Archive for the ‘News’ Category

From the United States of America, home of the House on Un-American Activities Committee and the Patriot Act, comes another fine piece of legislation: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, otherwise known as ACTA. Although not legislated, ACTA is currently being negotiated upon by a number of counties, such as the U.S.A, Japan, Australia, the European Commission and Switzerland and set to be proposed at the upcoming G8 summit in Japan. This international treaty would provide measures that aim to protect the intellectual property rights and information based goods over the internet and stem the movement of pirated goods.

With measures that Graeme Philipson of The Sydney Morning Herald described as being “draconian” in his June 10 article Digital copyright: it’s all wrong, the treaty includes provisions that allow for border security in countries involved to have “ex officio authority” to “seize and destroy IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) infringing goods”, be it on any electronic device such as walkman, laptop, phone, anything. By ex officio, it means “authority to act without complaint by right holders”, which leads to a situation in which, according to Phillips:

They need no proof, only suspicion…They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing.

My two cents on this contentious issue? The fact remains that it is extremely important for record companies, film studios and other corporations that produce the material which we download or buy illegally to sell and profit. Otherwise what incentive is there for them to keep on producing what we download? If they don’t profit, the industry may as well shut down. But has the entertainment industry shut down as a result of piracy and illegal internet downloads? It would appear not. While it is worth noting that the movie industry and music industry has slumped, Many films are still being able to profit despite the vast availability of it to download from the internet. Record companies and singers still continue to sing because they still sell and are able to recoup the production costs. If anything, the only thing dented by illegal internet downloads is the amount of money executives can put in their wallet. And if we take a close look at the proposed treaty and those behind it, we can easily see that this treaty is less to do with intellectual property than with ensuring company execs receive a fatter paycheck. The man behind ACTA is one Rep. Howard Berman, a man who has received close to $200 000 in campaign contributions from the entertainment industry, the top four of which (and were also his top four campaign contributors) were: Time Warner ($21,000), News Corp ($15,000), Sony Corp of America ($14,000) and Walt Disney Co ($13,550). One has to wonder as to why the treaty was organized.

While internet downloads and piracy remains a concern and problem, it is not serious enough to warrant these drastic measures which impose on our civil rights. If you have an internet connection and a computer, then chances are you would have downloaded a song, a movie, a file that was illegal. In today’s society, it is a common norm. Does that mean we all should have to be punished and have our MP3 players, laptops, phones confiscated and destroyed every time we go through an air port? Even though the songs and files were downloaded months before the treaty will be put in place, if it ever is? Illegal files are not downloaded simply to cause mayhem and to bring down companies. They are downloaded because it is cheap and convenient. It is a way of life that has yet to hurt anyone. No major studio has been brought down for any reason other than poor movie choices. ACTA is nothing but a ham-fisted attempt to dissuade people from downloading songs and movies, and forcing them to fork over money, like highway robbery. If anything the treaty will dissuade people from going to the airport

Janson Says: Do we need to protect intellectual property? Yes. Is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement the way to do it? No.

Sources:

• http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_US_ACTA_multi-lateral_intellectual_property_trade_agreement_%282007%29
• http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/acta-proposal-2007.pdf
• http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/acta/discussion-paper.html
• http://www.smh.com.au/news/perspectives/digital-copyright-its-all-wrong/2008/06/09/1212863545123.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement#Enforcement

In case you haven’t noticed, the layout at jansonsays.com has been completely revamped. And if you havent noticed, you must be new here or blind as a bat. No offense to those who are blind, just saying that if you have been to this site before and dont notice the change, something must be wrong with you, most likely your eyesight.

Well the new theme chosen is called Paperova, created by Reality Software and has a nice light feel to it so its easier on the eyes, less harder to read the white on black as it was on the previous theme. The text is bigger and spread out more and now it is a lovely black on a whitey cream texture with bronze headings and links that bring everything all together. Looks fantastic.

Furthermore, readers such as yourself are now able to the links at the top to visit various pages of my site, though there are only two different ones, it is still quite interesting. One of which goes to the about section which is just a brief overview of what my site is about, and the other takes you to the Hunter section, where you can read the short story I am developing, adding chapter by chapter, which I hope to update relatively soon. I also hope to start another short story, but thats still to come. So not only is this new theme prettier and nicer, it is also more efficient and effective in giving the readers access to the various parts of jansonsays.com.

But where did I get this beautiful new theme? This theme was brought to you by the wonderful people at www.wpthemesfree.com who has thousands if not more themes for bloggers to download and use on their own websites. The themes available are wide and diverse in design, with many similar to my own, others with much more elaborate designs and others which are more simple in appearance. They are all well suited for blogs of all nature, be it for gaming, sports, adult or anything else you want to blog for. And to choose a theme has never been easier, with the themes sorted according to type, and to find the theme perfect for your blog, simply click the category your blog belongs to, and you can also choose the most popular themes which you know will be of excellent design. Furthermore, you can pick your theme according to a specific criteria, such as the number of columns wanted, whether widgets are ready, even by colour and many other options. Or you can simply scroll through the newest ones, of which there will be many and perhaps one would be the perfect one for you. Or just click random.

Janson Says: need a new theme for your blog? go to www.wpthemesfree.com and find the perfect theme for your blog. I know I did.

Early this fine morning, thousands of people across Australia woke up to attend dawn services for Anzac Day in remembrance of the fallen Australian soldiers in Gallipoli and all conflicts including those who died in current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, with respects paid to Trooper David Pearce who died in October last year in Afghanistan.

Tens of thousands of people of Australian, New Zealand and Turkish background packed into Anzac Cove to mark the occasion and remember lives lost. It was there 93 years ago that the first of the ANZAC soldiers, a force comprised of Australian and New Zealand soldiers, landed on that fateful beach where over ten thousand ANZAC soldiers lost their lives.

It was the moment that defined Australia as what it was and gave it the identity of who they were and what they were capable of. It was the event that transformed Australia from a colony into a country. It is those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in defending our new nation all those years ago, whose death helped give our country our place in the world that we take this day and remember. Lest we forget.

#N.B. I give my most sincere apologies for the disrupted service. Wesimation (along with jansonsays.com) has recently shifted to a new shared server that will provide a faster load time than our previous server. Furthermore, it is a more environmentally friendly server, meaning that not only will we be faster, but also greener.