April 3, 2004

Ryan Malcolm knows what's up.

In response to Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruling that file sharing was legal in Canada (previously discussed here), Federal Heritage Minister Helene Scherrer has stated that "As minister of Canadian Heritage, I will, as quickly as possible, make changes to our copyright law".

The problem is that Canadian copyright law has been going through a slow and thoughtful reformation process. Since the unveiling of A Framework for Copyright Reform in 2001, a lot of progress has been made in updating the laws to reflect the needs and concerns of content producers, and the public domain. Now, however, it seems that all of this work may be bulldozed by Helene Scherrer, who declared her intentions at the Juno Awards last night.
posted by Jairus at 11:36 PM PST - 11 comments

Orphans used for experimental HIV drug tests.

"Orphans and babies as young as three months old have been used as guinea pigs in potentially dangerous medical experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, an Observer investigation has revealed.

"British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in the scandal. The firm sponsored experiments on the children from Incarnation Children's Centre, a New York care home that specialises in treating HIV sufferers and is run by Catholic charities." [link]
posted by The God Complex at 10:59 PM PST - 13 comments

Sure is hot in here

The Fursuit & Costume Archive has a most impressive collection of videos of people in animal costumes. Are you furry-curious?
posted by sciatica at 10:42 PM PST - 21 comments

Typophile

Typophile : Indulge your inner Font Nerd. (check out the "Found Type Gallery")
posted by ColdChef at 10:24 PM PST - 5 comments

They don't like me, they really don't like me

Its a vast left wing conspiracy! It seems that the RNC (Republican national committee) is seeing conspiracy everywhere. There are lots of stand alone groups that have been trying to get rid of this administration before Kerry showed up on the scene, and now that there is a target they want to hang everything on him. Its almost like flattery. Of course it reminds me of when SCO claimed IBM was orchestrating all the bad press about them.
posted by MrLint at 10:16 PM PST - 8 comments

Modern Mercenaries on the Iraqi Frontier

Modern Mercenaries on the Iraqi Frontier In his own way, Stevie is a modern soldier-of-fortune, paid by a private security firm to lead a 44-man unit that is protecting American officials in charge of rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq. He left his native Glasgow, Scotland, to join the British army at 16, served for 24 years in conflicts around the globe, about half that time as a member of the special forces. In the shadowy tradition of his trade, he asked that only his first name be used and declined to say much about the wars he has fought. "That is one topic I'd rather not talk about," he said in his rich brogue, speaking by phone from the Baghdad villa run by Kroll Inc., the company that employs him. Some bloggers have gotten in trouble of late for using the M-word, but now a wider conversation on Kroll, Blackwater, and friends seems to be emerging. Is the presence of mercenaries --both nationals of coalition countries and foreign nationals-- in Iraq part of Rumsfeld's broader transformation policy? Is their presence in Iraq even legal in the first place?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 10:01 PM PST - 30 comments

Flashmob Supercomputer

Flashmob Computing - attempting to create an instant supercomputer.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:59 PM PST - 9 comments

Criminalized self exploitation...

A 15 year old girl has been charged with several counts related to "child pornography" for sending out pictures of herself to several people she chatted with. As more and more teens use webcams for all sorts of things from keeping in touch with friends, getting strangers to buy them things from their wishlists and making some $$$ this has caused a little discussion. As she did not "force" herself, how does this intersect with recent attempts to criminalize "virtual" child porn as both situations have at their heart whether the primary issue is coercion/harm or the concepts images themselves. At the risk of "Newsfiltering", I am interested in opinions from a less histrionic group (thats you) than some others who are discussing it.
posted by soulhuntre at 2:31 PM PST - 77 comments

The Label Man

The Label Man: vintage crate labels.
posted by hama7 at 1:23 PM PST - 21 comments

Sand Mandala

Photoblog of a Tibetan Sand Mandala. [Via Boing Boing.]
posted by homunculus at 12:07 PM PST - 13 comments

Nippallujah

Start saving for your childrens future therapy. What they learned this month is dead bodies being burnt and strung up on a bridge is ok to print on the front page of a newspaper, and watch on the news at dinner time; but you better not see any nipple, even for a half a second.
posted by CrazyJub at 8:36 AM PST - 67 comments

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