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This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Delicious tag of “New (to me) and Interesting Music”.
Click here, to go to see more about the band/group.
Add a comment below if you have something to say.
This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Delicious tag of “New (to me) and Interesting Music”.
Click here, to go to see more about the band/group.
Add a comment below if you have something to say.
A website in support of Canada’s proposed US-style copyright law looks to be a work of corporate astroturf, and signs point to the Canadian Record Industry Association (mostly composed of US record labels; many Canadian labels have left to form an independent lobby that opposes much of CRIA’s agenda) as the entity behind it. The group, Balanced Copyright for Canada, has bought headline placement on Bourque, and recently took down its member list after TVOntario reporter Jesse Brown announced that it appeared to consist of record execs from CRIA’s member-companies.
The site provides talking-points for its supporters to use when contacting media outlets over their coverage of the bill, which criminalizes breaking “digital locks” on the copyrighted works you buy, even if all you’re trying to do is lawfully enjoy your property. Canadians came out in overwhelming numbers to oppose this approach in the Canadian government’s consultation on copyright (over 6000 opposed, fewer than 50 in favour), but the Conservative government has ignored their own consultation and made a law that plays into the hands of the US media companies.
It’s really telling that the opposition to the Canadian DMCA has come from real grassroots: artist groups, citizen groups, technologists, educators, disabled-rights groups, archivists — people who don’t hide their funding or their affiliations behind false flags. Meanwhile, the only support for this law has come from slick, fraudulent PR campaigns that shroud their origins in secrecy in order to disguise the fact that this is just the same four record labels running around in circles, wearing several hats, pretending to be a crowd.
The Copyright Lobby’s Astroturf Campaign in Support of C-32
  
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 1 person likes this post.
It’s a good time to buy some games on Xbox Live! Coinciding with E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo), Microsoft is unleashing a some very low prices on a big selection of games (20+). Five of the games are already on sale, and almost 20 more will join them from June 16 to June 12. Many of the titles are more than half off. Note that these prices are reportedly only available to Xbox Live Gold members.
On sale beginning July 14
- Shadow Complex – 560 points
- Trials HD – 560 points
- Marvel vs Capcom 2 – 560 points
- TMNT Turtles in Time HD – 400 points
- Splosion Man – 400 points
On sale June 16 to June 22
- A Kingdom for Keflings – 400 points
- Alien Hominid HD – 400 points
- Banjo Tooie – 400 points
- Bionic Commando Rearmed – 400 points
- Bomberman LIVE – 400 points
- Braid – 800 points
- Castle Crashers – 800 points
- Castlevania Symphony of the Night – 400 points
- Contra – 400 points
- Crystal Defenders – 400 points
- Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 – 400 points
- Magic the Gathering – 400 points
- N+ – 400 points
- Panzer General – 400 points
- Portal – 800 points
- TMNT: 1989 Arcade – 240 points
- Uno Rush – 400 points
- Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment – 800 points
- Zombie Apocalypse – 400 points
This deal Big Xbox Live Game Sale for E3 2010 (20+ games) was originally posted on RedFlagDeals.com – Your source for Canadian Deals, Free Coupons and Freebies.
Compare Prices on Computers and Electronics at PriceCanada.com
This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Google Reader Shared items.
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Michael Geist sez,
As expected, the Canadian government today introduced its own DMCA [ed: the US copyright law that has been in place for 12 years, resulting in tens of thousands of lawsuits against Americans without having any effect on infringement or delivering any new income to artists]. Despite a full national consultation and a public rejection of the old Bill C-61, discouragingly some things have not changed. Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore won the internal fight over Industry Minister Tony Clement for a repeat of C-61’s digital lock provisions and against a flexible fair dealing approach and today’s bill reflects those policy victories.
However, over the past month, Clement made steady in-roads in trying to restore some balance in the bill and achieved some wins. The bill contains some important extensions of fair dealing, including new exceptions for parody, satire, and (most notably) education. It also contains more sensible time shifting and format shifting provisions that still feature restrictions (they do not apply where there is a digital lock) but are more technology neutral than the C-61 model. There is also a “YouTube exception” that grants Canadians the right to create remixed user generated content for non-commercial purposes under certain circumstances. While still not as good as a flexible fair dealing provision, the compromise is a pretty good one. Throw in notice-and-notice for Internet providers, backup copying, and some important changes to the statutory damages regime for non-commercial infringement and there are some provisions worth fighting to keep.
Yet all the attempts at balance come with a giant caveat that has huge implications for millions of Canadians. The foundational principle of the new bill remains that any time a digital lock is used – whether on books, movies, music, or electronic devices – the lock trumps virtually all other rights. In other words, in the battle between two sets of property rights – those of the intellectual property rights holder and those of the consumer who has purchased the tangible or intangible property – the IP rights holder always wins. This represents market intervention for a particular business model by a government supposedly committed to the free market and it means that the existing fair dealing rights (including research, private study, news reporting, criticism, and review) and the proposed new rights (parody, satire, education, time shifting, format shifting, backup copies) all cease to function effectively so long as the rights holder places a digital lock on their content or device. Moreover, the digital lock approach is not limited to fair dealing – library provisions again include a requirement for digital copies to self-destruct within five days and distance learning teaching provisions require the destruction of materials 30 days after the course concludes.
The digital lock provisions are by far the biggest flaw in the bill, rules that some will argue renders it beyond repair. I disagree. The flaw must be fixed, but there is much to support within the proposal. There will undoubtedly be attacks on the fair dealing reforms and pressure to repeal them, along with the U.S. and the copyright lobby demanding that their digital lock provisions be left untouched. If Canadians stay quiet, both are distinct possibilities. If they speak out, perhaps a fixable bill can be fixed. I’m relaunching Speak Out on Copyright.ca to focus on this bill and encouraging Canadians to join the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group(to get active) and the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook Page (to stay updated).
The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable
  
