Earlier I updated readers on the latest action with the CDT and more importantly the smack down going on in the U.K. over Phorm (previously known as the artists- 121 Media). I would lay money down that paperghost will have a field day with this on vitalsecurity.org

Just in from Timeless Prototype. Now it appears there is a BT internal report leak on illegal secret Phorm test.

Shameful indeed…It almost feels like the days of Nail.exe and Direct Revenue….wonder if they have a Dark Arts section?

It seems that there has now been a leak of the internal British Telecom Retail report, dated January 2007, which highlights the technical issues and performance of the illegal 2 week secret technical trial which British Telecom inflicted on thousands of its unsuspecting broadband internet customers, for two weeks in September 200 The report confirms that that none of the BT customers were consulted beforehand, and they did not grant their permission for their port 80 web traffic to be intercepted and modifiedby British Telecom and 121Media (as Phorm were then known

They tested out the substitution of banner adverts from a range of British based advertising agencies, mostly relating to Motoring, which were substituted in place of some charity adverts e.g. from Oxfam. It is unclear from this report whether Phorm had paid for the charity adverts, but, given the sneakiness of this commercial espionage test, it seems unlikely that any charity would have been consulted or agreed. The BT report highlights the obvious web cookie dropping problem and its incompatibility with informed consent.

The effect on static IP address customersby the sneaky imposition of the proxy servers is also recognized in the report. The report does not mention the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 section 1 criminal offence legal implications of intercepting web based emails, but the engineers do seem to be passing the buck over to the BT legal department, to get the terms and conditions of the broadband customer contract changed.

Update:

A copy of the BT report (17Mb .pdf) also now resides on the supposedly “uncensorable” Wikileaks.org website in Sweden. Ouch.

ADDENDUM: Phorm contacted me about an accuracy. Please see this post regarding their letter, the original author’s retraction, etc. I have also offered up some questions for Phorm if they wish to respond to the e-commerce and security community.

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Usenet Unblocking 

Does your ISP block or censor your Usenet newsgroup access through their news servers? They also keep log files of everything you view or download from their newsgroup servers! If you are tired of intrusive ISP’s that want to censor what you can view and read on the internet then you need a private party Usenet newsgroup provider. They do not keep log files of what you view or download.

Over 120,000 unrestricted Usenet newsgroups.

If it exists you can find it on Usenet and these feeds are not throttled or restricted.

Download using your favorite news reader program.

Have you always been interested in using Usenet newsgroups but have not done so because you felt learning how to use a news reader program might be too difficult? They will even set up a phone appointment with you and will walk you through downloading a news reader, setting it up for their news servers and help you get started by showing you how to use it too download messages and files from newsgroups.

They are the only Usenet company that will take the time to personally help you get started using Usenet newsgroups- I know of users who have signed up and used them for years.  If you have always wanted to find out what Usenet newsgroups are all about but have been hesitant to try it out now is the right time to give it a try.

The service is not free, but well worth the price you pay to get uncensored usenet access.

Uncensored Usenet from A libis or learn more at the USENET FAQ.

Want Usenet binaries and pictures that are *not* logged, come across with blazing high speeds, and offers a trial? Try and see why everyone raves.
USENEXT. Fast, Anonymous and Spyware and Adware free.

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An interesting reflection by RoboJiannis on Torrentspy and evidence, Apple and ChangeSecret and Yahoo!, Baidu, China and infringement. Is this really all about putting the Web (the Net) under control? (ChangeMod (abbreviated from change mode) appears to be a play on words on the shell command in Unix and Unix-like environments known as Chmod)

Jiannis’ piece quotes some snippets from Barlow’s manifesto- the critical Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace written in 1996…

Snippets from the Manifesto

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather….

…Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here….

…In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media…

…We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.

John Perry Barlow, of Davos, Switzerland, penned this manifesto on February 8, 1996, A declaration of the independence of cyberspace. Barlow is also known as a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization which promotes freedom of expression in digital media where he now serves as its Vice Chairman.

Do you recall the words of the declaration of the independence of cyberspace- written over a decade ago? That is a long time in the computing era. (I have made some edits made for clarity based on today’s ChangeMode feedback post and comments. This shows that I am suffering from dementia perhaps…

(While we are at it I would love to find a definitive source on the lost art of netiquette.)

The Triad of Developments

The Changemod.com piece goes on to recap a triad of disturbing developments:

TorrentSpy, a Peer-to-Peer Network, according to the verdict of a California judge has violated copyrights owned by the MPAA. TorrentSpy was also found guilty of destroying evidence e.g. example deleting logs of user IP adresses. In the Blogosphere- recall the debate over Apple getting the Think Secret blog shut down- although the settlement was “amicable”. A quick stop to China which found Yahoo! guilty of copyright infringement. The rub is that China wasn’t actually serving up any pirated music. They were simply engaged in “deep linking.”

