BotCast #10 Show Notes
Botrax
http://www.chickenorfish.com/botcast/shows/BotCast-0013.mp3
http://www.chickenorfish.com/botcast/shows/BotCast-0013.m3u
-Show number 10
INTRO
FIRST SEGMENT
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BREAK
Break:
Milan Kolarovic (Acumen), World War II Memoirs (4m40) www.milankolarovic.com
SECOND SEGMENT
--Game Tech Support requests:
OutTro: Ryan Cramer, Geometric Shadows
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Site
Web:
www.ChickenorFish.com/botcast
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Filed under: Gaming
While we've seen quite a few
instances
where shifty gamblers
got
the boot, this time it's the slot machines participating in a mass exodus of
Canadian casinos. In another tale of
misguided
marketing garnering awful PR, Ontario's provincial gambling operator has
"pulled 87 video slot machines out of service or physically removed them from
its casinos" after an investigation found
URL: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/96813211/
While we've seen quite a few
instances
where shifty gamblers
got
the boot, this time it's the slot machines participating in a mass exodus of
Canadian casinos. In another tale of
misguided
marketing garnering awful PR, Ontario's provincial gambling operator has
"pulled 87 video slot machines out of service or physically removed them from
its casinos" after an investigation found some tricky imagery hidden within.
Apparently, a number of Konami slot machines flashed
"winning jackpot symbols" for a fifth of a second every so often, purportedly
giving players "subliminal messages" that would keep them chucking away coins
for longer periods of time. Comically, Konami is asserting that the flashing
images are simply a "
software
glitch" that will be fixed shortly, which leaves us wondering what else
could be ailing these machines for the
betterment
of the establishment. Regardless, the Ontario-based discovery has spawned
several other investigations in the US, British Columbia, and Quebec, but it has
"yet to be determined" if the flashing imagery has effected the gameplay of
addicts professional gamblers.
MS Tech Support Tell Customer to Use Activation Crack
"The Customer Service Manager told me that I could either borrow an XP Home disk from a friend (isn't that software piracy ??) or look online for one of the many Vista Activation cracks to bypass Vista Activation completely, and specifically mentioned "TimerLock" (um... hey, HE told me to do it !!). Well, I followed his instructions."
URL: http://digg.com/software/MS_Tech_Support_Tell_Customer_to_Use_Activation_Crack
Google's unofficial slogan is "Don't be Evil." It seems that such a slogan should be applied to oneself above all. Evil aside, Google has put itself in a position of, what can only be construed as, being a censor of information; for example, its decision to violate the openness of the internet by censoring Uruknet from its news service, collaboration with Chinese regime [3], and removing certain sites from google ads, such as controversial Ziopedia.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
TV Station Uses a $10 Wok as a Transmitter - Very Clever
Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok is just effective? A small television station from the deep south of New Zealand are using wok's to transmit their program, instead of the more expensive, "professional" option. And, amazingly, it works!
URL: http://digg.com/hardware/TV_Station_Uses_a_10_Wok_as_a_Transmitter_Very_Clever
Texas Governor Perry took Merck money before mandating cervical vaccine
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) says that it's just a coincidence that he and eight other lawmakers received donations of $5,000 each from Merck lobbyists just a few days before mandating the drug giant's HPV cervical cancer vaccine for all females in Texas ages 12 and up.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Safety alarms raised at nuclear weapons plant
Electrical failures have shut down the plant. The roof has leaked. Decrepit machinery dates back more than 40 years. Safety lapses led inspectors to levy fines twice within two years. And employees, under deadline pressure, complain they are often worked past the point of exhaustion. If this factory were producing medical devices or refining gasoline, the conditions would be serious enough. But this is where they work on nuclear bombs.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official "apparently" was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
German Bible Goes Politically Correct
A new German translation of the Bible is aimed at ridding the Holy Scriptures of their misogynist and anti-Semitic traits as well as flashing out the relationship between the poor and the privileged.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02/expert_debunks_.html
According
to a new study by a researcher at Texas A&M International University,
studies that see a connection between video games and violent behavior usually
suffer from shoddy research techniques. Dr. Christopher Ferguson studied the
results of a number of recent studies linking violent video games to aggressive
behavior with an eye not just to individual results, but also to overall trends
in the studies as a whole.
Ferguson found that the connection between violence and gaming had more to do with publication bias than it did with any actual correlation. In other words, journals were more likely to publish studies that supported the hypothesis that playing violent games made a subject more prone to violent behavior. Nothing like scientific stacking the deck, eh? Ferguson sums it up nicely:
Thus it was concluded that there is little evidence from the current body of literature on violent video games that playing violent video games is either causally or correlationally associated with increases in aggressive behavior.
Expect He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named to jump on this one like a duck on a junebug, folks.
Researcher
Finds Scant Evidence Linking Violent Games With Aggressive
Behavior
Researcher Finds Scant Evidence Linking Violent Games With Aggressive Behavior
Any scientific link between violent video games and violent behavior
remains tenuous.
At least, that's the conclusion of a Ph.D faculty member at Texas A&M International University's Department of Behavioral, Applied Sciences and Criminal Justice. The researcher, Christopher Ferguson forwarded GamePolitics information about a study he recently completed. In an e-mail, Ferguson wrote:
I conducted a meta-analysis of studies associating violent video game exposure with aggressive behaviors. A meta-analysis involves collecting existing studies in the literature, and obtaining an over all effect size (i.e. degree of relationship) for all of the studies examined. This allows us to get a sense, not just for individual research projects, but rather for the overall result from combined studies in a field.
