You are a pirate!

Yar har, fiddle di dee,
Being a pirate is alright with me!
Do what you want '‘cause a pirate is free,
You are a pirate!
Arr yarr, ahoy and avast,
dinky-dink-dink-a-dinkadefast!
Hang the black flag
At the end of the mast!
You are a pirate!

RA DIOHEA_D / HOU SE OF_C ARDS

Check out Radiohead's House of Cards video ... fully interactive, on Google.

Border guards to become media enforcers

There's something sinister afoot in Canada. The federal government is working secretly to sign on with the Europeans to protect the interests of the RIAA and MPAA. If an agreement is reached, copyright protection enforcement would fall to border protection authorities -- you know -- the same people who screen you at airports and stop the shipments of gay & lesbian literature at the border. Border guards would have the authority to inspect laptops, mp3 players, cellphones and other digital devices, to look for copyrighted material. Even if you bought the material legally, or own original discs, the border guards could take your device away and destroy it. Instead of ensuring our nation is protected, the government is working to ensure that the outdated business model of RIAA and MPAA members are protected -- at the detriment to you.

Whoever came up with this dumbass idea must have spent one hour too many listening to really loud Metallica music.

South Park for Free

South Park fans, rejoice. MTV Networks now has every South Park episode available online, uncensored, and for free. This is how media should be available to the masses. And you know what? People will still fork out money for the DVDs.

Free Speech's Dead End

Censorship of the internet is a growing problem worldwide, and is growing in favour in developed nations, where those charged with fighting terrorism, repeatedly bleat for the suppression of the internet -- for the filtering and monitoring of sites their citizens visit. For now, internet censorship may be far from our minds, but when does it move from the fighting terrorism to the prohibiting of free speech? Censorship around the world is orchestrated by a few -- those in power, usually authoritarian regimes -- who decide that citizens would be harmed if they were exposed to information about religion, sexuality, culture and worse, politics. The concern for these regimes is only for the preservation of their status quo. A servile populace can only remain obedient if they are ignorant and live in fear.

The promise of the internet as a vehicle of social change is a frightening prospect for repressive regimes -- and those within our country, who fear change. The world shrinks with communication. It did so with the advent of radio and television, and it continues to do so with the internet. Today with the click of a button, virtually anywhere in the world can be visited. The power of linking ordinary citizens without the mediation or scrutiny of their government, is powerful. We move from a world with borders to one where activists can find supporters in the most unlikely of places. In a world teetering on the brink, risks can be removed by citizens who don't have a self-interest in power, but in collaboration for the greater good. The more we learn of each other, the more we come to the realization that we're not so different. The more we realize that those who preach hatred; who deal in the currency of fear; are void of any moral footing, and the louder the voices of reason will be.

How petrified are the repressive regimes? In the liberated Afghanistan, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, a 23-year-old journalism student, was arrested, tried and sentenced to death by his country's religious judges for downloading a report from a Farsi website -- a report which challenged the oppression of women by islamic fundamentalists as a distorted interpretation of the koran. Kambaksh distributed the report to fellow students and professors in an effort to provoke a debate. Instead, a complaint was filed, he was arrested, tried in secrecy, without a defence, and condemned to death. Without the internet, Kambaksh would not be in this predicament, or have the moral outrage to want to make change. Without the internet, Kambaksh may not have a chance of an acquittal.

You can do something about this by adding your voice in remonstrance. Canada has huge commitments for infrastructure rebuilding in Afghanistan. We have influence. Contact Maxime Bernier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and tell him to stop this.

• Foreign Affairs office number: 613-995-1874
• Bernier at the House of Commons: 613-992-8053 (Fax: 613-995-0687)
• Bernier's email address: BerniM@parl.gc.ca

You can also contact the Afghanistan embassy in Canada at:

240 Argyle Ave.
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1B9
Phone: (613) 563-4223 / 65 Fax: (613) 563-4962
email: contact@afghanemb-canada.net.

A message can also be sent to the Afghan government via this online petition. Where the internet isn't censored and monitored yet, we can still use it to make a difference. Make a difference so that in the future, you won't find yourself in Kambaksh's shoes.

Isuma TV

I've come across the garden variety video sites in my travels on the internet, and they are the usual fare. Only a few cater exclusively to original content from filmmakers that I would want to see. Today I came across a site that hosts films I definitely want to see. Isuma.tv is a Nunavut based video site for and by indigenous peoples from around the world, founded by the producers of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen. It's a site with a noble goal -- to try and get indigenous stories, told by indigenous peoples, to a wider audience -- even if you don't understand the language of the films. The site also restores old videos and digitize them for the internet age, ensuring their preservation for future generations.

