Petition against Copyright extension.

If you are involved in any way with the music business, I can not stress the importance of this petition.
If you know what its on about, sign it.
If you don't know - read up here, & then sign it.

To explain in simple terms.
Current copyright for music in the UK is for 50 years.
Long enough for the artist to profit from their work.
The 'industry' wants to extend this to 95 years.
Why is this bad? - because music is a tangible part of a society.
If you excessively limit its use, it is detrimental to those who follow.
Why do you think you never hear the song 'Happy Birthday to you' in films? Its copyrighted to an American owner who charges excessively for its use.
Surely a piece of music so ingrained into our culture, should, after a reasonable amount of time, make its way into our shared pool of culture.

TVCatchup caught up.

Very sad to report that TVcatchup has been nobbled. It was an online video recorder (PVR) that seems to have upset the UK's broadcasting industry.

As ever, good reporting from The Register

And a fine MUST READ article from TorrentFreak

The Machine is using us.

A nice video explaining Web 2.0 and some of the implications.
Yes - I know its geeky - but since your connected to it, you may as well understand some of whats going on.

Another detailed, but much less amusing video here.

Thanx David

The Revolution will not be Televised

If you want to know how the world works, this is the documentary to watch.
A great fly on the wall view of Media Manipulation, the military at the beck and call of foreign powers, and the people getting off their asses & demanding change.

HUGO CHAVEZ ELECTED PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA IN 1998, IS A COLORFUL, UNPREDICTABLE FOLK HERO, beloved by his nation's working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état.

The Revolution will not be Televised.

Most Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking

Online privacy is vastly overestimated, as ad networks and marketers track surfers, study reports.
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld

A Nation of Sheep

A surprising piece on Fox news.
No, not surprising in its content, we know the US is losing the very freedoms it believes were given to it by god (!), but this is surprising as it was on Fox, a channel not normaly associated with dissent.

Judge Andrew Napolitano - A Nation of Sheep

4yr Old BBC Documentary on Bush stealing the elections

This appears to be doing the rounds again, Aired on Newsnight (British TV News show) its a (some what flippiant in my view) mini documentary on the shenanigins surrounding Bush's election.
I didnt relaise that Katherine Harris who presided over the Florida voting, had also been named as Bush's Florida campaign co-chair the year before.
What are these people thinking!


The Very Wonderful Greg Palast

Ron Paul Interview

A very lucid Ron Paul Interview.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You are somewhat of a sensation among young people in this country. They are -- you've broken all records for Web searches. You're on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, I guess more than just about any other candidate. With all due respect...

REP. RON PAUL: Be nice.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... you're 72 years old, how do you explain it?

REP. RON PAUL: Young ideas, a fantastic idea about individual freedom and allowing people to do what they want and take care of their lives, their lives belong to them, and get the government off their backs, and offer them low taxes, and make sure I never mess around with the Internet. Don't tax the Internet, and don't regulate the Internet.

Ron Paul at PBS.org

Income inequality worst since 1920s, according to IRS data

The superrich are gobbling up an ever larger piece of the economic pie, and the poor are seeing their share of earnings shrink: new IRS data shows the top 1 percent of Americans are claiming a larger share of national income than at any time since before the Great Depression.

The Raw Story

How the U.S. Became Switchboard to the World

We know America has become a surveillance state, here is the reason why every other country should be worried too.

A lucky coincidence of economics is responsible for routing much of the world's Internet and telephone traffic through switching points in the United States, where, under legislation introduced this week, the U.S. National Security Agency will be free to continue tapping it.

How the U.S. Became Switchboard to the World

Vatican publish Templar documents

The Knights Templar are a fascinating group, if not only for the conspiracy theory, then for the insight they give into the thinking & politics of the time.

The publishing house said the new book includes the "Parchment of Chinon," a 1308 decision by (Pope) Clement (V) to save the Templars and their order. The document was misplaced for centuries in the archives and found again by researchers in 2001.

Templar article at BoingBoing

Burma

The Guardian reports on Burmas Internet lockdown, & the terrible events going on there.

[Link]

Record Companies stiff woman over mp3s

The RIAA has won its court case against an American woman for making mp3s available across the net. (Kaazaa).

Copyright law is, as Berkeley law professor Pam Samuelson points out, way too verbose; it's now swollen to an unbelievable 200 pages long. It's complex, incomprehensible, designed to favor large copyright holders over defendants, and thoroughly out of touch with reality.

[Link]

Update - Juror aparently has never been on the Internet - Opens up questions about the trial.

Poigniant Video Essay on Population

Hes a very beautiful video short detailing world statiastics if our global villiage contained only 100 people.




[Link]

Insightful article on events in the US economy

Yes I know reading about financial matters is boring, but if you want to know whats really going on in the world, then study banking.
Its not Aliens, 911 Conspiricies or Secret World Orders, its just greed.

In fact, as far as some big banks and financial institutions were concerned, for a moment in time, the system was in a full-blown cardiac arrest. Liquidity, the flow of money—the lifeblood of today’s economic structure—came uncomfortably close to clotting up.

[Link]

Blackwater Has Made Almost $1 Trillion in Iraq Since 2004

This is galling.
Blackwater, a very large private security firm, who are also in the spotlight this week for their soldiers causing havoc in Iraq, have made a trillion out of this war so far.

The U.S. military is dependent on contractors in modern warfare, and their are undertones of animosity between the State and D.O.D. over who should be taking more blame over Blackwater. But what really struck me FTA: Since 2004, State has paid Blackwater $833,673,316, compared with Defense Department contracts of $101,219,261.

[Link]

Thanx Digg

Pirate Bay pwns Media Defender

Not that I fully condone Pirate Bay, but I condone less the actions of the American Media companies putting strangleholds on technology for their own ends.

Background - A few days ago - somebody - ahem - discovered a large portion of mail belonging to a company called Media Defender.
Media Defender are hired by the majors to disrupt P2P & other file sharing networks, and these mails detail the downright illegal methods of doing this.
Subsequently, the Pirate Bay has taken it upon themselves to (counter) sue Media Defender for their illegal activities in Sweden.

I have a feeling that this ain't over yet !

[Link]

Good Back Ground Article from Torrent Freak

Cory discuss' Piracy

Cory Doctrow now writing a tech column for 'the Guardian' UK newspaper.

Just as the industrial economy wasn't based on making it harder to get access to machines, the information economy won't be based on making it harder to get access to information. Indeed, the opposite seems to be true: the more IT we have, the easier it is to access any given piece of information — for better or for worse.

[Link]

Old KGB run New Russia

Didnt everyone see this comming? Russia, and the everyday Russians deserve so much better than elite mobsters trashing the country & its (remaining & outstanding) culture.

Virtually all key positions in Russian political life -- in government and the economy -- are controlled by the so-called "siloviki," a blanket term to describe the network of former and current state-security officers with personal ties to the Soviet-era KGB and its successor agencies.

The core of the siloviki group, led by former KGB officer and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Vladimir Putin himself, comprises about 6,000 security-service alumni who entered the corridors of power during Putin's first term. Now, as Putin's second term winds down, their clout is virtually unassailable.

[Link]

George Carlin Clip

The very wonderful George Carlin explaining why white people should leave the Blues alone.

[Link]