Saturday, May 31, 2008

Debunking Zango's "Content Economy"

Earlier this month, Certified Bug provided an update of the latest press coverage of Zango. It was from Certified Bug that I discovered the PCMag article, Must You Install Zango?, and Ben Edelman's comments there.

Ben hasn't been idle since then. His latest research analysis debunk's Zango's "content economy":

Zango often touts its so-called "content economy" -- purportedly providing users access to media in exchange for accepting Zango's popup ads. After four years of debunking Zango's claims, I've come to suspect the worst -- and my investigations of Zango's media offerings confirm that Zango's media library is nothing to celebrate. This article reports the results of my recent examinations. I show:

  • Widespread copyrighted video content presented without any indication of license from the corresponding rights-holders. Details.
  • Widespread sexually-explicit material, including prominent explicit material nowhere labeled as such. Details.
  • An audio library consisting solely of prank phone calls to celebrities (without the "music" Zango promises). Details.
  • Widespread material users can get elsewhere for free, without any popups or other detriments. Details.
  • Widespread material that content creators never asked to have included in any Zango library. Details.
See the complete report at Debunking Zango's "Content Economy".




Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

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