Interesting definition of ignorance. Look at the facts rather than trying to come up with some particually lame allegory. In your example it would have been better to give the example of the Smiths were beating their children unconscious and them getting off because they were rich and influenial giving the excuse that it happened in their home and therefore had nothing to do with the police or you.
In which case why does the US insist on imposing it's views on the rest of the world...
Look at the bananna issue in Europe where they are forcing people to buy south american stock (all owned by the us) and using the threat of taxing domestic imports from Europe to destroy the carribean bananna trade, the invasion of Panama and many other central american countries. 'Nam, Korea, blowing up a medicines factories in Africa, stopping other people from developing nuclear weapons whilst keeping a clause in that they can improve their existing ones, pressuring the UN to keep trade sanctions on Iraq when only the US and UK want to keep them, etc. etc.
If you want more examples I can supply them.
ANd no, infact when signing up to the UN you have to agree to conduct yourself within certain international laws. Human Rights Laws, Laws of Engagement, Trade laws, Laws governing the use and production of Nuclear Weapons (and other weapons of mass destruction)
Look at the Geneva convention, the Hague accord, etc.
Sometimes the US lieks to think it is above international law, which is a shame because it is the least civilised part of your nation.
Hmm, I think the Cuban issue is slightly different. It is an illegal embargo by the US which contravenes many different UN regulations.
As for human right violations, China is getting better over time and becoming more open. And as for the US they have no grounds to get on a moral high horse as their regularly use social, economic and military pressure to impose their will on the world (even invading countries that are difficult and small enough not to get much support...
Lets not forget KC who announced today that they are going to put the entire town of Hull online. All explained in this Independa nt Article
Also if my memory servers me correctly Santa Barbra/Monica (one of those) had a scheme of public access net so that even the homless could voice their opinions and concerns on local forums...
So people should not use Napster unless it expressly allows them to pirate material from artists??
Also any band that objects to piracy should be boycotted as a protest to the fact that they actually might want you to pay for the record that they invested time and money producing.
If people use Napster for the purpose they keep bleating on about (ie. listening to free music and small bands who are trying to build a fan base) rather than the majority use which is pirating then they have nothing to worry about. Of all the people I know using it I would say that less than 40 percent of the commercially available music availabe is owned by them legally. I have some friends who have even stopped buying music because they can get it free now. But then again the freeloader problem was always a product of consumerist society...
Technically this makes the music industry a highly imperfect market, and the only answer now is nore legislation... Or bands going out of business.
I'm disgusted at this big brother tactic destroying my online privacy and my freedom of expression.
Obviously downloading this is a crime, but surely the bigger crime is people using covert means to find out that I am doing it. I can't believe these people invading my god given right to be above the law at all times......
With our society unfortunately based upon the post WWII consumerist ideals of the US (which are short term goals of the individual and desire for more goods and services no matter hown many you get, all brought about by the hardships of the war) this is the inevitable end. It is sad that in the UK we are copying the us in our get righ quick, money is the only goal attitude. There is a move in Europe towards flexible working wher eyou can lower your hours for pro-rata cuts in pay (ie move to the sensible 4 day week) but we in the UK are buying more and more into the superficial US work ethic which is to make money buy toys and die old and unhappy.
Also on another note there is are interesting trends in industry, up until the last 6 months most companies were de-merging to improve efficience or at lease trying to build up individual coporate branding within departments, which is in interesting move...
I had a strange message from my excite account saying they had cancelled it because of this legislation. What really confuses me is that I've just turned 24 and always put my correct details when setting these things up...
Also I'm interested to see how this effects people like myself who *shock horror* do not live in the us...
Doom being the breakthrough first person shooter which set the benchmark and all 1st person shooters haven't really innovated much apart from cosmetically and tweaking AI.
Yeah, and I know Wolfensheim (sp?) 3D came first, but it was not the genre defining game that doom was.
Yeah, but look at his will, he is giving 10 million in trust to his wife and each of his children (if any), the rest is going to charities helping the underprivilaged, education and health, especially int he developing world.
Whether or not you like the company the man seems to have a vision of the benefits to come from his extraordinary wealth.
Aardman has always been more than Park. He is there more successful animator to date, but the company have been producing work since at least the 70's wiht a whole series of animators all with their own distinctive styles. It sometimes riles me that a company of artists becomes associated with just one and people forget such sublime works such as 'Morph' which was a staple for people in the UK for many many years.
ANd don't forget they are responsible for the sublime Morph.
Also most people just know them for Nick Parks work (W&G, creature comforts) when in fact they are a stable of probably the greatest animator in the western world.
It's nice to see one of the other animators with another style coming to the fore as well to show their diversity.
