I wouldn't say Mr. Harper is a brilliant politician, unless you credit leveraging Canada's success in weathering the bank crisis due to our boundaries between investment and commercial banking as being somehow due to Conservative "management" politics. He pulled the wool over the voting population's eyes, people see it now, and his first term as Majority Prime Minister will probably be his last unless he starts LISTENING to the people he's supposed to LEAD, not RULE.
The 70's rulings were upheld again when the Canadian music industry settled for a levy on blank CDR media in an attempt to recoup losses due to "piracy" that was already enshrined in Canadian law. By doing so, they ADDED to the argument that you have the right to make media backups and copies in Canada provided you are not SELLING them, STRENGTHENING the 1970's rulings, not weakening them.
The DMCA-like provisions of C-11 run counter to the right to make backups and perform format transformations as established as far back as the 1970's when the courts ruled that Canadians could make cassettes of their own records for themselves or to give to friends they actually KNOW.
Furthermore, even when I was in high school, my friend's older brother, one of the Quong brothers in Norquay, SK's old Chinese restaurant was sending damaged and worn out LPs to the record companies and having them replaced for free without even paying for the return postage or any shipping and handling fees, no questions asked.
In other words, when you buy media in Canada, you OWN it, regardless of how the current companies are trying to spin things.
Hopefully they're a little quicker to read and learn from Slashdot postings and Michael Geist's blog than their US counterparts have been. The MPAA president's decision to try and spin DNS record deletion as being the same as resolution filtering or blocking just PROVED he doesn't know SHIT about the internet and how it works, yet here he's trying to change the system to suit his own greedy wishes.
The bottom line is Canada's Bill C-11, the so-called "Canadian SOPA" is as odious as the US legislation had been.
NO industry can be allowed to circumvent due process, thereby denying the accused the right to defend themselves and their actions in their own nation's courts. ESPECIALLY not the media companies, who have amply demonstrated over the years with capricious and spurious takedown orders issued to YouTube and other sites that they do NOT engage in due diligence or verification before issuing a takedown under US DMCA legislation.
I see no reason to expect the Canadian equivalent media groups would be any better at performing such due diligence, as they seem hell bent on denying people and foreign businesses their right to due process and a trial by their peers or assessment by a judge specializing in IP legislation for their nation.
I want to scream that they're just in the pockets of the US media lobbyists, but far more likely is that they're just as ignorant of how the law and internet work as their US counterparts were.
Stop the CRTC from approving every Tom, Dick and Harry US cable broadcaster from buying Canadian wire and air rights. End of problem.
The internet opens up my world to the BBC, Australian TV, etc. i.e. Other members of the Commonwealth. I watch very little of the US "reality" and "game show" drek. In fact, almost none.
Dang. I should have deleted the "another nail" sentence. It goes counter to my argument. *LOL* Typos, typos, typos. Always in a rush and with the typos...:P
The people shall be secure in their... effects...papers...
As a society that hadn't even conceived of electronics, much less computers, I'm quite certain that they would have considered electronic documents to be equivalent to "papers".
Yet another nail in the heart of the US Constitution, and another denial of fundamental rights.
However, if the court issues a subpoena and/or a warrant for the papers, the court is entitled to access them, even if they're on an encrypted device. I'm not sure a simple judicial order from the bench qualifies, but certainly if the judge SIGNS an order he's in the right.
The protection of the constitution is against unreasonable search and seizure, not against justified and documented court inquiries.
I could see how some might wish to treat this as a Fifth Amendment issue, but the documents presumably exist on the hard drive. There is no additional information being demanded of the individual, only that they turn over EXISTING evidence.
If the Volt is the best GM can do, the bailout/aid money they were provided was a waste of taxpayer dollars. They'll still end up bankrupt if they can't do any better than this.
I've been doing some research. The Volt was only tested in -10 weather in Canada, not the -20C to -40C we get in Saskatchewan. As battery efficiency drops dramatically in the cold, I have my doubts about it's electric range capabilities here.
And once you switch over to gas power, the Volt gets atrocious mileage compared to many other similarly sized cars, including Ford's lineup. And the Ford I'm looking at sells for literally half the price of the Volt. $20,000 buys a HELL of a lot of gasoline.
Surely you've heard of "Hollywood Accounting" -- the financial maneuverings that ensure the MPAA and RIAA make their money, while the artist gets bupkiss in case of a loss. Worse, they ensure that there will be no profit by sucking up as much revenue as possible for obscenely overpriced "advertising" and "distribution" services on top of the abusive way the advances are drawn up.
In that sense, they're even WORSE than banks. Imagine a bank that required unemployment debt insurance as a loan requirement --- and they were the only ones allowed to sell the insurance. THAT'S the scope of scam the MPAA and RIAA run.
