Why is that, despite taking legal action against hundred of scared teenagers across the globe for supposed music piracy via file swapping networks, many of the big music companies pay for market research information from a company which specialises in monitoring the popularity of songs on those networks? Apparently they find it invaluable intelligence when mapped with other statistics such as airplay. So if a particular song is played on the radio, they can then check the ratings on the networks like Kazaa. Just supporting the notion that at the end of the day this is all about money, and when money is the focus, as always, all is fair in love and war.

Scientists in England have created an equation which documents the perfect piece of toast. Now, if they could just hypothesise a forumla to remove Nutella (hazelnut spread) from the hair of my 3 year old son… that would be an advancement for mankind.

Something I posted this week in a mailing list for arts marketing in response to a comment from another listee.

> There are serious security risks accepting sales by credit
> card over the
> internet. This is not a secure method of transacting monies even for
> large corporations and banks. Ask anyone in the IT industry.
> The recent
> Bpay scam illustrates this.

This is a perpetuation of the media-bashed misconception that credit card transactions on the net are more dangerous. It’s just plain wrong. Ask anyone whose had their card skimmed at an ATM, or at a restaurant.

Fact 1. There is no documented example of a credit card number being stolen in transit across the net. EG as it travels between a customer and the site they are shopping from. It is technically and logistically nigh on impossible (although there is a rumour the CIA has capable technology installed in some ISPs in the USA because of 9/11). Apart from anything else, presuming the web site uses standard SSL secure technology (and I wouldn’t shop if it didn’t) you’d need a super computer to break the encryption (one presumes the CIA has access to such a beast).

Fact 2. A high proportion of fraud is perpetrated as a result of card numbers being stolen offline, then used to purchase online. Russian mafia are big on this apparently.

Fact 3. A high proportion of fraud occurs as a result of either a) an employee of a business stealing the information from the business; or b) a hacker breaking an insecure system to steal card numbers. Ergo, irrelevant re online. Just bad management by the company.

Fact 4. The PayPal fraud (and others targeting things like Westpac’s online banking customers) don’t have anything to do with credit cards per se, they rely on conning the gullable and mis-informed to hand over login details to enable the naughty people to access bank accounts etc. This is about education. Which is not helped by a hysterical media who lock onto any instance of fraud, yet ignore the literally billions of transactions which occur everyday without incident.

Fact 5. Yes, some shopping sites have experienced levels of credit card fraud perpetuated by naughty customers. So does every bricks and mortar shop. And with the introduction of significantly enhanced security preautions and check systems by companies such as Visa and Mastercard, the world continues to battle crime. Just like we do car theft. Reputable card transaction providers such as WorldPay (who we use for our UK site) go to enormous lengths to protect their merchants.

Fact 6. Taking into account 1 – 5, shopping online with a reputable company, such as Amazon, ABC Online (or dare I say, Arts Hub) is probably safer than handing over your credit card in your local restaurant. I shop online constantly, and have done so for years. The only time I’ve had a problem with a credit card was offline – a waiter in a restaurant in St Kilda skimmed my Amex and spent $1,200 on a surf board.

Fact 7. At Arts Hub we’ve conducted more than 10,000 online credit card transactions in the last 24 months. We’ve had one case of fraud perpetuated against us. A 12 year old girl who ‘borrowed’ her aunty’s card, in her enthusiasm to research an arts project.

Marketing on the net is not new. It’s just another distribution channel, with its own particular characteristics, like any other channel.

Saw this article ‘Political correctness comes to the tech arena’ about government officials in California asking equipment manufacturers to stop using the terms ‘master’ and ‘slave. Perhaps it’s because I live in a country which never knew slavery, but I find it hard to get excited. Then again political correctness is all pervasive. There’s a classic tale of, I think, an Australian customs officer confiscating a book called something like ‘Fun in Bed’ many years ago. Pity he never actually opened the cover – it was a book of games for kids.

Saw this article ‘Political correctness comes to the tech arena’ about government officials in California asking equipment manufacturers to stop using the terms ‘master’ and ‘slave. Perhaps it’s because I live in a country which never knew slavery, but I find it hard to get excited. Then again political correctness is all pervasive. There’s a classic tale of, I think, an Australian customs officer confiscating a book called something like ‘Fun in Bed’ many years ago. Pity he never actually opened the cover – it was a book of games for kids.

I saw two anti-spam stories in the same day, one from Australia and one from the USA. The Australian government looks like its done the deals necessary to get their anti-spam laws through the Senate. (Story from Sydney Morning Herald)

And in the USA the President is reported to be close to signing in a USA anti-spam law.

I get a couple of hundred spams a day, and use Mcafee’s SpamKiller software to try and keep it under control. Although I find it sometimes a frustrating program, and it occasionally mis-behaves on my XP laptop, it does on the whole do the job.

What I know for sure is neither of the two pieces of legislation are going to have much effect at all. Most spam is relayed via badly configured mail servers in places like Korea and China, the businesses behind the spams are spread around the world, and tough to track down or prosecute.

Again it highlights a) the price we pay for the magic of email. b) the complete inability of politicians the world over to come to grips with technological issues. They continue to apply old-world concepts to new-world problems. ‘Too many constituents complaining about spam? No problem. Pass a bill, and prosecute’.

Pity they’ll find it impractical and impossible to enforce.

Well I set this Blog up many months ago just to see how it all worked. Then promptly ignored it for ages. But I’ve had a resergence of interest, particularly because I keep seeing things I want to make comment on, or make note of. My daytime job involves me in online publishing of paid subscription content, focussing on people working in the arts and entertainment industry. As part of that I’m the webmaster and main programmer for a number of large content-rich sites, and I also write an occasional column published on one of the sites, highlighting issues revolving around technology and the internet in the arts industry.

The two main sites my company publishes are Arts Hub Australia and Arts Hub UK. My column is called ‘Click to Start’. Behind the scenes I program, generally large, web sites specialising in content management and publishing, subscriber management and email distribution.