Why Juicycampus.com, Rottenneighbor.com, and gossip sites could be a good thing for free speech

Recently I got a call from a reporter at the local ABC affiliate in San Diego to interview for a story about juicycampus.com. The questions hinted that the story the reporter was looking for was one of how awful and hurtful some of the anonymous posts on the site are for students. I spent 30 minutes telling the reporter what I thought, particularly how similar, at least from a free speech perspective, gossip sites like juicycampus.com are to more widely accepted sites, such as wikipedia, craigslist, and wikilinks, which also allow anonymous posting, editing, or comments.

The resulting story was a disappointment, noticeably lacking any mention of free speech. While this was not unexpected, I figured I'd share my thoughts, and a bit of dismay for the old media, here in the new media world.

Submitted by Art Neill last modified Wed, 04/20/2011 - 10:39am

Nine Inch Nails chooses Creative Commons, but what does that really mean?

Sure, NIN has licensed their new album using Creative Commons , but what does it mean for grassroots creators who want to share, remix, or sample it? What are the practical impacts of NIN choosing Creative Commons on day to day use of their work? There's bound to be more artists adopting CC licenses, so let's see what's acceptable and what's not.

Submitted by Art Neill last modified Thu, 10/15/2015 - 2:15pm

Wikileaks.org shutdown by California court; how a webhost can hijack your url

Wikileaks.org, a site dedicated to providing an open forum for whistleblowers to expose corporate and government misdeeds, has been shut down in its entirety by a U.S. federal district court in San Francisco. This is really a "New Media Wrong."

Submitted by Art Neill last modified Wed, 04/20/2011 - 10:39am

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