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Swedish Newspaper Has Tremendous Success 'Beta Testing' Article On The Pirate Bay
from the good-for-them dept
Last week, in talking about how the Wall Street Journal had laid off its librarians, I suggested that newspapers could start trying a more "open research" system where they ask their community to help them with the research. To be honest, I was cheating a bit in writing that -- as I already knew of a newspaper testing exactly that concept. However, I wanted to see the responses from people before pointing that example out. And, of course, I got some angry responses (especially from librarians, actually). I tried to make it clear that I know librarians are quite good at what they do, and aren't easily "replaced" by crowdsourced research -- but that if you are getting rid of librarians, why not use a more open approach to getting research done?
So... on to the experiment where that's actually happening. Swedish news organization Sydsvenskan was working on a feature piece for this past weekend all about what's happening to journalism -- from the economics to the technology to the culture. But, last week, a few days before the article was set to run, the folks writing it uploaded a "beta" draft version to The Pirate Bay and asked anyone who wanted to look at it, to check it out. And check it out they did. They provided a bunch of additional info, including some corrections -- and ideas for future pieces. In other words, it was a huge success in using the community to help do the research, even on such a controversial topic. The writers admitted that some got upset at the experiment (especially the idea that they might be "legitimizing" The Pirate Bay on the eve of the trial), but that, as an experiment, the project seemed quite worthwhile.
So... on to the experiment where that's actually happening. Swedish news organization Sydsvenskan was working on a feature piece for this past weekend all about what's happening to journalism -- from the economics to the technology to the culture. But, last week, a few days before the article was set to run, the folks writing it uploaded a "beta" draft version to The Pirate Bay and asked anyone who wanted to look at it, to check it out. And check it out they did. They provided a bunch of additional info, including some corrections -- and ideas for future pieces. In other words, it was a huge success in using the community to help do the research, even on such a controversial topic. The writers admitted that some got upset at the experiment (especially the idea that they might be "legitimizing" The Pirate Bay on the eve of the trial), but that, as an experiment, the project seemed quite worthwhile.
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Brilliant!
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How dare they!
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Pirated Newspapers
** This is not a slam against the military people over there, I'm all about supporting the Canadian - and all other - troops doing their jobs for us so we can stay home and be safe.
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Re: Pirated Newspapers
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Re: Pirated Newspapers
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Re: Re: Pirated Newspapers
Keeps them from breeding.
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War on ___ was a failure
We went into Afghanistan (we should've) but we left too early, therefore...
1) Opium crops hit record highs in subsequent years as a devastated nation sought SOME income;
We went into Iraq (we shouldn't've) and removed the stable (if insane and evil) government in place, therefore...
2) Worldwide terrorist activities increased (source: our own state department);
We spent all our money on these wars and so had to reduce funds to state and local municipalities for vital social services, therefore...
3) More people dropped below the poverty line, even though the Bush Administration kept dropping the line.
We are simultaneously losing the Wars on Terror, Drugs and Poverty! It's the Trifecta From Hell!
Let's start a buncha new Wars we can fail out -- oooh, let's choose something vital to emerging from a depression: filesharing!
Don't roll your eyes, it might happen, even under a new Administration.
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Re: War on ___ was a failure
Yeah, like some people say we should have never left Vietnam. Except, we're still in Afghanistan.
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TPB
F*CK OFF NAZI PUNKS!!!!
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File Sharing is Important
I would rather have some abuse of file sharing and freedom of information than no file sharing at all. Sydsvenskan's experiment is a perfect example of what file sharing should be used for.
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Re:
Why would a newspaper want to do a PR stunt for TPB?
I don't think it's a *coincidence* but that doesn't mean it was a publicity stunt. I'm sure all the news about TPB got folks at this newspaper to think about TPB and how it might be useful.
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Value of Pirate Bay and file sharing
Of course "The PIRATE Bay" gives away it's non-hidden agenda in the title.
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This newspaper has the best and most unprejudiced coverage of IP issues in Sweden. In fact, I would say that it's practically the only newspaper which has something to add to the discussion that you cannot already find in the blogosphere.
Btw. for those who like to follow the Pirate Bay trial one of Sweden's most famous bloggers Oscar Swartz covers it on behalf of Wired:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/pirate-bay-tria.html
(in time there will probably be more posts in that series)
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!
The prosecutor started day 2 by announcing that he is dropping half of the charges. Most likely because he spent all night googling DHT and since then realised that they can't prove with the material at hand that a specific download actually passed TPB's tracker.
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Prosecutor dropping half the charges
Here's some coverage by Swedish Radio (SR) of what Dan mentioned above (in English). It's very surprising since the prosecutor spent all day yesterday listing different cases of specific copyright infringement which the Pirate Bay persons were alleged of aiding. Either dropping these charges was the plan from the beginning in order to convey a darker image of the activity of the site, or the prosecutor hasn't used his three years of preparation for this trial very well.
Another interesting thing is that the prosecutor upon a question from a lawyer declared (although he tried his best to avoid the question) that he could not provide copies of the actual torrent files refered to in the case (presented using text/screenshots in the trial). The contents of these files could have revealed whether or not they referred to multiple trackers or just the Pirate Bay tracker. This seems very strange to me - wouldn't one need to save all evidence? One has to wonder whether IFPI & co. / the prosecutor are simply sloppy or if there is a reason why they don't want to provide such information.
Btw. a Swedish blogger collected references to mentions of the trial in international media, see: http://scabernestor.blogg.se/2009/february/and-the-world-keeps-reporting-about-the-pirat.html.
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