In the current publication, studies that examined violent video game effects on aggressive behavior were analyzed. Also examined was a phenomenon called "publication bias" which means that scientific journals are more likely to publish studies that support a particular hypothesis than those that reject it.
Results from the current meta-analysis found that there were about 25 recent studies on violent video game effects, with conflicting results.
Overall results of the study found that although violent video games appear to increase people's aggressive thoughts (which it would not be surprising that people are still thinking about what they were just playing), violent games do not appear to increase aggressive behavior.
This as true for both correlational and experimental studies. Also it was found that studies that employed less standardized measures of aggression produced higher effects than better standardized measures of aggression. In other words, better measures of aggression are associated with lower effects.
Publication bias appeared to be a significant issue for studies of aggressive behavior. Thus it was concluded that there is little evidence from the current body of literature on violent video games that playing violent video games is either causally or correlationally associated with increases in aggressive behavior.
Ferguson included a copy of his findings, from which the following quotes were lifted:
(it) appears that news outlets may promote media violence in general, and video game violence specifically as a direct cause of violent behavior.
Despite the relatively young and sparse nature of the research on violent video game effects, some researchers have claimed that the evidence is conclusive…
Yet a close read of the literature reveals that many of the studies used to support this link provide only questionable or inconsistent evidence.Part of the problem may be that video game researchers have adopted unreliable methodologies from media violence research in general… Most of the research (particularly laboratory research) employs unvalidated ad-hoc measures of "aggression".
Lead-laden lunchboxes OK'd by government
In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunchboxes, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe -- and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels.But that's not what they told the public.Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
More than a year after death, man found in front of his TV
Neighbors said they had thought Ricardo was in a hospital or nursing home. Still, neighbor Diane Devon said residents at a gathering last month remarked that they hadn't seen him in some time. "We never thought to check on him," she said.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Four more Americans charged in CIA kidnapping of Muslim cleric
On Friday an Italian judge charged four more Americans to stand trial for kidnapping of Italian cleric Hassan Nasr in 2003, bringing the total number of Americans charged to 26.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070218/CPARTS01/70218029/1043/CPARTS01
Le
Canada, une menace pour Hollywood
Le piratage des films est en pleine
expansion au Canada, alimentant les marchés internationaux et ulcérant les
grands studios de Hollywood qui comptabilisent leurs pertes par millions.
La Chine et la Russie posent «le plus de problèmes à l'industrie du
droit d'auteur», mais «le problème de l'enregistrement non autorisé de films
(camcording) dans les cinémas au Canada frôle la crise».
Ce constat a
été fait cette semaine par l'Alliance internationale pour la propriété
intellectuelle (IIPA), un groupe de pression financé par l'industrie américaine
du droit d'auteur, la plus importante au monde, dans une lettre envoyée à la
représentante américaine au Commerce, Susan Schwab.
L'Alliance, qui
accuse le Canada de ne pas protéger suffisamment les droits d'auteur, demande
aux autorités américaines de mettre le voisin canadien sur la «liste de
surveillance prioritaire» des pays fautifs dans ce domaine aux côtés de la
Chine, de la Russie et de l'Inde.
«En 2005 on estimait qu'environ 20%
des films piratés sur le marché mondial provenaient du Canada, et un bon
pourcentage de Montréal», estime Serge Corriveau, enquêteur pour l'Association
canadienne des distributeurs de films, une antenne des grands studios
hollywoodiens.
Ceux-ci chiffrent à plus de 6,1 milliards de dollars les
pertes qu'ils subissent annuellement à cause du piratage de leurs films dans le
monde.
«Les blockbusters (films à grand succès) attirent toujours les
pirates, mais au cours des dernières années au-delà de 200 films ont été
enregistrés (au Canada) et ils se sont retrouvés dans 45 pays», assure M.
Corriveau.
L'industrie dénonce le «laxisme» des lois canadiennes en
matière de lutte contre le piratage de films. Alors qu'aux États-Unis, l'acte de
filmer au cinéma est un crime dans plusieurs États, dont la Californie, il n'en
est rien au Canada.
Certes, une personne prise en flagrant délit de
filmer dans un cinéma peut y être poursuivie au civil par le propriétaire de la
salle, le distributeur ou le studio. Mais pour que des accusations criminelles
soient portées contre cette personne, la police doit prouver qu'elle avait
l'intention de distribuer le film.
«Pour prouver l'intention, ça demande
plus de preuves. Il ne s'agit pas de voir quelqu'un filmer dans un cinéma, il
faut accumuler des preuves afin d'avoir un mandat de perquisition, par exemple,
pour aller fouiller dans son ordinateur. Ce n'est pas facile», explique Helaine
Lavergne, porte-parole de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC).
Devant
ce quasi-vide juridique, des propriétaires de salle se font justice eux-mêmes.
Lors de premières à Montréal, qualifiée dans l'industrie de «capitale canadienne
du piratage«, certains cinémas utilisent des détecteurs de métal à l'entrée afin
de décourager les pirates potentiels. La direction d'une chaîne de «méga-cinéma»
est même allée jusqu'à interdire l'entrée à de présumés pirates.
Et si
Hollywood perd de gros sous dans cette histoire, des adeptes du piratage n'en
font pas pour autant leurs choux gras.
