You know this is serious because they've already talked about it on SportsCenter.
Wednesday saw one of the most painful pieces of cheating that soccer has enjoyed since, oh, since pretty much any other World Cup qualifying game.
However, this occurred in the dying minutes, featured one of the most famous players in the world (yes, he's been on the front of an EA FIFA game box), affected the result of the game, and was so crudely obvious that the world has decided to fight back by socially networking.
In case you were only recently released after being abducted by recalcitrant performance artists, France was playing Ireland for the privilege of going to the World Cup finals in South Africa. Ireland was winning.
Thierry Henry, contemplating moral philosophy, when he played for London's Arsenal.
(Credit: Cc BobbyMond/Flickr)A ball was hopefully pumped into the Irish penalty area. The French captain, Thierry Henry, reached out his left hand to control the ball, enjoyed the feeling so much he actually handled it twice, then crossed the ball for an embarrassed teammate, Willam Gallas, to score and eliminate the plucky Irish. (It is compulsory to use the term "plucky" when referring to the Irish soccer team.)
Henry, perhaps sensing his precious image evaporating, admitted Friday that the game should be replayed.
Even though the sport's governing body, FIFA, has declared no replay will happen, it now has to deal with perhaps the fastest-growing Facebook group on earth.
Petition to have IRELAND VS FRANCE REPLAYED!!!!! already has secured more than 250,000 members since its inception, as well as an increasing amount of media coverage.
What is clear from the group is that people from all over the world are incensed that FIFA has haughtily dismissed the power of the people, the socially networking people. The group has organized a protest in Dublin, 2 p.m. local time Saturday.
If I were one of the fine-dining, bouncy-bellied officials at FIFA, I would pay a little more attention to this Facebook group. The last time someone so blatantly ignored the will of the socially-networking people--who, in the Facebook group's case, include many from France itself--it was a lady who guffawed: "Let them eat cake."
Yes, she was Queen of France and it did not end well for her. I feel sure Marie Antoinette would have wished for a little replay in her own life. And I feel equally sure that, were she alive today, she would be joining the Facebook group "Petition to have IRELAND VS FRANCE REPLAYED!!!!!" in demanding a rerun of this most important game.
France has adopted a strong antipiracy law, one that may mean those who chronically share unauthorized movies and music online will lose Web access for up to a year.
France's top constitutional court approved a revised plan to penalize those accused multiple times of infringing intellectual property, according to a report published Thursday in The New York Times.
In the spring, the court rejected an earlier version of the law.
Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, applauded the French court's decision.
"Today's decision is an enormous victory for creators everywhere," Glickman said. "It is our hope that ISPs will fully honor their promise to cooperate and that the French government will take the necessary measures to dedicate resources to handle the enormous task ahead."
Rick Cotton, executive vice president and general counsel at NBC Universal, said: "The French action recognizes that jobs and economic growth in creative industries are under assault by digital theft. We need a safe and secure Internet that enables consumers to access content easily but does not facilitate illegal file sharing that kills jobs in creative sectors."
Under the law, a new agency will be created that will issue termination notices to Internet service providers, and they will in turn cut off access to customers accused of piracy. But first, in cases where the agency wants to terminate service, it must first go through some kind of judicial review.
One of the ways the law was revised to gain acceptance by the French court is to require a judge to review each case before anyone's Internet access is shut down.
It's doubtful that a law like this could be adopted in the United States, at least at this point. Both the film and music industries have shied away from lobbying for a three-strikes law. But they have appealed to ISPs to voluntarily create what they refer to as a graduated-response program. This would call for the ISPs to issue warnings to chronic copyright offenders and potentially cut off service for those who refuse to comply.
There is yet another way that copyright owners could get ISPs to help in their antipiracy efforts, according to Gwen Hinze, international policy director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
She says the United States could agree to a three-strikes rule as part of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, being negotiated by legislators in the United States, Japan, the European Union, among others.
In this way, U.S. copyright owners could create a law without any public debate, Hinze said. She called any such attempt "policy laundering."