Well, seems as if as I bloke I'm only interested in technology and not community.
I think the major point is that there are different roles of the net and different demographics in those areas.
The number of women has increased, although I think the figure of 60% of total is probably badly researched...
Anyway, before the 'chick' revolution there have always been community sites and corners of the net where men and women have been in equal and unequal numbers.
True, technical sites tend to be more male oriented, but this is more endemic of culture in general and the way in which women are marginalised in tech/sci culture...
Basically a couple of womencentric sites are not new and are not particually origonal.. Although they are a stp frward from concepts such as 'handbag.com'...
Probably the reason it is getting prominance now is that.com companies are looking for new areas to market as people cotton on to the fact that half of 7-9/10 internet companies bomb in the first year due to sheer unorigonallity and the latestcraze it promote the 'chick' market to try to get a new spin on things...
Good luck to 'em, but to say that it is a new phenomena is to denigrate the work of the women before and even more so the communities which have been balanced for years.
Information here. Independant article There are a lot of links in teh legal section to the various revent libel cases in the UK too. Although I must admit to playing devils advocate a bit on this subject;-)
My evidence come from an article written by the independant, a paper which I hold in reasonably high respect. Which states directly that NetBenifit reviewed the contents of the website and then removed it due to the contents.
As for my comments about the nature of their facts, that is because the name rings strong bells and I will check with my contacts in political compaigning to see who is involved and if I know them.
The host itself reviewed the contents of the pages before removing them having had potentially liabalous materials brought to their attention. I'm going to have to look into outcaste, but if they are from the brance of queer politic that I think they are I could well believe that they are less than rigarous with thier sources of facts.
Actually Demon decided not to contest the case and therefore have to pay costs on top uf the 15000 pounds. Costs are estimated at between 250 and 300 thousand pounds.
Having not read the article that has caused offence I'm not sure about the full facts..
However, from what I have read about the case this hinges around the fact that Outcast have printed as facts things which aren't true about the Pink Papers editor. If these are harmful then this would account for the threat under the libel law.
It has to be said that lible is very difficult to prove under UK law, see Neil Hamilton V M AlFayed, et al.
This is not a freedom of speeck issue it is the basic right of an individual to be represented truthfully. Under libel law, if Outcast can back up any claims they have made then the Pink will be liable to all their costs in a court of law, they should fight it. It seems as if they are not willing to fight the case though.
Also people are bringing up the recent demon case. saying that this was wrong too. Maybe if Demon had bothered to acknowledge the complaints of the professor at the time then it would have not gone to court. If anything they were punished for their lack of customer care. Again this case was not entirely about what was printed, but the inability of the ISP to act when the issue of defamity was brought to their attantion. In fact it was their complete lack of even a simple reply to his complaint that lost them the case from the start.
Yes, the libel and slander laws in this country are flawed, but not in that way, if you can prove that what is printed or said is true you don't lose. In fact the flaw with the legislation is that it costs too much for the average person to bring a case, and legal aid doesn't cover it.
Things have changed though with our prime minister Tony Blair having signed with the EU that the deregulation of the Local loop will now happen 6 months ahead of the proposed date.
Suffice to say this has put the backs of the Regulators and BT out of joint slightly.
I agree with you that it will not fulfill the full role of a bricks and mortar university. However it can fulfill a different purpose
In the UK we have the Open University, which is technically the biggest in the country in terms of numbers and may well be one of the biggest in the world.
The university is set up for home learning, with TV programmes, lecture papers and other resources, with 1 or 2 residential weekends and weeks a year.
The main take up of this are people who are working, people abouve the average university age and those just interested in learning rather than other aspects of university life. Many have too busy lives to give up.
It is almost purely a teaching institution and fulfills this better than most.
It does however cost a lot and isn't embracing 'e-learning' as much as it could.
I think this new service will appeal to professionals, and those who (especially in the states) can't afford to take out loans to go to university, but still want to better themselves and learn.
Also people like single mothers who could increase their skills base, people could learn a whole new area of knowledge and not have to give up their income. In other words, if you focus awaw from the trypical college age and crowd it could offer another level of educational accessability to people.
Apart from the fact the mice were bred to have no immune system in order not to reject the ear.
On an aside, one of the members of the team used to be friends with my SO. He went to art school after that, studying design Central StMartins because his main aim in life was growing music equipment and TV's...
With a little investment Less Developed COuntries (LDC's) could start up companies which could, in a short space of time, pay off their debts and supply many times their GDP in one fell swoop.
Seiously though , the net is a great cultural resource (if you are white, male and living in the west , speaking english...) but most LDC's have far too many problems to overcome. Lack of money due to poor resources, oppression, exploitation and debt. Poor telecommunications infrastructure (apart from maby south africa which has one of the best) and relative abject poverty. The net could help, although baseline education would be better.