«Il y a tellement de gens qui le
font de nos jours. Ce n'est pas vrai que les pirates font tous de l'argent avec
ça (...), on fait ça pour le plaisir, pour regarder les films chez nous. On le
fait aussi un peu pour emmerder les studios américains. Ils ne sont pas à
plaindre, ils ne manquent pas d'argent», se vantaient récemment deux pirates
déclarés au Journal de Montréal.
"US Senators to arrive in israel for indoctrination"
"We think that it is important that the members of the delegation feel the connection and understand Israel better. They are mostly non-Jewish and we want them to feel some obligation to the country," he added.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
JE VEUX EN PARLER PLUS EN DÉTAIL DE CELLE LA
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/02/14/software-warnings.html
The
entertainment and software industries have found an effective tool to deter some
Canadians from downloading TV programs, movies, music and software. And it
doesn't involve going to court.
A number of industry groups, mostly
based in the United States, are relying on e-mail to get the message out that
peer-to-peer file sharing is illegal. Thousands of the e-mails are being sent to
Canadian users each month under a program known as "notice and notice."
Major Canadian internet service providers including Rogers, Bell and
Telus have voluntarily agreed to distribute the notices to their customers on
behalf of the industry associations. Telus forwards an average of 4,000 notices
every month.
Stephen Harrington received a notice late last year after
downloading a computer game from a bit torrent file-sharing site. (Bit torrent
sites are used to share larger files, such as movies.)
Harrington wanted
to play the game with his friends, liked it, and purchased it a few days later.
"Actually, I almost deleted it. But I read through and was quite
surprised. But I was initially concerned," Harrington said.
The
entertainment industry has long expressed frustration with Canada, and its
unwillingness to modernize copyright laws.
"Canada's copyright laws
regarding uploading and downloading are unclear, and that does present a number
of challenges in curbing internet piracy," said Neil MacBride, a vice-president
with the Business Software Alliance, a Washington D.C.-based industry
association that fights software piracy.
The Business Software Alliance
sent out about 60,000 "notice and notice" e-mails to Canadian internet users in
2006. "They've been most effective," MacBride said.
'Stop this
infringing activity'
"If you're somebody who's [downloading] and you
receive word that you're essentially using somebody else's property without
their permission, it seems to have the desired effect — namely, people take it
seriously and alter their behaviour accordingly."
The notices contain
terse legal language: "This unauthorized copying and distribution constitutes
copyright infringement under applicable national laws and international
treaties. We urge you to take immediate action to stop this infringing activity
and inform us of the results of your actions," reads one of the e-mails, sent by
NBC Universal to Canadian internet users who were suspected of downloading a NBC
television show.
Canadian users are tracked by IP address when content
is downloaded from the internet.
"It doesn't have any significant legal
weight in the sense that it doesn't mean they're facing a lawsuit immediately or
even the claims of infringement have been proven," said leading internet law
expert Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa.
But Geist said the
"notice and notice" program has been successful in scaring people to stop
downloading.
"I think they've proven surprisingly effective and in fact
indications are that when subscribers receive these, a significant proportion
will take down the offending content if, in fact, it is infringing," he said.
Harrington says he has not downloaded material using peer-to-peer sites
since he received his e-mail notice, forwarded by his ISP, Rogers
Communications. But he is concerned about privacy: What information are the ISPs
passing along to the industry groups?
"The ISPs are the only ones who
know what individuals are doing what, so they're trying to push that thin blue
line and get to individual privacy that way," he said.
No privacy issues,
ISPs say
Both Rogers and Telus maintain they do not pass any personal
information, such as user name or address, to any of the groups initiating the
notice e-mails.
"We protect the rights of our customers and the privacy
of our customers and the information about our customers quite vigorously and we
do not pass the information about our customers on to third parties," said
Michael Lee, chief strategy officer for Rogers Communications.
The
notice program in effect in Canada is essentially a tool to alert users that
they are downloading what the industry groups see as copyrighted material. Even
though tens of thousands of e-mails have been distributed over the last few
years, no one has been prosecuted for copyright violation as a result of the
notices.
"Notice and notice" differs from the "notice and take-down"
program that's in place in the United States. There, when an industry group
notices an alleged copyright violation, an e-mail similar to the ones being sent
to Canadian users is forwarded to the American ISP. In most cases, the ISPs are
forced to immediately take down the content or face penalties.
"I think
notice-in-notice is a great alternative that really respects privacy and free
speech much more than notice and take-down," said Ren Bucholz of the internet
advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation.
==================================================================
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1705/125/
The Effectiveness of Notice and Notice
The CBC runs a
story
today on the growing use of "notice and notice" by copyright holders.
Telus apparently sends out about a thousand notices each week, while the
Business Software Alliance says it sent out 60,000 notifications to Canadians
last year. These numbers are consistent with my own experience as I now
regularly receive emails from Canadians asking about the implications of such
notifications.
The notice and notice system involves a
notification from a copyright holder - often involving movies, software or music
- claiming that a subscriber has made available or downloaded content without
authorization on file sharing systems. The Internet Service Provider
forwards the notification to the subscriber but takes no other action - it does
not pass along the subscriber's personal information, remove the content from
its system, or cancel the subscriber's service. It falls to the subscriber
to act and as the CBC story notes, many remove the infringing content (if indeed
it is infringing) voluntarily.
