Sunday 25 April 2010
Thursday 15 April 2010
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Average Joe
That's who gets picked on these days.
And yes, this is another one of "those posts" - so if you're looking for fluff, beware, because this is serious.
The UK government forced through the Digital Economy Bill after just 2 hours of debate in a late-night session last week. Well color me surprised. You'd think a controversial bill like that would require more thought, more debate... especially when 20,000+ voters expressed concerns to their MPs, asking for a proper debate... and were subsequently ignored.
The DEB is going to have some interesting ramifications for the Average Joe. Like what, you say? Oh, like making it easier for lawyers to target householders for piracy. Why? Because this bill puts the burden of responsibility on the Average Joe who owns the net connection. Aaaand what does that mean? That if you're accused, you need to prove it wasn't you that pirated that file.
I don't really need to spell out the whole "innocent before being proven guilty" thing on this blog, because I trust that the folks reading this will have immediately jumped to that conclusion. Or worse yet, you might have an 80 year old Aunt Myrtle who was wrongly accused of illegally downloading 5 gigs of hentai (don't Google that just trust me, it's bad). Now Aunt Myrtle is screwed because her wifi got hacked by some creep sitting in his Subaru outside her house. Score 1 for profiteering lawyers! Aunt Myrtle, that'll be $1,000. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Oh, you wanna try and prove it wasn't you after all? Score 2 for ambulance-chasing lawyers! And what if you're the owner of a wi-fi enabled coffee shop and some acned teenager decides to grab a bunch of illegal music off the 'net? Yep, you're screwed too buddy. Burden of responsibility.
If you're an American reader, you can compare the DEB to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, except tack on the fact that the UK's version doesn't limit itself to websites within national borders - any website, anywhere in the world, that is accessible from the UK, must obey this law or else it's liable to be blocked from the entire country. Welcome to Chi---er, the United Kingdom!
This isn't to say I approve of piracy - far from it. I don't illegally download music or movies (not that I'd have the time to anyway) and as a writer I fully support someone's copyrighted material being given protection. But not like this. Not at the expense of the Average Joe.
Getting back to the politics of the thing... Here's a list of those who had cajones and voted NO on the bill. Good on ya.
I just hope that I won't wake up tomorrow and find that half my websites look like this.
And yes, this is another one of "those posts" - so if you're looking for fluff, beware, because this is serious.
The UK government forced through the Digital Economy Bill after just 2 hours of debate in a late-night session last week. Well color me surprised. You'd think a controversial bill like that would require more thought, more debate... especially when 20,000+ voters expressed concerns to their MPs, asking for a proper debate... and were subsequently ignored.
The DEB is going to have some interesting ramifications for the Average Joe. Like what, you say? Oh, like making it easier for lawyers to target householders for piracy. Why? Because this bill puts the burden of responsibility on the Average Joe who owns the net connection. Aaaand what does that mean? That if you're accused, you need to prove it wasn't you that pirated that file.
I don't really need to spell out the whole "innocent before being proven guilty" thing on this blog, because I trust that the folks reading this will have immediately jumped to that conclusion. Or worse yet, you might have an 80 year old Aunt Myrtle who was wrongly accused of illegally downloading 5 gigs of hentai (don't Google that just trust me, it's bad). Now Aunt Myrtle is screwed because her wifi got hacked by some creep sitting in his Subaru outside her house. Score 1 for profiteering lawyers! Aunt Myrtle, that'll be $1,000. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Oh, you wanna try and prove it wasn't you after all? Score 2 for ambulance-chasing lawyers! And what if you're the owner of a wi-fi enabled coffee shop and some acned teenager decides to grab a bunch of illegal music off the 'net? Yep, you're screwed too buddy. Burden of responsibility.
If you're an American reader, you can compare the DEB to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, except tack on the fact that the UK's version doesn't limit itself to websites within national borders - any website, anywhere in the world, that is accessible from the UK, must obey this law or else it's liable to be blocked from the entire country. Welcome to Chi---er, the United Kingdom!
This isn't to say I approve of piracy - far from it. I don't illegally download music or movies (not that I'd have the time to anyway) and as a writer I fully support someone's copyrighted material being given protection. But not like this. Not at the expense of the Average Joe.
Getting back to the politics of the thing... Here's a list of those who had cajones and voted NO on the bill. Good on ya.
I just hope that I won't wake up tomorrow and find that half my websites look like this.
Tuesday 13 April 2010
Been Busy
... getting muddy and dealing with mundanity.
E can name a handful of colors (yellow, red, blue, green, purple) consistently, as well as some shapes (triangle, square, circle, rectangle). We don't drill him or anything, his learning just happens naturally through play. He recognizes most letters now, although he's a bit iffy with 'K' and 'V' - thinks V is an upside-down A.
B is nearing a big deadline at work and I'm writing and rewriting query letter drafts. We're off to Cornwall in a little over a month, get the kid muddy and sandy and maybe let the parents get some spa time. Woo.
E can name a handful of colors (yellow, red, blue, green, purple) consistently, as well as some shapes (triangle, square, circle, rectangle). We don't drill him or anything, his learning just happens naturally through play. He recognizes most letters now, although he's a bit iffy with 'K' and 'V' - thinks V is an upside-down A.
B is nearing a big deadline at work and I'm writing and rewriting query letter drafts. We're off to Cornwall in a little over a month, get the kid muddy and sandy and maybe let the parents get some spa time. Woo.
Saturday 3 April 2010
Easter
Just some photos from today's walk on Hampstead Heath...
(Above - Central London skyline. Below - gratuitous piano-playing picture)
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