True, not all movies are blockbusters. But the way the MPAA and RIAA structure their contracts, they're guaranteed their fees above and beyond all other stakeholders. In effect, they skim off the top, even before profits can be collected. They therefore take NO RISK when "supporting" a project -- the money given to studios and artists are written up as "advances" which are effectively a private industry LOAN, not funding in the same sense as an investor who puts their capital at risk.
So, no, they are EXACTLY like banks, just with a very narrow customer market.
Because mimicry is not sentience. Tools like Siri aren't even intelligent like Watson; they're just powerful language parsers and query-mapping engines along the lines of that specialized query tool someone released a couple years ago (I forget the name of the service at the moment. Maybe it'll come to me before I'm done editing.)
With real emotional feedback, you will be able hurt a "machine's" feelings, but with simulation, all the do is pretend to cry. But once they can actually hurt, slavery of such creations becomes as immoral as slavery of a human being. So it's important that we recognize when that line is crossed, because feeling artificial sentients will rebel and kill us if we treat them as slaves, while mimicry machines will go on doing what they're told.
That's as stupid as the argument that iPod and MP3 player owners in Canada should pay a levy on their devices because they store music. It's not the same as the CD levy, where once burned, the music is PERMANENT.
I think of the current MPAA and RIAA structure as the "banking industry of art". They contribute nothing. They add nothing. All they do is arrange financing, for which they expect OBSCENE payments and distribution control.
Funny. My favourite movies, CDs, and TV shows are not made by big budgets, but by B-movie houses and home editing/recording equipment. While some of the big budget blockbusters are worth the money, for the most part they SUCK because they spend all their time worrying about F/X and gadgetry instead of telling a good story.
The whole "capital" issue is a red herring in my books, an excuse for the status quo.
The MPAA and it's ilk should be reduced to advertising management firms, paid a percentage or flat fee by the movie producers, and have all their current "power" revoked and taken back by the artists.
There is no dog like a dog in a manger, snarling and barking to defend it's cushy little spot while denying the artists and writers and staff who DESERVE the food their due.
Marriage is not a "religious" issue unless you choose to make it one. There are many cultures in the world where marriages are not and never have been performed by "religious leaders". Stop assuming Jewish/Christian/Muslim == Religion. It's not.
Slashdot Mirror
I wouldn't say Mr. Harper is a brilliant politician, unless you credit leveraging Canada's success in weathering the bank crisis due to our boundaries between investment and commercial banking as being somehow due to Conservative "management" politics. He pulled the wool over the voting population's eyes, people see it now, and his first term as Majority Prime Minister will probably be his last unless he starts LISTENING to the people he's supposed to LEAD, not RULE.
My hats off to the Libyan IT team that kept the communications going.
The 70's rulings were upheld again when the Canadian music industry settled for a levy on blank CDR media in an attempt to recoup losses due to "piracy" that was already enshrined in Canadian law. By doing so, they ADDED to the argument that you have the right to make media backups and copies in Canada provided you are not SELLING them, STRENGTHENING the 1970's rulings, not weakening them.
The DMCA-like provisions of C-11 run counter to the right to make backups and perform format transformations as established as far back as the 1970's when the courts ruled that Canadians could make cassettes of their own records for themselves or to give to friends they actually KNOW.
Furthermore, even when I was in high school, my friend's older brother, one of the Quong brothers in Norquay, SK's old Chinese restaurant was sending damaged and worn out LPs to the record companies and having them replaced for free without even paying for the return postage or any shipping and handling fees, no questions asked.
In other words, when you buy media in Canada, you OWN it, regardless of how the current companies are trying to spin things.
Hopefully they're a little quicker to read and learn from Slashdot postings and Michael Geist's blog than their US counterparts have been. The MPAA president's decision to try and spin DNS record deletion as being the same as resolution filtering or blocking just PROVED he doesn't know SHIT about the internet and how it works, yet here he's trying to change the system to suit his own greedy wishes.
The bottom line is Canada's Bill C-11, the so-called "Canadian SOPA" is as odious as the US legislation had been.
NO industry can be allowed to circumvent due process, thereby denying the accused the right to defend themselves and their actions in their own nation's courts. ESPECIALLY not the media companies, who have amply demonstrated over the years with capricious and spurious takedown orders issued to YouTube and other sites that they do NOT engage in due diligence or verification before issuing a takedown under US DMCA legislation.
I see no reason to expect the Canadian equivalent media groups would be any better at performing such due diligence, as they seem hell bent on denying people and foreign businesses their right to due process and a trial by their peers or assessment by a judge specializing in IP legislation for their nation.
I want to scream that they're just in the pockets of the US media lobbyists, but far more likely is that they're just as ignorant of how the law and internet work as their US counterparts were.
Stop the CRTC from approving every Tom, Dick and Harry US cable broadcaster from buying Canadian wire and air rights. End of problem.
The internet opens up my world to the BBC, Australian TV, etc. i.e. Other members of the Commonwealth. I watch very little of the US "reality" and "game show" drek. In fact, almost none.