Some people object to U.S.-based
notifications that carry no legal weight in Canada being sent to Canadians with
the cooperation of Canadian ISPs. I am supportive of the system since I
think it balances various interests in fair manner. First, it stands in
marked contrast to the U.S. notice and takedown approach, which creates
incentives for ISPs to remove content without warning or evidence of actual
infringement. The recent avalanche of Viacom notices - which targeted
dozens of non-infringing videos - provides a
good
case study for why the notice and takedown system can have a chilling effect
on online speech. Second, the approach protects user privacy, consistent
with national privacy law and the CRIA file sharing case from 2004. Third,
it reflects a consistency between industry practice and proposed
legislation. While Bill C-60 was criticized for some its provisions, many
applauded the decision to codify a notice-and-notice system into law (I assessed
the ISP provisions here). The
IIPA may be demanding that
Canada follow the U.S. approach, but the effectiveness of the Canadian notice
and notice system demonstrates that a balancing privacy, free speech, and
copyright can lead to solutions that serve everyone's best
interests.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070216/CPMONDE/70216028/1014/CPMONDE
Un
juge italien a décidé vendredi de renvoyer devant le tribunal de Milan (nord) 26
agents de la CIA poursuivis pour l'enlèvement en Italie d'un ex-imam égyptien en
2003, l'un des cas de transfert secret de détenus dénoncé par le Parlement
européen.
La décision du juge des audiences préliminaires de Milan,
Caterina Interlandi, concerne aussi le général Nicolo Pollari, ancien chef des
services de renseignement militaire italiens (SISMI), limogé en novembre pour
son implication dans cette affaire.
Il figure sur la liste des accusés
aux côtés, entre autres, des anciens responsables de la CIA en Italie, les
Américains Jeff Castelli et Robert Seldon Lady, ou de l'ancien numéro 2 du
SISMI, Marco Mancini.
Le procès, sans précédent en Europe en ce qui
concerne le nombre d'agents américains renvoyés devant la justice, débutera le 8
juin, a ajouté Mme Interlandi, et il se déroulera par contumace en ce qui
concerne les citoyens américains.
Selon la presse italienne, la majorité
des 26 agents a agi sous de faux noms et se trouve actuellement aux
États-Unis.
Il y a 15 jours, la justice allemande a délivré 13 mandats
d'arrêt contre des agents présumés de la CIA soupçonnés d'avoir enlevé en 2003
en Macédoine l'Allemand d'origine libanaise Khaled el-Masri.
L'enlèvement d'Abou Omar est l'un des cas dénoncés par le rapporteur du
Conseil de l'Europe Dick Marty dans son étude sur les vols secrets de la
CIA.
Soupçonné de terrorisme, l'ex-imam égyptien Abou Omar a été enlevé
le 17 février 2003 à Milan par un commando de la CIA aidé par des agents
italiens, selon le parquet de Milan.
Conduit à la base américaine
d'Aviano, dans le nord-est de l'Italie, il a été transféré en Égypte après le
rapt, où il a été incarcéré et affirme avoir subi des tortures.
Relâché
dimanche par les autorités égyptiennes, il a annoncé son intention de porter
plainte contre Silvio Berlusconi pour obtenir dix millions d'euros de
dommages-intérêts «pour son implication dans l'enlèvement en tant que chef du
gouvernement (à l'époque des faits) et pour avoir permis à la CIA de le
capturer».
Un mandat d'arrêt européen a été émis contre les 26
Américains mais la demande d'extradition adressée aux États-Unis est toujours
sur le bureau du ministre italien de la Justice, Clemente Mastella, seul
autorisé à la transmettre.
Check ca, c'est véridique.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8996055986353195886&q=Les+OGM+sont-ils+dangereux+pour+la+sant%C3%A9
OGM : un reportage fait fureur sur Internet
http://technaute.lapresseaffaires.com/nouvelles/texte_complet.php?id=81,12399,0,022007,1331312.html&ref=top_short
Cyberpresse
Stéphanie Bérubé
13 février 2007 -
08h54
Depuis quatre jours, plus d'un million d'internautes ont
regardé le documentaire français «Les OGM sont-ils dangereux pour la santé?
L'étude qui accuse».
Propulsé par une fausse rumeur de censure, ce
reportage de 2005 se passe de courriel en courriel. Le sujet de tant d'intérêt?
Deux études démontreraient que des rats nourris avec des OGM subiraient
eux-mêmes des mutations génétiques.
«C'est un documentaire très choquant
parce qu'on voit que certains secrets commerciaux sont très bien protégés»,
indique Jocelyn Desjardins, de Greenpeace Québec, qui est évidemment ravi de
voir la popularité inespérée de ce reportage. D'une moyenne de 300 connections
par jour, en novembre, le lien de Google qui présente la vidéo est maintenant
visité par 10 fois plus de monde, tous les jours. Hier après-midi, ils étaient
plus de 2,3 millions à avoir pris le temps de regarder le reportage.
Les
messages qui accompagnent la vidéo, lorsqu'elle est envoyée par courrier
électronique, parlent d'un cas de censure. Or il n'en n'est rien. «C'est un beau
cas de téléphone arabe», admet Jocelyn Desjardins. Même le patron de la défunte
émission française 90 minutes a été surpris de l'ampleur du mouvement. Il a
confirmé qu'il n'y avait pas eu censure.