ACTA members are scheduled to gather again for more talks later this year.
Updated at 3 p.m. to include comments by Electronic Frontier Foundation.
In the not-so-distant past, the only way to follow the Tour de France was through TV, newspapers, or radio. People in the U.S. (lucky enough to have cable) would wake up before dawn to watch the race in real time. Then came the Internet, which made stats and information on the race course and teams more readily available. Technology continued to expand, and last year the big advance was Google's Street View of the race.
But, now there's Twitter, which takes it to a whole other level. No longer are riders' recaps spliced into packaged sound bites, or multi-bike crashes simply breezed by and forgotten. From wind resistance to inside jokes, the kind of information fans can get has broadened as dozens of cyclists tweet their views and thoughts throughout the course of each day.
Dubbed by The New York Times as "the world's most physiologically demanding event," this year's highly anticipated Tour lasts three weeks and covers 3,500 kilometers (2,174 miles) across the flats of Marseille, winding through the Pyrenees, and finishing along the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Now, half over, the race is as exciting as ever with the return of seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, stringent doping testing, and a grand start from Monaco.
Besides the usual coverage of the highs and lows of the race, all sorts of tidbits of information are available through Twitter--what the riders ate for breakfast (Armstrong had rice and eggs one day this week), how many hours they slept (Christian Vande Velde slept 10 hours one night this week) and blow-by-blow reactions to parts of the race (Michael Rogers said the last 5 kilometers of Stage 11 was warp speed).
Collectively, the tweets provide a perspective that had been lacking in traditional sports coverage--the viewpoint of the athlete. During a crash in the tenth stage, Kurt Asle Arvesen went down hard; later that afternoon he tweeted, "The Tour is over for me :( Snapped the collarbone today."
The next morning he followed up with, "On my way home, operation tomorrow."
Simultaneously, Armstrong wrote, "Feel really sorry for him. He broke a collarbone today. Good guy!"
Not only did this information come out before the traditional news covered it, but fans could see what other riders, like Armstrong, were thinking about the crash.
Several of the tweets include back and forth banter between the racers, talking about music, meeting up, or giving each other support. Even feuds have ended on Twitter; Carlos Sastre posted that Armstrong apologized for comments he made about Sastre's win last year, and thus, Sastre wrote that Armstrong "has regained my respect."
Lance Armstrong races through Monaco on the first day of the 2009 Tour de France.
(Credit: Flickr user: Ricardo Horsham)Cyclists post personal photos of the race, like Laurens ten Dam's TwitPic of his road-rashed back after a crash. They also link to articles they've written, like Vande Velde's story in The New York Times and Armstrong's "open letter" on his Livestrong blog. This is all in addition to the insightful comments about the climbs and descents, who cyclists are starting behind, and predictions of who will win that day's stage. Even traditional news outlets are including tweets in their coverage.
Although a lot of racers are using Twitter, Armstrong is definitely the leader. With nearly one and a half million followers, he tweets several times throughout the day. As the Tour kicked off, he posted a list of all the other racers on Twitter, so fans could follow them, too. Also, his team, Astana, and team manager, Johan Bruyneel, are set up with Twitter accounts.
On the morning of Stage 13, Armstrong tweeted, "Woke up to bad news. Levi is out with a broken wrist. Damn..." His teammate, Levi Leipheimer, lost control of his bike, slid out, crashed, and broke his wrist at the end of Stage 12. Leipheimer has followed Armstrong's lead and taken to Twitter in full force. After the crash he posted, "My wrist is broken. I can't describe how disappointed I am." Then he went on to tweet during the surgery, describing the operation, posting photos and X-rays of his hand, and finally concluding with, "They 'blocked' the nerves in my arm 4 surgery. Strange experience to say the least."
Whether riders like Armstrong are using mobile phone Twitter services like TwitterBerry, UberTwitter, Tweetie, or TwitterFon, they are all getting their message out there. However, nothing is certain in these days of finicky social networkers, where 60 percent of Twitter users quit after one month. And, who knows if next year's Tour will have the same Twitter-effect. But, at least for this year, the cyclists' amalgam of tweets is definitely putting a new spin on how fans can follow the race.
