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Canadian Tories argued for stronger copyright laws, but appropriate copyright when it suits them

The Canadian Conservative party is in trouble for appropriating copyrighted news-video for a web app that lets supporters make their own campaign ads. It's significant because this is the party that tried -- through the now-dead Canadian DMCA -- to bring in copyright laws that would raise the penalties for this sort of appropriation. But you know what? As much as I dislike the Tories and as much as I appreciate the irony (as a friend used to say to the anti-lyrics-censorship, pro-copyright-censorship people in the record industry, "I know you love free speech, I just wish you'd share it with the rest of us!"), I think that they should be allowed to do this without copyright hassles. Look: they're engaged in political speech, using news-footage to criticize politicians. Whether it's "out of context" or not (surely a subjective matter), this should be a slam-dunk. No copyright system should restrict quotation on news in the pursuit of political speech -- the purposes of copyrights -- encouraging creativity, encouraging investment -- are not undermined by political commercials. This is why we fought against the Canadian DMCA after all: because we wanted Canadians to have the right to express themselves with a minimum of locks and fears. If you only support free expression for people who agree with you, you don't support it at all. Some of the clips might look familiar. They have been taken from an Agenda interview with Stephane Dion, snapped off the context and put them to work. And that is where an ad like this can cause trouble. Now the Conservatives are going to have to deal with the embarrassment of being told to take the clips down (sort of like when Heart told Sarah Palin to stop playing Barracuda at her rallies). That Conservative site steps in it again, this time dragging the Agenda along (Thanks, Mike!)...
Published: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:33:03 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article

Autos

Go to Space With Your Frequent Flier Miles

If you're a Virgin America frequent flier, your points could be worth more than you think. In an example of cross-marketing that would make a Harvard MBA proud, the airline is allowing passengers to cash in their miles for the chance to win a seat on a Virgin Galactic space flight. Virgin says it'll work like this: Earn 10,000 points in Elevate, the airline's frequent flier program (it might take awhile, as the airline flies to just seven cities) by next July and you can sign up for what Virgin America calls "The Race To Space." If you opt in, you'll participate in a "series of competitions" -- the airline isn't saying anything about them yet -- that allow you to earn more points. Finish the challenges with the most points and you're going sub-orbital when the WhiteKnightTwo unveiled this week takes SpaceShipTwo into space in 2010. It's a cool twist on frequent flier miles in an industry that is choking on them. There are 17 trillion frequent flier miles out there, making them one of the most circulated currencies in the world. Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research, told Wired.com that as more and more them pile up in people's accounts, they become worth less and less (think Germany after World War I, when the government printed so much money people started wallpapering their homes with it). These miles are a huge liability on airlines' balance sheets, so they'll do anything and everything to help customers get rid of them. They're partnering with anyone who will have them, striking deals that allow passengers to drain their accounts by buying just about anything besides an airline ticket. "Airlines need to sell seats, not give them away, which is why there are all these partnerships out there," Harteveldt says. You can use your points for virtually anything. Get a hotel room, rent a car, take a cruise. Use them for vineyard tours, seats at ballgames, backstage passes for concerts (Celine Dion, anyone?). You can donate them to charity, pay for a class, or exchange them for a bundt cake from the Dessert of the Month Club. And now, vie for a trip to space. Image: Virgin Galactic
Published: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:23:23 GMT - Source: Blog.Wired.Com - Read the article

Software

Mozilla Taps Web Guru Duo for Developer Tools Lab

Mozilla taps Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith to act as co-directors of its new Developer Tools Lab. Galbraith and Almaer will work on delivering application development tools to help developers build applications for the open Web. The Mozilla Developer Tools Lab, from the maker of popular browser Firefox, aims to partner with Web-savvy organizations such as Adobe and Google, which Almaer left to start the new open-source effort. - Web development gurus Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith are leaving their previous positions, at Google and as a consultant respectively, to join forces and head up a new group at Mozilla called the Developer Tools Lab. quot;We're now the co-directors of the developer tools group at Mozilla and w...
Published: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:25:31 GMT - Source: Eweek.Com - Read the article

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Céline Dion	Dion DiMucci