New Media Ecology (by Ringo Lam): Newspaper

破網絡陷阱 IT業界可出力

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:45:06 GMT

在疑似藝人淫照上網事件中，警方雖然已經迅速拘捕多名涉嫌轉貼及涉案人士，但整個事件其實暴露了不少問題，值得資訊科技業界和社會人士深入探討。

控淫照發佈法律跟不上

本來，資訊科技日新月異，互聯網文化更是大行其道，法例追不上發展已是預料之事。在本港普通法環境下本來不致有太大問題，等到累積了相當的法庭案例，社會對相關問題形成了共識，便可修訂有關法例。

事實上，在去年修訂的《2007年版權(修訂)條例》也加入條文，嘗試定義透過有線及無線網絡定期或頻密分發版權物品而導致版權人蒙受損失的刑事責任，更定立指引讓公眾知道何為定期或頻密，以防誤墮法網。

1993年亦制訂了「有犯罪或不誠實意圖而取用電腦」條文，對於遏止網絡罪行，已起到了一定作用。

可惜，最受關注的《淫褻及不雅物品條例》並未作出相應和及時的修訂。

自從版權條例經過修訂和「有犯罪或不誠實意圖而取用電腦」條文產生以來，當局變得相當主動，最引人注目的是，在2007年5月，因使用BT (Bit Torrent) 技術在互聯網上載電影而被定罪的「古惑天皇」，遭終審法院裁定上訴失敗而需要即時入獄，終審法院釐清了《版權條例》中「分發」的定義，指透過網絡分發侵權檔案亦屬違法行為，更成為全球首宗成功檢控案例。

至於「有犯罪或不誠實意圖而取用電腦」條文，在今年1月，一名中三學生涉嫌在互聯網下載黑客軟件，入侵八間學校內聯網，並竊取師生資料，被當局引用該條文拘捕。

由此可見，有了相對清晰的條文，無論執法當局和市民都可以較為放心。

然而，事情一涉及《淫褻及不雅物品管制修例》第21條，有關禁止發佈淫褻物品的條文中，「發佈」、「管有以供發佈」及「輸入以供發佈」，在互聯網環境下均缺乏詳細定義及例子。警方在執法過程中, 成功引用「發佈」把在談論區發帖的相關罪行入罪，但在轉發電郵及社區網站下, 情況就變得複雜。

「朋友」怎定義成爭拗話題

電郵是人對人的媒體, 但當收件人數達數百以至數千時, 便有可能被介定為「發佈」; 上載到社區網站時, 如內容設定為公開, 一般可視為「發佈」,
但如只限制在"朋友名單"內, 是否也屬「發佈」?

另外「公眾人士」的定義在警方上周的解釋後, 變得更加富爭論性, "何為朋友?"變成互聯網上的熱門話題。在Facebook上朋友是否真的可以定義為" 朋友"? 我想大定亦有不少的facebook朋友是沒有見過面的, 按警方解釋他們可能屬於公眾人士。

但如果定義這是朋友, 如有人在Facebook設立了一個群組，成員有10,000多人，他們算是該人的「朋友」抑或「公眾人士」？凡此種種，都是現行法例中需要盡快檢討的地方。

政府與業界保網絡開放

本人覺得，為今之計，政府應該盡快與資訊科技界坐下來一起商討，據我所知，業界人士十分樂意就網民的使用習慣、互聯網和軟件的新趨向等問題向政府提供專業意見。

本會亦已聯同其他資訊科技有關協會與警務署及商務及經濟發展局聯繫, 希望可以盡快提出用戶指引, 一方面可以維持一個開放及有創意的互聯網, 同時提供一個健康的環境，使業界和廣大網民知所適從，而不會隨時誤墮法網。

互聯網專業協會創會會長, Wisers創辦人

(原稿登於香港經濟日報 2008年2月11日)

Google becomes B2B info Aggregator (unexpectedly)

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:32:40 GMT

When Google start working on Google Scholar and Google News projects, they may not aware that they are getting into the B2B market.

Google Scholar provides a direct search results with deep link to the journal publishers article. If you are on a campus network that have subscribed to the content, once you click on the link, the PDF file of your paper will pop up. Just like what you do with normal Google search. But actually, your university have already paid for you. The journal publishers are happy, coz they can now reach the end users (library and students) directly. They don't have to go through their long-time partner and enemy - Aggregator (e.g. ProQuest). As most publishers have already put up their papers on web already. ProQuest will be out of business very soon.

