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According to the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, the amount of data that humans created since the beginning of civilisation through to 2003 is now being produced every two days (Siegler, 2010). To many, including myself, this concept is frightening to say the least. However, to giant global companies and governments, big data presents a world of opportunity. 

Big data is gathered and analysed with several purposes, the most interesting of which is what’s called predictive analytics. This is when data is mined and analysed in order to create predictions of outcomes for the future or otherwise unknown events, including elections or trends in the stock market. 

As well as predicting the outcomes of economic and political events, the mass amounts of data mined from social media sites can be used to predict events and trends in popular culture. At this very moment, the hash tags #eurovision, #sbseurovision and #joinus are trending globally on Facebook, tumblr and twitter. This is due to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest, a massive competition that involves every European country, which took place this weekend. Each country must select a band or musician to represent them with a song written specifically for the competition. Eurovision has been running for 59 consecutive years and although it only involves European countries its eccentric and outlandish nature has attracted a global following. This year’s winner Conchita Wurst, a bearded lady from Austria, has captured the hearts of many and gained an immense social media following. 

Data pertaining specifically to the Eurovision Song Contest can be collated using the hash tags, which additionally prompt audience members to participate in and fuel further discussion. Surveying the data from these tags gives audience members an idea as to which performers are most popular, and gives hosting countries and advertisers clues as to how they can improve the monetisation and ratings of future broadcasts. In addition to this, the hash tags tap into the notion of participatory culture frequently discussed in our lectures and tutorials, particularly the tag #joinus which was the slogan for this year’s competition. The interval act for last night’s semi final was a Eurovision dance, comprised of audience members who had posted videos of themselves dancing and tagged them. The dancers in the most popular videos were flown out to Denmark where the competition was held, to perform their moves on stage in front of the live stadium audience. 

 References

Eurovision TV. 2014. "Eurovison #JoinUs Dance". YouTube video, posted May 10. Accessed May 11, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV7n3tLKHSk

Siegler, MG. 2010. “Eric Schmidt: Every 2 Days We Create As Much Information As We Did Up To 2003”. Accessed May 11, 2014. http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/

In both his book, New Media, and the guest lecture he gave this week, Terry Flew discussed the challenges of creating any sort of cemented set of internet laws. According to Terry, the main challenges governments face when attempting to establish new media laws are:

The intangibility and anonymity of digital information

Global internet vs. national laws

Recombinant and continually changing nature of digital media forms

One of the main areas of law which is having difficulty intersecting with the rapid domestication and innovation of new media technologies is the area of copyright law. This issue is heavily debated within media circles and there are many solid arguments for and against strong copyright protection.

For:

Creates incentives for the production of new work and ideas

Recognising the time/cost/risk associated with original content creation

Alignment with international copyright standards

Building local creative industries

Against:

Economic inefficiency (hidden costs for content users)

Duration of copyright exceeds life of many creators

New knowledge creation is a collaborative process

Criminalisation of behaviours common in digital environments

Uncertainty attached to the application of copyright laws

In his video, Everything is a Remix, Kirby Ferguson explains and builds upon these counter arguments. He discusses the notion that social and biological evolution both work in the same ways using the same three principles: copying, transforming and combining. He argues that the influence of the market economy has transformed the idea that intellectual property can be used for the common good into a constant battle for profit and ownership. This relates to the psychological process of loss aversion: we hate losing what we’ve already got. Kirby also goes on to say that most people are actually ok with copying material - as long as we’re the ones doing it.

This statement pretty much sums up my attitude towards internet piracy. I downloaded and watched the new Game of Thrones episode yesterday without feeling any guilt, but as somebody hoping to eventually enter into the film industry I’m kind of worried about the lasting impacts of piracy and what that means for my future. 

Infographic by- GO-Gulf.com

Piracy is an enormous problem and different parts of the world are attempting to combat it in different ways. One of the most controversial anti-piracy laws existed in France. Known as the HADOPI law, it mandated that anyone found to be file sharing or downloading illegally was given “three strikes”. Suspects would be given two written warnings and then disconnected from the internet on the third warning. Despite hundreds of written warnings sent out to users, only one person had their internet disconnected under the jurisdiction of the law. 

At the time of its introduction, the law was rife with controversy, especially when the high court of France declared access to the internet a basic human right. The HADOPI law was declared ineffective and abolished in 2013, having only been active since 2009. France has since replaced it with a system of automatic fines, starting from €60 and increasing for repeat offenders.

References

Flew, Terry. 2014. “Ch 11: Internet Law, Policy and Governance.” In New Media. 4th ed, 178 – 197. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Ferguson, Kirby. 2012. “Everything is a Remix.” (video, 15:26)

Go-Gulf.com. 2010. “Piracy In Numbers" Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy/