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Kotaku explains how to leak informations to them
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
It's a bit strange because journalists in other fields build that trust with their leakers, not make a call for submissions.
A lot of that trust comes from how the outlet acts to protect anonymity after the leak. Not trying to imply Kotaku would out leakers, but if they are begging for sources, then there might be a reason leakers might not be going to them in the first place.
A lot of that trust comes from how the outlet acts to protect anonymity after the leak. Not trying to imply Kotaku would out leakers, but if they are begging for sources, then there might be a reason leakers might not be going to them in the first place.
serversurfer
Member
Really, that just encourages people to come to them with anything and everything, legitimate or not. That creates a lot of unnecessary work for the journalist separating the wheat from the chaff and doesn't really benefit anyone in the end.
People should be leaking because it's the right thing to do, not because they're looking to get paid.
The majority of news organizations don't pay for interviews or news, outside of fees related to public records and the like. It's considered unethical.
Edit: The actual guidelines don't seem to different than what a local TV station would air when asking for viewers to share their story. Just, with a section to help the leaker not get fired immediately.
Me too. I'd also love to hear about what really happened behind the scenes of Destiny's development. There are so, so many interesting questions and stories in the world of video games that we'd like to tackle, and part of doing that means helping people feel safe and secure talking to reporters like me. Hence this article.
Chances are you won't see this John Harker, but if I'm understanding this correctly in context of the thread, an employee reaching out to Kotaku, especially with anything obtained on employer computers, may soon be a federal crime?
serversurfer
Member
Those laws seem to deal with information passing between companies, or to foreign states. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with information of public interest leaked to the press. The ex parte seizures are a bit concerning though, but again, don't really seem related to anything we're discussing here.Maitiú;147954977 said:
IANAL
If John Harker was just any poster, I'd easily shrug it off too. But he 'aint, so I'm not.
The act of giving Kotaku anything obtained from an employer's computer is, as you phrased it, "information passing between companies," or how the article phrased it, "a misuse of the employer's computer." And yeah, it's of "public interest" but all trade secrets are a public interest. Company's keep these things secret for a reason, and perhaps they'll have more power over leakers. I mean I don't know at all how this law would apply, but it seems Harker's got an idea, and no one asked him to elaborate.
Interficium
Banned
Then go out there and lean on people, get the scoop instead of sitting on your hands praying that you get a miracle email from somebody willing to break their NDA. That would be a much more productive use of your time then writing handy informative "guides" for how to spoonfeed you information.
Imagine Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein doing a front page article in the Post with the headline "HEY IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT NIXON PLZ LET US KNOW, THX!"
Woah, it's cool of you to assume that he's just writing this article and then leaning back in his chair and waiting for the scoops to pour in. I bet he's super happy with the productivity tips you're giving him for his job that he does every day and is obviously really eager to do, so much so that he's posting in a thread on a forum about games that he doesn't work at.
Why even post in this topic if you're not familiar with Kotaku or our work? Could you not even be bothered to read past stories I linked both in this article and this thread? Kindly consider that the main purpose here is to help sources feel more comfortable communicating on the Internet -- a complicated, unsecure beast that Woodward and Bernstein never had to deal with -- and that Kotaku has already done a significant amount of real, original reporting (on real stories) ranging from Crytek not paying their staff to what Blizzard's Titan was. We don't really need to beg for anyone.
Ragingbegal
Member
Or he could both actively seek out sources and provide information on how informants can contact him anonymously like every other reporter in the country.
It's baffling how many people in this thread are ignorant of how the news business works.
serversurfer
Member
John will tell you himself that he is very selective about the information he does and does not post. The contents of his posts coupled with that admission had led me to the conclusion that many of his posts are carefully crafted to muddy the waters and do little else. Draw your own conclusions.Maitiú;147981458 said:
In this case, Kotaku wouldn't be considered "a company," but rather, "the press." As such, a completely different set of standards and goals apply in the eyes of the law.
That's not what "public interest" means in this context. You should read up on the freedom of the press, why such freedom is important, and how that freedom is maintained.
The only possible application I can see and again, IANAL would be the ex parte seizures. In theory, Microsoft could shut down Kotaku's operations for a time if they're able to convince a judge it's likely that in addition to disseminating information of public interest, they are also passing legitimate trade secrets to Sony on the side. The scary part of the clause is the ex parte bit, which means Kotaku and Sony and any other accused parties have no chance to respond to the accusation before the seizure, and the judge's decision must rest entirely on the one-sided information that Microsoft present to him. The obvious fear there is that this will give Microsoft free reign to rifle through Kotaku's (and Sony's) computers any time they like, fishing for supposedly stolen information.
