By Cory Doctorow at 11:51 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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A special Australian committee on copyright and DRM has published its findings, and has recommended a drastic scaling-back of the protections given to DRM in most countries.
Australia was arm-twisted into accepting legal protection for DRM in its free trade agreement with the USA. The US version of this legal protection has been abused to stop people from making compatible software, backups, from time- and format-shifting, and allowing the enforcement of terms that are based on the idea of screwing you, not protecting copyright law as written.
The Aussies had a special, distinguished panel review the way that Australia should meet its obligations, and they've come back with a 186-page report full of recommendations for exceptions to the protections DRMs get. This is tantamount to a denunciation of the status quo in Europe, the USA and other places with DRM protection in place, a brave and thoroughgoing statement of the risks to the public interest that arise when you say to someone that it's illegal to break a lock, even if you've got a right to whatever it's protecting.
Among the recommendations are the right for Parliament to break DRM to get access to work, the right to break DRM for tinkerers, reverse engineers, backers-up, and getting rid of rootkits and other DRMs that are installed without your knowledge and permission.
It's a long doc, and I haven't time to get through it all, but I like what I see. Here's some analysis from Michael Geist:
There is lots more including exceptions for fair dealing, education, and libraries. Moreover, the committee made it clear that changes in the law that facilitate greater access (such as format shifting or backup rights) should be matched by a TPM exception. As Kim concludes:
"Two arms of government have now spoken: the High Court of Australia, and a committee of the Parliament. Both have affirmed that copyright law must be balanced; that anti-circumvention laws should be matched to copyright rights, rather than overly extending them . How will the executive react?"
Link,
Link to Michael Geist's analysis of the report
(
Thanks, Michael!)
By Cory Doctorow at 11:21 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Someone's build an amazing, detailed model of Main Street, USA from a Disney park out of legos!
Link
(
Thanks, Robynne!)
Update: James sez, "The Disney mainstreet was part of an exhibit at the Supertrain 2006 show a couple of weekends ago in Calgary; you can see a LEGO version of the Calgary tower in the background of some shots. The display was put together by the Southern Alberta Lego Users Group, it was an amazing hit with kids and adults alike -- my 3 1/2 year-old was mesmerized."
By Cory Doctorow at 11:14 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Philadelphia Weekly covers the FreeCulture anti-DRM demonstrations last weekend:
Saturday's protest focused on educating consumers about digital rights management (DRM), which is one way companies protect digital media. It's come into widespread use only in the past few years.
With DRM-which is included on some new CDs and on mp3s purchased from online music stores-a consumer might not be able to play a CD on a computer, copy a CD, rip tracks to mp3 or play an mp3 on a computer not authorized by the company that originally sold the song, for example. (The most popular online music store, Apple's iTunes, allows a user to authorize up to five computers to play music purchased online.)
Link
(
Thanks, Bill!)
By Cory Doctorow at 11:07 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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The Hugo nominations process closes on March 10. If you attended the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow in 2005 or if you're registered to attend the WorldCon this year in Los Angeles, you're eligible to nominate (as a reminder, a great place to find out more about writers eligible for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer is
Writertopia's eligibility list).
In case you were wondering -- here's a list of my eligible 2005 publications:
Best Novel: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, Tor, July 2005
Best Novelette: I, Robot, The Infinite Matrix, February 2005
Best Novella: Human Readable, Future Washington, October 2005, WSFA Press
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): After the Siege (podcast), Craphound.com, September 2005
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (podcast), Craphound.com, October 2005
Link
(
via SF Revu)
By Cory Doctorow at 11:07 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Here's the final crop of transit maps -- thanks for the amazing, spontaneous outpouring of creativity that's created all of these, and for all the great notes of encouragement. I think these are just wonderful.
Brisbane:
Syracuse:
Chicago El:
(Note: some maps not included due to non-working links or illegibility)
(Thanks, Nicole, Jon, Jesse and Jon and Mike!)
See also: London Anagram Tube Map, Toronto Anagram Subway Map, Amsterdam Anagram Metro Map, Chicago Regional Transit Authority Anagram Map, Maps for Manhattan, Oslo, Boston and Atlanta, Vienna U-Bahn Anagram Map, DC Metro Anagram Map, Stockholm Transit Anagram Map, LA Red Line Anagram Map, Maps for Cleveland, St Louis (x2), BART, and Singapore, Maps for Berlin, Copenhagen, Baltimore (x2), Maps for Calgary, Vancouver (x2), Philadelphia, Buffalo, Rochester, Hong Kong (x2), Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Maps for Miami (x2), Dublin, Ontario, Dallas, Glasgow, Portland, Ottawa, Houston, Maps for Montreal (x2), Helsinki, Monterrey, San Diego, Mexico City, Maps for NY/NJ PATH, Sydney
By Xeni Jardin at 10:54 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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BoingBoing is blocked in the UAE, Qatar, and elsewhere. The presumed cause: in an update to its SmartFilter and Bess censorware products last week, Secure Computing blacklisted BoingBoing.net in a category populated by porn sites.