Further Reading

Chris Marshall of Gadgetell’s Torrent Spy and Guilty Verdict

Mashable’s Kriten Nicole Torrent Spy Loses Cast Against Hollywood Heavyweights

Mashable’s Andy Angelos: TorrentSpy Defies Court Order and Rekindles Hollywood Angst

Apple and Think Secret Settlement

Mashable’s Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins Yahoo! China Found Guilty of Copyright Infringement

Bryan Gardiner from Wired Apple Kills Think Secret: Publisher Nick Ciarelli Talks

Philosophy behind Freenet Covers free flow of information, communication is humanity, knowledge is good, democracy assumes a well informed population, censorship and freedom, solutions, anonymity, copyrights, rewards, alternatives and new approaches like Fairshare.

Eff.org: From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

Books on Freedom of Speech

Conclusions…

The author of the ChangeMod.com piece concludes:

I believe it all comes down to this: The cyberspace is increasingly gaining in popularity and everybody wants a piece of the pie; and control is the way to get that piece.

My own Conclusion

I found this quote from EFF’s Mike Godwin located on the The Free Network Project. Freenetproject.org provides free software which lets people publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. The network is entirely decentralized and publishers and readers of information are anonymous. FreeNet believes without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack. Some may disagree with anonymity but I find decentralization to be technically on target.

“I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she’s too young to have logged on yet. Here’s what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say ‘Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?’”
–Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

attention Blogging Censorship Free Software future Intellectual Property

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For those who have followed the “WSE” situation.

Quoting myself:

The more imaginative and effective are the weapons that are real. Never pull a baton you don’t intend to use, and batons come in many shapes and forms if you think metaphorically. So when I have time I’ll trot into the metaverse myself…and have a little peek around, talk in a civil manner. I always extend the benefit of the doubt, but intuition is a researcher’s tool and it is ringing- I hope I am wrong.

My hand is itchy, and when a social explorer and experimenter gets an itch, he naturally wants to scratch it. With a baton.

I highly recommend reading: The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (Ex Machina: Law, Technology, and Society) (Paperback)
by Jack Balkin and Beth Noveck

Read Inside- The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (Ex Machina: Law, Technology, and Society)

In particular Chapter V- Real World Power: see Essay 15- Virtual Worlds, Real Rules. Using Virtual Worlds to Test Real Rules by Caroline Bradley and A. Michael Froomkin. (Support from University of Miami School if Law)

Topics Covered in this essay, which centers around using virtual worlds as “test” beds for various legal matters and systems (the entire book of essays is a must have) include:

- Real and Chattel Property Regimes

- Tax Policy

- Transactional Law

- Tort

- Insurance

- Dispute Resolution

- Jurisprudence

- Complex Rules

- Family Law

- Administrative Law and the Legislative Process

- Transnational and International Law

- Zoning

- Intellectual Property

More About Text:

The State of Play presents an essential first step in understanding how new digital worlds will change the future of our universe. Millions of people around the world inhabit virtual words: multiplayer online games where characters live, love, buy, trade, cheat, steal, and have every possible kind of adventure. Far more complicated and sophisticated than early video games, people now spend countless hours in virtual universes like Second Life and Star Wars Galaxies not to shoot space invaders but to create new identities, fall in love, build cities, make rules, and break them.

As digital worlds become increasingly powerful and lifelike, people will employ them for countless real-world purposes, including commerce, education, medicine, law enforcement, and military training. Inevitably, real-world law will regulate them. But should virtual worlds be fully integrated into our real-world legal system or should they be treated as separate jurisdictions with their own forms of dispute resolution? What rules should govern virtual communities? Should the law step in to protect property rights when virtual items are destroyed or stolen?

These questions, and many more, are considered in The State of Play, where legal experts, game designers, and policymakers explore the boundaries of free speech, intellectual property, and creativity in virtual worlds. The essays explore both the emergence of law in multiplayer online games and how we can use virtual worlds to study real-world social interactions and test real-world laws.

Contributors include: Jack M. Balkin, Richard A. Bartle, Yochai Benkler, Caroline Bradley, Edward Castronova, Susan P. Crawford, Julian Dibbell, A. Michael Froomkin, James Grimmelmann, David R. Johnson, Dan Hunter, Raph Koster, F. Gregory Lastowka, Beth Simone Noveck, Cory Ondrejka, Tracy Spaight, and Tal Zarsky.

And for Second Life “citizens”- The official guide. A bit dated, but still very useful…

3D social networking atomistic construction Beth Simone Noveck Black Snow Blazing Falls Blogging Bone Crusher Censorship creative commons Dan Hunter Dark Age of Camelot E Commerce Edward Castronova Electronic Arts First Amendment free speech interests free speech law game conceit game items game owners game space Gaming Garden of Remembrance gold farmers Gregory Lastowka Julian Dibbell Lawrence Lessig multiplayer online games New York online context online intermediaries other avatars peer production platform owners Player Data Raph Koster Richard Bartle Second Life Snow Crash Social Networks social software Stock exchange Supreme Court synthetic worlds The Gulag Online The Sims Online Ultima Online Video Video Games virtual assets virtual crimes virtual goods virtual items virtual properties virtual property visual virtual worlds walled worlds wayne porter web2.0 WSE Yochai Benkler

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This from Profy’s Twitter stream caught my eye.