Google currently expand it's Google News to cover archive stories - Google News Archive Service. With same logic as Google Scholar, users can now go deep into the news site to buy article one by one or thru site license access. Same as the impact to ProQuest, Google will post a thread to the business of news aggregators like Factiva, Lexis-Nexis and Thomson Dialog.

I think that's the major reason that trigger Reuters to sell out Factiva.

Dow Jones acquired Reuter's interest in Factiva for $160 million yesterday (Market Watch, 18 Oct). Factiva is a 50-50 joint venture between Reuters and Dow Jones set up in 1999 in respond to the web development. It takes Factiva more than 3 years to integrate and migrate the Reuters RBB platform (terminal) and Dow Jones Interactive platform to the new Factiva.com platform. Lexis-Nexis and Thomson are also doing the same thing in this period. Thomson finally reveal Thomson One platform last year. But when they are busy with their web-platform-migration, Google has become a B2B aggregator unexpectedly. People start using Google News search to find business news before checking their Factiva a/c. Reasons are simple - faster and more convenient. It's not difficult to read from Reuters CEO's comment what really concern him.

Reuters' CEO Tom Glocer comments on Factiva sale: “The Factiva joint venture was a classic win-win, which transformed two sub-scale news archive businesses into a profitable global business. So why, you might ask, are we exiting? The simple answer is that the price is right and the timing is right. The price works out to over 13 times current year EBITDA, and more than a four times return on the $40 million we originally put into this business, so we are quite happy with that, and the timing is right, given my own view that the competitive landscape for Factiva is changing. Content previously only available on a subscription basis is becoming available on the free web, such as the new Google news archive service. My belief is that Factiva will be able to react more nimbly and creatively to these new challenges under the ownership of a single parent.”

To everybody surprise, Google as a consumer site.... suddendly become a very strong B2B information aggregator. And the worst is this new B2B aggregator providing service for FREE.

Who Killed the Newspaper?

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:04:07 GMT

This is a very frightening title in Economist Aug 26 issue. These are some of the most worry statement in the story:

... Of all the "old" media, newspaper have the most to lose from the internet. Circulation has been falling in America, western Eurpoe, latin America, Australia and New Zealand for decades..... In his book "The Vanishing Newspaper", Philip Meyer calculates that the first quarter of 2043 will be the moment when newsprint dies in America as the last exhausted reader tosses aside the last crumpled edition.... [Full Article 1 & 2 ]

Circulation drop is a fact, which can tell from statistics. Even China, as a developing country, also cannot record circulation increase for many years. The most circulated newspaper can only reach 2 millions, not much progress. May be total number of circulation is even dropping. So newspaper in a newsprint format is definatelly facing a lot of challenge in coming decades. As executive and management of newspaper companies, you should really do something.

In the board meeting on July 19, 2005 of Knight Ridder (the 2nd largest newspaper chain in U.S.), Bruce Sherman, the CEO of PCM, the largest shareholder of Knight Ridder, said to the company executive that they have not adequately addressed the challenges of advertising revenue moving away from print, the lack of a nationally recognized Internet source and "unexceptional" operating margins. Sherman hinted that PCM might support a hostile takeover or move for a management shake-up if the board does not move for a sale. Bruce Sherman's company is a very serious investor of newspaper industry. PCM, a large Baltimore-based investment firm, has added substantially to its newspaper holdings since 2000. It holds large stakes in companies like the New York Times and Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper publisher by circulation.

Sherman's action trigger a fierce discussion among the investor world whether they should pull the money out from the industry. Just a coincidence, most big media giant, like Walt Disney, Times Warner, Viacom and NBC-Universal, didn't own any big newspaper property. Only News Corp has big exposure on newspapers, not just in US, but around the world. Suddendly, everybody is looking at Murdoch, who is a big fan of newspaper for his whole life. He didn't face the question in News Corp's AGM last year about his newspaper business. But rather he made a high profile speech to talk about his latest acquisition - MySpace.

Knight Ridder was finally sold at a discount to McClatchy for $4.1 billion on June this year. This is a very sad news to the journalist circule. You can tell from this news story on San Jose Mercury.

There are still decades before anything serious will happen to the newspaper industry. But definatelly it's happening. As I said, newspaper industry get the most high hit, because it's the one who run first on Internet. Most experience learnt from newspaper can apply to other media.

Let's keep on the discussion here (good that language is not a barrier on web) ... and most of you did not have an opportunity to speak in class. I think some of the points raised are worth further discussion, e.g. creditability of web news, interactivity with readers, user-submitted news (or rumor?), e-ink, advertiser-driven business model, free newsprint, etc. Enjoy.