The Digital Economy Bill

In 36 hours, the UK leader of the commons, Harriet Harman, will decide whether to pass a bill into law un-scrutinised, or subject it to a line by line analysis, thereby delaying it until after the election (GB will soon head to the palace to dissolve the govt) or kill it completely.

This bill is the Digital Economy Bill, which has been creating a hash-tag storm across the world of all the work-shy people out there, otherwise known as "Twitterees". As we know from Nestles social media 'fail' a few days ago, its easy to generate a storm in the online world, all you need is a cause because people will always throw their weight behind something that requires no effort for them to support.

However, I just want to point out one thing that, was in fairness, pointed out to me by a photographer. In the digital design world, it's really easy to not see past your own nose, even into supporting fields, like illustration and photogrraphy. This I thought was surprising, then again it's not as designers are a self obsessed lot.

Its concerned with the 'Orphan works' clause, that refers to a photograph for which the copyright owner (the photographer) is unknown and cannot be traced. Publishers, can use that image and not pay royalties by claiming it as an orphan work with no traceable originator. In effect, It will open the floodgates for publishers to use images willy-nilly without payment to the photographer by claiming that they couldn't trace them. It also puts the onus on photographers to make sure their work isn't being ripped off.

Now compare this to the recording industry lobby groups on whose back this bill rides. Its main aim is to stop the supply, distribution and use of copyrighted material, mainly music and film titles in order to wrest back lost revenue from the pirates, or those that download, distribute and consume copyrighted material.

The contradiction is stark, even within the bill, to remove copyright protection for one group and ramp it up to pernicious levels for another. The only difference I see is that one group is represented by powerful rights holders and the other, is the creator of original work.

I actually plan to go down and protest

And as the Vultures pick over the decaying corpse....

Its really easy in the heat of 'battle' to lose all sense of perspective ( I am sure Sun-Tzu would have something to say about this), to forget your position relative your comrades and colleagues, to be so buoyed with bloodlust that you ignore all personal safety and drive in for the kill.

Usually, on a battlefield, its only when the fighting has stopped that the vultures, circle for the spoils, and villagers from the nearby town pick over what remains looking for objects of value. Not so in today's virtual battlefields.

Its with this i draw you to Nestlés FAIL (internet parlance) on Facebook. Their foray into social media was met with a barrage of protests about formula milk, baby orang-utans and palm oil. If social media is good for one thing, then its good for a virtual lynching. Nothing can excite a mob more than a cause, with an avenue to vent it, especially if the avenue requires little effort on their part.

Hats go off to activists who brave poor weather to protest, even more to people who devote their lives to causes. But on this sliding scale of commitment, a social media lynch mob rates pretty poorly. Its the protest equivalent of switching from "strictly' to 'Dancing on ice'. So it was with Nestle. Since it requires no effort to stick the boot in, hundreds of 'fans' all starting swarming all over Nestle like a tour group from weight-watchers at an 'all you can eat' buffet.

Now from this 'carnage' there was a number of things happened, namely, the vultures didn't wait until the battle had ended before picking over the spoils, they were there almost immediately as the battle waged. And this vulture, comes in the form of the 'social media expert', who seeing Nestlé stagger under the blows, are only too keen to offer their services.

Nestle did themselves no favours to resist these carpet-baggers, by updating their Facebook status, mid-battle, to say 'Social media - we're learning as we go'. So I guess they invited these ingrates to tea. However, it goes to show you the lack of integrity of these people (hardly surprised there).

The question I need to ask is, where did these social media experts come from? You really must question these self-styled titles, and treat them with as much suspicion as someone, like these people from "The Social Media Academy" whose only motivation to comment was to try and drum up business.

As Orwell says: Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket

Giddy up!

Update:

As the post is oh so current...her is a list (ongoing) of companies hoping to tout their services. Identified as such through their blatant posting of URL's in their comments, etc

Tank PR - http://www.tankpr.co.uk/
Contently managed - http://contently-managed.com/
RGC Media - http://www.rgc-media.com/nestle-fail

Temporary Break in Transmission

Real work has gotten in the way of blogging.
This happens, clients actually require work doing.

On another note, there has not been much to raise my ire lately. The Argos rebrand and the expect cacophany of abuse with regards to the fee and the value for money it represents.....