David Cameron can fuck off

This speech is nothing but lies, half-truths and PR spin.

If we increase the copyright term, so the incentive is there for you working in the industry to digitise both older and niche repertoire which more people can enjoy at no extra cost.

That's why, as we move on forward into the new digital age of the 21st century, I am pleased to announce today that it is Conservative Party policy to support the extension of the copyright term for sound recordings from 50 to 70 years.

How, exactly, would extending copyright to 70 years be better for the music industry?

For a start, we've got to look at why copyright exists in the first place.

The purpose of copyright is to encourage people to contribute artistic/literal/musical works by promising them a financial reward if their work is a success. However, the current copyright model means that, in addition to providing a reward for creation for the entire lifetime of the artist, the artist's family (or in practice, their publisher/record company) can also benefit from the work.

If a person has a successful enough work, they never have to contribute again, which it could be argued actually reduces the incentive to continue creating music or writing books or what have you.

It's utterly misleading of Cameron - or anyone else, for that matter - to suggest that increasing the duration of copyright would assist living musicians or writers more than it already does. And extension of copyright would do nothing but pay record label executives for the next 70 years.

I don't want to abolish copyright, but there's ways to make money by giving your stuff away for free, especially in this age of the internet. A musician can put an album online and distribute it worldwide for next to nothing (compared to CD shipping, at least). An author can publish online and have thousands of people read their work; if it's good enough, then enough people will pay for it to make you a profit.

Exposure is priceless, and copyright tries to limit the number of people who can read/listen to your stuff until they can pay for it. It should really be the other way around.

Crap peripherals

Continuing the theme of dumb posts about the Wii, is this one about a new peripheral due out Stateside... some time. I don't think I could possibly describe the thing better than Engadget.

Continuing on its mission to totally eliminate imagination from the gaming experience, inveterate Wiiccessory maker Brando is now hawking a fishing pole guaranteed to increase the destructive potential of the Wii remote. Featuring an actual string with a chinty plastic fish on the end, the pole collapses for easy storage -- which is good, because you'll be storing this thing for good about ten seconds after you realize that you just spent $19 to look like a complete fool.

PRE-3

The new, smaller (and, some would say, crapper) E3 is due to start next week, and aside from all the rumours and speculation, there are a couple of concrete announcements and stronger suggestions that are particularly interesting to me.

Firstly is Microsoft's annoucement that they're extending the XBox 360 warranty to three years for customers who experience the Red Ring of Death, which also applies to anybody who bought one before the announcement. Microsoft have even promised to refund anybody who had to pay to get their machine fixed.

For a company that was getting more and more bad press over their poor customer service record on this particular fault, this is a significant step in the right direction.

Secondly is the rumour that Sony will be dropping the price of the PS3 by $100 immediately following E3. This one's got to be taken with a pinch of salt, however - while it's true that at its current price, the PS3 is prohibitively expensive, Sony are already taking a big loss on each machine sold. Still, they've got to shift consoles in order to sell games (which are the real profit-maker), so from that standpoint it seems like a reasonable suggestion.

The reports vary on this one, though; some suggesting that it's only going to be in Circuit City stores, and others saying it'll be a nationwide drop. No word whether the European console will see a similar fall in price, but time will tell.

Even if we get a similar drop in price though, £375 is far too much for one console.

Edit:Sony president Ryoji Chubachi has denied that the company has any plans for a price drop.

Expensive cables

Why are video cables for consoles so expensive? I want an RGB SCART for my Wii so that I can play Resident Evil 4 with decent screen quality (it looks dire through the composite, especially at 60Hz), but they're apparently determined to rip me off. Both HMV and GameStop are asking for £25 for the thing, even though the RRP is apparently £19.99.

I still don't understand why they just wouldn't bundle a SCART lead in with the machine instead of the composite. Surely there's not that many people out there with a TV that can't accept it, in Europe anyway?

iWant

I've been skeptical about the iPhone pretty much since it was announced; the iPod's synonymity with "mp3 player" pissed me off, especially since it's tied into iTunes so completely. I was expecting a lot of the same PR flash and no actual bang from the iPhone, but to be honest I'm getting more and more convinced.

