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Last updated on March 5th, 2018 at 01:44 pm
Ex-Fairfax employee Margo Kingston seems not to understand that as a common street blogger she’s obliged to follow certain copyright regulations:
When trying to link to my first piece on Tony from the Webdiary archive I noticed that all of a sudden you have to register to be linked. So if you don’t want to do that, I’ve republished the piece after Tony’s article.
Indeed she does—all 4,622 words of it, lifted without abbreviation from the SMH’s 2002 archive. Meanwhile, The Australian’sAmanda Meade reports on Margo’s abrupt departure:
It was all very mysterious and has created a frenzy in cyberspace as her fans try to work out what has happened and fire questions to the blogger, who is now working from an internet cafe.
Margo prefers a classier description; she’s working from an internet place. Where she’s just put up an item on—brace yourselves—“the takeover of Adelaide by Halliburton”.
Margo’s innocence of copyright regulations seems odd given that I understand she at one time qualified as a lawyer.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 08 25 at 03:41 AM • permalink
It was all very mysterious and has created a frenzy in cyberspace as her fans try to work out what has happened and fire questions to the blogger, who is now working from an internet cafe.
Café au Lithium for everybody!
Posted by Mr Hackenbacker on 2005 08 25 at 03:47 AM • permalink
I suppose if Nigerian net scammers can work out of net cafes then Margeux can run a revolution out of one.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 08 25 at 03:51 AM • permalink
When I was in college, my psych teacher gave us an example of the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic. The dude had put together a complete thesis on how he thought aliens were trying to spread disease among humanity through the telephone syste (this was pre-personal computer and pre-INTERNET, children). The thesis included both cause and countermeasures, and was put together with thought and professionalism (the use of which sad to behold). No crayon scribblings here, from a distance it looked like something you’d see in any library.
Now, almost 30 years later, I read Richard Tonkin’s “Halliburton’s Adelaide”, specifically this:
From here, given modern real-time communications, the world could be run quite effectively, at a pinch, with the commanders never being in danger of running out of anything. At the end of the day, with an inexhaustible supply of energy and fresh water, the US Dynasty would be able to outlast any enemy.
And that sad little thesis, last seen in 1976, pops into my mind. I wonder why.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 25 at 04:15 AM • permalink
SMH – evil meanies, took away her Internet connection. She requested that it be transferred to her name, but they declined.
Don’t know if she knows how to pick up land line phone and order her own broadband connection. Usually takes a week to be activated (for normal folk), so we’ll have to wait and see what transpires next week.
Will Internet connection mean that she will actually start writing stuff, for the first time in …. how long…
The move did catch a lot of people on the hop – I got a heads up before the move through e-mail due to being asked to remain an article writer for her.
But what’s with the whole intellectual theft thing? Who actually owns it? I mean what I wrote? Do I? Does Margo? Does SMH? Doesn’t really matter that much, but I would like to know.
Posted by Stuart Lord on 2005 08 25 at 05:05 AM • permalink
Margo needs to do the math. She has roughly 100 or so blatantly psychotic contributors.
Each could use pretty hefty doses of Zyprexa.
With PBS subsidies, Lilly could be literally making a fortune with this kind of targeted marketing and distribution network.
Best of all, Margo may finally rid herself of those troubling persecutory auditory hallucinations that she believes are planted there by Colin Rubenstein and the Zionists.
Drat it! I’m sitting here, with a bowl of soup in my lap catching up on the blog before the dreaded housework, the title of this item leaps out at me.
I laughed so hard I nearly dropped it.
As for a net caf, surely she can afford a pc and a net connection on whatever wage she has or had. AAPT do a deal for like $10 a month. I’ve just got myself adsl to feed my habit, but I can justify that because I’m not spending money subscribing to the Aged.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2005 08 25 at 05:11 AM • permalink
#11 Entropy. I do know that Margeaux was writing for the Lismore Echo a while back. I tell ya it’s weird seeing anti-Bush/USA opinion pieces alongside ads for cattle drench and ‘Drontal wormer’ for working dogs.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 08 25 at 05:27 AM • permalink
Who actually owns it? I mean what I wrote? Do I? Does Margo? Does SMH?
