There's something terrifically ironic about my reposting of large chunks of the article "Study reveals mass online news copying," written by Kenneth Li and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson originally for the Financial Times, over here.

A month-long study of how 101,000 articles published by 157 newspapers proliferated around the Internet found that more than 75,000 sites reused 112,000 almost exact copies without authorisation. A further 520,000 articles were reprinted in part.

The study, conducted by Attributor, a content tracking business, will form a critical part of upcoming negotiations between the news industry and online advertising networks, which publishers want to use to claw back the ad revenues being made by unauthorised redistributors.

[. . .]

Although the Attributor and the Fair Syndication Consortium has not estimated what the unlicensed content in its latest study might be worth, an earlier study that it conducted with 25 of the largest US publishers in January estimated that they were missing out on a possible $250m in revenue.

The study’s findings indicate that publishers are likely to hold Google and Yahoo responsible for clamping down on the unauthorised use of their content.

They are also set to push the the search groups to divert some of the revenue that would have gone to sites using newspaper content without permission back to publishers.

The study found Google accounted for 53 per cent of the advertising being run alongside unlicensed stories, and Yahoo accounted for a further 19 per cent. Bloggers, often the primary target of publishers’ anger about how their stories are disseminated online, accounted for less than 10 per cent of the unauthorised reuse.

When I reproduce chunks of articles here, or elsewhere, I do so with the intent of sharing interestng content with my readers and encouraging them to go visit the original page that has the entire document. Yes, I can post summaries, like the one I just posted on the Financial Times's take on MySpace's disarray, but I find them bloodless. People need teasers.

I also add value to these articles when I link to them: I link to them, I select and post especially interesting content, sometimes I comment on them, sometimes I comment on them so much that my readers get a [BRIEF NOTE] or even a treasured [BLOG-LIKE POSTING] out of them. I copy and link because I want my readers to see something interesting, I copy and link because I want my readers to have suggestions on how this can be read and to be able in turn to make suggestions about how it could also be read. No copy and link, no ongoing dialogue, and--not incidentally--no people being referred to these news sites. That's not a desirable outcome for them, is it?

Jim Pitkow, chief executive of Attributor, told the Financial Times that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, ad networks were obliged to respond if publishers notified them that their ads were running alongside unlicensed content. Instead of telling ad networks to see that the content is taken down, however, the consortium wants a share of the revenues from advertising that is run alongside it.

“Ad networks [asked us to] prove to us that publishers care and prove to us this is a large enough issue for us to pay attention,” he said. “I think this data will be used to make a lot of cases.”

“You’ll start to see folks taking action around this in 2010,” he added, saying that the first two quarters of the year would be when “the rubber will really hit the road”.

Any number of people have commented that the problems facing journalism in the Internet era is that every credible newspaper has to have online content and every newspaper online has to compete against each other, some doing better than others. The Guardian has done spectacularly well out of this, with content widely reproduced outside of the United Kingdom, others lke perhaps the New York Times less so, still others rather worse. Simply put, businesses offering similar services are going to have to compete against each other, the weak perishing in true Darwinian fashion.

Who will survive? There will be the newspapers which survived, like the Guardian; there will the newspapers with established reputations and strong metropolitan support, like (I hope) the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star; there will be the online news services associated with a broadcaster of one kind or another, like the CBC's site; there will be the newspapers catering to particular demographics, whether ideological or interest-based; there will be the locals, letting people know what's going on in their city, neighbourhood, on their street.

That's it.

Thoughts? I may have forgotten to add one or two categories of newspapers likely to survive, if so please note these in the comments.

The Financial Times's Matthew Garrahan profiles MySpace's decline from social networking hegemon to increasingly sickly competitor for market share. The cause? According to Garrahan, the ignorance of News Corp's Rupert Murdoch of the Internet, clashes between an unprofessional culture at MySpace and demanding News Corp people, and a fatal failure to actually innovate (blame it on both sides, since they're blaming each other). Garrahan ends with a note of skepticism about plans to use the strong MySpace sense of communtity and strength in music and video to relaunch the platform, since these plans have apparently been afoot for a while. Besides, as I've blogged several times (1, 2, 3), many of MySpace's core demographics have already defected to Facebook, and the ones that remain aren't necessarily very attractive. MySpace isn't going to disappear, it has its own core user population, but it has lost to Facebook.

