Wired - FishbowlLA

Hacker Goes To Hollywood: Did The MPAA Pirate Its Anti-Piracy Info?

Greg — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:00:01 +0000

Wired magazine reports the Motion Picture Association of America promised a young hacker “money and power” if he betrayed his BitTorrent friends as part of the MPAA’s anti-piracy crusade:

In an exclusive interview with Wired News, gun-for-hire hacker Robert Anderson tells for the first time how the Motion Picture Association of America promised him money and power if he provided confidential information on TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search site.

According to Anderson, the MPAA told him: “We would need somebody like you. We would give you a nice paying job, a house, a car, anything you needed…. if you save Hollywood for us you can become rich and powerful.”

The info Anderson provided was at the heart of a copyright-infringement lawsuit against TorrentSpy. Also, it may have been stolen. Which is kinda ironic in a piracy case, no?

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Burning Man’s Burning Man Spills

Kate — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:45:16 +0000

ValleyWag has an exclusive interview with the Burning Man early bird arsonist but no one seems very interested. Paul Addis, the terror of tent town, turns a nice phrase:

Burning Man had degenerated into a postindustrial disco.

Wired also has an “exclusive” Q & A,which is pretty much the same stuff.

Scott Beale has all the background, in case you’re thinking of pitching a feature about this.

(photo from Laughing Squid)

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Wired Goes Negative

Greg — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:52:06 +0000

Wired magazine is perhaps the most positive, life-affirming publication on the planet. If someone threw a rock at their window, someone there would write a cover story about how shards of glass will save humanity.

So it’s a bit amazing to hear Wired editor Chris Anderson declare that “the age of the blockbuster is over.”

Anderson pronounced his hypothesis while pimping his book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, at NATPE‘s 2007 Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.

He says that media outlets have become so fragmented, no one can truly strike gold anymore. One glimmering exception: YouTube.

Per the Hollywood Reporter:

Anderson also noted the success of user-generated site YouTube, saying that Barry Diller was wrong when he said that “people with talent won’t be displaced by 18 million people producing stuff they think will have appeal.” In fact, Anderson said, videos on YouTube are generating “network-sized audiences for the kind of content that TV isn’t making. … There’s going to be a battle between these two markets.”

Unabashedly breathless enthusiasm for the questionably successful? That’s the Anderson we know and love.

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