Warrnambool magistrates heard he was listening to lyrics such as “shut your f—— mouth bitch, f—— motherf—–” and in “what could be a legal test case”, Wilkie faces a charge of offensive behaviour,  says the Herald Sun.

He was listening to underground rapper Kid Selzy while he, Wilkie, was parked outside a supermarket waiting for his mother, says the story.

Wilkie “allegedly” told the cops, “You’re a joke, go do some real police work.”

They nailed him and Kid Selzy says he’ll turn up when the case continues on June 11.

But he got off light, says a Reader’s Write because …

… “The cops here DO WANT THEY WANT TO DO.”

‘Here’ is California.

The comment goes on >>>

Make sure you have a valid driver’s license and vehicle registration and an insurance policy or otherwise you’ll get your car impounded.

Playing loud rap music will get you stereotyped as a gangbanger and you will get jacked by the county sheriff’s department or the California highway patrol and you car get ripped apart for drugs and weapons.

Why draw attention to yourself ?

You will not like it when you get a .357 Smith and Wesson pistol stuck in your face by a cop and a 12 gauge shotgun stuck in your face by his partner.

I suppose people like you complain after your rights were violated and you want a lawyer claiming police brutality.

Quess what your claim will get thrown out of court. The judicial system and the police review board always sticks together and will almost never convict a cop for wrongdoing.

“Immaturity is not obeying the law and not willing to pay the consequences”, the post adds.

This “CAN NOT TAKE PLACE!!!!” – says Nick Williams in the new online petition to Stop the legendary studios becoming luxury flats.

Now, “EMI said it had rejected an offer for the building last year and was in talks about a project to ‘revitalise’ the studios in north London that ‘would involve a substantial injection of new capital’,” says news.com.au.

“In mid-2009, we did receive an offer to buy Abbey Road for in excess of £30 million ($51.7 million) but this was rejected since we believe that Abbey Road should remain in EMI’s ownership,” it has EMI stating, going on:

“EMI confirms that it is holding preliminary discussions for the revitalization of Abbey Road with interested and appropriate third parties.”

Meanwhile, the National Trust, a charity which looks after historic English properties for the public good, also said it was looking at buying the studios “after receiving a wave of calls from the public”, the story adds.

(Cheers, Andrew aka Comeonecomcast)

Or as Computerworld sums it up:

“The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) will take Perth-based Internet Service Provider (ISP) iiNet back to court this Thursday to recoup costs from a copyright infringement case it lost against the ISP.

“AFACT will use a directions hearing to try to recoup court costs in sections of the case which were upheld by presiding judge Justice Cowdroy, and will also claim for expenditure during what the group says were delays by iiNet in admitting the presence of copyright infringements on its network.”

Shortly after learning it hadn’t only lost its case against iiNet for allegedly facilitating copywrite infringement, but also had to pay iiNet’s costs, estimated at $4 million, the “decision is very disappointing for the film industries who launched the case and for the 50,000 Australians who are employed in the Australian film industry,” said AFACT boss Neil Gane (right).

“The ruling came after film companies including Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Disney Enterprises and the Seven Network, the Australian licensee of some of the infringed works, filed a legal action against iiNet in November 2008?, says Computerworld, quoting Melbourne University associate professor David Brennan as saying:

“This is simply the opening battle or the first chapter in the legal story.”

Stay tuned.

He goes on >>>

Loones for Tunes, Amanda Rheaume is trying to tour across Canada and while planning she realized the expense is immense (done it, it’s not cheap to travel across this country, even when you camp most of it). [I can vouch for that - Jon]

So Amanda is appealing to fans and potential new fans, the reason to buy is she wants to tour to your city or a major city near you. If you donate, you can see her. But she’s not asking for “pay what you can” she’s just asking for gas help.

“If everyone I knew tossed me ONE loonie I could probably get pretty far in gas!”

This engagement with fans brings her tour closer to a reality.

The main point, with her “just a loonie” approach, she makes it easy for people to contribute and feel like they are a part of the tour, making it happen as a community. She’s expanding her fan base this way as existing fans will undoubtedly encourage others to donate, after all it’s only a dollar. Those potential donators are gaining exposure to Amanda’s music, this expanding her fanbase further, all the while helping herself out financially.

And that’s exactly where it’s at.

Innovate.

People who care, share.

Stay tuned, and all the best to Amanda …

They do whatever they want, actively backed up by police and other agencies whose salaries are met by taxpayers whom they’re supposed to protect.

