Category: Stories
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Google knew YouTube ‘did evil’ – but bought it anyway
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Andrew Orlowski
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Do no evil? Google execs knew YouTube was in the wrong, but swallowed hard and bought it anyway, emails disclosed to a US court show. In 2006 execs at the Chocolate Factory were aware that the startup was less than wholesome, describing it as a “rogue enabler of content theft” whose “business model is completely…
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The problem with ‘substitution’ studies…
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Andrew Orlowski
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A study for the international chamber of commerce reckons 2.7 million jobs have been lost since 2004 in Europe because of unlicensed internet downloads, and warns economic losses could treble to €32bn by 2015. The report is backed by trade unions, including the TUC. The work was led by Patrice Geffon, an economist at Paris…
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Panorama on the Digital Economy Bill
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Andrew Orlowski
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BBC1’s flagship current affairs program was devoted to file sharing last night, and contained something to piss off a range of lobbyists. Usually when this happens, BBC producers often conclude “they’re doing something right”, and pour themselves a large, congratulatory drink. They shouldn’t, because while the program succeeded in trying to be “fair”, it failed…
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BBC: Grasp the high-speed runaway cloud nettle
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Andrew Orlowski
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Hats off to BBC Online’s Silicon Valley correspondent Maggie Shiels, who on her dot.maggie blog offers some defining purple prose for the new era in computing. Attending the RSA conference, Maggie reports on the race to offer ‘cloud computing’ services: ensuring security is not a “Johnny come lately” idea and that the clock was ticking…
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LibDems drop net blocking, blame activists
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Andrew Orlowski
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LibDem peers agreed to drop their controversial net-blocking clause from the Digital Economy Bill after the government advised that the proposal would be legally unenforceable. It means the Bill now heads for the Commons with one of the key copyright infringement countermeasures up in the air, although it’s likely to be a return to Plan…
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Ad industry: You write the cheques, we’ll drown the puppies
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Andrew Orlowski
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The UK advertising industry has bravely decided it can continue to accept millions of pounds from the state to create alarming climate advertisements, despite inaccuracies and a storm of complaints from parents. The principled decision, from the admen’s self-regulatory body the ASA, follows 939 complaints about the UK energy ministry DECC’s “Drowning Dog” prime time…