WebProNews » Sicko

Google Sorrier For Sicko Comments

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:25:04 +0000

Google’s apparently very, very sorry about Google Health Advertising blogger Lauren Turner’s comments criticizing Michael Moore’s film Sicko – so sorry the company’s PR department put out a statement and resident star blogger Matt Cutts put out a guide to corporate blogging.

All that in addition to Turner’s own recanting. Regardless of what she meant by it, or whether she has a right to say what she wants about Moore’s film (she does, after all, and is entitled), the outrage was palpable this morning.

Google product marketing manager Missy Krasner says she and the rest of Google were surprised by the response, but should have anticipated it. "Our internal review of the piece before publication failed to recognize that readers would — properly, but incorrectly — impute the criticisms as reflecting Google’s official position. We blew it."

Cutts seemed sympathetic to Turner, offering (though not using her name outright) a ready-reference for corporate blogging, warning against criticism, blogging angry, and hiding after a mistake.

This doesn’t mean the Google blogger is going extinct though.

"I’d rather be communicating a lot and sometimes get scalded than not be blogging," writes Cutts. "I think Google realizes the importance of communication/blogging and tries hard to get it right. Sometimes Googlers mess up, just like anyone else. But I expect more Google blogging over time, not less."

Still, it brings out the dangers of transparency and serves as a reminder that anything you say can and will be used against in blog court.

Google Health Ads Blog Backs Off Sicko

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:15:24 +0000

A Google blogger posted a pro-healthcare industry item that criticized filmmaker Michael Moore’s new film, while suggesting Google ads as a way to counter negative publicity.

Google Health Ads Blog Backs Off Sicko

Upon first seeing this item appear on the Google Health Advertising blog over the weekend, I thought Google’s blogs had been hacked. It has happened before, and considering the crass, cynical content, it’s a bit of a shock coming from the “don’t do evil” search advertising company.

Here’s an excerpt of the post by Lauren Turner, listed as an account planner for Google health ads:

Moore

Making the Most of Video

Jeremy Pepper — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:20:34 +0000

Varying the format, just notes from the discussion on Video with Robert Scoble of Podtech and hosted by Howard Greenstein. It was supposed to be on the future of video, as well as revenue sources and programming and turned into a discussion on copyrights and the Internet and distribution model.

Ranging from the traditional media and how copyrights are being fought, who does content belong to nowadays? Scoble noted that he thinks Viacom will win versus Google/YouTube, and it’s a bad thing because it leads to more walled gardens.

But, there are people that are creating their own channels and creating their own distribution channels. Does this change the game, and does it make it where people are more in control? But the reality is that those individuals do not have the ability to fill movie theaters, or the numbers needed for Nielsens.

Is the distribution channel changing? You all distribute to one person, and that person distributes to others (so, it lowers cost of distribution). We can look at what happened with Sicko, and it being distributed on different torrents. The distribution model there forced the Weinsteins to change the release date, only release in one movie theater. For an indie film, you cannot expect to be in business if the distribution model includes your movie being shared for free.

P2P networks may not have value in a commercial sense (at least for Scoble) as you are not able to measure the audience. Being ad and sponsor supported, you need the traditional numbers. My sponsor is not that into numbers, so I could possibly do a P2P distribution system.

New media created properties are starting to have the same value as traditional media, such as vidcasting, but it’s about audiences. If you are reaching the right audience, you are going to be courted by big companies. There is an audience, and people will buy, if there is a reason.

Not a single company has contacted me about my new fatherhood – Scoble twittered, blogged and Jaiku’ed about it – so the companies are not getting how to reach new people.

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“Sicko” Shows Up On YouTube, Google Video

Doug Caverly — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:14:02 +0000

Since misunderstandings occur so frequently between just two or three people, it’s possible to appreciate how a much larger group could get mixed up. Still, when that larger group is Google, and the mix-up involves Google Video, YouTube, and a copyrighted film that has yet to be released, somebody’s bound to get angry.

