The Streisand effect
The Streisand effect? From
Wikipedia:
Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt in 2003 to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity.
Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the term after Streisand, citing privacy violations, unsuccessfully sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for US$50 million in an attempt to have an aerial photograph of her mansion removed from the publicly available collection of 12,000 California coastline photographs. Adelman said that he was photographing beachfront property to document coastal erosion as part of the government sanctioned and commissioned California Coastal Records Project. Before Streisand filed her lawsuit, "Image 3850" had been downloaded from Adelman's website only six times; two of those downloads were by Streisand's attorneys. As a result of the case, public knowledge of the picture increased substantially; more than 420,000 people visited the site over the following month.
From Dr. Michael Mann's
Facebook page:
I have formally demanded a retraction of, and apology for, this defamatory piece about me by National Review. I have retained counsel to pursue my legal rights.
From Anthony Watts at
Watts Up With That:
Dr. Michael Mann invokes the Streisand effect
https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMannScientist/posts/267470906700950
Now that Dr. Mann has drawn attention to it, even more people will want to read the National Review article �Football and Hockey� to find out what he�s so upset about. I didn�t even know about this article until Mann tweeted this demand announcement today. This announcement on Twitter is probably a bad move on Dr. Mann�s part.
You�d think after his botched attempt to get this video removed, Dr. Mann would learned that lesson. For the record, I don�t agree with the article Steyn cites in the National Review, but I think Dr. Mann�s effort to get it removed will backfire on him.
Heh. Unintended consequences indeed...
Posted by DaveH at July 21, 2012 3:09 PM