But today, we learn that another happy-fun-democracy joined the league of BoingBoing-deprived nations: so long, Saudi Arabia! We're blocked in your fair land, too. Above, a screenshot of what you'd see if you try to access our url by way of a Saudi ISP. Link to more info (Thanks FL).
- Internet filtering isn't just for mideast regimes. Since February 28, we've received many emails from readers in the United States who work at companies including Dell, Prudential, American Express, Fidelity Investments, and Halliburton, as well as libraries, academic institutions, and US government sites -- each reporting that Secure Computing's new "nudity" categorization has rendered this blog inaccessible.
- Stuck behind an internet filter? We've been updating our "HOWTO defeat censorware" resource page daily with tips. We welcome help with mirroring the information so folks who can't access the page because of 'net filters can still get to the info. It's not a wiki (yet), but "defeat censorware" is a living document, so expect many updates over time.
- While we don't know which internet filtering product/s is/are to blame in other cases, we're hearing that several other blogs with large audiences, including Wonkette, have just become inaccessible for many fans (including active duty US Marines overseas, hooray freedom!). Censorware is a blunt tool that renders harmless information inaccessible, and fails to prevent "bad stuff" from leaking in. The economic and social impact of internet filtering is a much bigger story than the fact that BoingBoing or Wonkette are blocked -- but if products like SmartFilter dump blogs that post Michelangelo's "David" in the same sandbox as porn sites, just how smart can these products really be? (Thanks, Dan Dadmun)
- Filter this! Censorware scofflaws who've posted an image of David on their blogs -- an offense Secure Computing tells us merits blacklisting as a "nudity" site -- include Wil Wheaton, Mark Pesce, Emmanuelle Richard, AtomicElroy, and Jason Turgeon. If you join that reader-suggested campaign, do tell us. We'll update this post with a list.
Previously:
- BoingBoing banned in UAE, Qatar, elsewhere. Our response to net-censors: Get bent!
- ISPs in Iran, Tunisia also use SmartFilter (which blocks BoingBoing as "nudity"
- Stick Michelangelo's "David" on your blog to protest censorware
- BoingBoing now censored in the UAE (and elsewhere)
- Argonne National Laboratory is blocking Boing Boing
By Cory Doctorow at 10:11 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Steve sez, "The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, of which Octavia Butler was an Advisory Board member, is holding a public memorial at the Museum tomorrow at 7:30 PM, including readings of favorite passages from her writings by fellow local science fiction authors."
We are deeply saddened to announce that science fiction writer Octavia Estelle Butler passed away in Seattle, Washington on Friday, February 24, 2006. Octavia served as an Advisory Board member of The Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame and was a treasured advisor and supporter of our mission. Her advice, knowledge, and candid humor will be greatly missed.
The museum will host a memorial gathering to honor and celebrate her life and work on Thursday, March 2nd at 7:30 p.m. on Level 3 of SFM. Local science fiction authors will read favorite passages from her work and speak about her life and influence. Speakers include Greg Bear, Joel Davis, L. Timmel DuChamp, Eileen Gunn, Rahwa Habte, Brian Herbert, Leslie Howle,Vonda N. McIntyre, Nisi Shawl, and others. All are invited to attend.
Link
(
Thanks, Steve!)
By Xeni Jardin at 9:52 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Snip from LA Times article:
Amanda Palmer hardly fits the profile of an Internet outlaw, but her obsession with the ABC show "Lost" makes this self-described "bubbly, nutty mum" the television industry's worst nightmare.
Like thousands of other British fans, the 30-year-old personal assistant can't bear to wait the nine months it can take for new "Lost" shows to air in England. So, soon after the closing credits roll in America, she downloads each episode off file-sharing networks.
And most alarming to TV industry executives, Palmer admits not a twinge of guilt. "It's TV, isn't it?" she said. "It would probably be different if it was a movie. If it is free on everybody's TV, why worry about it?"
Link to "TV May Be Free but Not That Free."