And government administrations elected by the same people — including Obama’s — either stand by and watch, or are complicit.

ACTA and the Three Strikes campaign are only the front end.

Now judge Fernando J. Gaitan (right) has ordered Robert Henderson, 42, to be jailed for two years and pay $24,738 in “restitution” for “using a digital camera to camcord ‘The Dark Knight’ on July 18, 2008?, says the Hollywood Examiner.

For copyright infringement.

Because after a multi-million-dollar media, political lobbying and outright bribery campaign on the parts of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, principally, this simple and, to most people, obscure commercial  matter, has been elevated to the level of rape and burglary.

Said a DoJ press release last year >>>

Henderson was apprehended as part of an investigation by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). MPAA investigators discovered a digital copy of the movie “Hancock” that was made available for people to download from the Internet. The Internet video was identified as having been recorded in the East Glenn theater. MPAA investigators were sent to the Lee’s Summit theater to investigate and do surveillance during the weekend of the release of “The Dark Knight.” Henderson was seen entering the movie theater carrying a winter coat, which seemed suspicious in July, then appeared to be operating a video camera hidden underneath the coat during the movie. Investigators confronted Henderson, seized his video camera and called the police. Henderson’s camera also contained a recording of “Hell Boy 2? and a partial recording of “The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian.”

While executing a search warrant at Henderson’s residence, police detectives discovered numerous counterfeit DVDs and several computers. A total of 1,240 counterfeit DVDs were recovered from Henderson, representing a total loss to the MPAA of $24,738.

“We are grateful to everyone involved in the apprehension and prosecution of this defendant and want to particularly thank Beth Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew P. Wolesky; the Lee’s Summit Police Department; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the Hollywood Examiner has MPAA employee Mike Robinson saying.

Hollywood and Big Music routinely use state and federal law and enforcement staff for company business.

But “Hollywood always somehow forgets to mention many, if not most, of the movies which show up on P2P filesharing networks arrive there thanks to Hollywood insiders”, said p2pnet recently, adding this was first detailed by AT&T labs almost exactly six years ago in Analysis of Security Vulnerabilities in the Movie Production and Distribution Process.

The AT&T report said of a total of 285 movies researchers sampled on the P2P networks, 77% were leaked by industry ‘insiders’.

And the trend continues. But it’s never mentioned that Sony’s electronics arm is principal among the companies manufacturing tiny, easily concealed cameras and other equipment of the kind typically used by ‘pirates’.

Gaitain was a Southwestern Bell Telephone company lawyer before named as a state trial and appellate judge by George W. Bush.

“If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like?” – David Fewer, executive director of the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, once asked, adding:

“This is pretty close.”

The Three Strikes element, created by the corporate entertainment cartels and touted by them around the world, is presented by front men such as Peter ‘Mandelson in the UK and president Nicolas Sarkozy in France, as local legislation.

“Several months after a European Union memo discussing the ACTA Internet chapter leaked, the actual chapter itself has now leaked.  First covered by PC World, the new leak fully confirms the earlier reports and mirrors the language found in the EU memo”, says Geist in his blog, continuing >>>

This is the chapter that required non-disclosure agreements last fall.

The contents are not particulary surprising given the earlier leaks, but there are three crucial elements: notice-and-takedown, anti-circumvention rules, and ISP liability/three strikes.

Notice-and-Takedown

The notice-and-takedown provision, which is a pre-requisite for intermediary safe harbour from liability, requires:

an online service provider expeditiously removing or disabling access to material or activity, upon receipt of legally sufficient notice of alleged infringement, and in the absence of a legally sufficient response from the relevant subscriber of the online service provider indicating that the notice was the result of a mistake or misidentification. except that the provisions of (II) shall not be applied to the extent that the online service provider is acting solely as a conduit for transmissions through its system or network.

This would represent a change in Canadian law.  Both prior copyright reform bills (C-60 and C-61) established notice-and-notice systems, rather than notice-and-takedown.  There is currently an informal agreement to use notice-and-notice, which has proven effective (the Entertainment Software Association of Canada told the Liberal copyright roundtable earlier this month that 71% of subscribers who receive a notice do not repost the content within a week).  ACTA would trump domestic law and the current Canadian business practice.

