Twitter: King Stephen Fry and NZ Internet Law

ByLaurel Papworth

I think part of the disintermediation of communication means that it becomes much easier to catch the eye and ear of an individual. Whether they be the CEO of an Australian company, Malcolm Turnbull on Twitter or a celebrity like Stephen Fry, on services like Twitter you can find a way to engage with them….

I think part of the disintermediation of communication means that it becomes much easier to catch the eye and ear of an individual. Whether they be the CEO of an Australian company, Malcolm Turnbull on Twitter or a celebrity like Stephen Fry, on services like Twitter you can find a way to engage with them.

stephenfry

Fry is the global heavyweight of Twitter, with 200,000 active followers – more than any other, including US president Barack Obama.

He has blacked out his Twitter photo avatar and changed his biography to read:

“I’m blacked out: Stand up against “Guilt Upon Accusation” for New Zealand http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html.” (more at Stuff.co.nz)

The population of New Zealand is 4 million 300,000. Stephen Fry has over 200,000 followers. These people build up small kingdoms on social networks. King Stephen Fry. Heh.  There’s a reason we call them influencers.

blackedout

New Zealand were smart -they got a famous voice to speak up about censorship on the ‘net. Forced removal of  your profiles and content before it’s even gone to court (sound familiar?). We should do the same with Oz. And not just Mark Pesce – but a whole tribe of celebs. It’s one way to get Press, even if Stephen Conroy himself remains unimpressed. (an alliterative pun – press/impressed – geddit? geddit?)

fryd

So, who can we get to come in. Some famous person on Twitter. Doesn’t have to be Australian – though HamishAndAndy might be a start.  Perhaps from 50 Famous Twits?

Oh, that reminds me. Does anyone have access to Warren Buffet? I read his “Snowball” book and just have one teeny question to ask him. But he’s not on Twitter. I know he plays in a Bridge online community – anyone run into him lately? Thanks.

People know People. Peer to Peer. Disintermediation of Fame. I guess.

10 Comments

  3. “People know People. Peer to Peer. Disintermediation of Fame.” How true. Love that last line in this post of yours.

    I read about the people’s reactions in NZ towards the new law in the following site http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/6247. They have described it as the “world’s harshest copyright enforcement law”. Just curious to know what triggered this law to be in place?

    Tina’s last blog post..How Long is Long Enough?

    1. The earliest news piece I have managed to dig up just now: only speaks of the introduction to parliament by Judith Tizard.

      Common belief (and not without reason) is that it was urged by lobby groups acting for recording industry bodies such as APRA and RIANZ, and unsurprisingly these seem to be the most vocal supporters of the act.

      So basically this is all due to major record labels being too stubborn and scared to change their business model because the last 50 years have been a gravy train.

  6. Hi Juha,

    Thanks for sharing with us your latest blog post. I just read it. The examples stated there are easy to understand. 🙂 However I’m just wondering – the last point you stated there is “The only way to change it and again, I don’t believe for a second that this will happen, is through large-scale civil disobedience.”

    So I’m guessing civil disobedience here refers to protesting?

    Tina’s last blog post..Fast Food Economics

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