Talking Gamergate and more on ABC Download This Show

Stilgherrian on Download This Show

ABC logoI’d originally intended to avoid the clusterfuck in a teacup that is the Gamergate controversy, but I was persuaded to talk about it on this week’s Download This Show on ABC Radio National, along with seemingly now regular parter in crime and CNet news editor Claire Reilly.

GamerGate: death threats, sexism, misinformation and one of the biggest storms of opinion on the internet in a very long time. Plus we’re about to become flooded with Smartwatch devices but why do they mostly need to tethered to a mobile phone? Why can’t you just replace a phone with a watch? And it’s an international agreement being negotiated in secret which could have a huge impact on our digital life. We unpick the recent leaks from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations.

One of the better summaries of Gamergate is Kyle Wagner’s The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It’s Gamergate, although I’m rather fond of the polemic Why #Gamergaters Piss Me The F*** Off by long-time gamer and former NFL player Chris Kluwe.

As the blurb says, we also spoke about a new smart device called the Rufus Cuff, and developments in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It’s served here directly from the ABC website.

As usual, one of the segments was also made into a video — the one on TPP — and that’s over the fold, immediately below.

Continue reading “Talking Gamergate and more on ABC Download This Show”

Talking digital copyright on 3RRR’s Spoke

3555 logoMy recent critique of Attorney-General George Brandis’ comments about copyright reform in the digital age attracted plenty of positive comments — and also some media attention.

That critique was my ZDNet Australia column on the day of Brandis’ speech, Friday 14 February, What the Dickens will Brandis do to copyright in the digital realm?

The first piece of media interest was from Michelle Bennett, presenter of Spoke, the weekly social issues program on Melbourne community radio station 3RRR. The interview was recorded on Sunday 16 February and broadcast in the Spoke episode of Tuesday 18 February.

The conversation wasn’t just about Brandis’ comments, but also some of the background — including the so-called iiTrial between the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and internet service provider iiNet, the graduated response or “three strikes” rules for tackling copyright infringement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty, and the idea that internet access can be considered a basic human right.

I also mentioned Dr Rebecca Giblin’s research paper, Evaluating Graduated Response, which looked at those three strikes rules. The conclusion was that “there is little to no evidence that that graduated responses are either ‘successful’ or ‘effective’.”

The interview is ©2014 Triple R Broadcasters Ltd. Over at their website you can listen to the full program.