Anti-Circumvention

The anti-circumvention provisions are even more problematic as they effectively represent a renegotiation of the WIPO Internet treaties.  The proposed ACTA provision states:

In implementing Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and Article 18 of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty regarding adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors, performers or producers of phonograms in connection with the exercise of their rights and that restrict unauthorized acts in respect of their works, performances, and phonograms, each Party shall provide civil remedies, as well as criminal penalties in appropriate cases of willful conduct that apply to:

(a) the unauthorized circumvention of an effective technological measure that controls access to a protected work, performance, or phonogram; and

(b) the manufacture, importation, or circulation of a technology, service, device, product, component, or part thereof, that is: marketed or primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing an effective technological measure; or that has only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than circumventing an effective technological measure.

Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (the anti-circumvention provision) was intentionally left broad in scope to allow for various implementations.  The treaty merely requires “adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures.”  It does not require access controls nor prohibitions on the manufacture or distribution of devices that can be used to circumvent.  Indeed, when the DMCA was being discussed in the United States, Bruce Lehman, the Under-Secretary of State, acknowledged that the treaties could be implemented without a devices provision.  Moreover, he stated that the DMCA would be used to pressure other countries into following the U.S. example:

When that legislation is in effect, then we will have a template that we can use, that the Trade Representative can use, that we in the Commerce Department can use, the State Department can use, when we are in negotiations with other governments to advise them as to what they need to do to implement their responsibilities in these treaties to provide effective remedies.

ACTA is therefore viewed as a mechanism to win the policy battle lost in Geneva in 1996.  It would force countries like Canada to adopt the U.S. approach, even though the treaty explicitly envisioned other possibilities.

Three Strikes/Graduated Response

The draft chapter finally puts to rest the question of whether ACTA in its current form would establish a three strikes and you’re out model. The USTR has recently emphatically stated that it does not establish a mandatory three strikes system.  The draft reveals that this is correct, but the crucial word is mandatory.  The draft U.S. chapter does require intermediaries to play a more aggressive role in policing their networks and the specific model cited is the three-strikes approach.  In other words, the treaty may not specifically require three-strikes, but it clearly encourages it as the model to qualify as a safe harbour from liability.  The specific provision, which is another pre-requisite for intermediary safe harbour from liability, states:

an online service provider adopting and reasonably implementing a policy to address the unauthorized storage or transmission of materials protected by copyright or related rights except that no Party may condition the limitations in subparagraph (a) on the online service provider’s monitoring its services or affirmatively seeking facts indicating that infringing activity is occurring;

And what is an example of a policy provided in ACTA?  The treaty states:

An example of such a policy is providing for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscriptions and accounts in the service provider’s system or network of repeat infringers.

This leak shows how deceptive the USTR has been on this issue – on the one hand seeking to assure the public that there is no three-strikes and on the other specifically citing three strikes as its proposed policy model.  Given the past U.S. history with anti-circumvention – which started with general language and now graduates to very specific requirements – there is little doubt that the same dynamic is at play with respect to three strikes.

From a process perspective, leaks coming out of the Mexico ACTA talks revealed that the ISP provisions were discussed, but the anti-circumvention provisions were not.  This suggests that the anti-circumvention provisions from the U.S. are the only proposal currently on the table.

“According to a New Zealand official, there may be alternate proposals for the three-strikes model, all of which will presumably be discussed during the next round of negotiations in April in New Zealand”, Geist adds.

Michael Geist – ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model, February 21, 2010

Is a2f2a.com dead? It isn’t.

That was the starting point, but eventually, an attempt was made to compare what’s happening on p2pnet with what’s happening with musicians.

But it’s apples and oranges — no relationship.

“For those who have been shouting at artists telling them to jump into the safety net held by the people who love their stuff, the sight of you plummeting to earth was pretty sobering” said one comment.

“Jon simply asked those who read his news articles if they would pay him to continue producing work and the answer was no”, said another.

However, “I don’t think the fact that Jon didn’t raise enough money in a few weeks … means that any musician going the DIY route is bound to fail”, said a third.

“Jon didn’t start p2pnet with any intention of making it a pay site”, said a fourth, continuing >>>

That’s where the SPONSORS came in, which were, subsequently, lost along the way, resulting in the present state.

Comparatively, Jon’s “fanbase” is not going to be able to compete with one of a “featured artist”, and people don’t typically come to blogsites looking for things requiring a credit card, anyway. YET, some of those who could afford to give HAVE, when alerted to the site’s demise!

A (good) musician would undoubtedly have more fans to start with, and that fanbase is usually much more focused toward the “product” of a narrow array of artists, and would already have the expectation of making a possible purchase before even visiting their sites.

