loan. Bild later Monday published its version of events in a statement on its website confirming Wulff had left a long message on the mobile phone of editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann. Before running the initial article Bild said it had asked Wulff, whose role is largely ceremonial but who acts as a kind of moral compass for the country, for a statement, which he gave, before later withdrawing it. Two days after the story appeared, Wulff again contacted Diekmann by phone apologising for the “tone and content” of his earlier comments, Bild said, adding it had decided not to report the incident. Munich’s Suddeutsche Zeitung daily, one of the first to write about the affair, wrote in Tuesday’s edition that the president had also called Mathias Dopfner, president of Bild’s publishing house Axel Springer AG, who told him that the newspaper’s editorial staff were independent. The Cicero magazine wrote later that Wulff had also contacted Springer’s main shareholder Friede Springer, the widow of the house’s founder, but was also rebuffed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iQ3te-2iIKhqJ_m3ON5vq0_RsmrQ?docId=CNG.db7c9b5c0e39e81289addf91510aff0e.171

Most printed newspapers will be gone in five years, says USC report

steve virgin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:20:43 +0000

Most printed newspapers in the United States will last only another five years, says a new report from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, reported LA Weekly. Released Wednesday, Dec. 14, the report, “Is America at a Digital Turning Point?,” looks at 10 years worth of studies from the Center for the Digital Future. According to the report, only the very largest and very smallest newspapers stand a chance: “It’s likely that only four major daily newspapers will continue in print form: The New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. At the other extreme, local weekly newspapers may still survive.” Other findings from the report include the lack of credibility in social media content, and the impending replacement of the PC by the tablet computer within three years. “At one extreme, we see users with the ability to have constant social connection, unlimited access to information, and unprecedented buying power. At the other extreme, we find extraordinary demands on our time, major concerns about privacy and vital questions about the proliferation of technology – including a range of issues that didn’t exist 10 years ago,” said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future, according to the center’s website.

http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/most-printed-newspapers-will-be-gone-five-years-says-usc-report

China tightens rules for microblog users

steve virgin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:13:11 +0000

Beijing authorities on Friday ordered Internet microblogs to require users to register with their real names, a tightening of rules aimed at controlling China’s rapidly growing social networks. An announcement posted online said all microblog companies registered in the capital had to enforce real name registration within three months. The rules, jointly issued by the Beijing government, police and Internet management office, apparently apply to all 250 million users of the hugely popular Twitter-like service Weibo.com, regardless of location, because its operator, Chinese Web portal Sina Corp., is headquartered in Beijing. Sina rival Tencent Holdings is based in the southern city of Shenzhen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the company’s microblog service would have to comply with the same rules. China had more than 485 million Internet users as of the end of June, the most of any country in the world. The new rules explicitly forbid use of microblogging to “incite illegal assembly.” Public protests are illegal in China and are a concern for the Communist leadership

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jR04kLCZ5lL54hIDSc35xVGWX5eQ?docId=2084ff9f555d4beca812955edd8a0805

Russian TV opens up on protests in surprise thaw

steve virgin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:52:12 +0000

After ignoring protests against election results for a week, Russia’s state television took a surprise decision to cover nationwide rallies at the weekend, hinting at a lifting of taboos. The move, which seemed unthinkable just days before, was dictated by the sheer amount of protesters and discussion on the Internet as well as public commments on the rallies by the ruling tandem of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, experts said. The top-rated news show on Channel One led with the Moscow rally, while another Kremlin-controlled channel NTV reported openly that protesters believed Prime Minister Putin’s ruling party had committed fraud in the polls. In previous days television turned a blind eye to hundreds of arrests at Moscow rallies, including that of charismatic opposition blogger Alexei Navalny. But when more than 50,000 people gathered opposite the Kremlin for a rally sanctioned by the authorities, it became impossible to ignore. A Kremlin source told Gazeta.ru news site that President Medvedev personally decided to run the reports.

TEDxBristol – Innovation Session – Wikimedia UK – Transforming Museums with Technology

steve virgin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:42:58 +0000