Two leakers (one a true whistleblower), are in the news right now, both focused on the US-led surveillance society, operating in the interests of corporate power. And today, in relation to this, 2 journalists show the importance of the fourth estate to democracy. Kim Hill & Glenn Greenwald take a bow.
The NSA has direct access to servers at Google, Apple, Facebook, and other Internet giants, and they collect pretty much whatever data they like. We shouldn’t be surprised. The Guardian has the story.
(Socialist) feminism seems to be on the rise internationally, exposing how threats to “old boys” corporate-aligned power are countered by policing women’s bodies. Sue Bradford highlights the contradiction between Owen Glenn’s paternalistic corporate capitalism and the feminist-aligned participants in his Inquiry. Jan Logie addresses the gender pay gap.
NZ’s Fair Deal Coalition launched a new website, ourfairdeal.org, networking globally with others concerned about intellectual property & the TTPA. The FDC includes those supporting global “neoliberal” commerce, & others supporting community & public sector activities, democratic freedoms and privacy rights.
In his meetings with Ian Fletcher, Key’s main aims and activities are hidden in plain sight. They connect with US-led initiatives around digital copyright, intellectual property and commerce. Recently there have been some worrying developments in the bigger picture: GCSB, ACTA, TPPA, SOPA, CISPA.
Dotcom has promised some significant revelations from this week’s court proceedings. This morning his lawyer focused on Grant Wormald, the role of the police Special Tactics Group, and the truth. Is the GCSB is off the hook? Meanwhile, Key has been claiming he is “honest and upfront”. [Update – Key’s announced changes to the GCSB outrageous & undemocratic]
John Key is into networking and schmoozing with the wealthy & influential. He’s given special attention to the entertainment industries, GCSB, intellectual property & commerce. He crossed paths with Warner’s people the year before the Hobbit dispute, but never played golf with Dotcom.
The PM, Fletcher, the GCSB – questions need answering: why, when, where, who? It’s all about intellectual property, global commerce and international networks. From London to Aus 2009, to NZ 2010, then down the rabbit hole to Dotcom, Hobbits & uncertain links with complex global money mazes.
I wonder how far the knucklehead rebellion will spread…
I “attended” a fascinating “town hall” meeting last week of artists from around the world in the Visual Special Effects sector. Ignited by […]
The withdrawal of News Corp from SkyNZ, & the new deal on press regulation in the UK are part of various shifts: from media moguls to financial investors, rise of the internet, & the balance between corporate media and politicians – not a fourth estate revival. [Update: tweeters/bloggers excluded]
The innovations that drive our modern economies changes and growth these days is largely powered by the internet. It is ubiquitously embedded in most businesses these days to a fantastic degree. While I wish economists well in their continuous attempts at measuring the effect of the internet, I think that it will be a futile endeavour.
TTPA talks under way in Singapore. Jane Kelsey leads critical discussion in NZ: Obama skewing the agenda in favour of US corporates; pharmaceuticals, internet, copyright & more; John Key’s dodgy figures. In Aussie today, a seminar on the TPPA & corporate dominance over women’s rights & health provisions.
In the last 12 hours I’ve had robo-spam email from 4 different friends, all with xtra email accounts. Is anyone else seeing this?
In the continuing saga of Kim Dotcom against the forces of blind, silly, and technically illiterate conservatism, amongst whom John Key (our Minister of International Embarrassment) fits pretty well. Kim Dotcom has launched a new file storage service. Although that is not strictly correct – rather people associated with him did. It is the “Mega” and is accessible at present only using the https://mega.co.nz. And it is a bit bogged down with mega demand…
Looks like people are heading back to work. I’m always surprised at how predictable the end of year pattern is on this site. In fact I can (and do) bet server maintenance on it. This year we moved fully into the cloud but did it offshore. That way we don’t pay excessive variable costs to the Southern Cross cable monopoly to pay for searchbots.
