A Quick Heads Up

Here's somthing I fired off a while ago. We'll come back to this later...

From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:59 PM
To: 'enquire@tfl.gov.uk'; 'londonstreets@tfl.gov.uk'
Subject: Request under the Freedom of information act

Congestion Charge Number Plate Recognition

I would like to know what percentage of vehicles entering the congestion charge zone have their vehicle registration numbers recognised by the cameras.

Please advise me if you are able to provide this information in response to an email request, or else advise me of the address to which I should direct a written enquiry.

Free Beer

Free beer was one of those great campaigning platforms when I was a student. We loved it, but we also knew that it wasn’t real. There is no free beer because free beer is against the fundamental physics of both business and economics. Until now.

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/07/22/copyright-extension-what-you-can-do/

In a nutshell, music copyright which used to expire after 50 years is to be extended to 95 years by the European Parliament.

There are few issues that presently get my hackles up in the way that copyright extension does. Once again a special interest group seems to have lobbied its way into a ridiculous windfall at our expense. Don’t for a moment imagine that this is anything that benefits the artist. Most of them have long since sold their rights to that obscene body of companies that represent the recording industry. Here are my personal favourite counter arguments.

1. The period up to the end of the current 50 year limit has what in licensing terms is called a residual value. Note that word. Value. It therefore follows that there is a value in the 50-95 year period as well. And since the record companies didn’t pay for that period, the copyright, and its value as a property, should revert to the original creator.

2. As it stands the Value I talked about above is ours, the public. If the record companies want it they should pay for it. I don’t expect my elected representatives to give my rights away (though I’m rarely surprised when they do)

Here’s a simple question. If copyright was reduced from 50 years to 45 years would the stakeholders expect compensation for those 5 year? Of course they would. So why do they expect to get 45 years for free?

TV Licensing Office Given Powers of Search at UK Airports

The G8 governments are considering allowing the BBC to go up your bottom with a torch to check for unlicensed television equipment. No Really.

OK – maybe not, but I can’t see why they shouldn’t, given that they are discussing granting another far more commercial group of multinationals the benefits of similar powers of search

If I were paranoid I would assume this was just a plot to raise my blood pressure to intolerable levels (and just because you're paranoid doesn’t mean they AREN’T out to get you).

I do not pay taxes so that my government can pay for staff and equipment to pander to the whims of special interest group, especially one with a standpoint that I find particularly offensive. How in the hell did the RIAA get one step ahead of Homeland Security when it comes to depriving people of their civil liberties (or diginity for that matter) .

All together now:

I DO NOT REMEMBER VOTING FOR A RECORD COMPANY .

If anybody actually reads this please do something useful with this link

Who Says Crime Doesn't Pay?

A work experience sixth-former who stole thousands from one of the world's top international law firms has been jailed for five months.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2270314/Work-experience-girl-jailed-for-stealing-thousands.html

So let’s do the arithmetic. Five months, out in three. That’s the annualised equivalent of £54,000, which is the equivalent of a gross salary of just under £80,000. That’s about what a Chief Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police gets.

Personally I think she ought to be strapped to a thorn bush and whipped until she tells them where the money is, but then that’s probably just the liberal in me speaking out.

Viacom want what?

Now I'm really angry:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/court-ruling-will-expose-viewing-habits-youtube-us

and

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/viacoms-statement-youtube-user-data-controversy

Just what do they think they are doing? This is a clear case of a pathetic special interest group pissing all over our right to privacy regardless of any evidence of a crime having been committed.

Standing up to Big Business is hard because they have a lot of money to piss away, so in the Zen book of war the first step is to turn the Big Company into a small company. Boycott away....

http://www.mcvuk.com/interviews/229/Whats-Viacoms-game

Viacom own:

Film: Viacom International, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Republic Pictures, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, Go Fish Pictures

Television: Comedy Central, Logo, BET, Spike, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Noggin, The N, Nick Jr TEENick, MTV, VH1, MTV2, CMT, MHD

Video Games: Xfire, Harmonix, GameTrailers, Neopets, Shockwave

I've removed Xfire already, and I'm buggered if I'm watching any of their channels or film releases any time soon.

Viacom - screw you.