On this year's Nuit Blanche, while I was walking east on Queen Street West towards City Hall from Osgoode Station. Instead I got what I think is a decent enough portrait of the person walking in front of me.

http://twitter.com/Othar/statuses/6438217461

Othar: He says the castle's crazy. It tells the prisoners to repair something and then tries to kill them when they try to do it. I prefer to rent.

Take a picture on your phone, or even point it at a shop, and get data about the target. The Android phone app google goggles already does this. Now consider display glasses fitted with a camera and a more advanced version of this software - you get the option of clicking a link for everything you look at and indicate that you'd like a link to - look at someone to get their name and public bio, at a package of food, or perhaps even a menu at a restaurant to get it's ingredients or even to get a simple warning if it contains any that you are allergic to. Look at a wild-growing berry to see what plant it comes from & if it's edible, or at produce in a market to get nutritional info and recipe suggestions. This will all arrive in less than a decade, and the first bits are here now. Our world is on the edge of becoming far richer. I look back at how limited and difficult information access was before I could look up almost any bit of information I was interested in withing seconds and am very grateful for the modern age, and this takes that to the next level. We live in an amazing age.

( embeded youtube vid on this under the link )

autopope posted an excellent link to an article on Muslim extremists who have renounced that path and are willing to talk about their experiences. I've read a few accounts by ex-fundie Christians and am struck both by the differences and the similarities. The differences are very striking, because all of the ex-fundies were white people living in the US, and all of the ex-Muslim extremists interviewed were people of color living in Britain, who in large part came too Muslim extremism because of racial prejudice. However, the similarities are also striking. Both sorts of people talk about feeling lost, of not finding a place in their society, and then having the offer of a very simple and powerful path presented to them. In one case, from the very well funded and organized fundy Churches, and in the other case through organized Wahhabism, based in Saudi Arabia and funded by the Saudi government and economic elite. Without these well-funded and organized presences, the result would in both cases be very different. Also, the way out of these rigid mindsets seems to be a combination of seeing first-hand that the movement is hypocritical and clearly doesn't deliver on its promises of producing and earthly paradise, and also when they begin to see their opponents as people, either because they feel some sympathy with them, or when their opponents stand up for the civil rights of the fanatics who oppose them or otherwise attempt to provide concrete help to them. The second is clearly something we can all do.

Yesterday, teaotter and I were talking about how people react to various sorts of celebrities. Her most interesting observations was that the intense focus on the private lives of politicians was exceedingly damaging, because it was also so normative. If lots of people are watching your private life, and their opinions matter to your career, then you can’t afford to be too eccentric – poly, kinky, too geeky, and either queer, or at least not too openly queer, or any of the many other life-styles that are (too me at least) far richer than life in the cultural mainstream. Intense personal scrutiny of this sort strongly encourages mainstream behavior.

It’s fairly obvious why at least some people wish to know the details of various politicians’ lives. For example, while the fact that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford secretly took a trip to Argentina to see his mistress has nothing to do with his ability to govern, the fact that he paid for this trip using government funds is somewhat more relevant, and a politician getting a house or a vacation from some special interest group is even more relevant, as are any criminal charges like drunk driving (which calls into question what else that politician is doing while drunk), assault, or all manner of similar charges. However, that’s pretty much it. Everything beyond that is gossip that clearly sells newspapers and pays for TV ad time, but does nothing to promote good government.

However, there’s more than an interest in good government going on, and there’s likely well be more than an interest in policing mainstream values, since this sort of fascination is equally present about others celebrities, particularly well known actors and performers, and on a fundamental level, I don’t understand it. I’m interested in politics, but I don’t care one whit about the personal lives of politicians I admire, or even of ones that I dislike, and I care even less about the lives of actors and musicians. For example, I think Johnny Depp is both a wonderful actor and exceptionally sexy, but I have not the slightest bit of interest in his personal life. I’m exceedingly interested in the characters of shows that I’m passionate about, to the extent of regularly reading fan fiction. However, I’ve never remotely understood the jump from there to a fascination with the actors. Similarly, there’s a fair amount of music that I love, but other than knowing information about upcoming album releases or tour dates, and the occasional discussion about their music, I don’t care about their lives at all, beyond generally wishing them well. It’s clear that while the focus on and fascination with the lives of all manner of celebrities has grown in the past 20 years, it’s been present as long as there have been famous people, and can be seen in 1920s Hollywood as much as in 2009 Hollywood. In any case, while it’s possible to construct all manner of psychological just-so stories about why so many people are interested in celebrities, such speculation is typically useless, and so I’m far more interested in hearing from anyone who actually shares such interests as to why they think the lives of famous people are interesting.

