I suggest we focus our efforts on a specific objective like, say, "Show Amazon the error of their ways" and publish our progress using metrics...
Such a model does exist: the one I'm thinking of, however, is focussed to fighting the War on (some) Drugs.
For example, when TV's Judge Judy Sheindlin made some really idiotic comments in Australia about addiction, activists mobilized and, through their letters, got several advertisers to withdraw their sponsorship as well as generated some news coverage.
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to/. to implement a similar advocacy information center...
Really! I thought they did include Mexico/Canada as non-international destinations.
Apparently you haven't mailed anything to Canada lately...:)
FWIW, In Canada we have two foreign rate structures: "international" (double the domestic postage) and "US" rates (about 5-6 cents above domestic). Economies of scale, no doubt...but it still takes about a week for anything I send to the States to arrive.
frankly i don't see what we have to worry about from this republican. students in college are 18+; they are full adults. they can vote, they can enroll in the army and sacrifice themselves for the country should we go to war. and i would hope that most people understand that college students are not children.
College students aren't children? Well, it would be nice if those in government treated them as adults. IIRC, you have to be well over the age of adulthood to enjoy an alcoholic beverage in the so-called "land of the free"...
BTW, I think the most effective way of fighting the dorm restrictions would be using the GLB discrimination route. THAT would put them in a quandry now, wouldn't it?:)
Actually, 647 IS a new area code for Toronto. Bell Canada is splitting the 416 area code (Again) I think that it's supposed to be 416 West of Yonge Street and 647 East of it.
647 is going to be an overlay, not a split. Permissive dialing begins January 8, 2001, with mandatory 10 digit dialing in both 647 and 416 starting March 5, 2001.
it's kind of funny to hear someone stand in canada and call the US "backwater", but I guess I have no choice but to let that slide.
Both countries are screwed in their own little ways...it's pointless to start a pissing match over that one, besides, it's been done to death on many lists and newsgroups.;)
I wonder if this will get blown out of proportion enough that the american networks will simply cut their feeds to canada.
I highly doubt that would ever happen, at least in the Toronto area (where icravetv gets it's signals from).
If you happen to watch the Buffalo network stations, you will notice that a lot of the ads on them are bought by Canadian business.[1]The government eliminated tax breaks for foreign advertising years ago, but Canadian accounts are still the bread and butter of many of those stations, and during certain programming blocks, you may be confused into thinking you're watching a Canadian channel (until you see a station ID, of course).
Why? NUMBERS. There are about 4 to 5 times the number of people on this side of the border that are within broadcast range of Grand Island, NY (the main xmitter site for the Buffalo outlets)[2]. (And that's just in terrestrial broadcasting range -- this doesn't take into account the millions of cable and thousands of DBS viewers from all over the country.) The PBS station, for example, brands themself as a "Buffalo-Toronto" station and openly solicits -- and programs -- to Canadians, complete with a toll free number dialable in Canada that they key up during those annoying pledge breaks.
Back to the subject at hand: I think that icravetv is doing is very important to the future of media simply because they are forcing the issue here. Frankly, I think the law is clearly on their side and they will win...eventually. This is going to the Supreme Court folks, no doubt about it, and it's going to be costly. But the free publicity they've got (not to mention oodles of clandestine viewers they have -- I have expat friends in NYC that think this service is a godsend) is well worth the price of their legal team.
Finally, in all the talk of fairness, AFAIK no one has brought up the fact that these stations -- at least the ones in Toronto -- are using very powerful xmitters located in the middle of one of the most densely populated areas in North America. I don't ask CTV to put RF into my head, I don't ask Global to shut down because their harmonics make my tape walkman useless when walking around Queen's Quay, just south of the xmitter site. They're getting a pretty good deal, having had free use of the airwaves -- for many, many years in some cases -- and I think that having someone distribute a low quality version of their publically-transmitted signal isn't a travesty of justice.
[1] I'm not talking about broadcasts during times of "simultaneous substitution" either. This practice mandates that cable companies replace a foreign signal with a domestic one that channel position when they are running identical programming for which the network has paid the rights for.
[2] Trivia time: if you've ever seen that phallic structure that's associated with this town, you may wonder about the reasoning behind why it was built, and positioned where it is. The CN Tower just happens to be directly in the path of the many, many antennas that were erected from 1948 on when the only TV available here was American (CBC-TV only signed on in 9/52).
