February 16, 2009

Pirate Bay trial underway in Sweden

Per The Local in Sweden, a landmark copyright trial involving Swedish and international entertainment industry representatives began Monday, as the Web site "The Pirate Bay" is being tried for its popular file-sharing services.

The event is being coined a "spectrial" on Twitter, a spectacle trial, and it is receiving international attention. The hashtag #spectrical shot up to No. 5 worldwide today.

@jonteedvardson (Stockholm, Sweden): The Pirate Bay Trial: live on Twitter ! spectrial http://hub.tm/?WHTVK



@dafeld (Stockholm, Sweden): Lyssnar på Studio Ett om The Pirate Bay. (Listens to Studio One on The Pirate Bay.)



@trystanyoung (Belgravia, U.K.): - pirate bay defendants plead innocent - defence: 'file sharing can be used legally and illegally'



One Stockholm man tweeted about the company's logo, which includes a pirate ship.

@ziadfostock (Stockholm, Sweden): thinks Pirate Bay could gain more public support if they changed their logo to something more positive and appealing.


Media outlets across Scandinavia are all over the story, both on and off Twitter.

@eirikso (Oslo, Norway): Off for the TV-studio. More talk about #spectrial. Will be aired at norwegian NRK2 at 1750 today.



The story also garnered worldwide attention on the home page of BBC.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Pakistan: Air strikes, Sharia Law and kidnappings

Pakistan is never far from the headlines, and three stories are generating tweets right now. Per Channel 4 News, in the UK, at least 30 people were killed after an American un-manned drone fired missiles at a house allegedly being used by the Taleban. The BBC website reports the same story but says only eight people were killed. @APNewsAlert says 20 more bodies have been found at the site of the air strike.

Meanwhile, Per ABC News in Australia, Sharia Law is to be imposed in one part of Pakistan, in apparent move by the Pakistani Government to appease the Taliban. The BBC website also takes an inside look at the area in question.

And Per CNN, there's renewed confusion about the fate of a UN diplomat kidnapped in southern Pakistan earlier this month.

Twitter users are posting about all these news items:

@imrananwar (Lahore, Pakistan) re missile strikes Pakistan, stop, or be one-time million dollar kill of specific bad guys, not random weapon daily use




@billroggio New audio of latest interview with military.com's Christian Lowe on bombing in Afgh, at LWJ main page: www.longwarjournal.org




@ekawaaz (India) @india_today A nightmare comes True: Pakistan surrender to Taliban’s tinyurl.com/czpxwl




@guardiannews Pakistan makes sharia law concession: Pakistan is to impose Islamic law in a vast region of the north-west calle.. tinyurl.com/bqustg




@joelmichael pakistan capitulates to taliban terrorists, adopts sharia law tinyurl.com/bqustg




@virtaaj (New Jersey, USA) Air Strike Kills 31 in Pakistan ff.im/-14YnM




@newsline Pakistan set to restore Islamic law to pacify Swat - Reuters India @tinyurl.com/b4bjal




@jalaybi (Pakistan) tinyurl.com/dk96vt War in Pakistan [Ed note: This is a link to a recent 60 Minutes video report about the fight against Taliban in Pakistan]




@thecnnwire Conflicting reports surround kidnapping of U.N. official: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN)




@zeroping Pakistan kidnappers extend deadline for UN hostage spokesman newsbb.org/?p=5386

Share/Save/Bookmark

New Zealanders start 'blackout' protest

Per Creative Freedom Foundation and New Zealand's National Business Review, some New Zealanders will spend the next week protesting a law that would cut off Internet connections for people, organizations and schools who are accused of copyright infringement.

"Laws regulating the act of copying have failed to keep pace with technology and soon ISPs will be forced to take down internet connections and websites of anyone accused (not convicted) of copyright infringement," Creative Freedom's Web site stated. The Web site has put together the protest, asking people to use a black box as their photos on their Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other Internet sites.

On the other side of the issue, New Zealand's NBR stated, "A protest campaign against the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act is catching on like wildfire as followers black-out their photos on Facebook and other social networking sites. But the protest is based on a wilfully-hysterical [SIC] interpretation of the vaguely-worded law."

Twitter-ers have joined the protest, using the #blackout hashtag. Nearly 500 tweets with #blackout had been posted by 1 a.m. Monday.

The standard message is:

@Linnorah: is blacked out: Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" for New Zealand http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html #blackout


Several Twitter-ers are commenting on what the protest means to them.


@maupuia (Wellington, New Zealand): wondering if I can blackout the #blackout ... kinda over the constant retweeting of #blackout (tho not the sentiment behind)


@yezzer (Brighton, UK): wondering whether joining the #blackout will accomplish anything http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/6247


@etnobofin (Montpellier, France): My blog is now blacked out: http://is.gd/jFkj (expand) A protest against crazy new copyright legislation in New Zealand #blackout


@kiwibastard (Timaru, New Zealand): Right that's me - turning in at a reasonable hour for a change. Hope this #blackout thing can make a difference


@whereisab: disgusted by the #blackout http://is.gd/jDbJ



@nickmccabe (Balclutha, Otago, New Zealand): #Blackout ... Support is EVERYTHING!


@ibeardslee (Wellington): Seven Samurai .. even a bunch of strangers can make a difference .. #blackout


@majicDave (Wellington, NZ): #blackout keeps gaining momentum. Thanks @antairgames and all non-NZ supporters. Lets nip it in the bud now, before other countries follow.

Share/Save/Bookmark