An artist has a necessary “uniqueness” that generates a large, devoted following. A blogger, whether intentional or not, generally becomes part of a larger “community” that is collectively striving to dig the public out of the mainstream media misinformation blackhole.

You need to follow all 73 comments for the correct context, but the bottom line proposition was: readers want what p2pnet has to offer, but none of them are prepared to pay for it.

Which is rubbish, as this post proves in and of itself, to the tune of $918.28 to date.

In yet another comment, I said I was thinking of a system under which anyone who donates $30 or more gets a p2pnet t-shirt or a mug with the p2pnet beetle on it/them. The exact donation level would depend on what it costs to produce the shirts and mugs.

Well, I’ve gone beyond thinking. I’ve now had the quotes in and I’m deciding which’ll be the best fit from the point of view of quality (I hate rubber images on T-shirts) at a price people will be able to afford, and which’ll bring in enough to make it worthwhile.

I’m also thinking of making a p2pnet music CD with tunes from the people who’ve contributed to the p2pnet music downloads section, for which I have quite a few new songs to add.

Or I could make a combo offering.

So stay tuned on that.

Thanks, everyone

The total for February, with a week to go, is $918.28, including three suscriptions. And on that, if p2pnet ever does fold, I’ll cancel all subscriptions so people won’t be payng for something which isn’t there any more.

FBI, D.A. eye criminal charges in laptop spying The Mercury
Montgomery County authorities are reviewing complaints and allegations made in a civil suit that Lower Merion School District used school-issued computers to spy on students at home to determine if there should be a criminal investigation. The FBI may also be looking into the case, a law-enforcement official with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press on Friday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI will explore whether Lower Merion officials broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws. “After reviewing the lawsuit and the news articles that have been printed, I made the determination that we should be looking at this to see if a criminal investigation is warranted,” District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said on Friday.

Not wrong, just illegal Winnipeg Free Press
Millions of people, mostly but not all young, engage in file sharing. The multinational corporations who make and sell the material are not happy with this development. Their profits are threatened and they, in turn, are threatening to sue, for huge amounts of money, individuals who engage in file sharing. I support the act of file sharing and argue that the free sharing of these forms of intellectual property would likely produce, overall, more good than harm for society. In many areas of the world, e.g. the United States, the action of uploading and downloading copyrighted material is illegal. Everyone knows that it’s illegal to download movies, games and music without paying. Why, then, do so many people simply ignore copyright laws? Part of the reason is that people question whether the law that forbids sharing of such material online is morally justified. The fact that something is illegal doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily immoral. Around the world, young people are questioning the merit of the laws that forbid them to share material. They break copyright laws in part because they believe that these laws are unjust. Not only do we think that the copyright laws are unjust, we also know that it’s easy to get away with breaking these laws — and for youth and students with limited, or sometimes nonexistent funds, the allure of free media with minimal chances of being caught is too good to pass up.

Computer games should be used to assess pupils’ ability instead of traditional tests Telegraph
Professor James Gee believes that the games are an aide to learning, a view that is at odds with that of many parents who consider them a distraction from school work. He has also suggested that the games should become part of the curriculum because they offer pupils a more efficient way of learning by not bombarding them with a large amount of information all at once.

William Shatner in Shit My Dad Says Hollywood Reporter
Twitter sensation Shit My Dad Says is becoming a TV pilot with William Shatner set to play the larger-than-life dad at the center of it. The casting of Shatner lifts the contingency on CBS’ multicamera family comedy project based on the Twitter account, which has enlisted more than 1.16 million followers since launching in August and has made its creator, Justin Halpern, an Internet star. The pilot, executive produced by “Will & Grace” creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, was originally set up at CBS with a script commitment in November. Now, with Shatner on board, it has been greenlighted to pilot.

Bishop Mixa under fire for sexual abuse scandal comments The Local (Germany)
Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa on Friday faced continuing criticism for claiming the sexual revolution was partially to blame for the widespread abuse of children at German Catholic schools. The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Mixa’s remarks had caused a rift within his diocese, with one church official saying they were ‘depressingly imprudent’ and the situation was ‘increasingly embarrassing’ having to explain the bishop’s latest ‘blunder.’ ‘The leadership hasn’t realised how this looks to the congregation,’ said an unidentified member of the Augsburg diocese council. No stranger to controversy, Mixa sparked outrage this week for saying the systematic sexual abuse recently uncovered at several Catholic schools could be traced to the promotion of more liberal attitudes towards sex.

