LA Weekly on the Dean campaign

LA Weekly has a piece on Howard Dean's candidacy.

Business Week Online closes off website

I was going to point you to a new article in Business Week Online regarding The Underground Internet: Members-only "darknets" are popping up to protect file-sharing from prying eyes.

But this week apparently Business Week Online has put up a pay firewall so that only paying subscribers to its print publication can access articles such as this. (I just registered and still can't access the article.)

Why bother to have a website at all, if that's your policy?

Is McClatchy different?

Susan Paterno in the American Journalism Review on my old employer: Is McClatchy Different? The Sacramento-based company, with its hip, high-profile CEO and no-layoff policy, has positioned itself as an alternative to the typical approach to corporate journalism. Does it deliver the goods?

EPIC releases Privacy and Human Rights Report

The Electronic Privacy Information Center today announced the release of its 2003 Privacy and Human Rights Report. This extensive survey examines the state of civil liberties and privacy rights around the world. Key topics include new technologies of surveillance, such as Total Information Awareness in the U.S., the use of biometric identification, and the public response to government's increasing usurpation of individual privacy.

Here's a press release detailing the report's findings. And here's an audio summary of the report.

Thanks to Gary Price for the pointer.

On Internet news design

Phil Nesbitt in the American Press Institute's Media Center: News Design: The big, bold, static past, in print, is giving way to the digital, multimedia future.

I've also added Jay Small's Sensible Internet Design to the blogroll at the right.

'Full Monty' writer premieres new film on Net

Register UK:

A new film from the writer of The Full Monty, Simon Beaufoy, will today become the first film to be launched on the Internet.

This Is Not a Love Song, a low-budget British thriller directed by Bille Eltringham and starring lesser-known actors, will be streamed online today from the film's site at a cost of between £2 and £3. The film, which was shot in just two weeks for a budget of only 500,000 pounds, will also get a limited theatrical release for the next two weeks. ...

Early reviews (here and here) of the film are favourable. The film has been described as a British thriller in the tradition of Deliverance and Straw Dogs, with a pair of mismatched friends on the run from a group of vigilante farmers following a tragic death.

If the film's unusual distribution route proves successful it'll be interesting to see whether other indie filmmakers follow suit.

The Register story carries an update that notes: "Due to overwhelming demand, this site is temporarily unavailable."

Thanks to Samara for the pointer.

Downloaders: Repent and get amnesty

Reuters: Internet users who promise to stop illegally copying music will be able to avoid prosecution under an amnesty program to be unveiled by the recording industry next week, a source close to the matter said Friday.