Why is Facebook being banned?

My first thought would be information leakage…then again you would have to ban “Web 2.0″…maybe it is just about so-called- productivity?

3D social networking Censorship facebook twitter wayne porter

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Vacation time and as it is traditional- when I take them (like never) I give out a nod and this one goes out to my respected mentor- Steve Rosenbaum, who recently said,

“So a new class of producers is emerging, and within that class there is some very high quality material that speaks to audience with passion, authority, and conviction. This is a good thing. Its good for consumers, it’s good for new makers, and its good for technology providers.

The shift moves the power from the owner of the network, to the creator of the most compelling content. And that’s going to be important for all of us.”

If you want to see a taste of micro content, of the new rise of creators speaking with passion, authority and conviction read on.

These are the stories that fire me up, that make me believe that media is of the people and for the people. That it is what we do, and what we say that can move mountains. Small sparks that erupt into infernos, grass roots efforts like Paul at Castlecops, or kung-fu artists like Paperghost.

Steve here you go. From an earlier comment on accountability and fraud in virtual worlds Ms. Stewart posts:

What can I do here? What solutions or remedies can I offer? How can I make SecondLife better than I found it? What would I want my children to look back and see?

and…

Am I now just pointing fingers myself, and stirring the drama I dislike? Yes, I am. I am angry and I have good reason to be.

A friend told me this is a pivotal time, an important time and what we do, whether it is perceived as a game or reality, is shaping the world. I could grind axes until there is nothing but a tiny piece of metal left, I could keep up this warfare and allow it to serve no purpose other than an outlet for my anger.

What can I do here? What solutions or remedies can I offer? How can I make SecondLife better than I found it? What would I want my children to look back and see?

From here, the warfare will cease. This will be my time to cool off and offer up solutions to those willing to listen, instead of pointing fingers. We can share Ideas instead of pointless bickering.

and…

Life is full of deception. It’s how you handle the deception by prevention and education that helps mitigate losses, and ultimately risk.

This is Shania. I have officially spoken my peace.

You can accept me for who I am and what we can do together, or you can point your fingers in the mirror, keep in mind the mirror will point back.

This is Shania. I have officially spoken my peace.

That is what it is all about- our stories, our lives, our convictions, our passion and knowing that what we do and what we say can make a difference. That difference can ripple the fabric. We are people and we are human but we know what to do, and what must be done.

But back to Steve….who has inspired many posts:

History:

We ended up conversing back and forth after a brief intro from collaborator and another mentor, Brian Clark, as I had been blogging on censorship in India and javascript injection and caught up in what I called Rosenbaum’s dilemma.

We bonded around our views of that “Web 2.0″ thing, and I was intrigued by his Magnify.net platform- with the ability to create channels and get feedback it led to my own thoughts on ways to do this tool- we talked. Takeaway- Think niche, think long tail, think community. (And I think I showed Steve a thing or two about thinking like an A.I. agent.). During that time I wanted to see if any community could be built with just a lump of symmetrical media. Would we, as people, seek to put order to the mass? No other agents. No big budgets, just media on a niche topic and some passion.

Yes. It worked shockingly well, and the little known niche of “machinima” (Hat tip to moo money) gets a little more exposure. Then we talked about monetization since I had some experience in that realm and a strange hybrid of security genes. It is a long story- maybe I can get movie deal Steve? Not with Clark…

So going on into my vacation I wanted to leave some thoughts- and perhaps the conviction of Shanai Stewart as we talked about how do you make it sustainable? Ack…boring inventory…Well you could widget around it, but no- that isn’t the full answer. Steve I think the key is, as I keep harping to you on skype over and over- break it out and hand over inventory control to platform users on the 50/50 model…let the users decide for themselves what and how to monetize the channel (watch out for those “Adware” deals- stop that cold) or not too monetize it. The know it. It is their passion.

The choice of coin is in their hands. As Sam and I like to say- it could be influence, or making a difference, or just having different and unique ideas to expose. At the least you and they can always use the mass of the collective and if they can’t beat that- they can join it. Some will fail, some will fail badly- but we will learn.

Open up the inventory at Magnify and just as we know what to magnify or to create, and measure we will figure out what to put there too…or work together and find that solution.

I am Wayne Porter…off to rest on my vacation and think about what I may contribute in the way of solutions and more importantly recharge with my wonderful wife (saint) and two kids who tolerate the crusader inside Dad…and Steve- the Monkey Phone Call is on the house…and another chapter is written on media I hope we can read in 100 years. Video your thoughts…or twitter them.