The list below shows the top eight articles on Goolge.ca’s main news index at 9:31 am Pacific >>>

1 A First Nations dream soured: National Post

2 Ottawa defies call for bank tax: Globe and Mail
108 articles

3 Shaw tests ultra-fast internet speeds: CBC.ca -
47 articles

4 Fish Tank: Newcomer Katie Jarvis shines in off-beat coming of age tale: Toronto Star
34 articles

5 Leprosy diagnosed on Olympic security cruise ship: Vancouver Sun
57 articles

6 Dutch government collapses after Labour withdrawal from coalition: The Guardian
856 articles

7 Hundreds attend rally for CFB Trenton troops: CBC.ca
359 articles

Number eight?

Perkins: Who can tell if Tiger Woods is truly sorry? Toronto Star -
11,154 articles

• Rob Sugar
• Peerless Mason Ltd
• Best Price Movers Ltd
• McTavish Logistics Ltd
• YYZ Logistics Ltd
• Mouldaway Canada Inc
• Groupe CC
• Infax

The new arrival is Sayed Hyder, operating as Hydro Power Saver.

Says the CRTC, under file PDR 9174-456 >>>

In this decision, the Commission imposes administrative monetary penalties totalling $7,000 on Sayed Hyder, operating as Hydro Power Saver, for initiating five telemarketing telecommunications to consumers whose telecommunications numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), for initiating the five telecommunications without having registered and having paid all applicable subscription fees to the National DNCL operator, and for failing to display the originating or an alternate telecommunications number when initiating four of the telemarketing telecommunications, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.

1. Between 29 October 2008 and 14 August 2009, the Commission received numerous complaints in relation to telemarketing telecommunications made by Sayed Hyder, who operates a sole proprietorship registered as “Hydro Power Saver” pursuant to the Ontario Business Names Act.

2. On 29 October 2009, a notice of violation was issued to Mr. Hyder pursuant to section 72.07 of the Telecommunications Act (the Act). The notice informed Mr. Hyder that he had initiated five telemarketing telecommunications to consumers whose numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), in violation of Part II, section 4 of the Commission’s Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules (the Rules1; that he had initiated these five telecommunications without having paid all applicable subscription fees to the National DNCL operator, in violation of Part II, section 6 of the Rules;2 and that he had failed to display the originating or an alternate telecommunications number when initiating four of the five telecommunications, in violation of Part III, section 25 of the Rules.s3

3.The notice of violation was delivered to Mr. Hyder’s home address by courier, process server, and Canada Post registered mail, as well as by e-mail.

4. Mr. Hyder was given until 30 November 2009, subsequently amended to 7 January 2010, to either pay the administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) of $7,000 set out in the notice of violation, or to provide representations to the Commission.

5. The Commission notes that Mr. Hyder neither paid the AMPs specified in the notice of violation nor made representations in accordance with the notice. Accordingly, pursuant to subsection 71.08(3) of the Act, Mr. Hyder is deemed to have committed the violations outlined in the notice of violation dated 29 October 2009.

6. In the circumstances of this case, the Commission considers that a penalty of $500 for each of the five violations of Part II, section 4 of the Rules; each of the five violations of Part II, section 6 of the Rules; and each of the four violations of Part III, section 25 of the Rules is appropriate. The Commission therefore imposes AMPs totalling $7,000 on Mr. Hyder.

7. Commission hereby notifies Mr. Hyder of his right to apply to the Commission to review and rescind or vary this decision under section 62 of the Act and to appeal this decision to the Federal Court of Appeal under section 64 of the Act. Any review and vary application under section 62 of the Act must be made within 30 days of the date of this decision and the Commission will place all related documentation on its website to allow public participation in accordance with Part VII of the CRTC Telecommunications Rules of Procedure. An appeal from this decision may be brought in the Federal Court of Appeal with the leave of that Court. Leave to appeal must be applied for within 30 days of the date of this decision or within such further time as a judge of the Court grants in exceptional circumstances.

8. The amount of $7,000 is due by 15 March 2010 and is to be paid in accordance with the instructions contained in the notice of violation. For any amount owing that is not paid by 15 March 2010, interest calculated and compounded monthly at the average bank rate plus three percent will be payable on that amount and will accrue during the period beginning on the due date and ending on the day before the date on which payment is received.

“If payment of the debt has not been received within 30 days of the date of this decision, the Commission intends to certify the unpaid amount and register the certificate with the Federal Court in order to collect the amount owing”, adds the post.

(Cheers, RW)