dot.life

Do anarchists tweet?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 2 Apr 09, 15:08 GMT

It's clear that there has been a huge amount of social media activity around the G20 summit, and the demonstrations in the City and at the Excel centre. But some are suggesting that these new tools - in particular Twitter - have been vital to the organisation of the demos. I'm not so sure.

It does seem as though just about everyone involved in G20 - from the politicians to the journalists, from bloggers to demonstrators - has been snapping, filming recording everything in site and uploading it to the web to share with the world.

I spent Wednesday trying to monitor events via Twitter, Facebook, AudioBoo, and various websites. One good place to go was this site, created by a group of journalism students who set out with mobile phones to record the day's events. Alex Wood, who masterminded the project, even ended up providing this video from his mobile phone to the BBC.

My own Twitter searches came up with some useful insights - though it was as ever hard to pick out the genuine eyewitnesses from all those simply reprocessing what they'd just seen on the television. I particularly liked this message from one frustrated Twitterer trying to get the word out from the Bank of England:

"Mobile coverage v bad prob due to number of anarchists also using iPhones".

Just a minute - anarchists using iPhones? Or Twitter? Does that really compute? One is a mobile phone that you might think was more of a yuppie toy than a revolutionary tool - the other is a social network used principally by an older, more establishment crowd than, say, Facebook. Or maybe those are just my preconceptions?

I asked Alex Wood what his impression had been yesterday. He said there were a surprising number of people around him using both Twitter and iPhones, but he wasn't convinced that they were the main ways that the demonstrators had been organised.

The G20 meltdown website had been the place to go to find out what was happening next, and he said there was also a more old-fashioned method: "They still used the good old megaphone - people were announcing on megaphones that they were putting on an alternative summit in East London."

And he says there was just a small core of people bent on trouble: "The core of the anarchists, who were smashing up RBS, did what they did and got out quickly."

Did they organise that via Twitter? I'd be surprised - it's a very public place to talk about something you don't want the police to hear.

There certainly have been plenty of fresh insights into the G20 events from sources other than the mainstream media. There are AudioBoos - sound clips uploaded to the internet from outside the Bank of England. There are hundreds of photos on Flickr, like this gallery. And there are bloggers from around the world inside the summit trying to get their voices heard.

But as far as rallying anarchists is concerned, maybe a megaphone is still proving more useful than an iPhone.

• Permalink
• Comments

Goodbye "Knock-off Nigel"

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 2 Apr 09, 00:00 GMT

If you've visited the cinema or watched a DVD over the last few years, you've probably also been on the receiving end of a pretty stark warning. "You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag " says the trailer before the film, hammering home the message that piracy is a crime.

But now those trailers - and another anti-piracy series involving "Knock-off Nigel" will be seen no more.

They've been replaced by a series of short ads promoting British cinema and thanking the public for supporting movies by buying a ticket or a DVD. And, as far as I can see, there's not even a mention of piracy.

So did the get-tough tactics fail to do their job - and has the industry now changed tack?

"Your campaigning needs to evolve over time and have an appropriate message for today,"Eddie Cunningham, president of Universal Pictures International told me. He was explaining the new strategy to me on behalf of the Industry Trust, the body producing these trailers and fighting to promote the copyright cause for the UK film and TV business.

Mr Cunningham insisted that I was wrong to suggest the previous robust campaign against piracy had failed. '"If you went back to 2004, the majority of people didn't realise it was a crime, by the end of that campaign the majority of people realised it was. Research shows us that most people now find it unfashionable - there's been a gradual change in attitudes."

There's no evidence yet though that the tide has turned when it comes to the sheer scale of piracy - though the film industry has commissioned some research which it says could provide at least a hint that progess is being made.

But it seems the real news is that the nature of the anti-piracy battle has changed in two ways. Just like the music industry, the movie business has decided it's not worth alienating its own consumers and the focus has moved from physical piracy to the online variety.

In 2004 most people didn't have a fast enough broadband connection to make it worth the bother of downloading a movie via file-sharing software - now it's becoming a relatively simple "hobby".

And what really struck me about my conversation with Eddie Cunningham was his strong words about the internet service providers and his conviction that the government would force them to co-operate in the battle against piracy. "if you or I owned a house in which prostitution was taking place," he said, "or where drug dealing was happening, we'd be responsibile."

In other words, the ISPs are looking on as the crime of film piracy takes place down their broadband lines, and doing nothing about it.

In France the government is trying to bring in a "three-strikes" law, which would mean persistent film and music downloaders could have their broadband connections cut off.

Mr Cunningham thinks the same thing could be imminent here, if the ISPs don't agree to self-regulation: "It's absolutely critical for the creative industries which are terribly important for the UK, that the government steps in and does something. It's theft and it's only happening because we're making it a bit too easy at the moment."

So behind the softly-softly approach to piracy, there's still a threat. It's just aimed at what the film industry seems to regard as the "Knock-off Nigels" among the internet service providers, rather than at film fans.

UPDATE, 09:40: In a surprise sequel, the Industry Trust has got back to me this morning to say that Knock-off Nigel hasn't been consigned to history after all.

While the "piracy is theft" will be withdrawn, Nigel will llive on, alongside the new "thank you" adverts. So the strategy is even more complex than I thought. Filmgoers will be complimented and mocked at the same time.

• Permalink
• Comments