I'm still far from a sure sale for Apple, though. For one thing, I have a problem the lack of a 3G or GPRS data connection. If they really want me to use it as a portable internet/email device, it's got to be at least as quick as my current phone. There's plenty of software concerns too; there are strange limitations on what you can do. For instance, there's no way to delete multiple emails at once - you've just got to wipe them one at a time. I get 50 or 60 spam emails a day, thanks to my email appearing on my website; having to go through each of them one by one would just get frustrating.

So, on that front I'm going to have to wait for the next model, which will hopefully address some of the missing hardware and software functions. Which doesn't bother me, really; I'm not sure I could justify anything like £300 on a mobile phone.

But if it was available as a free upgrade, colour me very interested indeed. Shame that's not going to happen though; while it was rumoured for a while that my cell provider, Vodafone, was going to get the exclusive iPhone contract, it's now looking likely that O2 (my old provider, as it turns out) is getting it instead. TMobile got the contract in Germany.

Which is a pity. I might still see if I can get into an O2 store and demo the thing when it launches (or a couple of weeks after, once the hysteria dies down), but this first generation is a no-go for me, at least until the exclusivity deal passes and I can get one for much less than retail.

I really, really want one, though.

More on Scooter Libby

Countdown's Keith Olbermann says it better than I ever could.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental compact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens — the ones who did not cast votes for you.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President… of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party.

I can't tell, yet, how this decision is resonating with the American public. I'm sure Fox News Faux Noise will manage to gloss over the facts and try to sweep the significance of this act under the carpet, but I hope to God that this will wake people up.

"The Iranian government has declared war on us"

Sen. Joe Lieberman is calling for the United States to confront Iran with military force.

Iran is allegedly training Shi'ite fighters who then go to Iraq to attack American troops.

"These revelations should be a wake-up call to the United States about the threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as a reminder why Iraq is, in fact, the central front of the global war on terror," said Mr. Lieberman, a hawkish former Democrat who lost his party's 2006 primary because of opposition from antiwar groups, but then ran as an independent and kept his seat anyway.

"Although no one desires a conflict with Iran, the fact is that the Iranian government by its actions has declared war on us," said Mr. Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president.

Regardless of the validity of those reports, it's painfully clear that the US military is stretched too much already with Afghanistan and Iraq - and it's difficult to see what there would be to gain from stretching it further.

Iran's probably itching for America to make that kind of move, too - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would love the justification to go directly after America, not to mention the PR opportunities it'd give him.

If the United States ever wanted to get away with attacking Iran, they'd have to do a hell of a lot to rebuild their foreign relations perception, which Dubya has left in tatters over the course of his administration. Without serious backup from across the world - diplomatically as well as militarily - the US would quickly find itself standing alone.

And while "patriots" (read: nationalists) like Lieberman would probably see no problem with that, it would be suicide orders to anybody moved to the front.

EDGE's top game of all time...

What a load of bollocks. I've never been able to understand what people see in Ocarina of Time that's good, never mind the fevered worship for Miyamoto's weak 3D adeventure game. I hate just about everything about it; the plot's atrocious, the level design is weak, the overworld is uninspired, characterization is abysmal, and the whole thing is just so boring. If it didn't have "Zelda" on the box, these same idiots would be up in arms complaining about how poor the whole thing was.

Didn't stop EDGE, the UK's bastion of self-important videogame wankery, from naming it their number one game of all time in a recent list (can we quit it with the lists, already?).

Other mentions go to Resident Evil 4 at #2, which is fair enough - although I think REmake on Gamecube was a more complete experience. Tetris only made it to 9 - immediately behind Halo, an abomination which shouldn't even be on the list. I'm surprised at Final Fantasy XII's inclusion as well; I'd have expected to see VII instead - not because it's better, but it's more like the faux-intellectuals at EDGE to bow to fanboy pressures like that.

There's a full 100 list due out in a future issue (apparently Crackdown's at 100), but Lord knows it's not worth buying EDGE for. I'll just read it via NeoGAF when one of them posts it.

Obstruction of justice

Bush gave I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby a pass on thirty months of jail time.

Here's the President's rationale:

Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.

My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting….

Libby was convicted of outing an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame - which, from my perspective (and George H W Bush's) looks pretty close to treason.

That Dubya would undermine the justice system so brazenly just to protect one of his pawns is insane - not to mention, it puts a completely different meaning behind his promise that, "If there’s a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is... If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of".