The Sounds of Thunder echo…Snowcrash has arrived at our doorstep…and the fiery chain reaction is closed in loop or rather it spreads further as I finally meet Fleep today and we talk about education, memes and graffiti moving to tee-shirts; on to zines and into blogs. This as we move and socialize around what we create and others create for us. “Social Media”.

I thank you all for your campfires, your stories, and your convictions. As a jedi master once told me- find your Zen.

ADDENDUM: Gigaom’s property covers Rosenbaum’s decision. Steve just keep the malware or adware out!

3D social networking Blogging Censorship E Commerce Film microblogging microchunking NeeTeeVee Net Lifestyle Recreation Second Life Security Video Video Games wayneporter.com web2.0 widgets

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I have been mulling over the evil marketer…and their interesting three-part series.

The influencer would need to promote products or brands in a mostly measurable way, via tracked links, coupon codes, printable coupons, or email subscriptions; they would also need to brand their site/sites in a way that is agreeable to both influencer and advertiser

The influencer could set desired rates and promise a certain level of traffic; these rates would generally be a paid contract over a certain term, but could include bonuses based on CPA or CPC

The influencer must agree to never promote rival products or brands while under contract

A rigid approval and vetting process would need to be in place for entry as an influencer; applicants would need to show proof of influence as well as traffic and/or previous affiliate commission numbers, and the applicant would need to concentrate on one vertical

A network managed by one individual but consisting of several sites and blogs could apply as an influencer and thus use its aggregate influence under one influencer account

Read on for some answers……

This evil entity is sharp. Ten bucks he would understand it if I said an “engagement” with one’s brand is worth treble that out in the field then on one’s site. Influence…and it grows- it is harder to track, but like “buzz” you can “feel it”. I can anyway.

IPTV, VOIP, Virtual Worlds, Shadow Consumers, social networking, short codes and cell phones….. Come into my sphere….

Whoever is writing this had to be around near the genesis of affiliate marketing- when veterans like me were experimenting and either starving or booming because we there were no “best practices”. Practice was best and we practiced all kinds of things…no- not all bad (some did)- the many that I know who did well- were driven out of passion and curiosity. The rest of the stuff just fell into place. There was no grand plan.

I got your Joost and Club Penguin people! But I am not turning over the kproxy secrets…well I just might for Club Penguin- because it is a metaverse of sorts. One day you all will grow up and just hear long tales of uncensored Usenet. and alt.binaries…no I have idea if we will have binaries by then, but stories- yes.

alt.binaries Blogging brands Censorship CGM club penguin content copyright cpc DRM E Commerce email subscriptions emerging brands Evil evil entity future google influencer network influencers joost kproxy marketing marketing future mobile networks PPC printable coupons privacy proxy Security service providers shadow consumers shadow lives sharing short code Social Networks social networking tags traffic uncensored usenet

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Nomenclature Change From Proxy Services to “Service Unblocker”

A friend was asking me about proxy services and if he should use them while surfing. In particular he asked about Kproxy. A proxy server or service is one that receives requests intended for another server (often yours) and that acts on the behalf of the client behalf (as the client proxy) to obtain the requested service. Think of a “proxy vote” if you need a real-world analogy.

Lately I have seen them referred to as Youtube Unblockers or MySpace Unblockers. Probably youngsters who want to circumvent blocking systems. Many use free web proxies but upgrade to premium to circumvent filters.

Here we have some info from the Kproxy site.

This service offers some better features than the standard service for people with more needs. The most valuable feature is the access to private servers that are very difficult to ban because they aren’t public and they have a new algorithm to beat most advanced filters. It really works, we have tested it. This service isn’t free, once you have registered you have to buy access periods to the service. See the prices below. These are the new features:

* Access to private servers difficult to ban.
* Limited number of users per private server, this means more performance.
* Downloads allowed up to 30 MB.
* No ads.
* Priority to fix the problems you report

I did note the free version throwing up pop-ads from fastclick.net and (NASDAQ: VCLK) and Atlas server (NASDAQ: AQNT) via aQuantive….as well as other ads from smaller players like Adbrite.

The Kicker- Your Continued Use Means You Accept Everything

Let’s explore the KProxy Terms of Use

By using KProxy you agree to the following:This statement discloses the terms of use for the kproxy.com website hereafter referenced as KProxy, or “us” or “we.” By using the information, services and products available through this website, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions contained herein.

KProxy may not be used for any of the following forbidden uses:

* For any illegal purpose including but not limited to the transmission or receipt of illegal material.
* To contact or communicate with minors in a manner prohibited by law.
* To violate copyrights or to break other forms of intellectual property law.
* To engage in spamming, indiscriminate advertising, unsolicited commercial email, mass news posts, or any other kind of abuse of the net.
* To transfer excessively large files. Files larger than a specified size are automatically cut off.
* To feed a robot, automatic process, or other non-human browser.
* To bypass blocking imposed by the owner of a bulletin board or discussion forum.
* To transmit any unlawful, harassing, libellous, abusive, threatening, harmful, or hateful material of any kind or nature.

