Learning with the Fang

You gotta love the way digital media messes with the establishment.  On one hand old-media stalwart the Sydney Morning Herald is quick to point out the obvious futility of banning free to air television in one state of Australia in an attempt to prevent people finding out about something that could prejudice a court case.  But in almost the same breath they display supreme ignorance (or at least bad grammar) by suggesting that peer to peer file sharing ’sites’ slowed down due to high demand.  Last time I checked, this is a perfect example of the beauty of peer to peer – the more people who participate in something like a torrent in a short time window, the faster it gets.  Welcome to the upside down world of the interwebs ;-)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/14/1202760433867.html

And as predicted by experts on copyright infringement in the digital age, the ban was undermined almost immediately after the show went to air. By midnight Victorians were rushing to file sharing sites such as mininova and torrents2hell to download the first episode. This morning over 600 people were already downloading the show from one site, but some users reported slow speeds due to the rush of people trying to obtain the file at the same time.

Thanks to twitterbuddy @RichardGiles for the tip off.

Then again, maybe this is a carefully crafted stunt by a very clever marketing agency.  What could be better for the launch of a new television series than exactly what has happened?  (I could care less about some new TV show about organised crime in Victoria – but now I know the name of the show and almost feel like hitting the torrents for an episode just to see what all the fuss is about.

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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