Twilight of the Idols

Ava Arndt points out how the New York Times is reporting on the role of Internet news dissemination at the Democratic Convention in "New Media Stream into an Old Tradition." While news organizations often want to keep control over their copyright by restricting the dissemination of the often highly excerpted video clips of speeches, the DNC website offers full coverage of the convention, which includes supposedly "minor" speakers and events in the program. Yet digital rights advocates will immediately notice that the DNC is hardly an exemplary site for free culture practices. Users must install plug-ins from proprietary software to view the footage, and the clips themselves appear in a format that can not be easily copied, remixed, or embedded in blogs or other social media channels of communication.