Berkman Buzz, week of June 2

A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations. If you'd like to receive this by email, just sign up here.


What’s going on…take your pick here or browse below.

* Dan Gillmor blows a whistle for whistleblowers.
* Tim Armstrong examines post-Grokster Pirate Bay raid.
* Ethan Zuckerman sees growing 'multi'media trend online.
* Lawrence Lessig points out eBay's Network Neutrality advocacy.
* Bill McGeveran contrasts US/EU positions on counter-terrorism.
* 'Digital Media in Asia' dismisses China's regulations targeting search providers.
* Eric Priest looks at monetization of Asia's consumer-produced content.


The full buzz.

"This will have a real chilling effect on communications, including citizen media; when a whistleblower’s every move is tracked by government and the ISPs, telling dangerous truths will be harder than ever. But the chill will go much deeper, and the danger is truly alarming. It is all being couched in the guise of protecting children, of course, the refuge governments use to justify these moves. It is another — huge — step toward a pervasive surveillance society...."
Dan Gillmor, "Surveillance of Everything You Do"

"Swedish police today raided several sites where servers suspected of being used in file-sharing were located, seizing several computers, including one allegedly belonging to a pro-piracy advocacy organization, and arresting people in their 20s. (A page summarizing the raid is now posted at the site's URL, piratebay.org.) Pirate Bay claimed the world's largest BitTorrent tracker site, and Swedish raid recalls the recent MPAA lawsuits against BitTorrent trackers in the U.S. (one of which, Torrent Spy, recently responded with a counter against the MPAA.) People who don't follow the issue regularly might be forgiven for thinking: hasn't this all been settled? Didn't the Supreme Court outlaw file-sharing in last year's Grokster decision? Well, no, not really...."
Tim Armstrong, "Indexing Infringing Content: Is it ever (il)Legal?"

"The web has the potential to be a comprehensive media platform, not just for text news, but for audio and video as well. Eun Taek shows a video of parliamentary violence and street protests in the 2004 elections and the presidential impeachment that preceded it. The video concludes with the phrase “full-fledged multimedia news in action”, an excellent summary of OhMyNews’s ambitions. The editorial process of OhMyNews helps answer questions about credibility and factchecking. The 42,000 reporters create about 200 stories a day - these stories are read and edited by copy editors and come to the site. Other stories come from professional staff reporters and come through a more traditional plan. And there's an intermingling of the food chain along the way. The influence of OhMyNews has grown rapidly in the last few years, becoming the 6th most influential media outlet in Korea...."
Ethan Zuckerman, "Hong Eun Taek at Netsquared"

"In a rare spin into politics, eBay’s Meg Whitman has written to eBay community members asking them to write members of Congress to get them to support Network Neutrality legislation. (eBay’s policy statement on NetNeutrality is here.) This is a critical time. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is my favorite leader on this issue. After just barely squeezing a victory in the House Judiciary Committee last week, the press is on now for the vote on the floor. The Congress Daily (which can’t be linked to) estimates about a $1 million per week is being spent on ads by telecom and cable companies to fight neutrality legislation...."
Lawrence Lessig, "Network Neutrality: Critical Push"

"While a new agreement may be negotiated, this decision again shows the disjuncture between American and European perspectives on data privacy (which the Europeans tend to call "data protection" - already demonstrating their different attitude). Given a political climate in Europe increasingly suspicious of U.S. counter-terrorism policy, I think we will see increasing refusals by Europeans to share data, on the ground that their law prohibits it. Will this encourage the U.S. to agree to more privacy-sensitive data handling practices? Could it even lead to a situation where foreigners' data is handled with more attention to privacy than Americans' data?"
Bill McGeveran, "Counter-Terrorism and US-EU differences in Data Privacy Law"

"New regulations go into effect July 1 in China targeting distributors of unauthorized content online. The regulations, which carry a maximum administrative fine of approximately US $12,000, target search engines like Baidu, which are the backbone of online file sharing in China, as millions of users can search the various Chinese search engines for links to thousands of unauthorized copies of songs and movies. Bloomberg.com quotes on analyst as saying that "Baidu will be under a lot of pressure to stop offering links to illegal MP3 files and may have to stop their MP3 search service." Stop offering links to illegal MP3 files? I don't see it. Providing links to unauthorized content is a cornerstone of Chinese search engine revenue-not just for Baidu, but for all the Chinese search engines. A $12,000 fine is not going to intimidate any search engine; they'll just chalk it up to the cost of doing business...."
Digital Media in Asia, "China Stiffens Penalties for Online Privacy"

"Some other ways that Asia is at the digital cutting edge: monetize the consumer expression factor, especially in, again, ring tones, ring back tones, but also in the encouraging of the creation of user content and sort of monetizing that user content, picking the best user created content and figuring out a way to market it, even in the face of piracy.... The convergence with other forms of other online entertainment, like gaming, sort of being really aggressive and innovative in terms of how you market your music and generate revenues...Artists taking more control moving straight to deals with distributors, this is another sort of way that I think Asia is leading the pack in setting the standard in terms of where things are headed...."
Eric Priest, "Asia at the Cutting Edge?"