Month: March 2007 Page 1 of 2

Eric Eggertson over at Common Sense PR has been keeping track of the fallout and controversy in the wake of Kathy Sierra’s post earlier this week on the death threats she’s received.

Here’s the link to his latest post.

Technorati Tags:
kathy sierra, cyberbullying, violence, women

Kathy Sierra, one of the authors of the blog, “Creating Passionate Users,” has put up a disturbing story on her blog, which has the entire blogosphere questioning the limits of free speech.

The post is called “Death threats against bloggers are NOT “protected speech” (why I cancelled my ETech presentations).”

In the post she outlines how she has received death threats against her, posted to her blog and others, and that as a result she’s cancelled all her public appearances and is loathe to even leave her home.

It’s a frightening and disturbing post, which has generated a huge amount of commentary both in the comment to the post itself (which are overwhelmingly sympathetic and positive) and in other posts about the issue.

Since I started blogging three years ago, I’ve always been aware of the dark side of this genre. But I’ve never seen anything like this, both in terms of the threats to Kathy directly and the response from the blogging community.

I know that it’s probably only a few “wingnuts” that are responsible for this, but I’m not sure that we’ll be able to ignore their impact. And if someone as passionate about what she is doing as Kathy Sierra is silenced, we’ll all suffer for what’s happened.

But I’m also grateful that Sierra had the courage to write this post, as difficult as that may have been. She didn’t just hide it under the rug, and now the bad stuff is out there for us all to consider and talk about.

The blogosphere is a community, which we usually think of as a good thing. But every community has a dark side, so we shouldn’t be surprised by what’s happening. Let’s hope that the discussion that comes out of this is positive.

And let’s sincerely hope that this is not the last post that Kathy Sierra ever writes.

This Thursday, podcasters, bloggers and independent music lovers from around the world are going to be taking part in a unique experiment designed to prove the strength of the new media movement. I’ll be participating, and I hope you will too.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an excerpt from the Bum Rush the Charts website:

Podcasting gets little respect from traditional media. To them we’re little more than a joke, than amateurs. What they don’t understand is that podcasting is more than just a delivery mechanism – it’s a social movement. People are sick of the watered-down, cookie-cutter content that networks and record companies expect us to enjoy. People are tired of watching friends and loved ones get sued by record labels who only care about profits and nothing else, not even the artists they supposedly represent.

We want and deserve more. On March 22, 2007, we’re going to change that with your help.

We can do better. We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street. The track we’ve chosen is “Mine Again” by the band Black Lab. A band that was dropped from not just one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic) and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back. We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on – and who they ignore at their peril.

What’s more, we’re going to take it a step beyond that. We’ve signed up as an affiliate of the iTunes Music Store, and every commission made on the sale of “Mine Again” will be donated to college scholarships, partly because it’s a worthy cause, but also partly because college students are among the most misunderstood and underestimated groups of people by big media. Black Lab has taken it up another notch – 50% of their earnings are going to be donated to the scholarship fund as well.

If you believe in the power of new media, on March 22nd, 2007, take 99 cents and 2 minutes of your time to join the revolution and make iTunes “Mine Again”. If you’re a content producer (blogger, podcaster, etc.), we’re asking you to join up with us and help spread the word to your audience. Nothing would prove the power of new media more than showing corporate media that not only can we exceed their reach and match their purchasing power, but that we can also do it AND make a positive difference in the world. If we can succeed with this small example, then there’s no telling what can do next.

There’s more there, which will explain how easy it is to participate. Just follow the suggested links and have your credit card ready.

My colleague, Eric Eggertson, at Common Sense PR has written a good post about the potential impact a campaign like this could have for PR professionals.

And there’s lots of other stuff on the web. Just follow this link for the latest from Technorati.

Technorati Tags:
Bum Rush the Charts, New Media

Last week, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) issued a ruling that could spell the end of Internet radio, a decision which could spell the end for a lot of stations, including services like Pandora, which I use regularly. (For more about Pandora, see this previous post about the service.)

Here’s a brief synopsis of the CRB decision (from the iPod Observer)

A ruling to change how royalties are collected from independent Internet radio stations has the potential to drive many of the sites out of business. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), a U.S. government agency tasked with overseeing the royalty process, decided to change the way most small Webcast stations are charged from a percentage of revenue to a pay per song and listener model.

The new royalty rates are scheduled to go into effect in about two months. If implemented, the change could increase royalty payments for the smaller stations by ten times what they are currently paying. In some cases, the new rates amount to more than a station’s annual income. That translates to a substantially smaller group of available stations in iTunes’ radio list.

The ruling has stunned a lot of people and it’s taken awhile for its full impact to sink in. But there is a growing backlash building.

What really bites about this is that so-called “terrestrial radio” stations, the large companies that control most of the over-the-air music, are exempt from these same fees, thanks to the way the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was written back in 2001.

Tim Westergren is the founder of Pandora, and writes the blog for the project. He’s been running regular updates on what’s been happening, especially how his audience is beginning to mobilize to lobby for changes.

He’s posted a link to an online petition (I’m not sure whether Canadians can register, but it can’t hurt, right?) as well as links (here, here (may require subscription) and here) to other articles about this issue.

Personally, I don’t listen to a lot of Internet radio, but I have in the past. And I really like Pandora. It’s introduced me to a lot of music and artists that I would never have known about otherwise.

It’s difficult to understand the thinking of groups like the RIAA, which are obsessed with closing down the option of anyone listening to their music unless there has been a direct payment made. It’s short-sighted and will spell the end of big music as a business. That’s probably not a completely bad thing, but if they take down so many other businesses with them, we all suffer.

The irony is that this copyright ruling only applies to companies that are based in the US. What is likely to happen, according to some commentators, is that the existing companies will declare bankruptcy, then move their server to another country, where they will be able to re-establish themselves.

If that strategy works (although there will be a lot of pressure brought on other countries to impose similar sanctions) things may not be quite as dire for some of these companies as they appear. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, RAIN (Radio and Internet Newsletter) is a free, on-line newsletter that carries regular updates and reports on what’s happening.