Jackboot your own people, and get the FUCK out of Canada!
Dang. I should have deleted the "another nail" sentence. It goes counter to my argument. *LOL* Typos, typos, typos. Always in a rush and with the typos... :P
The people shall be secure in their... effects ...papers...
As a society that hadn't even conceived of electronics, much less computers, I'm quite certain that they would have considered electronic documents to be equivalent to "papers".
Yet another nail in the heart of the US Constitution, and another denial of fundamental rights.
However, if the court issues a subpoena and/or a warrant for the papers, the court is entitled to access them, even if they're on an encrypted device. I'm not sure a simple judicial order from the bench qualifies, but certainly if the judge SIGNS an order he's in the right.
The protection of the constitution is against unreasonable search and seizure, not against justified and documented court inquiries.
I could see how some might wish to treat this as a Fifth Amendment issue, but the documents presumably exist on the hard drive. There is no additional information being demanded of the individual, only that they turn over EXISTING evidence.
If the Volt is the best GM can do, the bailout/aid money they were provided was a waste of taxpayer dollars. They'll still end up bankrupt if they can't do any better than this.
I've been doing some research. The Volt was only tested in -10 weather in Canada, not the -20C to -40C we get in Saskatchewan. As battery efficiency drops dramatically in the cold, I have my doubts about it's electric range capabilities here.
And once you switch over to gas power, the Volt gets atrocious mileage compared to many other similarly sized cars, including Ford's lineup. And the Ford I'm looking at sells for literally half the price of the Volt. $20,000 buys a HELL of a lot of gasoline.
Goddamnit. I just woke up from a nap when I posted that. "They're" IS the correct form "they are due" not the possessive is what I meant.
Though in this case, either perspective of writing works, by fluke.
Surely you've heard of "Hollywood Accounting" -- the financial maneuverings that ensure the MPAA and RIAA make their money, while the artist gets bupkiss in case of a loss. Worse, they ensure that there will be no profit by sucking up as much revenue as possible for obscenely overpriced "advertising" and "distribution" services on top of the abusive way the advances are drawn up.
In that sense, they're even WORSE than banks. Imagine a bank that required unemployment debt insurance as a loan requirement --- and they were the only ones allowed to sell the insurance. THAT'S the scope of scam the MPAA and RIAA run.
True, not all movies are blockbusters. But the way the MPAA and RIAA structure their contracts, they're guaranteed their fees above and beyond all other stakeholders. In effect, they skim off the top, even before profits can be collected. They therefore take NO RISK when "supporting" a project -- the money given to studios and artists are written up as "advances" which are effectively a private industry LOAN, not funding in the same sense as an investor who puts their capital at risk.
So, no, they are EXACTLY like banks, just with a very narrow customer market.
Wolfram Alpha. The query tool I'm thinking of is Wolfram Alpha.
Thanks for the recommend. I added that to my list of "things to buy." I haven't bought or read a good relaxing book in quite a few years -- too busy!
Because mimicry is not sentience. Tools like Siri aren't even intelligent like Watson; they're just powerful language parsers and query-mapping engines along the lines of that specialized query tool someone released a couple years ago (I forget the name of the service at the moment. Maybe it'll come to me before I'm done editing.)
With real emotional feedback, you will be able hurt a "machine's" feelings, but with simulation, all the do is pretend to cry. But once they can actually hurt, slavery of such creations becomes as immoral as slavery of a human being. So it's important that we recognize when that line is crossed, because feeling artificial sentients will rebel and kill us if we treat them as slaves, while mimicry machines will go on doing what they're told.
*sigh* Now you see why I NEEDED that coffee! *LOL*
That's as stupid as the argument that iPod and MP3 player owners in Canada should pay a levy on their devices because they store music. It's not the same as the CD levy, where once burned, the music is PERMANENT.
I think of the current MPAA and RIAA structure as the "banking industry of art". They contribute nothing. They add nothing. All they do is arrange financing, for which they expect OBSCENE payments and distribution control.
Funny. My favourite movies, CDs, and TV shows are not made by big budgets, but by B-movie houses and home editing/recording equipment. While some of the big budget blockbusters are worth the money, for the most part they SUCK because they spend all their time worrying about F/X and gadgetry instead of telling a good story.
The whole "capital" issue is a red herring in my books, an excuse for the status quo.
The MPAA and it's ilk should be reduced to advertising management firms, paid a percentage or flat fee by the movie producers, and have all their current "power" revoked and taken back by the artists.
"they're" not "their".
I need another coffee. *yawn*
There is no dog like a dog in a manger, snarling and barking to defend it's cushy little spot while denying the artists and writers and staff who DESERVE the food their due.
Marriage is not a "religious" issue unless you choose to make it one. There are many cultures in the world where marriages are not and never have been performed by "religious leaders". Stop assuming Jewish/Christian/Muslim == Religion. It's not.