This is very reasonable, but let us skip on down to modifications…with this agreement and set-up it can be changed at will, with no notice to you, you are responsible to monitor their site for changes, and if you continue to use it, you are bound by these terms.

MODIFICATIONSKProxy reserves the right to review and change this agreement at any time and to provide notifcation solely by posting an updated version of the agreement on the KProxy website. You are responsible for regularly reviewing KProxy’s policies. Continued use of KProxy after any policy change shall constitute your binding consent to such changes.

By using the KProxy service, you assert that you have read this document and that you agree to abide by the stated conditions for using this service. You also understand that despite our best efforts this service may not provide a 100% guarantee of privacy and anonymity. In accordance with our privacy policy, KProxy reserves the right to turn over the IP addresses of users who abuse our system either to the appropriate legal authorities, or to those against whom abuse has been perpetrated. Please contact us with any questions regarding our service or these policies.

“You also understand that despite our best efforts this service may not provide a 100% guarantee of privacy and anonymity. In accordance with our privacy policy, KProxy reserves the right to turn over the IP addresses of users who abuse our system either to the appropriate legal authorities, or to those against whom abuse has been perpetrated.”

OK- at least they are are honest about the 100%- nothing is 100%, but…

“KProxy reserves the right to review and change this agreement at any time and to provide notifcation solely by posting an updated version of the agreement on the KProxy website. You are responsible for regularly reviewing KProxy’s policies. Continued use of KProxy after any policy change shall constitute your binding consent to such changes.”

This seems a bit of an excessive burden for someone seeking anonymity if you ask me. The burden is on you to monitor their site for any changes. Based on that- I would pass but if you determined- go ask an expert or you can try this combo USB stealth unblocking device that rolls up Rolls up MojoPac, Tor (IP masking for an anonymous proxy server), Hushmail Premium, Roboform, portable firefox and thunderbird. This is probably the the ticket (Tor). The program is activated with the click of a single button and works silently in the background. Not perfect but…

You might try spoofcard if you prefer voice….Make truly anonymous calls with SpoofCard, or Hide your IP address with Anonymous Surfing. Buy now and get Digital Shredder Lite FREE.

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Freeconference.com has always been a neat and free service (they make money on the premium features). Maybe not one designed for large enterprises, but for aspiring small businesses it is an excellent value. Imagine my dismay when I received this e-mail. I haven’t tested it yet but if it holds true I feel it is worthy for all to read…this is where netizens, bloggers and humanity can get involved. Truly awful behavior.

Dear FreeConference User:

AT&T/Cingular, Sprint, and Qwest Are Blocking Your Conference Calling

As of Friday, March 9, it’s come to our attention that Cingular Wireless has begun blocking all conference calls made from Cingular handsets to selected conference numbers. If you call our service, you receive a recording that says, “This call is not allowed from this number. Please dial 611 for customer service”.

Earlier this week, Sprint and Qwest joined in this action, blocking cellular and land line calls to these same numbers. This appears to be a coordinated effort to force you to use the paid services they provide, eliminating competition and blocking your right to use the conferencing services that work best for you.

Don’t Let AT&T/Cingular, Sprint, or Qwest Take Away Your Right to Use the Conference Service of Your Choice!

We Need Your Help! Please Take the Actions Below:

Whether you are one of their customers, or an organizer who is being impacted by these anticompetitive actions, please file a complaint with the FCC or send an email to your State Attorney General to complain about this monopolistic practice to limit the choices of consumers.

You can also let these companies know how you feel about their attempt to block competitive services:

Sprint Customers can click here or dial *2 from their Sprint Phone

Cingular Customers can click here or call 1-888-333-6651

Qwest Customers can click here or call 1-800-860-2255

Your FreeConference Team remains steadfastly committed to bringing you simple, convenient and reliable conferencing services at the lowest cost possible. We appreciate your support in this endeavor.

Your FreeConference Team

anticompetitive AT&T AT&T/Cingular call blocking Cingular conference call blocking FCC FreeConference Freeconference.com Qwest Sprint

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Pretty lame- it appears Shoutwire is actually blocking the use of the word “digg” in URLS…yet

Shoutwire, a Digg competitor, won ’t let you submit a story that includes the keyword “Digg.” Interesting because interesting, because at this very moment the top three stories on Shoutwire are: 1. Fox News’ Bullsh*t Has Hit The Fan, 2. Was Jesus an A$$hole? and 3. 9 Reasons Why I Love Sl#ts

Yeah I’d day Digg this story. Click Here to Digg

ajax blogs Censorship competitor Digg jesus keyword lifehack research rss Shoutwire social Social Bookmarking social bookmarks Social Networks technology urls

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This is an interesting case study…even the IDGA notices it.

