Canadian Big Brother #1 What`s on your iPod · Thursday June 12, 2008 by colin newell
Damn. Damn. Triple damn.
I swore I was going to lighten up with my next post… but the Government of Canada will not let me.
Damn.
We posted on this issue at the CoffeeCrew blog about 3 weeks ago about the new Anti-Copyright legislation currently being cooked up by Canada’s right wing Conservative minority government under the delicate tutelage of Stephen Harper (shown at right in his most favored outfit ).
So now it is moving forward – read the CBC article for yourself and the hundreds and hundreds of angry comments that follow.
Here is the skinny.
The federal government (under the wisdom of Minister of Industry – Jim Prentice) has introduced a controversial bill it says balances the rights of copyright holders and consumers — but it opens millions of Canadians to huge lawsuits, prompting critics to warn it will create a “police state.”
To quote Jack Bauer of 24 – Hide your iPod and TIVO… Hide it now!
Bill 61 panders to a dying industry – Big Music and Rich Media like Sony Pictures and Music – and the big question is (amongst dozens of similar questions…):
When you buy a CD or DVD, is it really yours… or have you merely rented or leased it? Rip one copy of a CD to your iPod and that is sort of legal. Make 2 copies and you face fines of upwards of 20,000 dollars.
CBC reader commentary reveals: “Will warrantless searches and seizures be allowed? Of what? My kid’s music player where he carries his personal data to and from school? Media cards? My USB drive that contains my personal information? My computer? My CDR backups of my computer? My cell phone? Every piece of electronics I own?”
Here at the blog, we wrote about this very thing – how Airport security guards will soon be snooping your Ipods and laptops for illegal content.
What is next, checkpoints like they have in Uncle Sam? I hope the f*ck not.
Comment [1]
Welcome aboard. Papers please! San Juan Island edition · Tuesday June 10, 2008 by colin newell
It smells like World War II Nazism but it’s homegrown Fascism – In Amerika’s continuing efforts to eliminate freedom in the homeland, the U.S. border patrol in Anacortes, Washington has begun checking the identification of people coming off domestic ferries from the San Juan Islands!
Can you imagine riding the B.C. Ferry from Swartz Bay in Sidney to Fulford Harbor on Salt Spring Island and being greeted with sweaty, brown shirted, fat white men with German shepherds. The brown shirts snarl orders at the cowering tourists as the dogs bare their teeth and grimace. “Papers please! Have your papers in order!”
Sound far fetched? This reality has come to the scenic San Juan Islands in one of Washington states loveliest regions.
From todays Times-Colonist – The spot checks have some San Juan islanders, U.S. citizens or not, in a flap. “Many Latinos in the community are paranoid about getting on the ferry,” says Kevin Ranker of Friday Harbor. Others fear the spot checks will hurt the islands’ tourism economy, says Ranker, a county council member running for the state senate. Some residents might be happy to see the illegals nabbed, but still resent being ID’d in their own country.
In George Bush’s America this might seem acceptable – but it isn’t and shouldn’t be. Where does it end? How long before there are street-corner check-points in every major city in America? If it is OK in the San Juan Islands, then it has to be OK in Los Angeles and Kansas.
Truth is, the Bush family, now running America are not far removed from their Nazi era relatives. That’s right. Do your homework. George Bush and Co. are directly related to the good people that brought you the Third Reich.
In the early 40’s the American administration did not find Nazism and persecution so offensive that they jumped into the fray early like Canada did. No. They waited for Pearl Harbor to be attacked. Some of us stomach oppression better than others I guess.
Here in the 21st Century, apparently, it does not comes as much of a stretch to whittle away the rights and freedoms of every day Americans.
So. Today in the San Juan Islands in beautiful Washington State… Well, they pick on people of color… Latin Americans… Tomorrow, who knows. Maybe they will be coming for you.
Have your papers ready.
Additional reading
Comment [5]
The downside of Facebook.com chapter two · Monday June 9, 2008 by colin newell
I wrote this over a year ago: Facebook.com is a website solely devoted to data mining – extracting your personal information and selling it to the highest bidder – you are giving up your privacy in exchange for a place to deposit every miserable detail of your McLife.
Some tangible reasons why people are drawn to Facebook.com:
-you really need to catch up with that kid that had a crush on you in Grade Six
-you really need to kill the kid that bullied you in Grade 3
-that 19 year old student teacher had a thing for you in 1974 and now that you are all grown up, it’s time for a follow-up
And for this you are willing to publish your birth date, place of employment, social insurance number, preference in Vodka, etc.
God speed friend, God speed.
And yet today, in June of 2008, we are investigating Facebook.com because of the obvious…
Canada’s privacy commissioner is investigating allegations that the social networking site Facebook.com may be illegally collecting personal information such as telephone numbers, birthdays, and instant messaging addresses without authorization.
Hello. Hello. Read the freaking fine print. Facebook.com has you by the DNA from the word go and all you need do is read the user agreement.
Getting Canada’s privacy commissioner involved with this nonsense is a waste of time. I mean, why not spend those government dollars on some more meaningful study… like why Dog’s bite, why Nun’s always have an evil glint in their eye and why there are signs like “Piercing & Tattoo’s while you wait”?
On a more ironic note – yesterday while waiting for my dear Mom-in-law and wife to finish a round of shopping at the Fairfield Thrifty Foods I watched a guy and a gal who had just met over Thrifty Foods sushi on a sidewalk table… interact, flirt, smile, touch and, get this… exchange Facebook creds. Surprisingly, the pretty Girl (Fiona) from Australia spent more time laughing and touching the guy – a slightly younger dude who heralded from a French farming community in Saskatchewan – he had a French last name starting with B but I was not paying that much attention to him. She was confident, older and Worldly wise. He just looked goofy and spent too much time imagining her naked.
And I did all of this with my ears… without the internet connection…
Try it sometime. Turn it off. Tune it out. And use what God gave you… to participate in the World around you.
Gas Price Rant #14 Trimac trucking delivers more bad gas pains · Monday June 9, 2008 by colin newell
Victoria B.C. area gas prices rise to $144.9 this morning.
I am stunned.
Repeating what a relative told me on the weekend… he is an insider in the Petroleum distribution industry…
“On lower Vancouver Island, Trimac Trucking brings in the Gas and Diesel to all the stations… they are a one source supply for fuel in the Victoria area… It is a monopoly. There is an electronic system called Viper that auto-dials all the local gas stations with a digitally synthesized voice stating what the gas price will be that day…“
Trimac is simply the trucking company that delivers the goods… no more or less.
The product distributor calls the entire shot… hence the instant message and hence the simultaneous price increases.
Yesterday I noticed that the price of a Mexican avocado doubled to $1.89
That is one of the signs that we could be in for very hard times.
Meantime, gas and oil producers, their executives and investors will be living like Kings.