You should write your Congressmen about that clause, as it seems rife for abuse.
The gaming press doesn't really have the same reputation as the more traditional press. Schreier seems to be working to correct that, which again, I would say is commendable.
newspapers have been around for centuries and the print journalism scene has a long and well-known tradition of protecting anonymous sources. they didn't have to explicitly ask for leaks because everyone knew you could leak to a newspaper if you wanted information to be released.
that said, this isn't what kotaku is doing. they're saying "here's how to leak securely". and in any case, why shouldn't a news outlet ask news sources to come forward? that's good journalism.
I wish hah. They, and other blogs, made more money off of my Star Wars Battlefront III videos than I will ever see from doing any sort of game preservation.
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
Well, let's hope this one can be used to expose shitty company practice.
Anyone who trusts them is a foreign language?
I don't see anything wrong with this. You think every news outlet around the world would turn away people leaking information? The only difference here is Kotaku is asking for info and telling potential leakers who to stay anonymous.
It's also not like they're demanding you send only new title leaks, but also practices that are harmful. That's actually what the author said, they're more interested in things people aren't going to really find out about, like people not getting paid or what went wrong during a games development. He even stated he dislikes game announcement leaks. And let's be honest, nobody is going to see that article and automatically feel the urge to start leaking out info.
serversurfer
Member
Err, I hope this isn't about leaking unannounced titles, because that actually would fall to the realm of trade secrets which we have no business knowing about. This should be about exposing bad practices, and that sort of thing, really.
Perhaps I should actually read the article in the OP lol
FakeEdit: Oh, he doesn't like game leaks? That bodes well. I'm gonna read the article anyway. He deserves my click, if nothing else.
serversurfer
Member
I read the article. Looks pretty legit to me.
Kudos, Jason, and more power to you.
Kudos, Jason, and more power to you.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
There's a difference between being afraid to speak up and being legally obligated not to, NDAs exist for a reason.
Uh... yeah? Outside of the traditional "OMG YOU LEAKED THIS" finding people that did and firing/etc. due to NDA there's nothing inherently wrong with someone making an alternate e-mail account and sending that stuff to journalists. "Traditional"/non-Games Journalism areas do this as well for sources/etc.
Patrick Klepek said:
how is article formed?
serversurfer said:
Or canceled titles. I doubt Ubisoft, EA, Activision, et. al. care about some anonymous employee leaking Imagine: Poniez 409384508304850348950890's title, art assets, etc for the Nintendo 7DS after the 7DS is "dead and buried"/project is totally canceled and not going to come back. I seriously doubt sitting on the IP and art-assets and stuff like that is specifically "trade secrets."
Chittagong
Gold Member
Leaking live projects is so shitty. It's literally one person shitting on the work of tens or hundreds of people, denying them the possibility to reveal their creation in their chosen way, in exchange for some petty ego boost. Often they are dumb enough to convince themselves that their leak is somehow doing the company a favour, 'building hype' they often claim, as if they knew better than the team tasked to market the product.
I have no issue in leaking news about major problems in a company, or information of defunct projects.
I have no issue in leaking news about major problems in a company, or information of defunct projects.
serversurfer
Member
It actually is. For example, those assets and ideas could be used in another project some day, possibly by another dev trolling for ideas. Really, unless the project was canceled as a result of shenanigans or gross mismanagement, it's really none of our business, no matter how interesting we may find it. If Sony wanted to walk us through a canceled project, that might be kinda cool, but that should be their decision to make.
Nintendo does this a lot. Scrapped ideas that couldn't make it into Wind Waker made it into Twilight Princess and other Zelda titles for example. I'm sure they're still sitting on ideas they made in the 80's and 90's, and they continue to add onto the pile for anything that doesn't fit but will use in a later installment.
--
Anyway, on the actual topic. I think this is commendable of Kotaku and can't wait to see what's in store. Behind the scenes stuff is always fun to read.
EmptySpace
Banned
1) if devs want to complain about the mistreatment of workers, they can go to the human resources department or escalate it to executives.
2) no one is stupid enough to leak a project to the public. only naive people think a leak does not affect a business or its workers.
3) it's kotaku.
2) no one is stupid enough to leak a project to the public. only naive people think a leak does not affect a business or its workers.