This particular clip which was later removed by VideoEgg was fairly borderline in terms of what constitutes “sex” or obscene or offensive content thus, as curator it was left in the archives as it does depict “real life” from SL… However, it appears VideoEgg decided to pull the clip.

Now a second clip is up, the author has put in a video note about the situation erasing the original “lesbian latex clip”.

SLPixelPulse an online magazine made some interesting observations.

* From the Content portion of the ToS: “VideoEgg will use commercially reasonable efforts to block or remove offensive or inappropriate Content discovered by or reported to VideoEgg. However, VideoEgg cannot and will not review all Content, and you understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that you find to be offensive.”
* From the Conduct portion: “You agree that you shall not, and you shall not permit others using your account, if any, to: (a) upload, post, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, … “

I’m not advocating smut for smut’s sake. But I am in fact wondering how many video-hosting sites consider avatar nookie a violation of usage terms and conditions. Yes, it may very well be a dumb question, but I still wonder. As for the Second Life Videos site, it seems to have no qualms about users uploading such footage. In fact, if you read the site description at the top of your browser (via Firefox, anyway), it states:

Perhaps the site was referring to Anne Machalinski, Aili McConnon and Christy Nicholson who spent the summer as embedded reporters in the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life and naturally sex came up as a common question or pose balls for those who know…

See Video Interview-: Christy Nicholson Video.

Digg the author’s response on this borderline issue.

Digg It

Latex Lesbians in Secondlife

Posted to Second Life Video- The Censored Clip by mktgemail on November 20, 2006

View Video Details

Censorship Second Life Video

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Note: I have went back and tried to make this post a bit more clear and cleaned up some HTML. The substance is the same…

The Director meets Researcher / E-Commerce Specialist over Google Badwords
This is a long entry, but needed to clarify and summarize the questions coming in over the issue. I have set forth a recap of the discussions between Rosenbaum and myself over the Google “censorship issue” The story kicks off at Steve Rosenbaum’s IndieWire blog. For those not in the know- Steve is a well-respected film personality, director, Emmy award winner, etc.etc. Also known by some as sort of the old man of “user generated content”…

Rosenbaum’s Video DNA

This is important and the heart of the matter. If you are not familiar with Rosenbaum check the extensive Wikipedia Entry. Many of my generation might recognize him as the creator of MTV’s
News Unfiltered. The mid 90’s the premiere of “MTV News Unfiltered.” invited viewers to call an 800 number with story ideas, then sends cameras to the most promising respondents for use in telling their stories. MTV edits a few, a wild half-hour show.
A quantum leap forward for the era too showing that not all people are retards. Imagine letting viewers submit their own stories and films (man… sounds like YouTube in a way). Steve is widely acknowledged as an early innovator in video journalism, the process where journalists are deeply immersed in the stories they report, using a handheld video camera to capture events as they occur. Knowing his DNA you can see the obvious drive behind his current experiment of video aggregation with his Magnify platform using video footage around the Israeli and Lebanon conflict caught by real people- you know the ones wading around in all the unreality… the only thing Steve might not have counted on was Google Adwords being an impediment.

Backgrounder- How People Meet & Dialogue Starts

I don’t know why I do this, but I am fascinated by how people meet. Clark, who I cite below would probably tell me I was being Fooled by Randomness ala Taleb, but I think there is more to these collisions.

People always seem to ask details like this too- I guess to understand the “campfire nature” of the Internet. Fair enough.
J.D. Ashcraft, Production Manager for GMD Studios, firm heavily involved in Indiewire passed the story on to me (being a past and current collaborator e.g. Nothing so Strange and Eldtritch Errors) knowing my seething disgust for censorship. Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios introduced me by e-mail to Steve Rosenbaum perhaps because of my recent brushes with Indian censorship and the MSFT/Google ecosystem pollution research I worked on around Blogspot and Microsoft’s “algorithm” (cough). Perhaps it was simply that Rosenbaum, Clark and I were members of a Secret Cabal that I cannot name. Right- as if that really happens. There are no conspiracies- pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

After introductions, my thoughts to Steve were to try to amplify the story a bit, see what would happen and hopefully Google would reverse their policy if some heat were tossed around. Started at Digg only, but a much longer attack would be needed, as expected not much movement, however we kept our dialogs going by e-mail. (I will not reveal that, but much of it is posted in the blogs per his permission and mostly Q&A). Incidentally I have been testing a colleague’s new system (and very cool system) to look at how some of this spreads so it was an interesting experiment from a technical angle too.

Blogs- Dates and General Breakdown- Key Points – Extractions - Mail
:
(Note this is a meta-summary by me so please visit blog entries for the full story and take. One day I will go back and make them more readable…)

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Entry: Google Erases Israel/Lebanon Ads - but why?