Si le reportage fait tant
jaser, deux ans après sa diffusion initiale, c'est que peu de films abordent le
sujet des organismes génétiquement modifiés, croit le représentant québécois de
Greenpeace. Et celui de l'émission 90 minutes adopte un ton très dramatique,
avec musique d'ambiance et sous-entendus très efficaces.
On y présente
deux études sur des rats nourris aux OGM, dont une provenant du fabricant de
grains transgéniques Monsanto. Bien qu'on ait trouvé des lésions sur certains
rats nourris au maïs Monsanto, la multinationale a défendu son innocuité. Avec
succès : la France a autorisé son utilisation en 2005. Au Canada, ce maïs
transgénique est approuvé pour la consommation humaine depuis 2003.
Piratage: peu d'effet sur les ventes de CD
12 février 2007 - 16h40
Malgré ce qu'en dit depuis des années l'industrie de la musique, le piratage n'a pas d'effet significatif sur les ventes d'albums, révèle une étude.
Publiée ce mois-ci dans le Journal of Political Economy l'étude de deux économistes des universités Harvard et du Kansas s'est attardée à des données des quatre derniers mois de 2002.
Elle conclut que pendant cette période, le téléchargement a affecté 0,7% des ventes de CD aux États-Unis.
Pour arriver à cette conclusion, les chercheurs ont comparé les journaux (logs) de deux serveurs poste à poste aux chiffres de vente d'albums de Nielsen SoundScan.
Ils ont ensuite opposé les 1 750 000 chansons téléchargées illégalement à 680 albums vendus durant la même période.
Puisque les Allemands sont les deuxièmes fournisseurs de contenu sur les réseaux p2p, les chercheurs ont évalué les données des serveurs pendant les congés des étudiants allemands. De tous les fichiers téléchargés aux États-Unis, un sur six proviendrait d'Allemagne.
«L'échange de fichiers n'a pas d'effet statistique significatif sur les ventes d'un album moyen dans notre échantillon. (…) Tout au plus, l'échange de fichiers peut-il expliquer une toute petite portion du déclin des ventes dans l'industrie de la musique», écrivent Felix Oberholzer et Koleman Strumpf.
Les auteurs de l'étude notent qu'en 2002, 803 millions de CD avaient été vendus aux États-Unis, une baisse de 80 millions par rapport à l'année précédente. Selon leurs chiffres, seulement six millions de ces ventes auraient été perdues en raison du piratage.
Ils affirment que d'autres explications pourraient être plus plausibles que le piratage pour explique cette baisse, dont la compétition d'autres formes de divertissement (comme les jeux vidéo et les DVD) et la diminution du nombre d'albums qui sortent sur le marché.
De plus, notent les auteurs, les logiciels, les films et les jeux vidéo sont tout aussi téléchargés que la musique, mais «ces industries ont poursuivi leur progression malgré l'arrivée du téléchargement» .
Le rapport complet (en format PDF)
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf
Copyright collective wants iPod levy
Vito Pilieci, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, February 10, 2007OTTAWA- Canada's Private Copyright Collective is taking another stab at introducing levies on digital music players and memory cards.
The charges could add as much as $75 to the price of a new Apple iPod.
The collective, which seeks to compensate artists for unauthorized copying of their music, said Friday it's taking a new tack after a 2003 Federal Court of Appeals decision rejected the levies.
The court overturned the Copyright Board of Canada's approval of the charges after protests by a coalition of industry groups that included retailers Wal-Mart, Staples Business Depot and Future Shop.
The collective had argued the memory inside a digital audio device such as an iPod is an audio recording medium primarily used to store music, and therefore should be subject to the Canadian Copyright Act.
The act states an audio recording medium is "a medium regardless of its material form on which a recording can be reproduced."
The court, however, found the memory can't be defined as an audio recording medium.
Now, the group is going after the devices themselves. It says devices such as the iPod can be classified as a "recording medium" and should be subject to taxation.
"It is simply a matter of fairness that the creators of content, the creators of culture actually, should receive some compensation for the large volume of unauthorized and uncontrollable copying onto these media," said collective chair Claudette Fortier. "Private copying is a fact - Canadians do it."
The group is responsible for collecting a levy on blank recording media and distributing the money to those entitled to royalties.
In other words, every time a Canadian buys a blank CD, or audio cassette today a portion of the cost is sent to artists all over the world such as Kid Rock, Justin Timberlake and Paris Hilton.
In its new submission to the Copyright Board, the collective is proposing levies of $5 on devices with up to one gigabyte (GB) of memory, $25 for one to 10 GB, $50 for between 10 GB and 30 GB and $75 for over 30 GB. That would take the price of Apple's 30GB iPod to $365 from $290, a 26 per cent increase.
The group is also asking for levies of $2 to $10 for memory cards, which are primarily used to store photographs in digital cameras.
It's also asking for eight-cent increases to the current 21-cent levy on blank CD media and 77-cent charge for CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and MiniDiscs.
To support its requests, the group said it commissioned Environics Research Group to poll Canadians on their attitudes towards the proposed levies.
The poll, it said, suggests 80 per cent of Canadians who make private copies of recorded music would consider a levy of 30 cents on each CD-R and CD-RW they buy to be "fair."
The poll is also said to indicate 79 per cent of Canadians who make private copies said a levy of $40 on a 30 GB iPod, or similar device, would be "fair and reasonable."
The poll of 993 Canadians was conducted in June. It's considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The proposed levies will be examined by the Copyright Board before a public hearing is held later this year.