3) it's kotaku.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I thought we were for games enthusiast press practicing actual journalism? Or is it now bad because they're Kotaku?
And then they get fired, blacklisted, or demoted. Or the executives nod and then proceed to do nothing.
At the very least, leaking this sort of bad laundry allows the public to light a fire under the collective asses of C-suits. Bad publicity should be motivation enough for them to address the issue in a way employee complaints never could.
Edit:
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Keep up the good work, Mr. Schreier. I really enjoyed those articles detailing behind-the-scenes of arduous projects.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
That's adorable.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Which is exactly why this is a good move. If a worker is being mistreated in a corporate or government agency, they usually have no real way to affect change because the people in charge have closed the system off. Inside mediation, self-government and mass of resources they have at their disposable have often made official channels, well, as you say "adorable."
Not to be all self-inserty with it, but I'm writing a piece on a student who was being sexually harassed at school. Without giving away too many details on a sensitive matter, the school was directly responsible for the investigation and handling of the punishment. Surprise, surprise, the punishment did not fit the crime. Their handling of the case was also within keeping with their internal regulation and loosely defendable under the rules governing this particular school. The victim was powerless.
So, now, change that school to a massive game publisher. A victim of some wrongdoing can't really trust in HR. They can't always afford to take it to court. But they can take their case to the media, who may be able to bring it to the public's attention. That's sometimes enough to make the powerful do the right thing. But who is going to trust their entire future to a media source whose focus has been game themed knit hats and opinion pieces on the bust size of Dead or Alive characters. There is a definite gap that Kotaku can fill here.
The only question that remains is whether or not Kotaku can handle the responsibility they're asking for with this move. Now, they'll be responsible for handling people's livelihoods and falling back on "we're just a gaming blog guys" will no longer cut it. This should also mean a greater focus on remaining neutral and reporting straight facts when big kerfluffles kick up. I guess we'll see how it turns out.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
Hahh right, Kotaku, the social warrior, seeking to solve the mysteries that gaming forgot!
... like they wouldn't be salivating in their pants if somebody leaked HL3 details. Sorry, I'm cynical, but you are what you are. Got to get those hits!
... like they wouldn't be salivating in their pants if somebody leaked HL3 details. Sorry, I'm cynical, but you are what you are. Got to get those hits!
Lowlander2
Banned
Reading through this topic is painful. I could say the word "whistleblower" and someone would say I'm butchering their understanding of the English language.
This is on the whole a good thing. It can be used incorrectly, but given the fact that I think Schrier and Totilo are among the last few people who seem like they actually took a classical journalism course, I have no fear.
This is on the whole a good thing. It can be used incorrectly, but given the fact that I think Schrier and Totilo are among the last few people who seem like they actually took a classical journalism course, I have no fear.
bequietdrive
Member
bequietdrive
Member
Ah man, that must suck.
I guess the difference being, once a video is out there - it's out there.
If however you want to leak something to kotaku as - in essence - a site exclusive, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a payment.
Obviously once a story /video is out there that's that, but if you have no financial reward, what's to stop someone stating an 'anonymous' source, and just hosting the info themselves? At least that way people will site their blog/channel as the source when the news spread.
This is completely normal for a publication. For example, The New Yorker has a tool that will let you give information to them with a promise of complete anonymity (it's only accessible using the Tor Network), with this "privacy promise":
There's nothing wrong with detailing how the public can give you information.
They can try to follow up the information with other sources and get a confirmation that way. It's only a first step.
There's nothing wrong with detailing how the public can give you information.
They can try to follow up the information with other sources and get a confirmation that way. It's only a first step.
LiegeWaffle
Member
I am mostly impressed to see anyone seriously use PGP outside of the open source development bubble.
Seeing as how Bungie has been fairly open with a postmortem after every single one of their releases and will literally tell us in the community what happened on the public bungie.org forums and bungie.net forums, dunno, probably just wait for their post mortem.
This is the problem with journalism in general, news stories work as easily digestable headlines versus bits and pieces you put together and appreciate.
Multiple Bungie employees held public Q&As for Reach. They held nothing back. It was nicely collated into a single page. I sent it as a tipline to all the gaming sites because I thought it was neat, nobody even mentioned it. Including yours.
Of course, Microsoft then sends you a PR email about a program they lied about ever actually existing and gets repeated with no fact check, so I'm guessing the lines ring louder for other callers.
VicDaMoan03
Member
I did and I don't have any PM's.
Nah I have GAF for that but thanks Kotaku.
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