France's controversial attempt to crack down on Internet piracy was dealt a setback Wednesday when that country's highest legal authority struck down a provision that would have denied Internet access to those who repeatedly download copyrighted material illegally.
The French Constitutional Council rejected a key provision that would have given a newly created government agency the authority to cut off Internet access to those deemed to be copyright scofflaws after two warnings. The council said "free access to public communication services on line" was a human right that only a judge should have the power to disconnect.
The "three strikes" measure, which was approved in May by the French National Assembly with the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, would have punished digital pirates by suspending Internet service if they were caught illegally sharing copyrighted material. The legislation would have created a new government agency known as HADOPI (the Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des droits sur Internet), which would have been tasked with sending notices to illegal file sharers.
Suspected offenders would have received two warnings about their illegal activities and on the third suspected offense, their Internet access would have been disconnected for anywhere from two months to a year. Users would also have been put on a blacklist preventing them from subscribing to another ISP.
Consumer and free speech advocates opposed the legislation, arguing that it would deny accused Internet pirates the right to challenge the government's charges in court. Opponents of the legislation also feared that it would pave the way for governments to violate its citizens' personal privacy rights.
The legislation, considered one of the most aggressive digital antipiracy regulations, proved to be quite controversial in France and throughout the world. As a pre-emptive measure, the European Parliament passed a measure prohibiting EU governments from terminating a user's Internet access without a court order.
The entertainment industry has for years lobbied for more active policing of the Internet, but France is one of the only countries to put together such stringent legislation. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, instead are encouraging partnerships between ISPs and the entertainment industry to fight piracy.
At least one major ISP in the U.S., AT&T, has already agreed to work with the music industry by sending notices to consumers suspected of illegally distributing copyrighted content. And in the U.K., ISPs have agreed to help the entertainment industry fight piracy in lieu of new legislation.
The French National Assembly ignored a vote last week by the European Parliament and approved its "Création et Internet" three-strikes bill on Tuesday.
The measure supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy punishes digital pirates by suspending Internet service if they are caught illegally sharing copyrighted material. The vote comes a little more than a month after the same government body rejected the proposal.
It seems the vote by the French Assembly is in direct opposition to the European Parliament, which last week passed a measure prohibiting EU governments from terminating a user's Internet access without a court order. The European Parliament also adopted an amendment that said, "Internet access is a fundamental right such as the freedom of expression and the freedom to access information."
The bill passed in France's National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, by a narrow margin of 296 to 233. The legislation essentially creates a new government agency known as HADOPI (the Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des droits sur Internet), which will be tasked with sending notices to illegal file sharers.
The way it would work is that suspected offenders would receive two warnings about their illegal activities and on the third suspected offense, their Internet access would be cut off for anywhere from two months to a year. Users will also be put on a "three-strikes" blacklist so that they can't sign up for service from another ISP.
The legislation has proven to be quite controversial in France and throughout the world. It is considered one of the most aggressive digital antipiracy regulations out there, which has helped it win the support of the music and movie industries.
But consumer and free speech advocates have opposed the passage of such legislation, arguing that it denies accused Internet pirates the right to challenge the government's charges in court. Opponents of the legislation also fear that it will pave the way for governments to violate its citizens' personal privacy rights.
The bill had been expected to pass the General Assembly in France in early April, but Socialists, who opposed the measure, rallied at the last moment, and surprisingly defeated the measure.
It was reintroduced to the assembly in late April and was debated and discussed until the vote Tuesday.
Even though the entertainment industry for years has lobbied for more active policing of the Internet, France is one of the only countries to put together such stringent legislation. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, have not introduced strict legislation yet, but instead are encouraging partnerships between ISPs and the entertainment industry to fight piracy.