For various reasons related to the inevitable coming ChiCom Atomic IRBM barrage on the United States of Texas, I went looking for the Texas Republican Party Platform. No luck (and I have to leave) but I did find this discussion of the platform, written by someone who will be a familiar name to denizens of the frp newsgroups back in the olden days.

I think I rediscover that he does this every few years.

Nalle is if I recall correctly the first person ever to offer to pay me for something I wrote.

Hey Guys,

Unfortunately with our last release, and its instability, we were forced to roll back releases. Unfortunately in doing so, it would seem that our notification system has been broken somehow. Our engineers are working on this issue as quickly as possible. We hope to have a patch within the next day, so we can deploy our code and fix the notification system at the same time. Please *bear* with us ;)

Currently all notifications are being queued up so they can be processed as soon as the fix is pushed and verified to be working correctly.

Thank you,

Where's the best shoe store to look for men's winter boots? I've never lived somewhere as cold as this (yeah yeah -- it's not really that cold -- whatever!) and never needed winter boots before. I'm looking for something that wouldn't look completely ridiculous with skinny jeans. Macy's has a pretty poor selection. Thanks.

V-gifts
You guys. *laughs, snuggles everyone* Thanks, I'm covered in snowflake cookies now. ♥ Hopefully all the good vibes will make me better! ♥

Livejournal
LJ continues to be strange. Your comments don't reach my inbox until HOURS later. ^_^; Okay, LJ, you can stop doing that now... or is that you, Gmail?

Ew
I just coughed some blood onto my monitor. From three feet away. Yeah, okay, I don't know what the medicine is doing because it doesn't seem to be doing anything good. Unless this is what it's like with the medicine...

Tomorrow
Staying in, vegetating in front of the computer. I'd sleep more, but when I'm horizontal I cough even more than I do now (a truly frightening thought, as I have been coughing more-or-less non-stop for the past hour).

I want this to go away so badly. T_T

My Googling skills are clearly sub-par: what is the estimated price elasticity of demand for novels? Surely publishers can't be going on their gut but if this aspect is documented, I have not yet found it.

You know what I don't miss? Smoking sections.

Mark Henry has an offer for you, which I will quote here in a manner that is not black print on green.

( Read more... )

Seems to be likely ( Read more... )

Paid Sick Leave
Paid sick leave. For yesterday, today's half-day, and tomorrow. Wow. It's been so long I'm marvelling at it. ♥ Suddenly I like my job again.

To iPhone or not to iPhone?
In case you were ever concerned about your personal appropriateness (especially when it comes to technology), here is a handy chart to tell you whether or not you should pull your iPhone out. The lightsaber app box made me laugh, especially the box that followed. *grins* In Doug's case, though, it was the lighter app, not the lightsaber app. I think he might have gotten me faster had it been the lightsaber app... XD ♥

Scalzi Watch
Scalzi has written a short story for Subterranean Press (that would be his publisher) called Denise Jones, Super Booker. I'm trying very hard not to say this, and you guys know I love Scalzi, but dang, it's so hard not to read that as "hooker". ^_^; Anyway, an excerpt:

Q: What does a booking coordinator do, in the context of super beings?
A: Well, as you know, cities and countries all over the world are under constant threat from terrorists, organized crime, natural disasters, arch villains and monsters both alien and supernatural. When these cities and countries find themselves under attack, they’ll give me a call and I’ll find them a super being affiliated with the ISSB to help them deal with whatever crisis they’re dealing with at the moment.

