Citizens have been using lo-fi digital technology to call into question police accounts and to government practices:

Sous-veillance” will see video sharing sites such as YouTube used by citizens to shine a spotlight on things such as deadly hygiene lapses in hospital wards and uncollected rubbish, according to the European Information Society Group (Eurim).

Recently during a New York critical mass, a biker, Christopher Long was shoved off his bike. The video of the now famous shove was posted on YouTube has had over 1,000,000 hits. According to the NyTimes:

Officer Pogan composed a story of his encounter with Mr. Long. It bore no resemblance to the events seen on the videotape. Based on the sworn complaint, Mr. Long was held for 26 hours on charges of attempted assault and disorderly conduct.

The availability of cheap digital technology — video cameras, digital cameras, cellphone cameras — has ended a monopoly on the history of public gatherings that was limited to the official narratives, like the sworn documents created by police officers and prosecutors. The digital age has brought in free-range history.

via /.

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Tags: biker,critical mass,sous-veillance,Surveillance
Categories: Surveillance, Uncategorized
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About a month ago Colbert offered up a challenge to viewers to make McCain exciting by photoshoping green-screened footage of a mind-numbingly dull speech that was uploaded to colbert nation. He has been showing them on The Report ever since and there has been a ton of these videos created, here are some of the most popular and my personal (nerdy favourite)

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Tags: Colbert Report,make mccain exciting,McCain green screen
Categories: Uncategorized, Video
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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.

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Tags: Canada,copyleft,copyright,DMCA,iphone
Categories: Uncategorized
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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.

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Tags: body image,Gender,Second Life,sex
Categories: Gender, Uncategorized
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Another example of an old media player trying to act like a new media company can be found at CTV’s MyNews. It’s an attempt at citizen journalism and based on the calibre of journalism coming out of CTV I’m sure that citizens will fair much better. On their site they say:

Have you seen news happening?
Do you have a video or image(s) of something that should be seen on our CTV Newscasts?
It can be breaking news like a fire or accident or something eye-catching like a late spring storm or a celebrity sighting.
We are looking for the best in citizen journalism to enhance CTV’s own newsgathering efforts.

Wireless spectrum auction

WirelessNorth.ca is covering the wireless spectrum auction happening in Canada. The amount the auction has raised is staggering at $1.8 billion. The auction is not exciting because as any Canadian can imagine there already is little competition over our airwaves. It looks like there won’t be a new player in town anytime soon

Now in to it’s second week and 14th round of bidding, Canada’s AWS auction has hit 1.8Billion and is not showing immediate signs of slowing down. 68 licences received bids last round, actually up from the 40-50 bids of the last round. Thus far industry Canada’s decision to set aside new spectrum appears to have anything but discourage a handsome return on this auction.

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Tags: Canada,CTV,wireless
Categories: Old Media vs New, Uncategorized
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Turns out he is an artist and NOT a bioterrorist: A judge threw out charges Monday against a college art professor accused of improperly obtaining biological materials for an exhibit protesting U.S. government food policies.U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that the 2004 mail and wire fraud indictment against Steven Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor, was ”insufficient on its face.”

Kurtz is a founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble, which has used human DNA and other biological materials in works intended to draw attention to political and social issues. His arrest drew protests from artists in several countries who called the charges an intrusion on artistic freedom. link

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Tags: bioterror,Censorship,charges dismissed,Critical Art Ensemble,Kurtz,Steven Kurtz
Categories: Censorship, Uncategorized
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the NYtimes: “The Federal Communications Commission is considering new rules and enforcement decisions that would force the cable and telephone companies to more clearly disclose to consumers the circumstances in which they might delay some traffic.”

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The LA Times: “The first salvo was fired by the original Napster, which defined itself as a file-sharing network. That won the semantic high ground by defining unauthorized downloading as “sharing,” not “copying” or “duplicating.” The implication was that users of these networks were merely being generous with something they possessed, not usurping the rights of copyright holders.

Record labels, music publishers and movie studios contend that copyrights are indeed property, entitled to the same protection as a home or a car. To counter the notion of “sharing,” they’ve advanced an equal powerful metaphor: downloading as theft.”

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The Financial Times: “The government will on Friday tell internet service providers they will be hit with legal sanctions from April next year unless they take concrete steps to curb illegal downloads of music and films.Britain would be one of the first countries in the world to impose such sanctions. Service providers say what the government wants them to do would be like asking the Royal Mail to monitor the contents of every envelope posted.”

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the blogherald: “In this post-9/11 world, transportation security remains a major global issue.In light of that fact, The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in America has launched a blog in order to inform the public of future initiatives and give frustrated travelers a place to air their grievances.

The TSA’s Evolution of Security blog aims to explain to the public, in non-political terms, why certain processes work the way they do. At some time or another, many upstanding citizens have felt violated, as the air travel process has shifted from a luxury to an inconvenience.

Is the blog nothing more than propaganda to justify intrusive security checks and long delays?

According to the blog, “Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.”

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