Web surfing is the # 1 reason to own an iPad

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Stephen Pate

iPad Report Card – It’s addictive to walk away from the computer and surf the web with a tablet computer but only a B for leaving out Flash videos

iPad web surfing is addictive photo: Gizmo Watch

When I started the iPad review, which is now 3 articles long, I had no idea how the thing would be useful. It was purchased on a whim with the idea it could be returned within 14 days.

The two weeks are almost up an I can’t see it going back to Future Shop. Everyone in the house grabs it when they get home and again in the morning.

My idea was to set up a scorecard on the iPad against Apple’s claims of its value, do something objective not just “golly this is neat.”

Checking out YouTube was a disappointment. Then watching purchased videos was more fun. But who does that all day long? Only a small value for dollar there.
Continue reading →

New Hampshire Supreme Court Rules Website Has Reporter’s Privilege

Posted on May 8, 2010 by Byline

New Hampshire rules bloggers can be journalists something the Supreme Court of Canada already acknowledged

By Sam Bayward, Citizen Media Law Project

This morning, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire handed down an important decision holding that a mortgage industry website, The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, is entitled to protection under the state’s reporter’s privilege.

The case is Mortgage Specialists, Inc. v. Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, Inc., which was argued before the New Hampshire Supreme Court last fall. The dispute centers on an article that Implode-O-Meter published in August 2008, which detailed administrative actions taken by the New Hampshire Banking Department against The Mortgage Specialists, a mortgage lender.

The article included a link to a financial document that The Mortgage Specialists allegedly submitted to the state banking authorities, which Implode-O-Meter had obtained from an anonymous source. After the mortgage company discovered the disclosure, it sued the website, demanding that the document be removed from the Internet and that the anonymous source be identified. A Rockingham County Superior Court judge granted these requests. Continue reading →

Bloggers Now Eligible For Press Passes In NYC

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Byline

Great for the Big Apple but will it float in Little Pond

Online Media Daily In a nod to the growing influence of online journalists, New York City said Tuesday that bloggers and others who publish on the Web will now be eligible for press credentials.

The move comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by three Web journalists who were denied press passes. In New York, journalists with press passes are typically allowed to cross police barricades at public events.

Under the new proposed policy, the New York Police Department would be able to issue press passes good for two years to any journalist who has personally attended and reported on at least six qualified events in the city in the preceding two years, regardless of whether the reports were published online, in print newspapers, magazines, books or other media. Events that will qualify include city-sponsored activity — like a press conference or parade — as well as emergencies where the city has set up do-not-cross lines. The proposal also allows inexperienced journalists to obtain single-use press passes. Continue reading →

Slashdot – IOC Orders Blogger To Take Down Video

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Byline

Slashdot – your rights online

“The International Olympic Committee has ordered a blogger to remove a video from his website showing the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. The IOC asserts that it owns all the rights to all images taken at the games, and only licensed broadcasters can use them. However, the blogger, Stephen Pate, points to a Canadian law that allows copyrighted images to be used in newsworthy cases.”

Editor – healthy commentary over at Slashdot with 50 comments.

Citizen Journalist Wins 2009 George Polk Awards

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Bloggers, Twitter, YouTube and Liveleak are winners of the George Polk Award for Videography marking an inflection point for modern news reporting

Neda Agha Soltan killed in the streets of Tehran, captured by cell-phone video and spread around the world

The biggest story of video news story of 2009 was not filmed by a major news network, or by a professional videographer.

It was the cell phone video of Neda Agha-Soltan’s death in the streets of Tehran. Neda Agha-Soltan, a young girl is killed by plainclothes in Tehran

The story wasn’t spread by CBS, BBC or the CBC although it was a reporter who sent me the story when his own network wouldn’t carry it.

The video and the citizen journalists who spread it around the world on the Internet with YouTube, LiveLeak and blogs shared anonymously in the recognition of the George Polk Award. LiveLeak was my source for the video and I posted it again YouTube June 21, 2009 along with the first story. Ironically, YouTube took the video down in October 2009.

Long Island University “Long Island University has announced the winners of 13 George Polk Awards for 2009, including a reporter kidnapped and held by the Taliban for more than seven months and journalists who demanded transparency from the Federal Reserve Board, changed the way professional and youth football leagues deal with head injuries and exposed a state child-care program plagued by fraud and deceit.”

Continue reading →

Olympics Moves to Take Down Video of Luge Death

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Geist – IOC has used copyright claims to remove luge accident from YouTube and other sites

Georgian luge hopeful Nodar Muaritashvili crashes during the men's Luge practice at the Whistler Sliding Centre, in preparation for the Vancouver Winter Olympics on February 12, 2010. Muaritash died after flying off the Olympic track during his second of two training runs. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKS

Within hours of the death of luge athlete Nodar Muaritashvili during a luge run at the Vancouver Olympics, the video was being posted on the Internet.

The tape clearly shows Muaritashvili losing control, flipping off his luge on the turn and flying up and off the track. It also shows him hitting an unprotected post, seemingly carelessly placed right in the path of anyone who loses it on that turn.

The IOC is now controlling news – it had the video taken down from YouTube and other Internet sites. The IOC claimed it was a copyright issue. However, in both Canada and the US, news stories are exempt from the permission rules of copyright under Fair Dealing and Fair Use.

That only makes sense. How can we report the news if someone could claim a fire at a factory should be banned because it showed their logo, or something they said. Copyright was meant to protect artists rights but not stifle freedom of the press. Continue reading →