At least one major ISP in the U.S., AT&T, has already agreed to work with the music industry by sending notices to consumers suspected of illegally distributing copyrighted content. And in the U.K., ISPs have agreed to help the entertainment industry fight piracy in lieu of new legislation.
But other countries, such as Sweden are also taking a heavy handed approach to fighting digital piracy. France's strict piracy legislation comes less than a month after a Swedish court found the founders of the peer-to-peer site The Pirate Bay guilty of infringing copyright. The four defendants were each sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to copyright holders. The Pirate Bay has already been mentioned as one of the sites that could be easily taken out under the new French law.
Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the RIAA.
(Credit: Declan McCullagh)France has passed a law that requires Internet service providers to cut off Web access of customers accused of illegally downloading copyright material multiple times.
Last Thursday, the French National Assembly passed the "Creation and Internet" law, which implements a graduated response program similar to one the recording industry is asking ISPs in the United States to adopt.
According to a story in BusinessWeek, the accused are first e-mailed a warning that they have been flagged as a copyright violator. If the person is accused a second time, the pressure is increased. Another warning is sent but this time in the form of a letter mailed to the person's house. A third accusation will trigger the "three-strikes" part of the plan, and the person's Internet access can then be suspended for up to a year.
Two weeks ago, CNET reported that AT&T has begun assisting the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) by sending out warning letters for people accused of copyright violations. The company also acknowledged experimenting with sending warnings by way of certified letters to customers' homes. The ISP, however, said it would never shut off anyone's service without a court order.
Mitch Bainwol, the RIAA's chairman and CEO, has never called for government regulation in this country, but said that France's decision to implement a three-strikes law is a sign the relationship between ISPs and copyright owners across the globe is only getting stronger.
"Each country will forge its own solutions to this challenge," Bainwol said in an e-mail to CNET, "but the general pattern is clear. ISPs and the content community are working together in a constructive way to find common solutions that work for all sides."
The move by France's lawmakers comes as creators of content ranging from music to movies to book publishers appear to be taking the offensive against illegal file sharing or Web services they accuse of using their copyright work without permission.
High-ranking newspaper executives this week were critical of Google and Web sites that aggregate news for profiting from news stories without compensating the publications that produced them.
Across the Atlantic, the European Union passed the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, a law that enables copyright holders to obtain a court order that requires ISPs to hand over IP addresses of people accused of infringing on intellectual property.
Police in Sweden last week began making arrests of those accused of breaking the new law.
France isn't immune to the layoffs that Yahoo began last year.
PaidContent.org reported Tuesday that 52 of the country's 251 employees will lose their jobs, citing Agence France-Presse.
Yahoo spokesman Brad Williams said employees in France will be affected by the Yahoo layoff that began in December, cutting 10 percent of staff worldwide, or 1,520 people. Because of different regulations, the French cuts are taking place later than those in the United States, and employees haven't yet been notified.
Williams declined to comment on the number who will be losing jobs or the timing of the cuts. However, a Yahoo source familiar with the situation said the Agence France-Presse figure is in the right ballpark.
AOL's advertising product, Platform-A, is continuing its overseas expansion with Tuesday's launch of a French edition. In the past few weeks, AOL has launched Platform-A in the U.K. and Germany as well.
Platform-A already reaches 24 million people in France, AOL said in a release Tuesday. The technology serves ads on all AOL-owned sites as well as third-party participants in the Advertising.com network.
"Global advertisers are demanding online performance, and that's why Platform-A is aggressively extending its reach in both the United States and Europe so that marketers can generate results more quickly and measurably than ever before," said Platform-A president Lynda Clarizio, who replaced the outgoing Curt Viebranz in March. "No other online advertising business can offer the reach, relevance, and richness of Platform-A, and we're focused on rapidly extending our global reach as we near the end of 2008."
With digital ad dollars hanging in uncertainty in the U.S., many would-be leaders are looking overseas for growth: upstart Silicon Valley media company Glam has made several international moves by acquiring existing ad networks.
AOL plans more European launches for Platform-A before the end of 2008.
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