Streisand effect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- noun - The increase in popularity of an item due to interest driven by the publicized outrage over its existence.[1]
Streisand Effect is a category of Internet phenomena in which a reckless attempt to censor or remove (in particular, by the means of cease-and-desist letters) a certain piece of information (such as photograph, file or website) instead backfires, causing the information in question to be widely mirrored on the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks in a very short time. The fact that the piece of information is being sought after severely amplifies its value in the eyes of public, encouraging everybody to get "one's own share". Mike Masnick claims to have "jokingly" coined the term years ago, "to describe [this] increasingly common phenomenon."[2]
The name Streisand Effect comes from an incident in which Barbra Streisand sued photographer, Kenneth Adelman, for $50 million in an attempt to have the aerial photo of her house removed from the publicly available collection of 12.000 California coastline photographs, citing privacy concerns. Adelman was photographing beach front property as a way to document coastal erosion.[3]. The picture of Streisand's house that previously carried almost no interest to anyone suddenly spread all over the internet.
Streisand effect can serve as an illustration to the law of unintended consequences.
[edit] Notable cases of Streisand effect
- "Barbra Streisand has filed a $50 million lawsuit against amateur photographer Kenneth Adelman for posting a photograph of her Malibu, Calif. estate on his website."[4]
- Fox Network’s “Married with Children” was the target of Michigan housewife Terry Rakolta’s letter writing campaign to get viewers and sponsors to boycott the show due to potentially inappropriate language.
- Napster — Napster exploded in popularity when it received extensive media attention for its users "sharing" music
- AllOfMP3.com - "An Allofmp3 spokesman [told] local media: "Susan Schwab markets us so effectively - she could already be our press secretary.""[5]
- Windows 2000 source leak — "incomplete portions of Windows 2000 and Windows NT were illegally posted to the Internet. [...] "It was on the peer-to-peer networks and IRC (Internet relay chat) today," Ruiu said. "Everybody has got it -- it's widespread now.""[6]
- "Anshe Chung attacked by flying penises" video gained in popularity (in particular, among SecondLife comminuty) after DMCA takedown notice has been served to YouTube that hosted the file.
- iPhone skins for smartphones — "Ironically, Apple's attempts to have the files removed from the web have only given the skins greater publicity, and they have already begun spreading to other websites."[7]
- "Fox Broadcasting ordered clips of Paula Abdul swaying, appearing intoxicated, and answering questions on TV news programs in a nonsensical way taken down from YouTube [...] unintended consequence of this move could be that it extends the kerfuffle over Ms. Abdul’s behavior rather than quelling it."[8]
[edit] Sources
- ^ The Joy of new words neologasm.org
- ^ Is Leveraging The Streisand Effect Illegal? Accessed on Nov, 22, 2006
- ^ The Smoking Gun
- ^ Steve Brown (May 30, 2003). Streisand Sues Environmentalist Photographer for Website Photo. CNSNews.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-25.
- ^ Allofmp3.com speaks out against US. The Register (October 6, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
- ^ Microsoft probes Windows code leak. cNet News.com (February 12, 2004). Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
- ^ Asher Moses (January 15, 2007). iPhone skins irk Apple. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
- ^ Sunshine Mugrabi (January 22, 2007). YouTube—Censored?. Red Herring. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