Q: So you’re saying that if Chicago were attacked by a sewer monster or something, the mayor would have to go through you to get help from ArachnoLad.
A: No, Chicago keeps ArachnoLad on a retainer. The Evening Stalker, too. Most large cities have one or two super beings under contract.

Q: So, Chicago pays ArachnoLad for protection?
A: You make it sound like a mob racket. It’s more like a consulting and services fee.

Oh Scalzi. ♥ (Wonder if Tempe has ever wronged him?)

Fiction on the Web
Marshall Brain's Manna tells a really interesting story of technological innovation. Personally I think the narrative style needs a lot of work (I'm not too enamored of the style--I don't like it) but the ideas in the story really give one food for thought. His 8-chapter story really could have been written in a far more dramatic fashion into a novel; heck, he could have made a full-length feature movie with it to spread the story and make it take hold. ... okay, turning off inner!critic now.

Open Book
februaryfour: You know, when you first bought this album, you told me you were surprised I liked Uprising so much because you thought I'd like Resistance more.
doubt72: [ETA: ]Maybe. I like both songs equally, but Resistance seems more like your type.
februaryfour: Well, you were right. I mean, Uprising is like a call to arms and it really energizes me, but Resistance is the song that has more resonace. It really sticks in your head. But how did you know I'd like it more?
doubt72: Well, it seemed like it.
februaryfour: ^_^; How do you know me so well?
doubt72: Because you're obvious.

Last night was the family holiday party, some of whose attendees are in the icon. I saw all but two of the rest while in Cal. We did the Christmas present thing differently this year - supposedly only a present for the relative whose name was drawn for you by the Party Czar, rather than for everyone (but assorted minor nummies were given by everyone but me, who didn't get -that- word). My allotted giftee was the Party Czar herself, who offhandedly had expressed a wish for a Chicago Bears scarf when I saw her in October. The drawing of names didn't happen until Thanksgiving, rather short notice for a knitting project. I ordered the yarn while still in California, so it was waiting for me on arrival home Thursday night. I wrapped it in the Trib sports section and took it to the party so that she would have something to unwrap. She was delighted, squeeing happily. We conferred after dinner about how wide the scarf should be (narrowish - 8 inches), how wide each stripe (1 inch), and whether the fringe should be the opposite color of the end stripes (yes). It will be very long - I ordered 3 navy and 3 orange skeins of 100 grams/3.5 ounces of wool. And it is wool, not acrylic or a blend. I am glad to find that I can knit plain (without having to purl, though having to stop reading when changing colors) and read from the laptop at the same time, a very good thing, as I had 50 LMB digests and 975 LJ posts waiting for me. I'll write about the rest of the road trip when I've caught up with y'all.

Since laila_r was kind enough to post links to DA fanart in the previous post, the task for our sixth challenge is as follows:

1.) Choose an existing work of Twelve Kingdoms fanart or fanfic (there are plenty of examples on this comm alone) and write/draw a fanwork inspired by or in response to that work. Be sure to link to the other work when you post your own.

2.) FOR INSTANCE: write/draw something that explains exactly how Taiki wound up in that sailor uniform.

[As usual, challenge guidelines are here.]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/palins-father-she-left-ha_n_381724.html

Did Sarah Palin leave Hawaii because there were too many Asians? In the New Yorker review of "Going Rogue," Sam Tanenhaus writes that Palin's father suggested as much to the reporters who wrote "Sarah From Alaska." The account contradicts the former Alaska governor's own description of her reasons for leaving college in Hawaii after only one semester.

Palin, though notoriously ill-traveled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. "Hawaii was a little too perfect," Palin writes. "Perpetual sunshine isn't necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls." Perhaps not. But Palin's father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: "They were a minority type thing and it wasn't glamorous, so she came home." In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, "because it was much like Alaska yet still 'Outside.' "

The passage was first flagged by Issac Chotiner at The New Republic, who wondered why it hadn't gotten any media attention.

------------------------------------------

I don't think white liberals (in a general sense) really understand how insulting it is to minorities every time they feel like they need to protect them. Keep in mind the "race" of the large majority of the people on Huffington Post! A website like TownHall.com has a fairly diverse array of columnists (women, asians, blacks, jews, etc), yeah they are somehow the out of touch racists, meanwhile the Huffington Post columnists are mostly white.