26 October, 2009 – 9:58 pm
In the UK, it’s been all over the news lately about the Labour Government’s plans to disconnect file sharers from the internet.
After having dinner with David Geffen (of Geffen Records), Business Secretary Peter Mandelson suddenly took a great interest in file sharing legislation and wants to impose a 3-strikes plan to disconnect repeat “offenders”. Bear [...]
21 October, 2009 – 10:11 pm
The world’s gone mad.
The UK’s equivalent of the RIAA, the Performing Rights Society (PRS), threatened a shop worker with prosecution for the heinous crime of singing while she stacked shelves. They claimed this was a public performance and therefore required a licence. Let’s be clear here: she wasn’t singing along to a radio or any [...]
31 August, 2009 – 11:47 pm
Read an excellent article in (UK newspaper) The Guardian today with Andrew Robinson, the leader of the UK’s Pirate Party.
The UK government is pledging to reduce illegal file-sharing by 70% over the next couple of years, and is threatening to cut off people’s internet access in order to achieve this goal. This directly contradicts their [...]
23 August, 2009 – 9:37 pm
I don’t normally get into politics too much on this blog, but this subject has been bugging me for a few days and I wanted to get my thoughts out there. Before I get into it, let me state that this is purely my personal opinion. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary.
The Scottish legal system is [...]
7 August, 2009 – 11:22 pm
It has been announced that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation plans to start charging for their online news.
News Corp. made giant losses in the last year and Mr. Murdoch has decided that charging for access to articles on his newspapers’ web sites is the answer.
Good luck with that!
Setting up a paywall has been tried before, most [...]
The latest bout of copyright madness comes from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. They think that every time your phone rings, this should be classed as a public performance and you should pay a licence fee. It doesn’t matter if you downloaded your ringtone legally (and therefore paid a fee to the [...]
I’m slightly belated with this, but I read an interesting article in The Guardian recently about the music industry’s tireless battle with file sharers. The article ponders whether downloads are really killing the music industry? The music biz asserts that sales have dropped because people download for free instead of buying the CD. And there is no [...]
If you fancy a small chuckle, have a look at Microsoft’s latest piece of web propaganda. They’ve created a little table which compares the latest version of Internet Explorer to Chrome and Firefox. The results are, frankly, laughable.
Let’s go through the points one by one:
Security
According to MS, “Internet Explorer 8 takes the cake with better [...]
I read a very interesting post on TorrentFreak recently, entitled “The War on Sharing: Why the FSF (Free Software Foundation) cares about RIAA Lawsuits“. Written by John Sullivan, Operations Manager at the Free Software Foundation, it’s a long piece but well worth a read if you’re at all interested in free software and copyright restrictions.
Whatever [...]
I recently came across an entertaining article written by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This article was first published almost 10 years in August 1999 – a lifetime in internet years – and yet it is still relevant today.
Mr. Adams talks about the effect of new technologies on the world [...]
Welcome! I'm Mesanna, based in the UK, with a lust for computers, web design and other assorted geekery. I mostly write about Linux and tech news, but now and then I enjoy getting on my soap box for a good, old-fashioned rant. I'm rather fond of reading, Mexican food and rock music (sometimes all at the same time). I couldn't live without caffeine and my internet connection.
