Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: slacktivism

  • BBC investigates Richard Madeley’s PC panic attack

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Richard Madeley told the nation how the Government was going to whisk away his computer last week. The BBC has promised to investigate. The segment on Monday’s Simon Mayo drive time heard Madeley, who is filling in for Mayo, say: “What a pain! I only got computer literate three years ago, just as I get…

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  • TalkTalk, ORG see cash from Mandybill chaos

    TalkTalk, ORG see cash from Mandybill chaos

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Never let the facts, or taste, get in the way of a marketing campaign, we say. TalkTalk boldly promised today to fight disconnection requests in court, at least until after the election. Carphone Warehouse strategy director Andrew Heaney made the pledge on his blog. The fact that ISPs don’t get any disconnection requests, and if…

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  • Kumbaya is not a legal defence

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Maybe photographers have a guardian angel, after all. The Stop 43 campaign to throw out the orphan works clause may be the only part of the vast Digital Economy Bill where activists have achieved their goal – rather than made things worse. With the Tories pledging to drop the clause, it’s unlikely to survive the…

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  • P2P study: crackdown is bad for business

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    A study of P2P music exchanges to be revealed this week suggests that the ailing music business is shunning a lucrative lifeline by refusing to license the activity for money. Entitled “The Long Tail of P2P”, the study by Will Page of performing rights society PRS For Music and Eric Garland of P2P research outfit…

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  • Charlie Nesson’s trip

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Has Charlie Nesson been at the magic mushrooms again? The hippy head of the Berkman Center, the influential New Age techno-utopian think tank that’s attached to Harvard Law School, wants to enlist Radiohead in his fight against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Nesson, a long-time opponent of creator’s digital rights, is contesting the…

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  • Pirate Bay’s neo-Nazi sugar daddy

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    The trial of the Pirate Bay operators in Sweden has generated huge amounts of media coverage. But one of the most interesting things about Pirate Bay hasn’t got a mention. In his daily dispatches for WiReD, court correspondent Oscar Schwartz swoons over the boyish charm of “likeable” and “winning” Pirate Bay PR guy Peter Sunde.…

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