This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Google Reader Shared items.
Click here, to go to the original article.
Add a comment below if you have something to say.
Michael Geist sez,
As expected, the Canadian government today introduced its own DMCA [ed: the US copyright law that has been in place for 12 years, resulting in tens of thousands of lawsuits against Americans without having any effect on infringement or delivering any new income to artists]. Despite a full national consultation and a public rejection of the old Bill C-61, discouragingly some things have not changed. Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore won the internal fight over Industry Minister Tony Clement for a repeat of C-61’s digital lock provisions and against a flexible fair dealing approach and today’s bill reflects those policy victories.
However, over the past month, Clement made steady in-roads in trying to restore some balance in the bill and achieved some wins. The bill contains some important extensions of fair dealing, including new exceptions for parody, satire, and (most notably) education. It also contains more sensible time shifting and format shifting provisions that still feature restrictions (they do not apply where there is a digital lock) but are more technology neutral than the C-61 model. There is also a “YouTube exception” that grants Canadians the right to create remixed user generated content for non-commercial purposes under certain circumstances. While still not as good as a flexible fair dealing provision, the compromise is a pretty good one. Throw in notice-and-notice for Internet providers, backup copying, and some important changes to the statutory damages regime for non-commercial infringement and there are some provisions worth fighting to keep.
Yet all the attempts at balance come with a giant caveat that has huge implications for millions of Canadians. The foundational principle of the new bill remains that any time a digital lock is used – whether on books, movies, music, or electronic devices – the lock trumps virtually all other rights. In other words, in the battle between two sets of property rights – those of the intellectual property rights holder and those of the consumer who has purchased the tangible or intangible property – the IP rights holder always wins. This represents market intervention for a particular business model by a government supposedly committed to the free market and it means that the existing fair dealing rights (including research, private study, news reporting, criticism, and review) and the proposed new rights (parody, satire, education, time shifting, format shifting, backup copies) all cease to function effectively so long as the rights holder places a digital lock on their content or device. Moreover, the digital lock approach is not limited to fair dealing – library provisions again include a requirement for digital copies to self-destruct within five days and distance learning teaching provisions require the destruction of materials 30 days after the course concludes.
The digital lock provisions are by far the biggest flaw in the bill, rules that some will argue renders it beyond repair. I disagree. The flaw must be fixed, but there is much to support within the proposal. There will undoubtedly be attacks on the fair dealing reforms and pressure to repeal them, along with the U.S. and the copyright lobby demanding that their digital lock provisions be left untouched. If Canadians stay quiet, both are distinct possibilities. If they speak out, perhaps a fixable bill can be fixed. I’m relaunching Speak Out on Copyright.ca to focus on this bill and encouraging Canadians to join the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group(to get active) and the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook Page (to stay updated).
The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable
  
This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Google Reader Shared items.
Click here, to go to the original article.
Add a comment below if you have something to say.
I was in a “dollar store” briefly today. I was waiting at the counter to pay with an older lady standing next to me. We were waiting for an employee to come to the till.
She held a pack of AA and a pack of AAA batteries.
The older lady engaged me in conversation almost immediately.
She explained that she had a phone that was saying “low battery” and wanted to know if these were the batteries that would work for her phone.
Like any good geek I turned on troubleshooting mode and started questioning.
What kind of phone was it? -> “an older one”
What kind of batteries are in the phone now? What do they look like? -> “I don’t know. It’s an old phone.”
Is it a hands free wireless phone you use in your home? -> a uncertain smile and nod
I proceeded to give her more information than she would ever care to know. -> “…most of those phones have batteries similar to what you are holding, but they are shrink-wrapped and have a proprietary power cable that attaches to a connection point in the phone. You may want to bring your phone and/or battery so that you can compair what you have, other wise it might be very difficult to find the proper battery”
Just then the employee came to the till and proceeded to take the old lady’s money for the batteries. As the old lady was walking away she asked the clerk, “I need some new batteries for my phone will these work?”. The clerk, with no hesitation and without even looking at her said, “Oh ya, they will be fine.” The old lady walked away with a smile on her face.
*sigh*
3 people like this post.
This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Delicious tag of “New (to me) and Interesting Music”.
Click here, to go to see more about the band/group.
Add a comment below if you have something to say.
Here’s an interesting platform/interface for Internet consumption:
Navigaya is One Ultra-Hot Content Platform Exclusive TechCrunch Access.
It’s not out yet, but when it comes out, it will be neat to try it.
Since it’s entirely in Flash I would hope it is multi=platform.
Maddie Chambers went and built herself a super impressive looking Bag End hobbit hole dollhouse. It’s amazing. I posted a couple more pictures after the jump, but Maddie has between two and three billion on her website which you should go check out to see the whole thing. My penis? You’d need two more eyes to see the whole thing.
Hit it for a couple more shots and another link to Maddie’s website.
This is an automatically generated post from Montana’s Google Reader Shared items.
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