Ottawa Citizen
Schwarzenegger à micro ouvert
Nicolas Bérubé
La Presse
Los Angeles
En public, Arnold Schwarzenegger est affable, courtois, poli. En
privé, il dit ce qu'il pense vraiment - et c'est loin d'être « politically
correct ».
C'est ce qui se dégage des conversations du gouverneur de la
Californie, enregistrées dans son bureau et rendues publiques cette semaine par
le Los Angeles Times. Le gouverneur y dit sa façon de penser et se moque
des républicains comme des démocrates.
Les conversations ont été
enregistrées l'an dernier par des assistants du gouverneur. Et elles se sont
retrouvées par erreur dans une section non protégée de son vaste site
Web.
« Nous aimons le Mexique, nous y allons en vacances. Nous aimons
la musique mariachi, tout ça. Mais ici, pour qu'on soit sympathiques à leur
cause, il faut qu'ils brandissent le drapeau américain. Il faut qu'ils disent :
" Nous voulons faire partie de ce que vous êtes. Nous vous aimons. " »
En
tant qu'immigré autrichien, il explique qu'il a dû « faire un effort » pour
devenir américain. Mais, en raison de la proximité de leur pays d'origine, les
Mexicains « ne font pas cet effort », ajoute-t-il, en concédant qu'il lui serait
difficile de tenir ces propos en public.
Dans la même conversation
privée, le gouverneur qualifie de « ridicule » le projet du président Bush de
construire une clôture de 1000 kilomètres le long de la frontière avec le
Mexique.
« Quand j'étais jeune, nous avions le mur de Berlin, nous avions
des murs partout ... Pour nous, ceux qui étaient de l'autre côté du mur étaient
des ennemis. Est-ce que nous considérons que le Mexique est un ennemi? Non, pas
du tout. Ce sont nos partenaires d'affaires. »
Le gouverneur se moque du
président démocrate de l'Assemblé de Californie, Fabian Nuñez, un « politicien
téléguidé qui provient des milieux syndicaux » et qui ne semble pas « être
passionné par son travail ». Il ridiculise aussi les élus républicains, « qui
sont minoritaires, mais qui semblent incapables de s'en rendre compte!
»
Ces enregistrements ont été réalisés l'an dernier dans le bureau du
gouverneur. L'idée était d'enregistrer Schwarzenegger au naturel pour que son
rédacteur de discours puisse savoir comment il s'exprime dans la vie de tous les
jours.
L'équipe du gouverneur a vivement condamné la divulgation de ces
enregistrements, qu'elle estime orchestré par les démocrates. L'an dernier, son
rival démocrate, Phil Angelides, avait diffusé une série d'enregistrements
semblables.
« C'est précisément à cause de ce type de comportements que
les gens ont une opinion si négative des politiciens », a dit Adam Mendelsohn,
directeur des communications du gouverneur.
Les personnes visées par les
déclarations ont, quant à elles, décidé de jouer les « gentlemen » et de ne pas
jeter de l'huile sur le feu.
Or, tout ce qui a été dévoilé n'est pas que
négatif ou controversé. Sur une note plus candide, le gouverneur explique ce que
veut dire pour lui l'importance de la tolérance religieuse et raciale.
«
Dites-vous chaque semaine : aujourd'hui, je vais aller découvrir quelqu'un à qui
je ne m'intéressais pas auparavant, explique Schwarzenegger à un de ses
assistants. Allez découvrir une personne d'une autre race, ou d'une autre
religion à laquelle vous ne vous intéressiez pas. Faites-vous un devoir de
sortir et de l'amener manger... Quelqu'un qui est complètement différent de
vous. »
Les iPod bannis des rues aux États-Unis?
Marie-Eve Morasse
07 février 2007 - 16h25
La proposition parait loufoque, mais elle n'en est pas moins soulevée par un sénateur de New York, qui aimerait faire adopter une loi pour bannir l'utilisation d'appareils électroniques aux carrefours des rues.
Carl Kruger, un démocrate qui représente un district new-yorkais, affirme que les iPod, BlackBerry et autres consoles de jeux portatives ont causé des accidents mortels dans les rues des grandes villes.
Il affirme que seulement dans son district de Brooklyn, trois piétons ont été tués depuis septembre en raison de leur utilisation d'un appareil électronique dans le trafic. Dans un cas, dit-il, les passants ont crié «attention!» sans être entendus par le piéton.
En conséquence, il propose de rendre l'utilisation de tout type d'appareil électronique en traversant la rue illégale dans les grandes villes américaines.
Les contrevenants recevraient une amende de 100 dollars.
«Vous devez être conscients de ce qui vous entoure quand vous pianotez sur votre BlackBerry, téléphonez à quelqu'un, jouez à Super Mario Brothers sur un Game Boy ou écoutez de la musique sur un iPod», dit le sénateur dans un communiqué.
La loi qu'il propose permettrait toutefois aux cyclistes et aux joggeurs d'utiliser leur lecteur mp3 dans les parcs de la ville où ils n'ont aucune rue à traverser.
Carl Kruger affirme que l'utilisation de ces appareils constitue un «problème national» et que le gouvernement a la responsabilité de protéger ses citoyens face à cette «crise majeure».
Bien que les iPod et les BlackBerry aient connu une popularité grandissante aux cours des dernières années, l'utilsation d'appareils électroniques dans les rues ne date pas d'hier. Sony a mis son premier Walkman sur le marché en 1979.