The site's content comes from filmmakers who wish to share their creation, free, to the world. In return for allowing Isuma.tv to hosts their films, the site links to sites where the films can be purchased. The site asks viewers of the films to donate to the site to ensure it can be maintained. If viewers find the content of value, the site believes their audience will pay. I hope for their sake that their business plan is sustainable, cause what Isuma.tv does is very special.

GlobalAware

I've been aware of GlobalAware for sometime now and was reminded today that I wanted to give them a spot on the blog. GlobalAware is a Canadian collective pursuing the noble goal of environmental justice and social change. They provide media services to charities, non-profits and ethical businesses, as well as champion campaigns for change. Check them out. They do some great work, and you may have some skills they could use. Together, we can all make a difference.

Shiver me timbers!

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Or when it falls apart really bad, and publicly for a scorned organization? In their battle against media pirates, movie studios and record companies have placed great store in MediaDefender -- a company that has been employing some nasty tactics to fight bittorrent traffic on the internet. MediaDefender however, just got a nasty surprise. It was outted on the internet by the very same protocol it sold itself as trouncing. It appears that a whole lot of internal MediaDefender emails have been made available via bittorrent. The leaked emails apparently came from an employee that forwarded most of his emails to his gmail account, which got hacked by a group called MediaDefender-Defender. The emails reveal some disturbing practices by MediaDefender -- including entrapment activities that posted torrent files to lure surfers. Bittorrent users are now having a good laugh.

LibriVox

LibriVox is a cool site for both the literati and the podcasters. The site's mission is the "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." For the podcast generation, this is one great community powered project aimed at introducing books in the public domain to those who would not otherwise indulge and engage their minds. In addition to providing free audio books, the project also looks for volunteers who would like to lend their voices to the cause. If you fancy yourself an orator, love books and have some free time to spare, check out the site and volunteer.

'Attempted' Copyright Infringement

The latest on intellectual property protection south of the border, comes courtesy of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Administration. They are seeking to ensure that their friends of the old guard can continue to milk profits from content, regardless of fair use rights. Copyright infringement is already against the law, but Gonzales is now proposing that attempting to commit piracy should also be a crime, punishable by America law.

Considering that close to 80% of internet traffic is from file sharing activities -- and just making a wild guess to say that at least half of those people are partaking in copyright infringement, exposes a whole lot of people to potential jail time. Is it just me, or is there a huge disconnect with reality on the part of the Bush Administration and their business supporters? Believe it or not, a whole lot of people aren't looking for jail time, but neither are looking for draconian measures on how they can consume content they've purchased.

Just in case you think that not living in the US offers you any type of protection against, think again. There was a recent case of an Australian being extradited to the US to stand trial for software piracy. With compliant national governments around the world, working to appease America, no one is safe -- except maybe, the Iranians and North Koreans.

Democracy in Trouble

If you've been keeping tabs on democratic process south of the border, you'd rapidly be coming to the conclusion that democracy is in decline. In the country that holds itself up to the world as an example of rule by the people, the United States of America has done an awful job of living up to the basics, let alone the idealism it seeks to inspire. From the debacle of the last election, to the abuses of the Bush Administration and the wars the country has fought -- including the secret ones -- America has really been a terrible disappointment.

Now the hoedown has started again, as candidates from the Republicans and Democrats, test the waters of presidential candidacy -- and what little hope there may have been for change, is slowly morphing into yet another disappointment. The impartial media has been weighing in on candidates, and with their subtle machinations, continuing the sacking of democracy.

Candidates are who the media portray them to be. Case in point, Al Gore. In the last election, the media collectively worked to destroy a candidate who was a much better choice than the Texan idiot the country was saddled with. The media is at it again. Candidates participating in debates are not being given fair and balanced coverage by the media -- and in some cases, are simply being removed entirely from be covered. Try a blog search for Mike Gravel or Ron Paul to see what I mean. As a recent editorial in the Washington Post puts it, candidates don't make good copy; don't make good TV; and perhaps, after debates, they should simply be voted off the debate circuit by TV viewers. That's right -- like a reality TV show, candidates should be voted off the island, after all, "it seems to work well for other TV programs".