Earth: Mostly Harmless

Zimbabwe descends into darker times

Zimbabwe is getting worse. Much worse.

Exhibit #1:

If you had any reason to doubt that Robert Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, is a malign thug, here’s more proof: a before-and-after pair of satellite photos showing the destruction of a two-million-person shantytown on the outskirts of Harare.

Link

(Thanks, Toni!)

(Via Boing Boing.)

Exhibit #2:

Mugabe Begins the Genocide

VIDEO OF FARM SEIZURES IN 2000 HERE.

Interesting how the fears of these people played out.

With a program called “Drive out the Trash” you get a sense of how President Mugabe feels about certain Zimbabweans. And, when the government destroys their homes, destroys their means of earning a living, and destroys their food, in a country already threatened with famine,… only time separates these people from certain death.

The genocide has begun in Zimbabwe.

The United Nations estimates up to 1.5 million people are homeless.

Three children left with only a drum after soldiers destroyed their family’s home in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has displaced nearly one tenth of the population of Zimbabwe.

A police spokesman says that the government is already seeing results since their planned destruction of homes in Zimbabwe:

More than 42,000 people had been arrested or had their goods seized as Zimbabwe pressed ahead with a crackdown on shanty-towns that has sparked worldwide condemnation.

(Via Gateway Pundit.)

BSA disgusted with critiques of their inflammatory piracy loss methodology

The Economist ensures that rationality rules, once again.

BSA disgusted with critiques of their inflammatory piracy loss methodology:

The BSA’s claim were considerable, and they were taken to task for disingenuous tactics. Now they respond with an air of indignation. Oh, Scarlet!

(Via Ars Technica.)

Original Economist article here (day pass or subscription required).

Lawmaker Revs Up Fair-Use Crusade

Nice work, Rick.

Lawmaker Revs Up Fair-Use Crusade:

peipas writes “Wired News has posted an interview with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA). In it he defends his stance in support of fair use and against the DMCA and other measures sought by the entertainment industry. The interview also touches on universal broadband and the recent overturning of the broadcast flag.”

(Via Slashdot.)

And here’s the Bill itself.

What UK’s copyright industries are up to

The latest developments in the ongoing and ill-informed IP debate from my well-informed fellow copyfighter Cory Doctorow. The very phrase ‘intellectual property‘ gives me the shivers, but that’s a story for another day. I’ll let Adam Singer’s rhetoric speak for itself.

What UK’s copyright industries are up to:
Cory Doctorow: The BBC’s Matt Locke has written a great report on yesterday’s meeting on copyright in the UK that was held by a minister who is reported to have called for extending copyright on performances to the performer’s life plus one hundred years.

Adam Singer gave a response from the stage that was full of fantastic rhetoric, describing the emerging market for 3D printers as a harbinger of a world in which all creative IP is under threat from piracy: “It doesn’t matter if the button says ‘print’ [in reference to 3D printers] or ‘burn’ - all design will become simply a file to be shared”. He saw strong IP as the “intellectual hygiene of a networked world”, suggesting that IP law should be taught as the “new domestic science” in schools, as it was the most important future skill for creative entrepreneurs. His rhetoric, although very entertaining, was from the dystopian end of the telescope - “each time bandwith increases, another industry will fall [because of IP theft]“. You could try to unpick all the false assumptions in that last sentence, but frankly, its not worth it. Just sit back and bask in the warm glow of his fire and brimstone. In fairness, Adam Singer is far more measured and informed than the above quotes suggest (despite describing Lawrence Lessig as the “Martin Luther of copyright” that the music industry had failed to burn…), but he’s a great public speaker, and it’s his job to provoke.

I asked a question to the panel about the kind of industry trends that the DCMS were looking into when developing new IP models for the creative industries. Writers like Henry Chesbrough and Eric Von Hippel have documented trends in ‘old’ industries like Pharma and Engineering towards ‘open innovation’ models. Emerging best practise is to maximise your return from IP through a range of licensing models outside your own company, moving from old models of patent enforcement to open licensing models with peer companies and even Von Hippel’s ‘Free Revealing’, where IP is given up in order to drive other competitive advantages.

Link

(Via Boing Boing.)

On a related note, it looks like the late Sonny Bono is posthumously taking his views global via proposed European legislation. It is indeed a sad day.

EU music labels seek copyright expansion

May I be the first to say: “Oh arse”.

EU music labels seek copyright expansion:

Seeking to achieve parity with US copyright law, EU Big Music demands greater protection for European artists. Term of Copyright arms race to follow.

(Via Ars Technica.)