Steve explains the situation. He has provided a platform for users to aggregate various “citizen journalism” video pieces on the Israeli/Lebanon situation and for users to comment on them. He didn’t upload them, didn’t take sides, No pro Israeli or Lebanese bias or agenda. Just wants a platform where people can discuss what is really going on.

Like many people he opens up an Adwords account to drive traffic to the site. Much to his dismay the entire campaign is rejected and he lists the all the rejections, sample ads and references the policies.

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: Due to the sensitive nature of this matter, we are not able to run this ad at this time. As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.
———————
POLICY DEFINITIONS:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this time.

Of course Google reserves the right to do this as they control and approve advertisements, however it was interesting to note that other ads of a similar nature came up.

Hezbollah vs Israel
Hezbollah capture 2 Israel soldiers
Will this lead to Israel-Iran war?
vanrcook.tripod.com/nextwar.htm

War in the Mid-East
Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Read the Latest News.
www.RealTruth.org/SpecialReport

As Steve notes the only real difference is they point to text and not Video.

INTRO TO THE ADWORD BADWORDS

Steve Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Entry: Disapproved Keywords

Steve goes on to list a long list of keywords all disapproved although they seem contextually targeted. I later use this list to do some extensive e-commerce analysis on the words and hope to post chart at Revenews and perhaps a basic one here. E.g. bid ranges, overture costs vs. Google costs, query volume predicted, etc. I also noted some strange anomalies with Google Trends when I trended some of these words. For such a momentous event- search volume is quite low- perhaps poor keyword selection on his part.

While Google news displays tons of ink being pressed about the conflict- Google Trends comes up with almost nothing in search volume. Could be normal, but after almost a month- it is odd. However it is in beta.

THE STORY IN A NUTSHELL

Wayne Porter 08-08-06 Entry: Google Disapproves Israel Lebanon Hezbollah War Ads- Reminds me of India?

In short I amplify much of Steve’s findings in this entry and then ramble on because I can (it is my blog).

The Story in a Nutshell: As the conflict in the Middle East heated up Steve Rosenbaum began to search the web for videos shot by real people in and around the conflict. He found plenty of video citizen journalism and to get the word out he created a channel to aggregate the videos and organize them in a central area. Nice- Great idea! Something Google might have thought of doing since their mission is to, and I quote, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

I go on to pull key points from Google’s philosophy, and apply them to the current situation and end up with my own advice for Google- after quoting a lot of stirring Shakespeare to try to get people fired up into action… plus those plays are like awesomesville.

In Summary To Google: “Perhaps you mean well, but the user, many of us are intelligent ones, can decide on the sensitive nature of world matters. After all we are your customers. We drive your business. We rely on you for relevant information in both advertising and search.
In this case, it was a needed civic experiment.”

Someone should have been paying Steve…not Steve trying to pay Google via CPC deals.

Also of note and I e-mailed Yahoo! about this next twist…my contact was intrigued and asked for clarification…waiting to hear back on them and THEIR policies in a situation like this. I doubt they go public (why stick your head into a noose?) but intrigued was enough. Yeah Yahoo! I know you’ll see it- take a stand! I assume you will on what constitutes click fraud and invalid clicks- assuming you can really handle rogue web agents/bots and botnets…
Too be really “insensitive” and for contrast I tried Googling- gasp: execution videos.
Paydirt: I got an ad!


Execution Videos
Find hundreds of new and popular
Execution videos now!

I didn’t know there were so many popular and new execution videos! Wow! The irony was the “execution videos” lead to a page that had no videos, just decoy images and a bunch of text (apparently cobbled from ezine articles material on LCD projectors).

Thus relevance = zero and Goal = Game the system.

So Google would accept an advert for execution videos? Tasteful indeed, but let information flow. Even though the advertisement was totally and completely non-contextual given the content of the page… YPN! Ads however, were targeted well, showing ads for LCD projector stuff based on the page’s content- I guess so you can watch execution videos in full glory on big projectors. I notified my contacts at Yahoo! and the ads are still there so maybe they are ok with it. After all their contextual targeting is working fine- Google’s search targeting is the screw-up. (I still find it tacky.)

THE ROSENBAUM DILEMMA

Wayne Porter 08-10-06 Entry: Rosenbaum’s Dilemma: The Lost Lebanon/Israel War Videos Return Without The Help of Adwords

In my eyes this is the interesting part of the whole dialog…Steve Rosenbaum was almost caught in the same “censorship trap” as Google.
In the end, after an e-mail exchange with Bennett Hazelton of Peacefire.org, I had to circle back around to Steve with some questions of my own.

While the censorship issues intrigued me, I also found out he had taken down a few of the videos because of a harsh post on Google groups (opens in new window)- in his own words “he felt bad”.

This worried me. He hadn’t even created the videos, found them or posted them. He merely created a venue, a platform, to help people archive them by vertical or niche and went on to help call attention to them by spending his own ad dollars. In my eyes this was noble- to call our attention to world problems. So I had to ask the obvious question…
Was Steve practicing well-meaning censorship to protect others from the harsh realities of these war videos? Perhaps just as Google did?
(I might have done the same. However, Steve rallied to his convictions and conquers what I call the “Rosenbaum’s Dilemma”.)