That’s an interesting question. IANAL, but it seems to me that the terms of the contract Margo had with the SMH would be the important thing here.
As a freelance writer, my standard contract (when there is a written one) gives all rights to the commissioned piece to the company that commissioned it.
As a full-time employee writer, my contract varied from company to company. Some claimed the rights to everything I did for publication on behalf of the company. The ABC contract tried to claim everything I did in my own time es well! Cheeky bastards.
As for the ownership of stuff you did for Margo at Webdiary, that’s a bit of a grey area to me. I imagine there would be legal precedents that establish ownership.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 08 25 at 05:43 AM • permalink
I like the way Margo authoritatively uses technical lingo:
since terminated my internet access and ADSL thingo
I’m starting to think she really *is* behind the blogspot site, after all!
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 08 25 at 05:56 AM • permalink
She’s channeling the Late, Great Joe Vialls. Only difference : the US Imperialists are infiltrating Adelaide, not Tasmania. Wonder if they’re the same Zionist Cabal that she says controls Australian MSM?
I’m not overly worried about ownership, really. Nothing I contributed was that original to be considered vital or anything. I am just wondering for wonders sake. I mean, I’m sure I’m not the first to say going into Iraq and removing Saddam was a good thing, nor that Mugabe should be abused, nor that the censors are idiots, nor that VSU is good, nor that abortion, when made for lifestyle choices, is immoral.
It’s sheer curiousity on my part.
Posted by Stuart Lord on 2005 08 25 at 06:08 AM • permalink
While I’d be at loggerheads with much put forward on this site, I’d certainly agree calling Margo a space cadet is an insult to honest junior galactic star rangers everywhere.
It seems that any thought that comes into her head on the spur of the moment is just as important as any other. And all this co-ordinator of co-ordinators and team beta, gamma and zardoz 5 shit is ludicrous. Five minutes at blogger or typepad or whatever is all it takes. And taking a break again? Damn, she racks up even more vacation weeks than Dubya.
“This is my Thelma and Louise moment,”
Jeez, talk about building up your own personal mythos. Does she remember how that film ended? Cliff? Driving off?
Oh dear . . . . two somewhat less nutty reasons why military units are moving to Adelaide:
1. housing is cheaper than Sydney (hence move of troops and their families from Holsworthy)
2. more employment opportunities than Darwin (hence move of troops and their families from Darwin)
Posted by Young and Free on 2005 08 25 at 06:19 AM • permalink
It’s not abot the oil, it’s all about the pie floaters!
Posted by Young and Free on 2005 08 25 at 06:21 AM • permalink
James – it really is her blog, you can tell from the number of typo’s and the fact that she published an “off line” note to Tim, then, realizing her error and having been given explicit instructions on how to edit a post, she “deleted” the text with edit tracking.
Apart from that, the sure fire verification of identity can be found in a comments box… (typo’s retained, for assurance purposes only)…
“Thank you have saved me from an embarasing problem.
That’s the thing about having 1000s of editors and technicalists and managers for Webdiary, actually having them do something for the weblog. I originally assigned blogger units Charlie and Echo to the post that needed fixing, but they were all to busy.”
Funny how the lefties always claim their rights are being trampled on by everybody else, then show no respect for anyone else’s rights or the law. Typical holier than thou stuff the left trots out.
Who will put odds on how long until:
a.Margo and the management team have a dust up and it all falls apart in acrimony?
b.Margo has to get a real job after realising that you can’t earn a subsistence living just recycling ludicrous conspiracy theories to 100 committed (but not committed to an asylum) fellow travellers?
c. No I won’t write c it is too cruel, but it’s probably true. Guess c if you can!Posted by platey mates on 2005 08 25 at 07:24 AM • permalink
#27 platey mates , I was just about to say the same thing.
Its funny how a group whining about rights and being ‘fair’ have no compunction about rules of privacy or law. So now she’s running a small business from someone else’s business, what a capitalist eh? Now we have to feel sorry for the old moll because out of the thousands she earnt from the SMH, she hasn’t got her own computer.
