Earth: Mostly Harmless

Italians! Register your blog!

In a massive public relations own-goal, Romano Prodi’s centre-left government in Italy has preliminarily approved a compulsory registration system for any web site involving “editorial activity”.

And it definitely, definitely, definitely doesn’t have anything to do with silencing comedian, blogger and general thorn in the Italian establishment’s side, Beppe Grillo (Wikipedia article).

Definitely not.

Since the story broke, the article in question has been watered down to presumptively exclude ‘personal’ sites, but the discretion to make that distinction remains with the ministry implementing the law, rather than the courts.

Thanks to Maureen Lister for the Times Online article. I expect that she’ll cover the story at some point on her blog too. Maureen makes an excellent point about Grillo in an unrelated post:

Grillo is successful first of all because he is a brilliant comedian, secondly because he comes up with a lot of information (rather than bla-bla opinions) and thirdly because he uses webtools intelligently, something that hardly anyone in the media has bothered to mention.Of course blogs, used by averagely intelligent people, are a serious threat to traditional media, (and therefore to traditional politics) and have the power to undermine the present RAI-Mediaset duopoly.   

More coverage:Beppe Grillo - original postBeppe Grillo - updateSlashdot coverageTimes online articleTimes online updated articleBoingBoing coverage

Barack Obama to support any potential Filibuster on telecoms immunity?

Far be it from me to get involved in the putrid mire that is U.S. politics, but I thought this was an interesting development.For background, the Bush administration is currently attempting to introduce legislation granting retrospective immunity from prosecution to all telecoms companies involved in the illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens.

Obama will support filibuster of any bill granting telecom immunity:
The so-called “Austin Mayor” says:

Sen. Barack Obama will back a filibuster of any Senate FISA legislation containing telecom immunity, his campaign has just told Election Central. The Obama campaign has just sent over the following statement from spokesman Bill Burton: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”Link 

(Via BoingBoing.)

What’s the frequency, Kwik Fit?

News from Edinburgh: sorry folks, switch off your radios at work. The copyright mafia has made us an offer we can’t refuse…

I don’t actually have the words to describe how stupid this is, but I hope you like this picture:

Yeah.

BBC coverage Gizmodo coverage

And right on cue… …a massive abuse of copyright legislation.

CD-Wow, the popular online music retailer has been ordered to pay £41m compensation to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for… buying CDs in Hong Kong and selling them to UK customers, in violation of its 2004 undertaking not to do so.

Hang on a minute. These are legal, legitimate CDs - I know because I’ve bought a few myself.

CD-Wow does, then, pay whatever royalties are due wherever they source the discs from as part of their purchase price. And the CDs, being legitimate, were released by the very record companies themselves (perhaps not the same subsidiary, but branches legally entitled to release the records nonetheless).

So who exactly is getting scammed by CD-Wow’s practices? No-one. And as for the ruling - sounds like it’s the consumer, as usual.

Why do people buy from CD-Wow? Because it’s cheaper. And they’re buying legally, at a time when the music industry is continuing to moan about ‘piracy’. CD-Wow were certainly in breach of the 2004 agreement, but that agreement was an extremely stupid precedent.

The BPI claims that CD-Wow’s tactics undermine “the legitimate businesses of UK retailers and record companies”. I’d like to say a few things on that.

• Your failed business model is not my problem.
• I, as the consumer, should be the judge of retail value, rather than having it decided for me by a cartel
• CD-Wow were among the cheapest retailers. You couldn’t compete. Why should I care?
• Evidently, the music industry charges different prices around the world for a (bit-for-bit) identical product. Silly, but fair enough if people are willing (and foolish enough) to pay the higher prices. But in no way should rights groups be able to stop people importing cheaper-sourced ones abroad.

If someone could please explain to me how the 2004 ruling and its subsequent enforcement possibly advance the free market and/or benefits the consumer in any way, shape or form, I positively beg them to explain it to me.

Answers on a locally sourced cartel-authorized postcard please.

Alberto Gonzales: Treating the American Constitution like toilet paper since 3rd February 2005

Gonzales’ latest remarks are indicative of the contempt shown by the current American administration for one of the greatest political documents and institutions of the past five hundred years.

I Am Not A Lawyer, nor an American, ergo he may be factually and legally correct. But arguing for this position is beyond the pale.

I rest my case.