YouTube changes takedown policy

YouTube Alters Copyright Algorithms, Will Manually Review Some Claims | Threat Level | Wired.com

In the course of my dissertation research, I’ve spoken with a number of people who have been affected by takedowns. Works completely of their own, sometimes with no offending material, have been taken down. This results in less exposure and potential loss of revenue.

These new rules will help the little guy.

Under the new rules announced Wednesday, however, if the uploader challenges the match, the alleged rights holder must abandon the claim or file an official takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Falsely representing ownership in a DMCA flap may expose one to potential monetary damages.

via YouTube Alters Copyright Algorithms, Will Manually Review Some Claims | Threat Level | Wired.com.

Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Down

Some readers may know that my day job is providing faculty support for our learning management system (a.k.a. an LMS). We had a difficult start to our semester, and it got bad enough to get a little press: Campus Connection: Problems plaguing UW’s online course management system. Naturally students and faculty were extremely (and understandably) frustrated by the problems. That the issues continued for a solid week made matters much worse.

However, I would argue that each and every educational technology will go down at some point. It has happened to most all of the major platforms, regardless of whether the service is hosted on campus or in the cloud.

The moral of the story is that outages tend to happen (especially at the beginning/end of the semester). I don’t mean to make excuses, but rather to encourage instructors to be ready for problems.

  • If you can, start composing your online course before the semester begins.
  • Help your students know what they can do (download materials when they have access, compose postings offline, don’t wait until a deadline to upload assignments)

I think the cloud will become more robust to handle the start-of-semester load in the near future, but for now — prepare!

The new personal platform

Two friends engaged in a dialogue on a semi-political Facebook post that I recently made. It went from merely partisan to the very edges of taste (we’ll just say things were said that would make some of my friends uncomfortable). I had considered deleting the offending comments, but used my editorial judgement to make a statement that I was leaving everything as-is in an effort to show just how split our society has become.

This weeks “On the media” had a nice short bit featuring Ira Glass on why they disabled comments on their site (“Comments on comments“) that reminded me of this experience. I truly enjoyed how nuanced Ira’s view was. He didn’t feel required to continue to create a forum on their website for viewers to express mean opinions, yet acknowledged that pointed meanness is generally ok in the online world — even when it’s pointed at him or his show. He finds this sort of two-way communication as being part of the nature of two way communication in online/social media. This is a great acknowledgment of both his power to control speech on his own website, but a willingness for things to be said on the wider internet.

The catch is, with social media we all have the same power. I found the anecdote a good reminder to pause and think like an editor when engaging the rush of posting (and deleting) comments in my own strem. Might we all be able to take such pause.

Declaration of Internet Freedom, from…

Earlier today, “the internet” posed a Declaration of Internet Freedom.

Readers of this blog would probably guess that these are principles I would stand behind.

What is perhaps interesting about the declaration is what is left out: who or what are we as the Internet declaring freedom from?

It is pretty clear that this statement is targeted at:

  1. States that wish to regulate the Internet, and
  2. (Largely) corporate interests who act as internet service providers and own the wires that make up the ‘net.

Perhaps unlike other declarations, Internet Freedom is completely dependent on both states and providers going along with the principles. This does not defeat the proposition, however. States and corporations are made up of people, who decide to put pressure in the right places to ensure that the declaration is upheld in practice.

The flip side of “freedom from ___” is “freedom to ___.” The 5 propositions set a great baseline for the Internet to enable a lot more freedom of doing.

Make your voice heard.