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The Most Trusted Name in News Just Stole Your ComputerPosted on Feb 5, 2009
Visitors to CNN’s Web site looking to watch streaming video of the inauguration on Jan. 20 got this message: “For faster, better video, click ‘yes’ here.” Doing so installed a peer-to-peer plug-in that transferred the bandwidth responsibility of streaming the video from CNN to the users, taking over visitors’ computers and potentially saving CNN a boatload of cash in the process. Distributed downloading can be efficient, and there’s nothing wrong with a major media company trying something new, but there are a number of ethical and technical concerns that could have been avoided if CNN had simply bothered to tell its visitors what clicking “yes” would actually do.
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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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By geeks, October 8 at 6:56 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
That was an inspiring post,
would it not just show up with a anti virus scan that there is somthing hidden within the file.. and i agree wit h the opinon the internet is great censored over the past few years.. and that is great…..for some.
Thanks for writing about it
Report thisBy KDelphi, February 8 at 4:33 pm #
The internet is more censored and cynical than it was 10 years ago. You might not notice it if you were always online.
I was offline for years. When I came back on, I couldnt believe it.
Report thisBy ocjim, February 7 at 6:07 pm #
The business community has been infected with the Bush-neocon virus of lies, misinformation, distortion, and deceit. The greedy and self-serving have chosen to be immune to decency while our laws, our media, and the voters have allowed crooks like Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Rove, and many others to escape without facing justice, thus pardoning this criminal behavior for all future times.
Ironically, only morality—something the neocons erroneously claim for themselves—is all that keeps us more honest since most poorer lawbreakers are behind bars.
Report thisBy Margaret Currey, February 7 at 10:21 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I trust the computer less and less, when I get junk in my e-mail box I do not read it I just eleminate it as soon as possible, I download nothing, I do not go for the okey doke because you have to watch your back all the time, if large corporations can trick people into paying for their game they will do it after all who goes after large corporations?
THE TIME FOR CHANGE CAN COME NONE TOO SOON.
Report thisBy Hatchcover, February 6 at 1:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
cyrena - it means “your goose is cooked”!
Ah that’s too bad cause I loved reading your comments on TD.
Report thisBy wok3, February 6 at 8:06 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
As near as I can tell, what CNN did is use those who clicked “yes” to distrubute video, saving them a ton on bandwidth usage. Many ISP are proposing or implementing caps on how much bandwidth a person could use, so this software could easily put you over the limits set even though you yourself did nothing wrong.
Report thisBy cyrena, February 5 at 10:12 pm #
Oh Jeeze…what does it all MEAN?!?
I read the entire article, and none of that stuff clicks in my mind. Does this mean that if I watched streaming Inaugural video from CNN on my computer, that I’m now hooked into the Oceania mainframe? Forever after?
Does it mean Cheney has a direct hook-up to my computer now?
Does it mean that I can get even MORE paranoid?
What should I do? Is my computer now permanently infected?
Woe is me.
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