Government documents suggest Tories not nervous about ISPs interfering with Net
Published: Tuesday, February 6, 2007 | 9:03 PM ET
Canadian Press: LEE-ANNE GOODMAN, The Canadian Press
(CP) - Internal documents suggest the Tory government is reluctant to impose consumer safeguards for the web because it wants to protect the competitive position of businesses that offer Internet access.
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press indicate that senior advisers to Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, who has previously declared a "consumer first" approach, are carefully heeding the arguments of large telecommunications companies like Videotron and Telus against so-called Net neutrality legislation.
Net neutrality, dubbed the First Amendment of the Internet in the United States, aims to ensure the public can view the smallest blogs just as quickly and easily as the largest corporate websites. It stops telecom giants from ensuring that pages of companies that pay them load faster than any others.
Bernier has been poring over a report for almost a year by the federally appointed Telecommunications Policy Review Panel that recommends changes to the Telecommunications Act, including replacing a clause on "unjust discrimination" that does little to either uphold the principles of Net neutrality or prevent them from being violated.
One Internet expert calls the minister's briefing materials, obtained under the Access to Information Act, "one-sided."
"These documents reveal that in Canada, the industry minister and his policy people appear unlikely to provide Canadian Internet users with similar protections to those being offered in the United States," Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa, said Tuesday.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
UK troops worsen problems in Iraq: army head
The head of Britain's army said the presence of British troops in Iraq was exacerbating the security situation on the ground and they should be withdrawn soon, according to a British newspaper.In unusually blunt comments for a serving senior officer, Dannatt told the Friday edition of the newspaper that the troops should "get ... out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems".
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Enormous death toll of Iraq invasion revealed
Around 655,000 people have died in Iraq as a result of the US-led coalition invasion, according to the largest scientific analysis yet.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Los Alamos Missing Plutonium for 150 Nuclear Bombs
The beleaguered Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is unable to account for 765 kilograms of plutonium -- enough to make 150 nuclear weapons -- according to a letter from nuclear watchdog groups to LANL Director G. Peter Nanos.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Federal Legislation Labels Activism As "Terrorism"
AETA labels the tactics of Martin Luther King and Gandhi as "terrorism." I
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Le chef du gouvernement italien Romano Prodi a fait comprendre qu'il
suivrait la politique de son prédécesseur dans ce domaine et s'abstiendrait de
demander l'extradition des agents américains pour ne pas tendre davantage les
relations avec les États-Unis.
Le renvoi en justice des membres du SISMI
risque cependant de faire long feu, le gouvernement italien ayant déposé un
recours devant la Cour constitutionnelle contre le parquet de Milan, accusé
d'avoir violé le secret d'État dans cette affaire en exploitant les écoutes
téléphoniques des agents du SISMI.
Si la Cour déclare ce recours
admissible, le procès pourrait être suspendu dans l'attente d'une décision sur
le fond. Ensuite, une décision de la Cour favorable au gouvernement aurait pour
effet d'annuler la majeure partie des documents qui fondent l'accusation,
rendant quasiment impossible la tenue du procès.
Trente-trois personnes
au total ont été renvoyées devant la justice, deux des 35 accusés ayant négocié
leur peine: six mois de prison transformés en amende pour un journaliste et un
an et neuf mois de prison contre un carabinier, selon l'agence Ansa.
on trouve de tout au gouvernement:
http://www. craaap.gouv.qc.ca/
book reception canceled after author criticizes Israel
The French Embassy on Monday cancelled a New York party for a book about Vichy France's collaboration with Nazi Germany because of the author's postscript that says Israel has oppressed Palestinians.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Stéphanie de Monaco déplore la position du Vatican sur le préservatif
Genève -- La princesse Stéphanie de Monaco, nommée vendredi ambassadrice de bonne volonté de l'Onusida, a jugé «dommage» hier l'opposition de l'Église catholique à l'usage du préservatif dans la lutte contre le sida. Suite
URL: http://www.ledevoir.com/2006/10/10/120052.html
Guards describe Guantanamo prisoner abuse
Guantanamo guards described physically and mentally abusing detainees, including slamming one's head into a cell door and denying them privileges merely to anger them, a U.S. Marine said in a document made public on Friday."Examples of this abuse included hitting detainees, denying them water, and removal of privileges for no reason," the Marine Corps sergeant stated in a sworn affidavit sent to the Pentagon's inspector general's office for investigation.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Russian war critic writer murdered
A Russian journalist known for her critical coverage of the war in Chechnya was shot to death Saturday in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow, in a killing prosecutors believe could be connected to her investigative work.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Busted! The Family Research Council knew about Foley.
Seems like members of the Family Research Council, that bastion of "Christian purity" and "family values" knew Mark Foley had a habit of chasing after young boys. And not one of them said a word until after the scandal broke.
