Earth: Mostly Harmless

Kings of Power 4 Billion%

I can only describe this video as follows: Terry Gilliam directs anime on a SNES, with a soundtrack by Dreamtheater and Children of Bodom, and animation by Shigeru Miyamoto, while the whole crew smoke a whole lotta crack.

In Space.

Unfortunately, I’m now permanently emotionally scarred. No matter.

Make sure you download the 500MB version from one of the mirrors listed on the LiveJournal page. YouTube doesn’t do it justice.

Kings of Power 4 Billion%:

Kings of Power 4 Billion% [12 min AVI] - A new release from pixel artist Paul Robertson, known for such previous works as the video for "Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006" and Architecture in Helinski’s "Do The Whirlwind."

(Via .)

Gehen wir nach Deutschland!

Some sensible rulings from the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Consitutional Court - gotta love those compound words) on data privacy and state surveillance:

Germany’s highest court apparently had memories of Nazi and Stasi abuses in mind when it ruled on a series of surveillance and data privacy cases this year. In the most recent ruling, made today in Karlsruhe, the Constitutional Court found that Germany’s recent data retention directive targeting ISPs and telephone companies was problematic; going forward, the data retention will still be mandatory, but the information can only be accessed with a warrant and only for serious crimes.

Also from the same article:

The ruling follows other, similar rulings this year. Last week, the court also struck down indiscriminate license plate monitoring in the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse, saying that authorities needed to have a reason for running people’s plates. The court hoped to prevent the creation of automated systems that track movement around the country.

Via Ars Technica.

Web Zen: Grecian 2000?

Hair has neither the intellect nor the cognitive capacity to umpire sport - not even one as pedestrian as cricket.

And how did they restore it???

Spotted on BBC News online.

Mobile browsing shenanigans

I just realised the extent to which UK mobile networks bugger about with your internet connection on your phone.

I had noticed aggressive image compression on certain sites - the Youtube logo looks pretty terrible, for example - but I had assumed that it was done at the website and appplied selectively to IP ranges or browser User-Agents that are likely to be mobile phones. While this does sometimes happen, it seems that both O2 and T-Mobile (and probably others) also dynamically recompress images coming across their network.

This is:

a: Annoying, given that I’d rather see the real internet on my phone - after all this is the point of having a fast HSDPA connection and a big screen

b: Intrusive, given that you don’t ask for it, they simply do it.

Of course, dynamic compression is not an unknown phenomenon - Opera’s mobile browsers and the BlackBerry Internet Service have done it for some time, but in those cases you expect it, and to some extent choose it. There’s no reason for it to be the default on the cell network.

Evidence:

A picture of an unreleased phone, downloaded via the plain-ol’ Internet:

O2’s version of it:

T-Mobile’s version of it (even worse):

At least the O2 version is at full size - the T-Mobile one is ridiculous. Of course, if you’re viewing this via either of these networks, all of the pictures probably look equally terrible

I’m going to try to find out if it’s possible to switch this off. It’s obviously aimed at saving them bandwidth, but it serves no purpose for the customer.

Sound recordings copyright term extension Bill update

Since I posted my initial story on Pete Wishart MP’s sound recording copyright term extension Bill, quite a few things happened in my life (like moving house, and being devoid of internet access) which meant that I haven’t had a chance to post an update on the situation until now.

The Copyright in Sound Recordings and Performers’ Rights (Term Extension) Bill was objected to by an as-yet anonymous MP during its second reading on 7th March, which is Good News, and should finish it off.

The Bill’s draft text was published, which revealed that retrospective term extension for existing works - what we all wish to avoid for countless reasons - was included:

Copyright in Sound Recordings and Performers’ Rights (Term Extension) Bill
Part 2, Sections 4-5

4. Copyright in sound recordings: interpretation

(1) In the provisions of this Part relating to copyright—

(a) “existing”, in relation to a sound recording, means made before commencement, and

(b) “existing copyright work” means a sound recording in which copyright subsisted immediately before commencement.

(2) For the purposes of those provisions a sound recording of which the making extended over a period shall be taken to have been made when its making was completed.

5. Duration of copyright in sound recordings: application of new provisions

The new provisions relating to duration of copyright in sound recordings

apply—

(a) to copyright works made after commencement,

(b) to existing sound recordings which first qualify for copyright protection after commencement, and

(c) to existing copyright works, subject to section 4,

and nothing in this Act shall operate to revive copyright in an existing sound recording in which the copyright has at the date of commencement expired under the 1988 provisions or any earlier enactment relating to copyright.

The term chosen was 95 years.

The reading was rescheduled for 14th March (yesterday) due to time constraints, but as yet Hansard has not revealed what happened during that debate. If anyone knows, please email me or leave a comment.

I must thank my MP, Tom Harris, for acknowledging my letter.

There’s an elephant in the room, however. A similar move has been proposed at by the European Commission. Check the petitition page for more information, and do check out the excellent FT article on the subject by Professor James Boyle, co-director of Duke Law school’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.