What next? a new tome , ‘down and out in Byron Bay’? I hope the silly old trout’s balls turn to bicycle wheels and backpeddle up her arse.
- I think you’re right, Deo, margo did do a turn on the Lismore echo (or is it the same as the Byron Bay Echo?)
One thing I did notice on my intermittent returns home, is that the local ‘real’ newspaper, the Northern Star, took a bit of a left turn when the Echo first came out to head off the competition. I think it might have been a bit of a demographic change too – The dairy farmers died out or moved on, to be replaced by the likes of Olivia Newton John etc. (Nimbin purchasers of the Northern Star before the monied hippies turned up were only buying the paper for rollies)
dig this interesting post on webdiary – the author may be fantasising but if she writes truly, it says something about at least one media editor that rings true to me:Hicks was captured leaving Afghanistan and didn’t know that the US had switched from the alliance with the Taliban to the alliance with the Northern Alliance.
There is no evidence in existence that he ever hurt anyone.
And thinking hate is not a crime. I think hate about this government on a daily basis and one media editor I have spoken to many times has a mantra each day “f..k John Howard” three times before he gets his first coffee.
Should we spend nearly 4 years in prison for our thoughts now?And let’s us not forget the worst hate monger in Australia today. Our own prime rodent who just cannot help himself, he needs some new group of people to vilify every day of the week or he is not happy.
This is our island and not his.
Posted by: Marilyn Shepherd | 24/08/2005 9:03:22 PM
- All crap aside folks, I knew someone who left a particular company with their customer database in his pocket and was almost hounded out of the industry. The other companies wanted it sure, but they were shit scared he would do it to them too.
Isn’t it just plain illegal to steal someones customer database?
Yeah, and I bet Margo is against an ID card on breach of privacy grounds.
Posted by platey mates on 2005 08 25 at 09:43 AM • permalink
I’m sure I’m not the first to say going into Iraq and removing Saddam was a good thing, nor that Mugabe should be abused, nor that the censors are idiots, nor that VSU is good, nor that abortion, when made for lifestyle choices, is immoral.
— Stuart Lord — Well, you might be the only one.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 25 at 10:12 AM • permalink
I hope the ‘internet place’ takes cash in advance from no income Margo.
Has it occurred to Margo that the Defence Industry is the biggest industry sector in South Australia and therefore, Halliburton as a major defence contractor, might be doing alot of business there.
I am very impressed that Halliburton has the resources and skill to try and take over Adelaide, after all I thought they were still stuck in a quagmire trying to take over Iraq. Or have they decided that there is more oil in Adelaide?
And why is Halliburton’s (Kellog Brown Root – the covert storm trooper super special forces operations division of Halliburton) Canberra office in the infamous Centenary House? Oh my god, Halliburton is trying to take over the ALP. Quick rally to the barricades everyone, the evil empire is inside the gates. Panic. We are all doomed. AAAaaaagh these Hallibutonistas fight like devil dogs. Tell mom I love her, and if I die please join the ditch Madonna in blaming my death on HaliBushitler. Aaaaaagh can’t….go…..on……….hel….
Posted by platey mates on 2005 08 25 at 10:18 AM • permalink
It’s all so obvious! Why doesn’t anyone else understand? It’s the International media-controlling Zionist conspiracy!!!!
Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 08 25 at 10:34 AM • permalink
Nice to see you’ve taken some time off from your extremely well paying journalism career. Or was it time off from pulling the levers of great political power behind the scenes?
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 08 25 at 11:17 AM • permalink
I would have thought that a $20-per-month internet connection would work out cheaper than running a blog from an internet cafe. Or wouldn’t that be bohemian enough?
Posted by Stone Cold on 2005 08 25 at 07:56 PM • permalink
But how does she fit all her staff into one little internet cafe?
RebeccaH—“voices” are not “staff…”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 25 at 08:43 PM • permalink
Margo’s been driving off a cliff for a couple of years now; she just isn’t aware that she’s lost contact to the ground yet (and may never realize it, actually). Think cartoon physics.
