I just came across a YouTube video and it just made me think about the demographics of Mac users and how they advertise their products to them throughout the KeyNote presentation back in June…

I lost count of those words in the first 5 seconds.

Here’s a paper I wrote for my IT Law course. Hopefully you find it useful. It deals with DRM and the impact it’s had on consumers and businesses in recent years, particularly the digital revolution.

Abstract:

Recent years have sparked worldwide debate on technologies making copyrighted material freely distributable between users of certain networks, and circumventing copyright protection technologies in almost all consumer devices and applications. The government has stepped in to attempt protecting the companies who own copyrighted material at the expense of innocent consumers, whose rights have become limited because of the new regulations proposed or passed by governments and businesses alike. One major technology backed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is Digital Rights Management. This paper will present the ethical, moral, and financial issues that this technology has had on consumers and businesses alike.

Download PDF

Yesterday the Criminal Court of Pamplona, Spain concluded that a man who downloaded over 3300 movies and undetermined amount of music did not break the law while doing it.

Although the judge acknowledged that the files were downloaded/shared, the defendant said it was for “private use or sharing with other Internet users” and since there was no financial gain, no crime has been committed.

The US movie industry, of course, is not happy (can’t remember the last time they were), and blamed the Spanish government for spreading a “misconception” that peer-to-peer file sharing is legal. Of course, there’s no misconception at all since the law clearly states that if there’s no financial gain, it’s not a crime.

Hats off to the Spanish for topping the list of copyright “infringements” with close to 25 million recorded cases.

I haven’t posted here in a while, but this is great… Apperantly six German states banned the drink after finding traces of cocaine in it. Of course, Red Bull now says that it DOESN’T get you high OR give you wings, they claim Red Bull is “harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe.”

It uses similar coca leaves all over the world and the company claimed that its own tests revealed no cocaine at all. For shame.

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2009/05/25/9564906.html

Well, it’s official – the new Facebook design is a go. No, not that one from a few months ago — this is brand new:

The new design, click to expand

Like it or not, Facebook could really care less. There is already a group of 1.6 million users that wants to petition against it, but if history has thought us anything is that Facebook could care less of what its users think – it’s not like they will leave (even if they wanted to, they can only “deactivate” their account). More ranting after the break

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One of my favorite bands, Dream Theater, has been hard at work on their new album. Their 10th studio album will be called “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” and is set to release on June 23, 2009. In an interview, drummer Mike Portnoy described it as  “a DT album with “A Change of Seasons”, “Octavarium”, “Learning to Live”, “Pull Me Under” and “The Glass Prison”….all on one album…”

This is one band that has been evolving exponentially with each new album and I have no doubt that this new album will be as good, if not better, as their last – “Systematic Chaos”. I can’t wait and I just hope they do a Toronto show in support of the release. By the way, the album will be also released on vinyl and on a 3-disc special edition featuring instrumental mixes and bonus songs.

To view the new album cover, click on “Continue Reading”

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Art comes in all shapes and forms. ImprovEverywhere is a new type of “performance art” with anywhere from 20 to 700+ performers. Their stage: The streets of the concrete jungle. Based in New York City, the group has grown exponentially and now sees supporters in many of the world’s major cities. But what do they do exactly? Basically anything out of the ordinary. For example, if you see someone on the subway with no pants you will think they are crazy — especially in the winter. But what about 700 people? What if all the workers at a food court started singing the same song together while you were eating? 

Those public events include synchronized fountain swimming, shopping shirtless at Abercrombie & Fitch, the Subway mirror, and many many more organized events. The most notorious one that even made the news several times is the Frozen Grand Central where 200+ people “froze” in time for 5 minutes, amuzing everyone around them:

This is a prime example of what Web 2.0 has to offer in ways other than intended. The group is getting world-popular and new events are organized all the time. For more information check out their site.

View the original IE blog or check out the YouTube channel

Welcome to a new time-waster of mine: Whenever I see something ridiculously cool on YouTube, I will post it on my blog for all of you to enjoy.

In the first part of this series, SomethingUnreal has created something truly cool out of the most uncool sounds on a computer – Windows Sounds.

Bravo! Now for the video:

Never out of surprises, Google has made a new announcement on Monday – it will block all music videos for the UK on its popular YouTube site.

The reason is that negotiations with it and the PRS for Music, a British entity that holds royalties for over 50,000 composers, have failed. 

Google claims that PRS asked for “many, many times” more money than a previous agreement and that ”The costs are simply prohibitive for us — under PRS’s proposed terms, we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback”

PRS has a different story to tell though, apperantly Google walked out in the middle of negotiations - ”We were shocked and disappointed to receive a call late this afternoon informing us of Google’s drastic action,” the PRS for Music CEO Steve Porter said. According to the company, Google wants to pay “significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing.”

Who is right is not clear yet, but one thing is for sure – labels want another outlet for making profits after seeing CD sales have taken a plunge. Enough is never enough.

Source: Reuters

A new report by the RAND Corporation has found out a shocking “fact”: Film piracy is an enterprise of organized crime and terrorism. Yes that’s right, you just supported terrorism by buying that pirated movie from the guy on the corner. The report claims that organized crime has its finger in all stages of the process of pirating movies, from  manufacturing to street sales. ”If you buy pirated DVDs, there is a good chance that at least part of the money will go to organized crime and those proceeds fund more-dangerous criminal activities, possibly terrorism.”

Here are a few friendly tips the report so kindly suggests:

* Piracy should be made a priority offense within anti-gang strategies. (i.e. If you buy a pirated movie, you are part of a gang/are a terrorist)
* Laws should be enacted to grant investigators greater authority to sustain investigations, conduct surveillance, and obtain search warrants. (i.e. if you buy said movie, you forfeit your privacy and rights)
* Key piracy cases should be fought in the organized-crime or money-laundering divisions of prosecutors’ offices. (i.e. you are part of the mafia)
* Governments should share intelligence with industry-led anti-piracy efforts. (i.e. the MPAA should know everything about you)

That may seem like a load of horses@#t, but that’s because it is. If you look at the report, you will see  on the preface ‘The study was made possible by a grant from the Motion Picture Association (MPA).’

Now ain’t that a surprise? Click here to read TorrentFreak’s take on this