Reader comment: James Roe of videosift.com says,
In that piece you linked from the LATimes about TV piracy there was a brief blurb about the autistic basket ball player. That has been one of our most popular clips over at videosift.com (social video site.) Prior to that article I had not realized that YouTube had been issued a take down notice.
On realizing that I checked, and sure enough the video was defunct. So a quick search later and I found an almost identical clip from CNN using what must have been home footage that was also included in the CBS clip. This brings three questions to mind.
1. Why would CBS choose to give up free advertising and instead pass the buck to CNN?
2. If they filed a take down notice for a clip that includes home video do they actually own the rights to the home video now? If CNN is using the clip then my guess would be no, which makes their whole request for a take down more suspicious. I suppose they were just issuing a take down for their announcer's speech, which as a whole was much less interesting than the students phenomenal 6 3 pointers in the last 4 minutes of the game.
3. The CBS clip is still available over at Google video, Link , however they have disabled the ability to post it to another site. This locks end users into the crufty Google video interface.
I guess this is not so much of a question as it is pointing out that this seems more like a shameless attack on YouTube than an actual concern from CBS. CBS does sell video clips through Google, although i doubt the market for a 2 minute news blurb is high anywhere other than sports conventions, but this one is available gratis.
By Xeni Jardin at 9:30 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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At left and center, in Paris, models sport designs from John Paul Gaultier's Fall 2006 prêt-à-porter line (Link to slideshow at Style.com).
At right, in Porn Valley, adult film performer Sabrina Jayde prepares for a bukkake shoot (Link to "Anatomy of a Bukkake," explanatory text with thumbnails at spectator.net)
Oh, and dogs wear 'em too. Link to related NYT story. (Thanks, Reverse Cowgirl)
By Xeni Jardin at 9:18 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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The "viewer-generated programming" network just upped the participatory ante this week: Current TV just launched another TV biz first, with new "viewer-created ads."
Link, and
here's a related news item. (
Thanks, Colin Decker!)
By Xeni Jardin at 9:09 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Breaking news! Serene landscapes discovered on more female figures. Yesterday's installment: reverse. Today's: obverse.
Link. Don't miss the
beaver. (
NSFW, contains unclothed carbon-based life-forms; thanks Julian Fondren)
Previously:
Classic landscapes on female gluteus maximi
By Xeni Jardin at 8:57 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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My NPR News colleague Farai Chideya -- who did some incredible reporting from New Orleans right after Katrina -- says,
At NPR's News and Notes with Ed Gordon , we're airing stories we taped last week in New Orleans. The ones which ran today are evocative of both the challenges facing surviors, and the solutions possible in the region. Both are updates on stories we did when Katrina first hit. Here's a link to a story about my recent visit with a survivor who, when we spoke to her during Katrina, was trapped with two seriously ill relatives. And this link will take you to a story by producer Christopher Johnson with a pioneering doctor running a free clinic for survivors near Baton Rouge (image above). Next Tuesday we'll take a broad look at the future of rebuilding New Orleans. And next Wednesday we'll catch up with "neo-griot" Kalamu Ya Salaam, who is recording oral histories of both displaced and current New Orleans residents.
Farai explains more about Kalamu Ya Salaam's project:
He's preserving the neighborhood culture of New Orleans--one which may never exist again--in an ongoing video oral history project. His touring around the country funds the project. Next stops: New York and Dallas. His website, kalamu.com, links to his various projects, including "Listen to the People" (the video-histories) and the wonderful music site Breath of Life.
By Xeni Jardin at 8:49 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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A recent Pentagon directive approved funding for research on brain implants for sharks. The idea: Jaws becomes 007. Sharks as "stealth spies" that glide undetected through enemy waters.
Link to Defensetech post.
By Cory Doctorow at 1:10 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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Kate Binagaman's ObsessiveConsumption.com is a site that features drawings of her purchases and drawings of her credit-card bills.
Link
(
via Consumerist)
By David Pescovitz at 12:51 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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In the early 1980s, I owned a "toy" robot arm called Armatron that was sold by Radio Shack. Lots of people loved to hack Armatron and devised various ways to control it using a computer (like a Timex Sinclair) instead of the built-in dual joystick interface. Now, Tokyo's
RT Corporation, who run a robot school and online robot shop, are selling a robot arm called the RT-0002 that looks similar to the Armatron. To demonstrate the RT-0002's hackability, the RT crew mounted two of the appendages on a
Robo-One battle robot chassis. The post on Robots Dreams links to a video of both the stationary RT-0002 and the tricked-out Robo-One.