"Terrorism"

I've been bristling a little over the last few days every time the news mentions these "terrorist attacks" in London and Glasgow - so, every 30 seconds or so. I couldn't place my finger on why exactly - from all the available information, terrorism seemed as good a label as any.

But then I read this article from The Register, which managed to put into words exactly what I'd been thinking all along.

We're giving these guys too much credit.

Frankly, if this kind of thing is the only backlash the West experiences for Iraq, we've got off pretty much scot-free: we should indulge in a spot of military adventurism any time we feel like it.

Conversely, if this is all al-Qaeda have to offer, we should never have lost a moment's sleep over them - let alone shoved our valuable appendages into the military meat-grinder of Afghanistan (I'm choosing to assume here that al-Qaeda only became a serious presence in Iraq after we invaded the place. Argue among yourselves as to whether Saddam was more or less threatening than Osama).

Getting back to here and now, these have to be some of the most pathetic terror attacks ever - difficult to distinguish from minor accidents. For goodness' sake, a car is full of petrol anyway; and gas cylinders too often enough. People drive cylinders of gas around all the time. Now and again - oh my god! - they probably carry boxes of nails, bolts, tools or whatever in the same vehicle. (Aiee!)

Sometimes these fiends crash their cars, and sometimes the vehicles burn out. It's one of the costs of living in the industrial world; if people couldn't get fuel - portable energy - easily enough to have accidents with it, most of us would still be dirt-poor, illiterate, shovelling muck for a living and dying like flies from disease - rather than dying very rarely in car crashes or gas explosions.

This kind of event happens on the motorways almost every day, at least the petrol fires and often enough with the other hazards added. The roads get closed off as a result, sometimes for hours - just like the Haymarket did on Friday morning. It causes massive inconvenience to lots and lots of people.

But the perimeter is manned by firemen and traffic cops, not bomb teams and terror-feds. And so this weekend a minor news story - one injured in bunt-out car / suicide attempt causes travel chaos - becomes a big international media frenzy, a "test of the new Prime Minister's mettle," if you please.

There's a lot more on the site, and it's worthwhile to read it all, even if it's just as a counterpoint to all the hysteria bullshit that's even being spread in the US.

UMG tries to bite Apple

I'm a big proponent of free (libre) software, and by extension of DRM-free media. If you want to take my money for an album or a movie (or office software), give it to me free first.

As a result, I'm not a big fan of iTunes. The EMI deal in April was a step in the right direction - better-quality songs without spyware for just a little more than regular songs. Still, the company's draconian approach to DRM in general (and the monopolistic iTunes/iPod tie-in bullshit that ties you to one player and one software app) irritates me.

Still, there's no question at all that iTunes was a step in the right direction. If the music labels had hammered out a deal with Napster back in the day, we'd not have to put up with all these crazy "CD sales are declining oh noes!" press releases from record labels. Labels who market their MAFIAA lawsuits as making sure the artists get their dues, all the while trying to reduce the amount of royalties they have to pay to those same artists.

Anyway, a legal download option has helped. For a start, it spread the truth about peer-to-peer filesharing's illegality. I'm rather astounded that some people still don't realise it's against the law (regardless of the moral standpoint).

But now, despite the fact that Apple's iTunes is the only really viable, legal music download vendor, Vivendi's Universal Music Group - the largest record label in the world, which includes Polygram, A&M, Geffen, Motown, Island, and Verve - has decided it doesn't like Apple's business and is pulling out of the iTunes store.

I think Cory Doctorow has a pretty good take on the whole thing:

But there's no denying that the iTunes Store is the only successful digital music seller that the majors have tried. They cry piracy all day long, and now Universal wants to shut down the only legit alternative?

It's clear that Universal wants leverage against Steve Jobs so that they can set their own prices, but brinkmanship won't win it for them. Universal already faces an increasingly tough time showing up in Congress and begging for more opportunities to strip everyday Americans of their life's savings (20,000 record industry lawsuits and counting). Going back to DC after shutting down the only successful online Universal retailer will be a fool's errand. "Help us protect our copyrights by suing people who take them without paying, even though we shut down the only store that anyone liked using."

This, of course, is the same Universal Music Group that wanted to sue MySpace and YouTube, and insists that everyone with an iPod is a thief.

