Just so you know, copyright is not a “right”, but a legal fiction that exists because government says so. Copyright is a government backed monopoly that not only facilitates the control of culture, it allows censorship.
I take photographs of lots of things, but I started going out of my way to photograph politician since attending a Wikimedia Foundation meeting in Toronto. This became more…
Just so you know, copyright is not a “right”, but a legal fiction that exists because government says so. Copyright is a government backed monopoly that not only facilitates the control of culture, it allows censorship.
I take photographs of lots of things, but I started going out of my way to photograph politician since attending a Wikimedia Foundation meeting in Toronto. This became more mission than hobby when I had trouble getting permission to use the Creative Commons licensed photograph I had chosen to illustrate a blog. The creator didn’t understand the license she had chosen would allow someone to use of the image in a way she did not approve. Although I could have gone ahead and used the image anyway I respect the wishes of other creators, even if I disagree with them. My own thinking is if the government gives out such monopolies, and worse, allows the force if the law to fall on private citizens (which it never had before) at minimum the government owes it to the public to explain this law to citizens clearly and concisely. Most people don’t understand copyright issues because no one has. Every citizen who uses any sort of digital devices needs a crash course on these laws, because they law can be used against us. As a blogger I understand the value in using illustrations in my blogs, but as a free culture advocate, I am very much aware of the ease with which copyright law can be used to silence free speech. Especially political speech (which is, of course, why government is happy to grant this monopoly.
And so I photopgraph politicians and publish them on Flickr and Wikipedia to make them available as widely as possible.
As a creator, I especially hate what the ever increasingly onerous copyright regime is doing to culture. Although I’ve been busy working for electoral reform, whenever I can, I use social media to amplify copyright issues. This is one of those times. Apparently the EU is contemplating yet more copyright law to further constrain culture. This little video will give you an idea of just what this means:
This is a heads up to those of you in the EU, it’s time to step up and call your MEP to Save The Meme
Since this might in fact trigger censorship, here’s a plain text breakdown of the video
A new copyright reform is going on in the EU
It proposes to create an all mighty censorship machine
and forces Internet companies to be the Internet Police
Act now to defend your freedom of expression
freedom to educate
freedom to meme
freedom to parody
freedom to remix/mashup
freedom to GIF
Freedom to dance to music
Freedom to wiki
Freedom to quote
Freedom to gameplay
Freedom to play
Freedom to video cosplay
All this user content and many more could disappear
if the #CENSORSHIPMACHINE is created.
We can still prevent this from happening.
Tell your MEP to STOP the #CENSORSHIPMACHINE at https://savethememe.net
We deserve a copyright that respects our RIGHTS and FREEDOMS and doesn’t cripple the Internet
This mashup could also be censored by copyright
so please MULTIPLY & SPREAD
PS: My one quibble in the video: “We deserve a copyright that respects our RIGHTS and FREEDOMS and doesn’t cripple the Internet.” As my old friend Crosbie would tell you, there is no such thing. You can have copyright or you can have rights and freedoms, but the former is the antithesis of the latter.
With the stroke of a pen, Elise MacIntyre is hoping to make a big change.
She and a group of other concerned citizens gathered Sunday afternoon at the Halifax Central Library to write letters expressing their outrage with a recent decision made by a provincial court judge.
“I think the biggest purpose is so they make sure they understand the public is paying attention,” said MacIntyre.
“If he’s going to set a precedent, I think we need to set our own, that we’re not going to stand for this sort of thing.”
On Wednesday, Justice Gregory Lenehan acquitted Bassam Al-Rawi,40, of sexual assault. In May 2015, a Halifax Regional Police officer found Al-Rawi and an unconscious, partly naked 26-year-old woman in his idling cab near the intersection of Atlantic and Brussels Streets.
During a two day trial in February, the court heard that Al-Rawi was found with the woman’s urine-soaked pants in his hand, her DNA on his lip and his pants undone. However, it wasn’t enough for a conviction, with Lenehan ruling that the crown had failed to produce any evidence of a lack of consent.
“It seems like short of being caught on tape while you’re screaming ‘no, please don’t’, it seems like no amount of evidence is ever going to be good enough,” said MacIntrye.
“The women of this city immediately have one more reason to be afraid. They have one more reason to fear taking a cab, taking a bus, walking home alone each night because if there’s not enough evidence in this case to have a conviction, what kind of case and what kind of evidence would you need to have?,” added Sarah Bezanson, who took part in the letter writing campaign.
The group is now asking that Lenehan’s ethics and his court decisions be reviewed. They would also like to see him removed from the bench.
you wanna see some badass shit from the early 20th century?? The Lumière brothers created the first full color photograph… in fucking 1903! So these dudes dyed potatoes (in red, blue, and green), mashed them down into just pure fuckin’ starch, and used these dyed potato starches as filters to block out/let in certain wavelengths of light. They coated one side of a glass plate with the starches and sensitized the other side with a mixture of gelatin and light sensitive materials (silver nitrate) and loaded these plates in their cameras.. This is a really simple explanation of the process and I may have missed some things
Just so you know, copyright is not a “right”, but a legal fiction that exists because government says so. Copyright is a government backed monopoly that not only facilitates the control of culture, it allows censorship.
Just so you know, copyright is not a “right”, but a legal fiction that exists because government says so. Copyright is a government backed monopoly that not only facilitates the control of culture, it allows censorship.