Market failure is one of the marks of our time. From unaffordable, low-quality housing to child poverty to the over-valued dollar killing jobs to over-priced broadband and failed government IT procurements, the market keeps getting it wrong. The Greens and Labour know the answer is for the Government to step in; National just turns a blind eye. Russel Norman did it again yesterday.
Kim DotCom has been twittering about his new website that is under development to the amusement of some observers. But for us in NZ we’re probably less interested in the layout of his file manager than what is actually in the screenshot of the file manager. Promises yet more pain for the government and it’s inept police and security services.
Chris Trotter, like myself, was at the Labour party conference a week and a half ago. Like myself and damn near every left wing blogger who was there, he saw a massive discordance between what was being reported and what was actually happening in the conference. The hysteria at having a carefully constructed fiction of media and the beltway PR being torn to pieces by ordinary citizens writing has been extraordinary. The implications for the poorly constructed Law Commission report on cyber-bullying is sobering.
John Key is steaming ahead in selling NZ. He is Obama’s wing-man to extend the TPP into the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, the “Hobbit Law” is taking a heavy toll on many NZ actors. And there are claims that the Hobbit production has been harming animals.
So, in an effort to make a post not calling for the head of David Shearer, I decided to take a look at […]
Kim Dotcom is promising ultra-cheap broadband for NZ. If he pulls it off, he is going to put our local entrepreneurs to shame – not to mention our government.
In another slippery John Key u-turn, after his mission to Hollywood ‘sweeteners’ are now on the table. Key is bending over to let US-based conglomerates extend their dominance in NZ, in support of their own interests and values.
Kim Dotcom was arrested on charges related to copyright infringement, not national security or “terrorism”. There is a worrying trend that the GCSB is part of an international security networks that have shifted from their original mission related to national security and is providing support to corporate interests.
It seems the Standard is off the Paganis’ Christmas list. John Pagani tells the Listener that he much prefers Kiwiblog because it “has […]
Labour and the Greens are producing great infographics that succiently explain what the government’s doing wrong on issues of the day and bust National’s myths. They chuck them up on Facebook and Twitter and they spread like wildfire. They’re a really effective use of social media. You can help by liking the parties’ Facebook pages and sharing the infographics.
Confirmation today that The Herald is adopting a format more in keeping with its content, and going tabloid. The media world is changing fast…
Major changes in the media in Oz will have their impact here – some already have. Interesting times ahead for all, including the Standard.
There’s a lot of analogy between how a guerrilla movement succeeds against a superpower or a state in the era of mass communication and how protest movements can do the same. Unable to win head-on, losing becomes winning as long as the cameras are rolling. It’s about being seen as having a legitimate cause and just as importantly being seen as the victims of disproportionate force and abuse of power.
Do we really want search results tailored to our mood and intelligence? Are we going to take the most powerful aggregate of information ever assembled by humanity and bend it to our cognitive biases?
“Crusher Collins up close” headlines a two-page article by Andrea Vance in the Saturday March 10 DomPost. It’s not on the Stuff website but deserves a wider audience. John Key might have been unwise to have stayed away on holiday this week – he should remember what happened to Jim Bolger.
The Global Square “aims to be the first massive decentralized social network in the history of the Internet”. Can you help?
The idiots at the US Congress, after covering themselves with shame in 2011, have already started to try to surpass it this year with dumbarse legislation against online copyright piracy. Not only will it not prevent the crimes of its intended targets, but it is also so badly drafted that almost anything can and probably will be deemed to be a copyright violation. Good choice for a Darwin award. The only problem is that most of them have already bred.
Green’s MP Gareth Hughes explains the new US internet laws that have the likes of Wikipedia upset, and why we should care: The Green Party is deeply concerned about the Stop Internet Piracy (SOPA) and PROTECT IP (PIPA) Acts currently causing quite a stir in the US and its impacts on New Zealanders access to a free and open Internet and online businesses.