I also asked him some questions about his site, and how it was setup, etc- did users get shocked or have chance to change minds, etc. See entry for the Q&A but overall it took four deliberate clicks to view the war videos- again some of the videos are very “mainstream” and some shot by citizens while under hostile conditions.
In the end Steve told me by e-mail he pulled four because “he felt bad” over some posts- one post in particular…we discussed this via e-mail and he let me know he had put them back up. As a sign of solidarity (that he wasn’t alone- he had a “brother in arms”) I also posted links directly to the videos on my own blog- the ones some found so disturbing. For two of them you must register for mature access at YouTube. If people find them disturbing- they should. The truth is disturbing.
Rosenbaum’s Dilemma ‘Recovered’ Videos: (Hosted at YouTube) linked from my blog.

Steve also restored the videos to http://warzone-video.magnify.net/

The site is obviously a serious site about desire for user interaction and social commentary on real and current events. This is social commentary, although harsh commentary because some of the footage is real- and hey- it is footage not just words. Again this really is not surprising given his well known production DNA.

THE BADWORDS of ADWORDS

Porter 08-10-2006 Entry: Google Disapproved Adwords- More on Google’s War Sensitivity Issues

For anti-spyware insiders I give you an insider’s joke- badware.org…badadwords.org

In this entry select trackbacks and comments come in on the issue that I highlight and quote as well as the list of banned words as reported by Steve. Out of curiosity I began doing some analysis on it in a separate spreadsheet also making comparisons to Overture pricing, positions, etc.

The table is below out of academic interest- it is not yet complete (for example Overture traffic estimates) and could use some more fields and study. I just lack the time… let the myriad of PPCSE experts at Revenews do their thing or bring in big guns like Dan Murray at Ravenswood Marketing or Craig Danuloff at Commerce360.

Keyword Statistics
Price Marketing: Overture - Google
Click Range Estimates: Google

Price Target Market: United States
Language Target: English
Google Traffic Estimate Inclusion:: All Countries

CAVEAT: Because the Google campaigns did not yet have a performance history, keyword estimates were based on system-wide performance information.

Google Cost Scenario: Average CPC: 0.89 (at a maximum CPC of 4.78)
Estimated clicks per day: 1,441 - 1,820 (at a daily budget of $1,900.00)
All estimated positions were in slots 1 to 3 and set to Broad Match.

Estimates were based on bid amount (left open) and geographical targeting selections (all countries).Because the Traffic Estimator did not consider daily budget, the ads may receive fewer clicks than estimated.

So at best, for his project, it would have cost him 2 grand a day to bring in 1400 to 1800 visitors. From a budgetary standpoint he might be better off getting banned and letting the Net route around the damage and people create buzz about it. I think the ROI sucks in the Google scenario- although we have to let it run to see how the NQ index would impact cost over time.
Still it leads us to Steve’s clever routing around damage on his own.

CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO- INTERNET ROUTES AROUND DAMAGE

Wayne Porter: 08-10-2006 Routing Around Misguided Adwords Policies

Partial Version from Entry above, and
I have added notes from myself.

An update from Steve Rosenbaum on Google’s Adword Censorship affair I have gotten fired up into this week: Steve reports no answer from Google Adwords yet.

Meanwhile back in the bat cave the videos have emerged at http://lebop.blogspot.com/ on a site called the Lebanese Political Journal, hosted at Google’s BlogSpot service. I have it on good word that Steve and Co. are proud of it…I have to wonder if Google would reject ads from the Lebanese Political Journal?

In my e-mail exchange with Steve he noted:

“They should have paid attention already. The fact that they didn’t is scary.”

Damn straight I think.

Steve wants a correction from Google that it was a mistake and to re-instate the campaign. (Rightly so Steve, although after analyzing the potential economics of the campaign I think you would be better served through BlogAds- or going to Overture where the prices are inline or better putting a serious memetic engineering campaign into the mix.)

Perhaps most importantly, Steve wishes, that the person who dinged the campaign understands that sites talking about world affairs are not ‘distasteful’.

My Take: Some will argue it wasn’t even censorship…maybe it wasn’t- maybe a misread policy and Google was in still in contractual rights. But c’mon this is Rosenbaum- pay attention people. No matter HOW you slice it is a slippery slope worth noting and again “sites about world affairs are not distasteful.” Maybe hard to watch, but if we don’t watch the real footage, we might as we just insert the propaganda IV lines. Not to mention inconsistent implementation of policy.

This is an important battle folks…

When corporations, especially powerful ones whose primary, and self-stated mission is to organize the world’s information can close off the release of controversial information, no matter how well meaning their intent…we move one step closer to losing our freedom of communication, our freedom of speech and the power of the net is diminished. EVE