How come there’s like no one defending Margo?
I mean surely not everyone who reads this site agrees the same thing?
Oh they do?!
Of course they don’t.
No… wait… they do!
So much for weblogs = greatest bastion of democracy huh!
This site is just a cozy club of foulness filled with slugs sucking each others muddy mucus!
Good luck kiddies!
Posted by DJ Far Queue on 2005 08 26 at 05:21 AM • permalink
DJ Far Queue – oops, looks like you posted on the wrong site, you must have meant to post here http://margokingston.typepad.com/harry_version_2/ and good point, BTW.
Ah, another troll, making its point by squawking, flapping its wings, and crapping.
DJFQ, from your eloquent prose, I conclude that you want someone to defend Margo because you are unable to articulate any rational argument.
Imagine my surprise.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 26 at 06:15 AM • permalink
Re: 56. Yes I am M Shepherd.
Re: 6*. Yes I am Harold Holt.
Re: 7*. Yes I am Lord Lucan.
Re: 8*. Yes I am Pappa Smurf. Or is he in gaol?
Re: 54. I get you. The left posts on MK and the right here. So it seems that OVERALL a balance is struck viz-a-viz cyber-expression of political thought and opinion. Just never on the same site. Like parallel monologues in a vacuum.
How excruciatingly dull!
But this site is dull isn’t it? Screen after screen of bilious filth. Yet I find myself curiously drawn to the next screen of bilious filth. What do I hope to find?
Reason, nay! Don’t be stupid! I’m a Leftie!
Agreement, huh! Do you take me for an idiot?
What then? Some kind of ugly prurience perhaps. See how they hate Margo! Look at their loathing for Philip! Almost an erotic charge in a way. Tasting forbidden fruit. Dipping a hand into fast acting poison, how long do I dare to leave it immersed?
Tell me do you guys feel like this when you read MK? Go on, ‘fess up, you do don’t you!
Posted by DJ Far Queue on 2005 08 26 at 08:35 AM • permalink
Re: 55. Yes I am a troll.
D’oh! This is stating the obvious. Well, you can read, anyhoo.
Re: 56. Yes I am M Shepherd.
Re: 6*. Yes I am Harold Holt.
Re: 7*. Yes I am Lord Lucan.
Re: 8*. Yes I am Pappa Smurf. Or is he in gaol?
Multiple personalities, huh? One is dead, one is missing, and one is intellectually challenged. And Pappa Smurf is an annoying little blue man in charge of a bunch of equally annoying little blue people, and fictional to boot.
A dead prime minister, a missing member of the Irish peerage, stupid writer, annoying creatures. There’s a hidden message here, DJFQ. Hmmmmmm……I know! You’re clueless.
Re: 54. I get you. The left posts on MK and the right here. So it seems that OVERALL a balance is struck viz-a-viz cyber-expression of political thought and opinion. Just never on the same site. Like parallel monologues in a vacuum.
How excruciatingly dull!
Well, not totally true. If you actually read this blog, you’d know that non-members of the VRWC post here. If they are polite and behave nicely, most folks try to listen. And even, gasp!, discuss things.
However, most (self-acknowledged) lefties tend to stand on their soapbox, and explain to the commenters here that “You Are Wrong, And We Are Right™”. When they are asked to (a) provide facts to prove their thesis, or (b) given facts contrary to their thesis, they end up acting like you. All angry and blustery, and acting the fool.
But this site is dull isn’t it? Screen after screen of bilious filth. Yet I find myself curiously drawn to the next screen of bilious filth. What do I hope to find?
Reason, nay! Don’t be stupid! I’m a Leftie!
Funny that. I believe that most people here would support a rational and reasoned voice on the left. I know that they are out there. They are simply not in the vocal majority. But the key word is “rational”. Which Margo (and you) are not. My comment above describes an irrational (actually, mentally ill) person using solid logic. The premises were not true (rendering the conclusions false), but that didn’t matter to the poor person.
And what happens at Margostan is much the same thing. Except that the logic is generally less than solid.
Agreement, huh! Do you take me for an idiot?