Michael Moore’s newest movie, “Sicko,” is set to be shown in theaters on June 29, but YouTube users got an early viewing over the weekend; the entire 124-minute film showed up on the site, with that running time split between 14 clips, according to the Associated Press. The distributor of “Sicko” complained to YouTube, the clips were pulled, and this all might have blown over.

Yet, strangely, the same movie was discovered on Google Video, and that version wasn’t so quick to disappear. “YouTube may have removed pirated copies of the unreleased film, Sicko, but apparently those operating [its] sister site, Google Video, didn’t get the memo,” writes Greg Sandoval.

“As of 10:15 a.m. Monday morning, Michael Moore’s soon-to-be released documentary was available on Google’s video sharing site in its entirety and was also available for download,” he continues. “This contrasts with YouTube, which restricts most videos on the site to be under 10 minutes in length.”

Now companies attached to “Sicko” seem even less happy, and the National Legal and Policy Center is starting to take note. This “independent watchdog organization . . . has begun to probe copyright violations on Google’s video sites and workers there have found more than 125 full-length movies and TV shows at Google Video,” reports Sandoval.

“Sicko” seems to be off Google Video at this point, but the damage could be done (think another lawsuit or two). Google might want to put a few more people on the team developing its video fingerprinting tools, and, as long as changes are being made, open the lines of communication between YouTube and Google Video.

Is This iPerv Week or What?

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 23 May 2007 22:11:00 +0000

I didn’t torture myself to investigate as to whether there was a season for weird Internet sex stories in the press, but as for 2007, iPerv Week is May 21-25.

Already we’ve read about a Tennessee State Trooper’s porn-movie-plot run-in with Internet smut-queen Barbie Cummings, MySpace’s new sex predator narc program, and also about that sicko in Oregon getting 24 years for impersonating a 15-year-old leukemia patient to get 12-year-olds undressed via webcam.

The nastiness continues. Warning: The following will detail (in part) some rather offensive stuff. There may be jokes cracked, too, just so you know. We’ll do it on a graduated scale – funny to weird to really weird.

The iGasm

Apple’s apparently not too happy about this, but everybody else seems to be. In England, an online merchant is selling the "iGasm," an iPod attachment that, er, well, let’s quote the site:

…hooks up to your iPod, MP3 player, laptop or CD player and vibrates in sync with the beat. Go at it hard and fast with a pounding drum and bass track or chill with the ambient classic. Just turn up the volume to increase the strength of the vibrations and believe us when we say that full whack is PHENOMENAL.

Yeeeow! Is it hot in here? Are you embarrassed? I’m embarrassed – is my face flushed?

According to News of the World, Apple is "iRate" over the use of their signature silhouette look and feel. I wonder how the iTalians feel about it.

Ooh. Sorry about that. By the way, the term "iGasm" was coined in London in 2006, according to Urban Dictionary.

Filed Under ‘Get A Friggin Life’

Or a Second Life. I mean a real second life. The Fuzz over in England, Holland, and Belgium are scratching their heads trying to decide if avatar-on-avatar sex crimes are punishable in the real world. "Online rape" on Second Life could be violations of harassment laws in those countries.

Here’s a virtual "wet willie" to the Euro Po-po. Gonna arrest me for thinking next?

Stop Here If You Want To Keep Your Faith In Humanity

A Maryland Webmaster was convicted for engaging in forced labor and sex trafficking. Glenn Marcus did horrible things to an apparently willing "Jodi" and posted the BSDM footage on his bondage website.

Nothing too deviant, you know, just carving the word "slave" in her stomach and the usual flogging. According to testimony, Jodi moved in with Marcus and lived to "serve Him, to please Him."

I’ll give you second to shake off the heebie-jeebies.

Anyway, Marcus was found guilty of the sex trafficking and forced labor charges and was forced to shut down his Website, SlaveSpace.com. On the site, Marcus called the charges "scurrilous," but the judge has a hard time reading from behind the leather mask.

Really, really sorry about that.