ARTS & FARCES internet

Business

CitiBank blocked fabulis.com’s bank account for “objectionable content on their blog.” Fabulis.com appears to be setting up a rather innocuous travel portal for gay men.

Censorship

Iceland wants to become a haven for media freedom—under the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative—similar to the way that Delaware is a corporate haven. The idea is advancing, so far unopposed, in the Icelandic parliament. The initiatives core concepts—press freedom, source protection, and immunity for carriers—aim at forming the planet’s strongest journalism and whistleblower protection laws.

ESRD

Tracy Lynn Kaply’s blog, Kaply, Inc. is the best dialysis blog going. I’d say I just adore her attitude, but she’d probably punch me in the tits.

Intellectual property

Microsoft files DMCA notice on Cryptome alleging copyright infringement of the software giant’s surveillance compliance document. Cryptome owner John Young files a DMCA counterclaim, but Network Solutions takes Crytome offline and locks domain. Microsoft backs down a few days later.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) internet chapter leaked. The leaked material indicates an intention to override the WIPO and to use three-strikes as a model. ACTA negotiations are happening in private, without transparency or public input. Cory Doctorow’s “Copyright Undercover: ACTA & the Web” provides the best overview I’ve found.

Internet

Dropbox gets push-updates. We no longer need to keep checking the site for the latest stable release; they get installed automatically. If you’re using Dropbox, just reboot and you’ll get the latest stable release. If you’re not using Dropbox, why not? Dropbox is the best US$100 I spent this year. I’ve been hoping that Apple would buy Dropbox because MobileMe’s iDisk sucks so badly. Now I’m hoping that Dropbox takes MobileMe off Apple’s hands—they’d make it at least an order of magnitude more useful.

More evidence that the US patent system is broken beyond repair: Facebook has been awarded a patent on news feeds of users’ actions in a social network.

Google Fellow Amit Singhai, responsible for the search company’s page ranking, explains how Google’s page rank works in response to the European Commission’s inquiry. It’s apparently all about “signals.” “Signals are indicators of relevance, and they include items as simple as the words on a webpage or more complex calculations such as the authoritativeness of other sites linking to any given page,” writes Singhai. “Those signals and our algorithms are in constant flux, and are constantly being improved. On average, we make one or two changes to them every day.” Satisfied? Me neither.

Media

Apple’s control-freakery reaches even higher levels as the company rejects risque iPhone apps from small publishers while accepting same from large publishers. How long do you think it will be before Apple rejects a news publication it finds “offensive.” If you look at Apple’s history, it’s certain to happen. Dan Gillmor suggests journalism organizations reconsider the iPad because of this.

Politics

Michael Lind has an insightful piece in Salon about the new US political right being analogous to the old radical left: “Glenn Beck is the new Abbie Hoffman.” The new right has retained the tactics of the old left with everything from street theater to home schooling.

Privacy

The FBI opens an investigation into Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School Board utilizing covert webcam software to spy on its students. Cory Doctorow notes a commemorative tee-shirt.

On the change you can believe in front, the US House of Representatives voted to renew three expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The vote wasn’t even close. Neither was the action in the US Senate where reform efforts were abandoned and the extension was passed on a voice vote. The expiring provisions under section 215 of the law, passed by both bodies of the US Congress, are roving wiretaps of unspecified targets; warrantless wiretaps of individuals without connection to criminals, warrantless access to private business records.

Publishing

The Sunlight Foundation streamed the health care summit live on its website. What made it extra special was a contextual sidebar that pulled donor information for the current speaker in real-time from opensecrets.org.

In a stunning move of cluelessness, the Associated Press has decided to disintermediate its network of corporate news organizations and go direct with a paid subscription service for the Apple iPad. This is right up there on the dumbass meter with the New York Times considering putting its blogs behind the metered paywall. Richard Perez-Pena sums it up nicely: “Many publishers have said the same thing, hoping that with touch screens, they can package and expand on their work in forms so spectacular, flexible and personalized that readers will pay for it.”

Technology

Any publisher with any sense—which is to say almost none at all—is rethinking its proclaimed love for Apple’s iPad. John Battelle nails it: “And that’s why I don’t like the iPad. Don’t tell me, as a media maker, what I can make and how I can leverage the technology in my audience’s hands. And don’t tell me, as a media consumer, what’s OK for me to interact with, and how.” Dan Gillmor has the extended mix.

User experience

Content strategy is on a trajectory similar to that of social media three years ago, according to Kristina Halvorson’s analysis of Google search returns.