Link (via MAKE: Blog)
By David Pescovitz at 12:29 pm Wednesday, Mar 1
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IEEE Spectrum magazine published an excellent deep and engaging look at how electricity is now being used to cure, or at least relieve, severe cases of depression. The techniques involve electromagnetically tweaking specific parts of the brain via implanted electrodes, current, or magnetic fields. (Previous posts on the subject
here,
here, and
here. I also wrote about it in
Popular Science in 2004.) The devices range from a "pacemaker" for your brain to a transcranial magnetic stimulator (seen here) that is used for just minutes each day but can alter your brain in the long term. From the article:
One problem with (neuropharmaceuticals) is that drugs work everywhere in the brain that their chemical target exists, regardless of whether those parts have anything to do with depression or any other disease, and that leads to side effects. Prozac, for example, has been known to reduce sex drive and can cause insomnia. Another problem is that brain chemistry varies from person to person, so no single drug will work in everyone.
The shared goal behind the new electromagnetic therapies, on the other hand, is to use electricity itself to restore the signaling, ideally, only in those parts of the brain affected by disease. Decades ago, neuroscientists demonstrated that electrically stimulating a neuron alters, in the long term, the strength of its connections to other neurons–making an electrical signal from one neuron more likely or less likely to jump to the next neuron. Though little is known in detail about how the new therapies work, it's likely that, to varying degrees, they depend on that phenomenon.
Link
By David Pescovitz at 11:54 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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After a rat has a spatial experience, like running along a track, it replays the experience in its mind, only backwards. This, according to MIT cognitive scientist Matthew A. Wilson. Previously, Wilson
reported that rats also recall waking events when dreaming. How does Wilson know? He monitored the rats' brain activities. Eventually, Wilson says, the same techniques to "eavesdrop on both the sleeping and conscious brain" could help treat memory disorders or even improve memory. From the MIT News Office:
This backward instant replay may play a significant role in reinforcing learning, Wilson said. "Understanding this replay is likely to be critical in understanding how animals -- and humans -- learn from experience. This phenomenon may constitute a general mechanism of learning and memory..."
Wilson and MIT postdoctoral fellow David J. Foster measured the activity of cells in the rat hippocampus during periods of running and stopping. During each session, each animal ran several laps on familiar and unfamiliar tracks, occasionally stopping for a food reward. After eating, the animal paused to groom its fur, move its whiskers or just stand still before running again. It was during this pause that the reverse replay occurred, and it was most likely to occur when an animal ran an unfamiliar track, supporting the idea that this phenomenon helps the hippocampus reinforce a newly learned task.
Link
By Xeni Jardin at 11:11 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Blendie, produced by
Kelly Dobson of the MIT Media Lab in 2004, is a voice operated blender prototype. The pitch of your voice controls the speed (and mechanical scream) of the blender.
Link to post on coolhunting blog. The blueprint for blendie, cropped below, is almost as funny as the video: Link. And my BB colleague David Pescovitz points out that Dobson and her project are profiled in MAKE's "Makers" book: Link.
(Thanks to, and all hail the glorious return of... the Reverse Cowgirl!)
By Xeni Jardin at 10:25 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Snip from description of a show opening this Saturday at the sixspace gallery in Los Angeles:
In Wrathmaster 3000©, Michael French creates an original video game (as opposed to the many hacked or modified games commonly seen in gaming art), that is surprisingly simple yet reflects today's complicated cultural climate.
Viewed as a projection, the video game really has no beginning or end but feeds us an infinite amount of parading soldiers marching down the screen. Rather than using a traditional controller to play, French has fashioned an absurd, yellow cartoon-like hand with built in sensors that responds to the participant's gesture of hitting or smashing it.
What appears on the screen is a giant god-like hand (with the audio to match) obliterating the soldiers in mass only to be replaced by countless more men.
Link
By Xeni Jardin at 10:17 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Cops in Orange County (that's just south of LA, CA) have recently been issuing citations to public transit users who listen to music on headphones while riding the bus.
Link (
Thanks, Sean Bonner!)
By David Pescovitz at 9:28 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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A 12-year-old boy on a school field trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of gum on a painting. Helen Frankenthaler's 1963 painting, titled "The Bay," is apparently valued at $1.5 million. The gum was removed but left a stain. The boy has been suspended from school. Image seen here is the painting, not the gum. From the Associated Press:
The museum's conservation department is researching the chemicals in the gum to decide which solvent to use to clean it. The museum hopes to make the repair in two weeks and will keep "The Bay" on display in the meantime, (curator Becky Hart) said.