Pulling out of the world's most recognised download store like this is especially insane when you consider that CD revenues are dropping off in a bad way - up to 40% in some markets. The former managing director of Island Records, Tim Clark, has described the CD business model as "fucked ... Physical revenues are going down like nobody's business and it's cataclysmic" - and this was in public, on record. He's got some pretty harsh words for the industry in general, which makes worthwhile reading.

There's more on the Universal story at The Register, with a slightly more reserved interpretation.

Upside uʍop

This is pretty cool, although it might get BoingBoing'd into oblivion pretty soon.

It's a little (java?) application that takes any input text and flips it upside down using Unicode characters that look like inverted letters.

Here's this entire post, upside down:

:uʍop ǝpısdn 'ʇsod ǝɹıʇuǝ sıɥʇ s,ǝɹǝɥ

.sɹǝʇʇǝ1 pǝʇɹǝʌuı ǝʞı1 ʞoo1 ʇɐɥʇ sɹǝʇɔɐɹɐɥɔ ǝpoɔıun buısn uʍop ǝpısdn ʇı sdı1ɟ puɐ ʇxǝʇ ʇnduı ʎuɐ sǝʞɐʇ ʇɐɥʇ uoıʇɐɔı1ddɐ (¿ɐʌɐظ) ǝ1ʇʇı1 ɐ s,ʇı

.uoos ʎʇʇǝɹd uoıʌı1qo oʇuı p,buıoqbuıoq ʇǝb ʇɥbıɯ ʇı ɥbnoɥʇ1ɐ '1ooɔ ʎʇʇǝɹd sı sıɥʇ

Via BoingBoing.

Not quite Sesame Street

Does anybody remember seeing this really weird news story? The Hamas-run al Aqsa TV station in Palestine used "Farfur", a Mickey Mouse look-alike character, to spread anti-Israeli propaganda to its children. The show featured a strong pro-Islamist slant, as well as encouraging young viewers to phone in and sing anti-Israeli songs.

The arguments kept going back and forward, with the Palestinian government eventually ordering the show off the air, although al Aqsa didn't comply in the end.

They did, however, kill the character off.

The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa channel aired the last episode on Friday, showing the character, Farfur, being beaten to death by an "Israeli agent".

"Farfur was martyred defending his land," said the show's presenter Saraa.

In the final broadcast an actor said to be an Israeli agent tries to buy the land of the squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike.

Farfur brands the Israeli a "terrorist" and is beaten to death.

He was killed "by the killers of children", Saraa says.

In an earlier show, Farfur had said: "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists.

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Stupid petitions

Following the BBFC's refusal to certify Manhunt 2, some bright sparks here in the UK got together and thought, "Hey - the Prime Minister's website has an online petition feature! Let's get on there and complain that we can't play a videogame!"

So they did.

Here's the full text of the petition proposal, followed by my arguments for why I thik it's a stupid move and a missed opportunity.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Restrict the powers of the BBFC with regard to the banning of videogames.

More details from petition creator
The BBFC have recently refused to rate the videogame "Manhunt 2". As such, adults in this country will never be allowed to play this game. Adults should be allowed to make their own decisions with regard to what videogames they want to play. We all understand that this game is extremely violent and unsuitable for children. As such an 18 rating should have been applied.

Why, for the love of God, did they restrict their complaint to just this one videogame? The BBFC should not, in my opinion, be able refuse certification of any media. If it's violent, slap an "18" on it and let that be the end of it. The BBFC should operate on the assumption that their ratings work, not worry that someone might get their hands on something deemed "inappropriate". In my opinion, that's just admitting that the system's broken.

Even aside from that, by only pointing out the games angle, the petition makes it sound like a bunch of petulant kids whining that they can't play Nintendo. I mean, if it was a commentary on the state of the ratings system and asking the Prime Minister to review the BBFC's powers and even the relevance of the Video Recordings Act 1984 in today's society, then it would possibly be taken seriously. As it is, it's just... weak.

I still signed it, though.

Still no word

The interview on Monday went pretty well, I thought. A very casual conversation, all in all, punctuated by the occasional awkward Interview Question.

I was expecting to hear back pretty quickly; they'd been really fast getting back to me at every other stage, but nothing about this yet. Every email notification I got this week, I got terribly excited and then disappointed immediately after.

It's not even the thought that I might not have gotten the job that gets to me either - it's the not knowing. I'd rather know I haven't got the job, than not know I have.