URL: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
Www.ackiest sites on the net
Some of the funniest unintentially named websites you can find on the net. When combined without spaces as a domain name, they are read totally differently.eg: IT must have seemed a good idea to name a website after the well-known phrase ?The pen is mightier than the sword.? which turned out to be: www.penismightier.com
URL: http://digg.com/tech_news/Www_ackiest_sites_on_the_net
1. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at www.gotahoe.com
2. Therapists in the US merely wanted to offer troubled
souls a shoulder to cry on. Let's hope their advice is not as short-sighted as
whoever registered the URL www.therapistfinder.com
3. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their
website is www.cummingfirst.com
4. There is one betting site that is
way out in front as our favorite. With their name they are bound to attract a
lot of people looking for each-way wagers: www.oddsexchange.com
5. "We're not just a printer," claims the American firm
Tri-Plex. And they guarantee: "Short runs or long, we can handle both equally
well." But it makes you wonder what kind of service they are offering from their
website with a name like this: www.triplexbusiness.com
6. If you are looking for a place to download the latest
songs you might think this one is a homage to bad digital music. Mind you, the
site is flagging up the new Michael Bolton album, so maybe it does what is says
on the tin after all: www.mp3shits.com
7. Law firm Morrison & Foerster
have more than 1,000 legal eagles worldwide. Surely you would have thought one
would have spotted the clanger in their site. They couldn't have been briefed
properly that it contains a slang abbreviation for a rather strong swear word
that would leave them in contempt in the courtroom: www.mofo.com
8. This drinks franchise has spawned a host of copycat
stores around the US as it attracts customers by the barrel-load desperate for a
schoolboy giggle and quick slurp: www.beaverliquors.com
9. Some say Americans don't understand irony and a site set
up by Ingleside Vineyards of Virginia bears that out. They must be flushed with
success if the name they chose is anything to go by: www.ipwine.com
10. The plant-growers of Mole Station Nursery in New South
Wales claim to specialise in the production of frost- hardy native shrubs and
farm trees. Sounds like they are more into deflowering: www.molestationnursery.com
11. If you need an IT professional
to fix your broken PC this could be a great place to start, especially if you
are having a problem with your hard drive or interruptions to your AC/DC supply:
www.expertsexchange.com
12. Looking for an actor and want to
get in touch with his or her agent? Then Who Represents is a database of contact
names and numbers. But the site owners may well become brassed off by some of
the unsavoury clients it attracts: www.whorepresents.com
13. The official site for Barnet Copthall Masters Swimming
Club says it has a 12A rating to warn off young kids. It has all the club?s
latest news. So why not a section on how to improve your breaststroke? www.upthebeavers.com
14. A building firm based in Ontario, Canada, promises: "No
job too small, or too tall." They have even helpfully included some handy
pictures showing exactly how they manage to get it up: www.mammotherection.com
15. Then of course, there's the Italian Power Generator
company… www.powergenitalia.com
16. And then there's these brainless
art designers, and their whacky website: www.speedofart.com
-
The Royal Tit-Watching (Ornithological) Society Of Britain used the domain:
www.Nice-Tits.org
- Manufacturer of instruments for monitoring temperature, humidity and
pressure Dickson didn't think twice when they choose:
www.DicksOnWeb.com - A holiday rentals company in Spain is called Choose
Spain. Hopefully the vacation won't be a painful experience:
www.ChoosesPain.com
- A company selling CAD software and Learning CDs was called
ViaGrafix - quite innocent until a blue pill hit the market.
The company is now called Learn2.
www.ViagraFix.com
- TeachersTalk: A community for teachers and student to
discuss all areas of teaching… Even how to stalk teachers?
www.TeacherStalk.com
- The small town Winters' local newspaper is called Winters
Express and can be read online at:
www.WinterSexPress.com
- An eBay competitor was considering the name Auctions Hit,
but found it to be a shitty name:
www.AuctionShit.com 
If you offer a scaffold erection/dismantle
service, maybe you shouldn't have a mammoth as your mascot and call your
company Mammoth Erection:
www.MammothErection.com- Things to do and see along New York State's Canals and
vacation regions:
www.NYCAnal.com - New Zealand's "As Seen On TV" is called "But That's Not
All". But do they sell Butt Hats or not?
www.ButtHatsNotAll.co.nz - The kids might look nice in their Childrens' Wear, but
remember:
www.ChildrenSwear.co.uk
- IHA Vegas' holiday rentals might have a special smell,
since:
www.IHaveGas.com - Could a Apple Macintosh make me more masculine? Read more in
macHome magazine:
www.MachoMe.com
- Odds Extractor - Online gambling resource or farmers
looking for new and unusual machinery?
www.OddSexTractor.com - If you're known as Big Al, why not call your online fish supplies store
for Big Al's Online?
www.BiGalsOnline.com
- SCA Tissue - Away-From-Home tissue products has a
terrible issue with their name:
www.ScatIssue.com
- Even if you're company is called Cumbria Storage Systems
don't even think about calling your website:
www.CumStore.co.uk
- Alter Scrap Processing part of The Alter Companies use
the domain:
www.AltersCrap.com - Anyone knows if Australian ISP WebOne does some
moonlighting?
www.WeBone.com
- Don't start a business in Cook Islands… Given that their
TLD is .ck and they use .co for commercial domains, you end up with:
www.budget.Co.ck
De nouvelles prisons?
Roberval -- Le ministre de la Sécurité publique du Québec, Jacques Dupuis, confie à la Société immobilière du Québec le mandat de réaliser des études préliminaires relatives à cinq projets d'infrastructures carcérales dans différentes régions du Québec dans le but ultime d'élaborer un programme de construction. Suite
URL: http://www.ledevoir.com/2006/09/29/119356.html
http://www.mtl2600.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10010#10010
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DATA= TRYING to chase away customers...
DATA= One hour... thats it ... if it isnt fixed in ONE FLIPPING hour all four of our accouts are
DATA= cancelled I have had it.
Account name: hemlach