"Our expectation is that the painting is going to be fine," Hart said.
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 9:02 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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The exec producer of a BBC show that ran a short segment on BitTorrent where file-sharing was equated with theft has apologized:
First though, an apology. File sharing is not theft. It has never been theft. Anyone who says it is theft is wrong and has unthinkingly absorbed too many Recording Industry Association of America press releases. We know that script line was wrong. It was a mistake. We're very, very sorry.
If copyright infringement was theft then I'd be in jail every time I accidentally used football pix on Newsnight without putting "Pictures from Sky Sport" in the top left corner of the screen. And I'm not. So it isn't. So you can stop telling us if you like. We hear you.
He goes on to talk about how spooks use the fear of paedophiles to argue against widespread use of privacy technologies like crypto that make it harder to snoop on our private conversations -- all in all, a refreshing, honest, and thoroughgoing treatment of the subject.
I wish, though, that he'd been a little more skeptical of the claims by cops that they need to be able to wiretap anyone and technologies that keep our conversations secret are bad for society. I'm pretty sure that no one's made a spook-friendly crypto that can keep the mafia out, for starters: if we can't keep secrets from cops, we can't keep them secret from crooks anyway. And crooks, being crooks, will go on using unbreakable crypto to hide their conversations even if it's illegal, so restrictions on privacy technologies only hurt non-crooks.
Link
(via Digg)
By Cory Doctorow at 8:52 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Woobot has an Imagineer friend who's passed him detailed (but unconfirmed) rumors of an upcoming renovation of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion:
The biggest changes will be coming to the attic scene, as that's where the new plotline will be most evident. As it is now, the attic scene is simply a cluttered and dusty place with a ghost inexplicably dressed like a bride with that spooky beating heart. But when the additions are all installed, the bride will become a much more sinister character who has apparently been killing off all of her previous husbands. As the doombuggies pass through the attic, riders will see portraits of several dashing young gentlemen, with each portrait piled next to "the loot" that the man brought in to the marriage. Those portraits will look familiar as they'll be the same faces that were just beginning to appear in ghost form back in the seance circle. But a new special effect will allow the heads of these gentleman to suddenly disappear from the portrait, as if they had been decapitated in a grisly murder. And when riders arrive at the exit of the attic scene, the bride will still be there, this time in a new location and clutching a bouquet of wedding flowers that magically turns into a blood stained axe as each vehicle passes by.
Link
(
Thanks, Woobot!)
Update: Todd sez, "This is actually an unattributed copy of news that Al Lutz reported yesterday on MiceAge."
By Cory Doctorow at 8:04 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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iBiblio's Paul Jones sez, "Create your own secure open source blogsphere with Lyceum and
WordPress. Lyceum, from
ibiblio.org, is designed to be the best secure scalable solution for deployments with 2 or +200,000 blogs. Just released today in time for
St David's Day (leeks but no leaks). Check out the new
website, the
demo site, the
code, and the public
project management site for bug and patch submissions."
Link
(
Thanks, Paul!)
By Cory Doctorow at 5:10 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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The first volume of an anthology of science fiction stories in podcast form has been published. Voices is a new "
podiobook" anthology released under a Creative Commons license, which collects stories that have been podcast on various sf podcast shows, and puts them together in a single package. The series is edited by Mur Lafferty, sf writer and host of
Geek-Fu Action Grip. The series solicits voluntary donations and splits them with contributors.
Five stories went live today, including my story Anda's Game, as read by Alice Taylor of Wonderland. Lots more to come!
- Wolf in the Park, by Patrick McLean
- Barry Koleman, Hero, by Mur Lafferty
- The Journey of Jonathan Cave, by Paul S. Jenkins
- Pandas Just Want to be Dogs, by Jared Axlerod
- Anda's Game, by Cory Doctorow
Link
By Cory Doctorow at 4:39 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Henry Jenkins of MIT's Comparative Media Studies program has posted a bunch of Octavia Butler related material in Ms Butler's memory. Octavia Butler was the first widely read African American woman science fiction writer, and her works wrapped up complex treatments of gender and race in palatable, fast-paced sf stories.
She died on Saturday following a fall, leaving many of us shocked and saddened for the loss of one of literature's strongest, bravest, most inspiring voices.
Jenkins has posted the transcript of two of Butler's appearances at MIT, one a solo act, the other a conversation with novelist Samuel Delany, as well as a sharp essay Jenkins wrote following her visit.