Yes. Didn’t you get the memo?
What then? Some kind of ugly prurience perhaps. See how they hate Margo! Look at their loathing for Philip! Almost an erotic charge in a way. Tasting forbidden fruit. Dipping a hand into fast acting poison, how long do I dare to leave it immersed?
Heh, almost “erotic”, eh? It’s hardly “forbidden”, bright eyes. Even in an ethical sense. If it were, the Digital Brown Shirts would be here, making arrests.
No, I think this is more wishful thinking….hoping that someone on the left actually puts out a reasoned and rational argument. This does happen now and then; it’s just that the odds of this happening with Margo or Philip are pretty low.
By the way…..with all the “bilious filth” here, how long do you leave your hand in the fast acting poison? “Physician, heal thyself!”
Tell me do you guys feel like this when you read MK? Go on, ‘fess up, you do don’t you!
No. I weep for the lack of reasoned and rational debate. Most of what I see and hear is along the lines of “It’s all about Halliburton! Oil! Global warming! John HoWARd is a deputy Sheriff! Bush eats babies! The terrorists are nice fellas, and they won’t cut my head off!”
I’m begining to think that willful stupidity is a form of mental illness. I hope that you get better.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 26 at 09:30 AM • permalink
DJFQ – the reason lefties never come here is because their Swiss-cheese arguments get absolutely torn to shreds. Hence why conservatives feel free to battle it out on Daily Flute, Tim Dunlop etc. Though you never see them here. One too many hidings inflicted, sadly.
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 08 26 at 09:31 AM • permalink
Actually, Marilyn’s histrionic and vitriolic doodlings, no matter how unhinged or profane, are ALWAYS published on WD, even when she is given a temporary ban; Margo lifts the ban, for reasons that are never disclosed.
Bilious filth? Refer exhibit “A” – post # 57.
Bilious filth? The lunatic delusional ravings of Marilyn on any topic.
What’s wrong M – the new WD seems to have run out of steam after only one week, and you’re worried “your” forum is dead? Good. What ever will you do, now that no-one gives a toss about the asinine musings of any of what’s left of the decaying body of WD. See, that’s where hypocrisy, lies, deceit, and corporate theft lead – straight to the grave yard of blog-land, and out there Marilyn – at long last – no-one can hear you and Margo scream.
Your misdeeds and bilious filth have finally caught up with the both of you.
- Oops, that should have read
“Hence why conservatives feel free to battle it out on Daily Flute, Tim Dunlop etc. Though you never see those lefties here. One too many hidings inflicted, sadly.”Preview is my friend.Posted by James Waterton on 2005 08 26 at 09:33 AM • permalink
Actually I enjoy reading Philip Adams, mostly, and admire his charming and compelling style of writing. I really object to a man of his talents being tossed about and linked with Margo Kingston, as if they are somehow equals and comparable. That’s such a gross insult to Adams.
I am left to middling, on most things…except taxes and a few other things, when it takes my fancy, or on a whim, or if it’s a full moon, or if it’s in the interests of me and mine.
I have a policy of zero tolerance for hypocrites, especially from those who operate within and exploit the public domain, and zero tolerance for self aggrandizement. The Margo & WD fiasco has been a despicable and unredeemable example of both.
Besides, I can understand what Tim writes, and I can understand what others write here, and I understand Andrea’s delightfully unobtrusive and rare interjections. My head doesn’t feel like it will explode and I don’t feel like committing acts of extreme violence against people I have never met just because I read something they wrote, so TB’s site has a few good things going for it, compared to WD – especially the brevity and the pithiness.
Actually Papa Smurf was a commie, hence the red hat and constant horrors of capitalism threatening their existence.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 08 26 at 02:19 PM • permalink
Maybe Papa Smurf was a commie, but all of the Smurfs were annoying little creatures who deserved to be thrown live into the soup pot for dinner.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 08 27 at 01:12 AM • permalink
ckhart — That’s all right. Adams is a gross insult to writing.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 08 27 at 01:33 AM • permalink
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The naughty lady from shady lane,she hit the town like a bomb…..