Countries such as India are pumping out some of the best developers/etc. and these people maybe could be seen as a national resource in much the same way as gold/oil. If LDC's can develop education structures to build a skilled workforce and get help building the infrastructure then maybe it may work.
Although there would be a lot of developers, etc. who would not be happy when the market is filled with cheaper, more skilled labour and they were no longer able to charge stupid rates...
Athough this all depends on whether the design is a registered Trademark or a copyrighted origonal design.
I know packaging is subject to fair trade law. When at United Biscuits we sued a supermarket for attempting to pass off a biscuit as Penguin (TM) biscuits by creating a product similar, calling it puffin and broadly copying the design brief. We won, but because there was deemed to be a attempt to pass their product. With the i-mac they seem to have won a case on copyright of design alone, which as I said is a pretty difficult one to argue.
Like your exaple of the Jiff, it is a case of passing, whereas with i-mac it was intellectual rather than commercial... Hmmmm.
Slashdot Mirror
In which case why does the US insist on imposing it's views on the rest of the world...
Look at the bananna issue in Europe where they are forcing people to buy south american stock (all owned by the us) and using the threat of taxing domestic imports from Europe to destroy the carribean bananna trade, the invasion of Panama and many other central american countries. 'Nam, Korea, blowing up a medicines factories in Africa, stopping other people from developing nuclear weapons whilst keeping a clause in that they can improve their existing ones, pressuring the UN to keep trade sanctions on Iraq when only the US and UK want to keep them, etc. etc.
If you want more examples I can supply them.
ANd no, infact when signing up to the UN you have to agree to conduct yourself within certain international laws. Human Rights Laws, Laws of Engagement, Trade laws, Laws governing the use and production of Nuclear Weapons (and other weapons of mass destruction)
Look at the Geneva convention, the Hague accord, etc.
Sometimes the US lieks to think it is above international law, which is a shame because it is the least civilised part of your nation.
As for human right violations, China is getting better over time and becoming more open. And as for the US they have no grounds to get on a moral high horse as their regularly use social, economic and military pressure to impose their will on the world (even invading countries that are difficult and small enough not to get much support...
Also if my memory servers me correctly Santa Barbra/Monica (one of those) had a scheme of public access net so that even the homless could voice their opinions and concerns on local forums...
Also any band that objects to piracy should be boycotted as a protest to the fact that they actually might want you to pay for the record that they invested time and money producing.
If people use Napster for the purpose they keep bleating on about (ie. listening to free music and small bands who are trying to build a fan base) rather than the majority use which is pirating then they have nothing to worry about. Of all the people I know using it I would say that less than 40 percent of the commercially available music availabe is owned by them legally. I have some friends who have even stopped buying music because they can get it free now. But then again the freeloader problem was always a product of consumerist society...
Technically this makes the music industry a highly imperfect market, and the only answer now is nore legislation... Or bands going out of business.
Obviously downloading this is a crime, but surely the bigger crime is people using covert means to find out that I am doing it. I can't believe these people invading my god given right to be above the law at all times......
Irony or allegory, make your minds up.....
Also on another note there is are interesting trends in industry, up until the last 6 months most companies were de-merging to improve efficience or at lease trying to build up individual coporate branding within departments, which is in interesting move...
Also I'm interested to see how this effects people like myself who *shock horror* do not live in the us...
Doom being the breakthrough first person shooter which set the benchmark and all 1st person shooters haven't really innovated much apart from cosmetically and tweaking AI.
Yeah, and I know Wolfensheim (sp?) 3D came first, but it was not the genre defining game that doom was.
Whether or not you like the company the man seems to have a vision of the benefits to come from his extraordinary wealth.
I for one salute him on this.
Aardman has always been more than Park. He is there more successful animator to date, but the company have been producing work since at least the 70's wiht a whole series of animators all with their own distinctive styles. It sometimes riles me that a company of artists becomes associated with just one and people forget such sublime works such as 'Morph' which was a staple for people in the UK for many many years.
Also most people just know them for Nick Parks work (W&G, creature comforts) when in fact they are a stable of probably the greatest animator in the western world.
It's nice to see one of the other animators with another style coming to the fore as well to show their diversity.
I think the major point is that there are different roles of the net and different demographics in those areas.
The number of women has increased, although I think the figure of 60% of total is probably badly researched...
Anyway, before the 'chick' revolution there have always been community sites and corners of the net where men and women have been in equal and unequal numbers.
True, technical sites tend to be more male oriented, but this is more endemic of culture in general and the way in which women are marginalised in tech/sci culture...