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Such a model does exist: the one I'm thinking of, however, is focussed to fighting the War on (some) Drugs.
For example, when TV's Judge Judy Sheindlin made some really idiotic comments in Australia about addiction, activists mobilized and, through their letters, got several advertisers to withdraw their sponsorship as well as generated some news coverage.
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to /. to implement a similar advocacy information center...
-Duketor (tim.meehan@utoronto.ca)
Apparently you haven't mailed anything to Canada lately... :)
FWIW, In Canada we have two foreign rate structures: "international" (double the domestic postage) and "US" rates (about 5-6 cents above domestic). Economies of scale, no doubt...but it still takes about a week for anything I send to the States to arrive.
College students aren't children? Well, it would be nice if those in government treated them as adults. IIRC, you have to be well over the age of adulthood to enjoy an alcoholic beverage in the so-called "land of the free"...
BTW, I think the most effective way of fighting the dorm restrictions would be using the GLB discrimination route. THAT would put them in a quandry now, wouldn't it? :)
-Duketor
Heh, imagine that. Of course, no one here has ever borrowed a friend's account (contrary to just about every AUP out there) or inhaled, either.
Hmmm, what's that rubbing noise I hear in the background...is everyone polishing their halos?
-Duketor (tim.meehan@utoronto.ca)
647 is going to be an overlay, not a split. Permissive dialing begins January 8, 2001, with mandatory 10 digit dialing in both 647 and 416 starting March 5, 2001.
You can read more about it here.
obIcraveTV: 250, 604, 867, 403, 780, 306, 204, 807, 519, 905, 416, 705, 613, 514, 450, 819, 418, 506, 902 and 709 are all valid Canadian area codes. :)
-Duketor (tim.meehan@utoronto.ca)
Both countries are screwed in their own little ways...it's pointless to start a pissing match over that one, besides, it's been done to death on many lists and newsgroups. ;)
I wonder if this will get blown out of proportion enough that the american networks will simply cut their feeds to canada.
I highly doubt that would ever happen, at least in the Toronto area (where icravetv gets it's signals from).
If you happen to watch the Buffalo network stations, you will notice that a lot of the ads on them are bought by Canadian business.[1]The government eliminated tax breaks for foreign advertising years ago, but Canadian accounts are still the bread and butter of many of those stations, and during certain programming blocks, you may be confused into thinking you're watching a Canadian channel (until you see a station ID, of course).
Why? NUMBERS. There are about 4 to 5 times the number of people on this side of the border that are within broadcast range of Grand Island, NY (the main xmitter site for the Buffalo outlets)[2]. (And that's just in terrestrial broadcasting range -- this doesn't take into account the millions of cable and thousands of DBS viewers from all over the country.) The PBS station, for example, brands themself as a "Buffalo-Toronto" station and openly solicits -- and programs -- to Canadians, complete with a toll free number dialable in Canada that they key up during those annoying pledge breaks.
Back to the subject at hand: I think that icravetv is doing is very important to the future of media simply because they are forcing the issue here. Frankly, I think the law is clearly on their side and they will win...eventually. This is going to the Supreme Court folks, no doubt about it, and it's going to be costly. But the free publicity they've got (not to mention oodles of clandestine viewers they have -- I have expat friends in NYC that think this service is a godsend) is well worth the price of their legal team.
Finally, in all the talk of fairness, AFAIK no one has brought up the fact that these stations -- at least the ones in Toronto -- are using very powerful xmitters located in the middle of one of the most densely populated areas in North America. I don't ask CTV to put RF into my head, I don't ask Global to shut down because their harmonics make my tape walkman useless when walking around Queen's Quay, just south of the xmitter site. They're getting a pretty good deal, having had free use of the airwaves -- for many, many years in some cases -- and I think that having someone distribute a low quality version of their publically-transmitted signal isn't a travesty of justice.
[1] I'm not talking about broadcasts during times of "simultaneous substitution" either. This practice mandates that cable companies replace a foreign signal with a domestic one that channel position when they are running identical programming for which the network has paid the rights for.
[2] Trivia time: if you've ever seen that phallic structure that's associated with this town, you may wonder about the reasoning behind why it was built, and positioned where it is. The CN Tower just happens to be directly in the path of the many, many antennas that were erected from 1948 on when the only TV available here was American (CBC-TV only signed on in 9/52).
-Duketor (tim.meehan@utoronto.ca)