In a striking display of the power of live video, Abraham K. Biggs committed suicide on Wednesday
while broadcasting himself on video site
Justin.tv. As we understand it from various forum posts, the 19-year-old Floridian was
apparently egged on by commenters on Justin.tv and fellow forum users on
bodybuilding.com. Biggs overdosed on pills
while on camera and appeared to be breathing for hours until watchers realized he might be serious,
at which point they alerted the police. The video kept running until police and EMTs broke
Biggs’ door down and blocked the camera’s view.
We confirmed Biggs’ death with the Broward County medical examiner. The Justin.tv video and
many of the forum posts have been taken down.
When asked about the broadcast via email, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: As for the broadcaster
incident last night, we don’t comment on individual videos, however, our policy prohibits
inappropriate content on Justin.tv. We rely on the community to flag videos that they feel are
objectionable. Once a video is flagged, it is reviewed and quickly removed from the system if it
violates our Terms of Use. We won’t post the disturbing content here, but much of it is still
online. Images of the broadcast have been posted
here and
here, and there’s also a
suicide note from Biggs,
who went by the screenname CandyJunkie. An account of forum users watching the broadcast and
calling the police is
here. There are also
rest-in-peace comments on what appears to be Biggs’ MySpace page. The Justin.tv
broadcast used to be
here.
The contention that filming and uploading (and even hosting video of) a crime is a
crime as well might not be valid, but given the very nature of live broadcasts, the issue becomes
more complicated.
And it’s not as if technology enabled the taking of a life, or as if this hasn’t
happened before. A British man hung himself
last year
after allegedly being goaded on by fellow users on Paltalk, another live video site. There was even
a widely distributed movie on the topic of live-streamed killings released earlier this year called
Untraceable. But
last night’s incident raises a thought-provoking question regarding free hosting of live
broadcasts — what could sites like Justin.tv possibly do to prevent live-streamed snuff
films?
Justin.tv has already come under fire for another problem with live broadcasts — copyright
infringement. The Premier League is reportedly
threatening
legal action against the site over unauthorized broadcasts of soccer games. Justin.tv, which is
a free service, has maintained it complies with takedown requests according to the law — but
with live broadcasts, the key event often ends before lawyers can get involved. Or in Biggs’
case, before people who care about him could get through.
http://newteevee.com/2008/11/20/19-y...e-on-justintv/
wow, wtf?!
Cliffnotes:
thee best cliff around(decent read but most detailed around)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bulker
Proper Cliffs
- CandyJunkie creates thread telling Misc. he'll overdose himself again on drugs live on
Justin.tv
- CandyJunkie posts the amount of drugs he's going to take
- Mods don't take it seriously because of his past trolling
- People egg him on
- CandyJunkie posts a copied suicide note
- People keep egging him on
- He pops the pills and goes to sleep
- He breathes for a few hours, people think he's going to be alright and keep joking and trash
talking on his JTV log.
- Some time later many people realize he was not moving.
- I find his personal details through E-detectivery, I figure out his name and number and
location.
- Personal details posted on Misc. I request people to call the cops because I live in India and
had no way to make International calls all by myself.
- People tell me he's a troll and nobody calls. Staberella especially is quite a huge cynic and
says that he wasn't going to die on that kind of drugs, she insists nothing is going to happen and
that people should just gtfo of the thread.
- I send an email to Miami Police on their official email on their website, Email not
functioning!
- I call Miami Police from my dad's phone and speak to at least three cops and one person from the
911 line (whatever it is) for over 8 minutes about the situation, the people there do not take the
case seriously and tell me to call the sheriff of his county, and give me the sheriff's number even
after I told them I was speaking from a different country and that this was an emergency.
- I post the sheriff's number on the Misc. thread
- People tell me to quit worrying and that they're 100% sure its a loop and he's just fraudin'
-calls the Broward County Sheriff's office and speaks to them about the situation along with a
couple of other people. By the time I called, it turns out 3 people had already called them about
it.
- People wait for the cops to bust in on the JTV cam.
- Some people start thinking nobody called the cops, at least 5 more people call the cops, they
were told the cops were on it
- 25 minutes after the first call to the cops, the cops bust in. They cover the webcam
- People speculating whether he's dead or not
- Friends post messages on his myspace worried about him, no response from him.
- His best friend posts a thread on the Misc. and informs the people that he's dead.
- Some people still think its a bluff
RIP Abraham Biggs.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?p=247864351
Wow, wtf man...
Recommandations
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and reject those that you are not interested in
(
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