Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: slacktivists

  • On the occasion of the Pirate Party’s first UK address

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Opening Comments for the In The City P2P Panel, Manchester, on Sunday 18 October: Although Rik [Falkvinge]’s in front of us in flesh and blood, he wouldn’t exist – the Pirate Party wouldn’t exist – without enforcement policies being the primary goal of the music business. The programme bills this as “two sides of a…

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  • Kick me again, RIAA!

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    “ The anti-copyright gaggle has an insatiable need to feel victimized. Injustice burns deep, and is triggered by the merest hint that “The Man” might be tampering with one’s “bits”. Another example of technology utopians trying to bypass politics and claim victimhood – the Net Neutrality” campaign – shows very similar characteristics.” A while ago…

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  • The Tragedy of the Creative Commons

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    The Creative Commons initiative fulfilled a major ambition last week – but it’s taken only days for the dream to turn to crap. Google granted the wish by integrating the ability to search images based on rights licences into Google Image Search. Yahoo! Image Search has had a separate image search facility for years, but…

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  • RIP, Pirate Bay (Notes on an Exit Strategy)

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    “So The Pirate Bay has executed the Web 2.0 business plan to perfection: give someone else’s stuff away for free – then find a bigger idiot to buy the company.” It’s actually not so different from the potted history of every media company that rises to popularity on the back of a new medium –…

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  • The murky world of Mozilla and Google

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    When the Mozilla Foundation turns to the public for money, it happily assumes the mantle of a penniless public institution asking for charity. Over 10,000 FireFox fans drew deep into their own pockets to place an expensive two-page advertisement for the browser in the New York Times 15 months ago. But the Mozilla Foundation’s commercial…

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  • After Grokster: why (almost) everything we’re told about P2P is wrong

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Grokster! Is it the end of the world as we know it? No, it isn’t. But before we examine how the two lobbies, the technology lobby and the recording industry lobby, have let us down so badly, let’s pause for a moment to consider how the press has let us down this week, too. The…

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