Basically a couple of womencentric sites are not new and are not particually origonal.. Although they are a stp frward from concepts such as 'handbag.com'...
Probably the reason it is getting prominance now is that .com companies are looking for new areas to market as people cotton on to the fact that half of 7-9/10 internet companies bomb in the first year due to sheer unorigonallity and the latestcraze it promote the 'chick' market to try to get a new spin on things...
Good luck to 'em, but to say that it is a new phenomena is to denigrate the work of the women before and even more so the communities which have been balanced for years.
Nuff said, can't beat the writings of an italian marxist on toilet paper ;-)
Information here. Independant article There are a lot of links in teh legal section to the various revent libel cases in the UK too. Although I must admit to playing devils advocate a bit on this subject ;-)
As for my comments about the nature of their facts, that is because the name rings strong bells and I will check with my contacts in political compaigning to see who is involved and if I know them.
The host itself reviewed the contents of the pages before removing them having had potentially liabalous materials brought to their attention. I'm going to have to look into outcaste, but if they are from the brance of queer politic that I think they are I could well believe that they are less than rigarous with thier sources of facts.
Quite difficult for a free paper really ;-)
Actually Demon decided not to contest the case and therefore have to pay costs on top uf the 15000 pounds. Costs are estimated at between 250 and 300 thousand pounds.
However, from what I have read about the case this hinges around the fact that Outcast have printed as facts things which aren't true about the Pink Papers editor. If these are harmful then this would account for the threat under the libel law.
It has to be said that lible is very difficult to prove under UK law, see Neil Hamilton V M AlFayed, et al.
This is not a freedom of speeck issue it is the basic right of an individual to be represented truthfully. Under libel law, if Outcast can back up any claims they have made then the Pink will be liable to all their costs in a court of law, they should fight it. It seems as if they are not willing to fight the case though.
Also people are bringing up the recent demon case. saying that this was wrong too. Maybe if Demon had bothered to acknowledge the complaints of the professor at the time then it would have not gone to court. If anything they were punished for their lack of customer care. Again this case was not entirely about what was printed, but the inability of the ISP to act when the issue of defamity was brought to their attantion. In fact it was their complete lack of even a simple reply to his complaint that lost them the case from the start.
Yes, the libel and slander laws in this country are flawed, but not in that way, if you can prove that what is printed or said is true you don't lose. In fact the flaw with the legislation is that it costs too much for the average person to bring a case, and legal aid doesn't cover it.
Suffice to say this has put the backs of the Regulators and BT out of joint slightly.
In the UK we have the Open University, which is technically the biggest in the country in terms of numbers and may well be one of the biggest in the world.
The university is set up for home learning, with TV programmes, lecture papers and other resources, with 1 or 2 residential weekends and weeks a year.
The main take up of this are people who are working, people abouve the average university age and those just interested in learning rather than other aspects of university life. Many have too busy lives to give up.
It is almost purely a teaching institution and fulfills this better than most.
It does however cost a lot and isn't embracing 'e-learning' as much as it could.
I think this new service will appeal to professionals, and those who (especially in the states) can't afford to take out loans to go to university, but still want to better themselves and learn.
Also people like single mothers who could increase their skills base, people could learn a whole new area of knowledge and not have to give up their income. In other words, if you focus awaw from the trypical college age and crowd it could offer another level of educational accessability to people.
On an aside, one of the members of the team used to be friends with my SO. He went to art school after that, studying design Central StMartins because his main aim in life was growing music equipment and TV's...
Seiously though , the net is a great cultural resource (if you are white, male and living in the west , speaking english...) but most LDC's have far too many problems to overcome. Lack of money due to poor resources, oppression, exploitation and debt. Poor telecommunications infrastructure (apart from maby south africa which has one of the best) and relative abject poverty. The net could help, although baseline education would be better.
Countries such as India are pumping out some of the best developers/etc. and these people maybe could be seen as a national resource in much the same way as gold/oil. If LDC's can develop education structures to build a skilled workforce and get help building the infrastructure then maybe it may work.
Although there would be a lot of developers, etc. who would not be happy when the market is filled with cheaper, more skilled labour and they were no longer able to charge stupid rates...
I know packaging is subject to fair trade law. When at United Biscuits we sued a supermarket for attempting to pass off a biscuit as Penguin (TM) biscuits by creating a product similar, calling it puffin and broadly copying the design brief. We won, but because there was deemed to be a attempt to pass their product. With the i-mac they seem to have won a case on copyright of design alone, which as I said is a pretty difficult one to argue.
Like your exaple of the Jiff, it is a case of passing, whereas with i-mac it was intellectual rather than commercial... Hmmmm.