Butler: I don't have access to this kind of thing on computer but, oddly enough, what you're talking about sounds very much like the way I start looking for ideas when I'm not working on anything. Or when I'm just letting myself drift, relax.
I generally have four or five books open around the house--I live alone; I can do this--and they are not books on the same subject. They don't relate to each other in any particular way, and the ideas they present bounce off one another. And I like this effect. I also listen to audio-books, and I'll go out for my morning walk with tapes from two very different audio-books, and let those ideas bounce off each other, simmer, reproduce in some odd way, so that I come up with ideas that I might not have come up with if I had simply stuck to one book until I was done with it and then gone and picked up another.
So, I guess, in that way, I'm using a kind of primitive hypertext.
Link
(
Thanks, Henry!)
By Xeni Jardin at 12:51 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Link to humorous MPEG clip. No idea what the backstory is here, or why the filename is my last name. Don't wanna know. Link (worksafe, but contains simulated baby-kicking) (Thanks, Siege)
Update: Thanks to the many readers who wrote in about this video. Yesyesyes, I knew that "jardin" means garden/yard in French and Spanish, but I did not know that jardin.mpeg is in fact a shortshort produced in 2000 by Spanish film director Javier Fesser, of the notodofilmfest.com.
flanajan adds,
The child is the son of the director, and the old woman is the lady who works at his home.
Andrés explains,
In each episode Lucy kicked Javi, and that was all, 30 seconds where the grandma kicked the boy. Here is a link with more videos.
ubi de feo says,
Here you can find I think the full collection: Link
John Rynne explains,
Fesser's movies include "El Milagro de P. Tinto" and "Mortadelo y Filemón". (P.Tinto is amazing). AFAIK, the Javi & Lucy shorts (this is one of them, and there are at least 15) were produced for www.Notodfilmfest.com, a festival of Quicktime movies originally sponsored by Spain's Canal+ TV channel. They are no longer available on that site, but you can get "Hitler todavía está vivo" by Alex de la Iglesia.
karramarro says,
You can see more of his videos here, and here, and here. If you like his slapstick kind of humour you have to see his short movies " El secledto de la tlompleta" and "Aquel Ritmillo."
(
muchas gracias Bruno Fulax, Javier Candeira, Sergio Guillen-Pantoja, Ricard Pascual, Raul Minchinela, El Escribano, Diogo, y todos.)
By Xeni Jardin at 12:19 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Reporters Without Borders issued a statement this week that it has obtained a copy of the court verdict against Li Zhi. The former civil service employee in China received an eight year jail sentence in 2003 for posting internet message board comments criticizing local government officials. The court document reportedly confirms that Yahoo! collaborated with Chinese government prosecutors, as did Sina.com.
"Yahoo! should urgently withdraw its content and email servers from this country before further requests of this kind are made of it. The fact that it operates in China through a local partner, Alibaba, does not in any way absolve it of its ethical responsibilities," said the organisation.
The verdict showed that Yahoo! Hong Kong Ltd and Sina Beijing had supplied information confirming that Li Zhi had set up an email account using their services. It did not however say if the content of messages he sent or received had been handed over to the courts.
It also showed that a local telecommunications agency had helped the authorities find Li Zhi's address and telephone number, based on the IP address used to access Yahoo! and Sina email boxes.
Some of Li's emails and transcripts of his discussions on forums on Sina.com formed part of the charges drawn up by the National Security Bureau. The verdict also quoted an article that was posted on his personal website, hosted by Muzi.com, headlined "Why is China lagging behind?"
Chinese police made use of "witnesses" to confirm that Li was putting the Internet to subversive use. One of them revealed that the official had asked his advice on how to get round online censorship.
Li was accused of getting in touch via the Internet with Xie Wanjun, head of the banned China Democracy Party. A membership form was apparently also found on his computer.
Link to Reporters Without Borders statement. Li Zhi verdict (in Chinese):
PDF,
MS Word.
Previously on Boing Boing:
- NPR: Yahoo may have aided in jailing of second China writer
- Report: Yahoo helped jail another Chinese 'net dissident, Li Zhi
- Xeni's LAT op-ed: war, blogs, news, and profit.
By Xeni Jardin at 12:08 am Wednesday, Mar 1
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Cravin' images: among the many edible religious icons available at
chocolatedeities.com, this
sacred heart of Jesus. Offered in bittersweet black, and hand-painted opalescents. If the Catholic church would just upgrade from those papery-bland "body of Christ" wafers to candy flesh, the "we need new converts" thing would solve itself.
