Listening to: Got ‘Til It’s Gone (Mellow Mix) - Janet Jackson

Judith Tizzard is sponsoring a DMCA clone:

• amend the provision relating to technological protection measures—
  • so that the prohibition against the making, importing, hiring, and selling of devices, services, or information designed to circumvent “copy protection” be expanded to cover devices, services, or information that circumvent technological protection measures that protect all rights provided to copyright owners (including communication, not just copying); and
  • to facilitate the actual exercise of permitted acts where technological measures have been applied:
• introduce an offence (carrying a sentence of a fine not exceeding $150,000 or a term of imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both) for commercial dealing in devices, services, or information designed to circumvent technological protection measures:
• provide protection for electronic rights management information that identifies content protected by copyright and the terms and conditions of use, but not for the tracking functions associated with this technology:
• introduce an offence provision (carrying a sentence of a fine not exceeding $150,000 or a term of imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both) for commercial dealing in works where the electronic rights management information has been removed or altered:

It hasn’t worked in the States… why on earth do they think it’s going to work here? This is one of the approaches to the problem that has the words “Will Back Fire” written all over it.

The solution to this problem is one that enables services that embody the concept of giving consumers the content they want at a price that makes sense.

Drop the Hon Judith Tizard an email and tell her that this approach is more of a problem than a solution.

src: Boing Boing

UPATE: Required reading - http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php

Listening to: Rosa Parks - Outkast

… it now provides free wifi. Thank goodness! Apparently we have Sam Morgan to thank. In which case… thanks Sam.

Listening to: Kick, Push - Lupe Fiasco

There are certain types of disappointment that cause an intake of breath - the cognitive dissonance so jarring you can’t think straight. My Hilton experience was one of those… I kinda sat on the edge of the bed and my teeth jangled. Not only had I been ripped off… I had been Taken.

U2 played in Auckland over the weekend. Seeing as I was up there with the Missus I figured it would be nice to spend a little more cash and experience how the other side live. Good U2 tickets and a swanky hotel… should make for a nice weekend. I got two out of three…

It turns out that the other side are suckers. In comparison to the other hotel rooms in Auckland you’re looking at paying a good set of multiples for a Hilton room. I know that that at a certain point a hotel room is a hotel room… but I also know that it is the type of experience where you can put a smile on the face of your customer face. It’s the type of experience that is a rich seam of “wow!” moments… but the Hilton guys are just shipping gravel. You don’t get a better room, you don’t get better fittings, you still get nickel-and-dimed to death (laughably so in some cases) and you don’t walk out feeling like you’ve had an even vaguely better experience. There isn’t a single part of the Hilton experience where you go “oh! I get it!”

Now I get branding and I know how the bait’n’switch works, but it has been a really really long time since I have experienced such a distance between the sell and the reality. I’ve sold and I’ve delivered in my life - I know the rules of engagement. I wasn’t looking for anything spectacular - I was simply looking for something, a single magical “I get it” moment, it wasn’t there.

I know that in the scope of life it’s a pretty meaningless thing to write about. But I haven’t had an experience like that in a long time. Hi, I’m Dave and I was a schmuck that got taken by Hilton (LOL… yes I know - but going there, well, that’s too easy).

Listening to: 01+-+Waiting+For+The+7.18+_28London+Fabric_2C+16.03.06_29 - Bloc Party

“We’ll succeed unless we quit”… ??? Keith Olbermann has a few choice words on Vietnam and Iraq.

Listening to: Cigarettes - Fort Minor

The biggest thing about spam, for me, is not being able to give spammers a piece of my mind… you know a satisfying little poke in the eye. But now I can with this little wonder:

So I choose the bit of email that has gotten my heart-rate up, click the button and boom! Mail will generate a bounce message and send it back to the originator. To all intents and purposes my email address is not valid as far as the spamming mail server is concerned.

It might not help, long term, but short term - so so satisfying.

src: Diggnation

Listening to: Sad But True - Metallica

I am tripping over the rights restrictions on YouTube more and more. It’s starting to get to the point where I don’t think I can be bothered with the service anymore. For me the real killer feature was that I was able to share interesting stuff - that feature has now been hobbled.

On a related “failing technology” note… I have reached the end of my tether with my Nokia N70. The thing spazzed out this morning and just continually rebooted. It has been flakey for months an the novelty has worn off. Given that stability is a real issue for the latest batch of Nokia phones I think something has gone wrong quality wise at Nokia. They seem to have gotten all “dancing bear” on us - and I do not like dancing bears.

Listening to: Stumbline - Smashing Pumpkins

I was speaking with a friend of mine on Friday. I told him that I was glad that George Allen lost Virginia. I said that Allen reminded me of all the bullies that I had dealt with at school… Salon has new article along these line.

Listening to: Wrong Number [Crossed Line Mix] - The Cure

RichardDawkins.net has posted a reading of The God Delusion in Lynchburg, VA.

Listening to: For Your Love (Mid Life Crisis) - The Beloved

From Time:

Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

…

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq.

Listening to: Vicious Streak - New Order

This morning CNN played their very graphic special report on a US field hospital in Iraq. I found it very disturbing, not because of the gore (they don’t shy away from that at all) but because of the constant torrent of young men and women who are dropping out of the wrong end of the Iraq sausage machine. The special report is an hour long stream of doctors trying to repair broken bodies… it is war and it is terribly sad.