In 2002 a geologist called Kenneth Adelman started a project in which he documented coastal erosion in California with a series of aerial photographs, uploaded to the internet and still visible here.
In 2008 he was sued by the owner of a coastal property, Barbra Streisand, who claimed $50 million for invasion of privacy, and asked for an order for the removal of photograph no. 3850, which included her clifftop home:
As a lawsuit this was not a success. Mr Adelman counter-sued under a California law against SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. Ms Streisand lost and was ordered to pay her opponent's costs, which came to US$177,000. An order to remove the offending picture was refused.
As a way of preserving Ms Streisand's privacy this was not a great success either. Before the case blew up "image 3850" had been viewed six times, including two visits from Ms Streisand's lawyers. More than 420,000 visits were recorded in the month after the case hit the headlines. Everyone now knows where she lives.
In her memoirs Ms Streisand blames her lawyer for attempted overkill. She says she would have been quite happy just to have her name removed from the caption and that was all she asked for. The bid for $50 million in damages was not her intention. No comment.
However the curious result of this affair is that Ms Streisand enjoys a curious form of long-term fame which has nothing to do with her undoubtable proficiency as a singer and actress. The "Streisand effect" is used for attempts to suppress something which achieve the perverse effect of making it more widely known. The effect has a Wikipedia page.
The local relevance of all this is that future updates of the page may well include the Hong Kong government's long-running efforts to banish the protest song "Glory to Hong Kong" from the internet.
This ditty, a popular item in shopping mall singalongs back in 2019, caused acute pain to local fans of the new order because for a while people who Googled "Hong Kong national anthem" found it at the top of their list, and as a result some people erroneously played "Glory" to salute the achievements of Hong Kong teams in international sporting contests.
The problem, it seems, was that Hong Kong did not have a national anthem – we use the China one – and the website explaining this was only available in Chinese. This has been fixed. Google searches now find a link to the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau website, where the situation is explained in English.
This is, however, still not the top result. And this is where Ms Streisand's legal misadventure becomes relevant. The top results are reports of the Hong Kong government's efforts to ban the song globally, endorsed by the Court of Appeal last week.
I am personally quite an admirer of "Glory to Hong Kong," both as a piece of music and for the sentiments expressed in the words, which are mostly not about the subversive "revolution of our times" but about "freedom". Senior judges, it appears, have now noticed that "free" is a four-letter word.
But these qualities are not what has made the song famous. What has made it famous is the government's efforts to expunge it from the internet. Alas, this horse has now bolted. It is not just out of the stable but over the horizon.
"Glory" now appears in the most unlikely places, including the public piano in Saint Pancras station. Hongkongers who are reassured by Ronny Tong's learned opinion that it is legal to "have it at home" can download the necessary chords for home performances with guitar or ukelele. But if I understand Mr Tong's advice correctly the performance must not be audible to your neighbours.
The prospect of the latest appeal hearing catapulted the song up the download charts again. Many international media reported the matter, often providing a link for consumers who wanted to know what the fuss was about.
The BBC observed that peaks in online interest in the song "correlated with government press releases, comments, legal moves..." It is perhaps time for our leaders to contemplate the possibility that if they stop kicking this hive the bees will sleep...
No comments:
Post a Comment