There Ain't No Justice!

Only two file sharing cases have ever gone to trial. In the first case, the jury awarded US$222,000 in damages for 24 songs, but a mistrial was declared. At the retrial, the jury awarded US$1.92 million(!) for the 24 songs. In the second case, which just concluded today, the damages was pegged at US$675,000 for 30 songs.

So, let's get this straight. A billion company sues an ordinary individual for completely non-commercial copyright infringement. Why do the courts allow such trivial cases to proceed at all? That's not justice. No one is looking out for the little guy at all.

In each case the defendant eventually admitted sharing files online. I say, so what? Sharing is a natural human right, just like freedom of speech. Copyright is a granted privilege. A natural right should trump a granted right, should it not?

DRM Reality Distortion

When I read this article, I was alternately laughing and screaming. I was laughing at some of the ridiculous comparisons of software (music or video in this case) to a physical product. I was screaming because of the insane statement that it is OK to take someone money and then later break the purchased product.

DRM on downloaded music has all but disappeared because that's what the consumer demanded. However, DRM is far from dead. And as long as enough people are willing tolerate DRM encumbered media, it will never die. At some point in the future, however, they will regret it. That is guaranteed.

BitTorrent Defends Itself

During the recent CRTC net neutrality hearings, BitTorrent was mentioned many times, usually in a less than favourable light, by the ISPs who wish to confuse net neutrality with network management. The thing is, BitTorrent is actually a trademark owned by BitTorrent, Inc, a company started by Bram Cohen, the creator of the protocol. Although some might say that BitTorrent, Inc, is getting too cozy with the content producers, it also demonstrates that the protocol can be used for legitimate distribution.

I suppose BitTorrent, Inc felt the need to defend its name because they filed a late submission to the CRTC, that pokes holes in many of the points raised by the ISPs. Micheal Geist's summary is here. BitTorrent, Inc's client gathers a lot statistics about transfers that allows the company to understand the affect of the protocol on the network. The problem is that the CRTC will likely pay more attention to their cronies from Bell, Rogers, etc., rather than look at real technical facts.

WWI Veterans Update

The already short list of WWI veterans just got even shorter. Just a few days after I wrote about this topic, the last British veteran of WWI, Harry Patch, passed away. Henry Babcock, the last Canadian veteran, is now also the oldest.

Although the Canadian Parliment has approved a state funeral for the last Canadian WWI veteran, in 2007 the remaining veterans rejected the idea on the basis that we should honour all of the soldiers, not only the last one. I think they are right as a state funeral would soon be forgotten. But what would be the best way to honour all of the 619,636 Canadians who served in the First World War? Another war memorial does not seem like it is enough.

F1 Hungary

Massa's crash in the second qualifying session was bizarre. A piece from the rear suspension of Barrichello's car broke loose and hit Massa in the head. The strange part is they were not very close to each other at the time! It is just incredible that the debris could tumbled down the track for such a long way and then actually hit Massa on the head, almost the smallest target possible. Thankfully, with Massa likely already unconscious, the car crashed straight into a tire wall and not something more solid, which could have had a far more tragic result.

The timing system went down near the end of Q3 so it was all confusion in parc ferme as the driver's had to compare lap times to figure out their positions. I was surprised that Alonso got pole position but the fuel loads revealed that it was due to an aggressive low fuel strategy. The other surprise was that Brawn GP was seriously off the pace at a track that was supposed to favour their cars. This is not a good sign.

The race was not really that exciting. Maclaren emphatically showed how much they have improved with Hamilton dominating the race from start to end to get his first podium finish of the season. Ferrari's improvements allowed Räikkönen to net a second place finish. Webber finished third and Button managed seventh place, so Redbull crept a little closer in the championship, but not by much.

Although Brawn GP and Redbull are the only real championship contenders, with many more teams squabbling for points, the opportunities for scoring maximum points is now greatly diminished. Neither Redbull nor Brawn GP can afford any missteps now, as evidenced by Brawn GP's sudden reversal of the how the car treats the tires. Luckily for them, Redbull didn't do much better in this race, but it could easily have been much different. Both teams will be under much more pressure now to squeeze as many points from every race.

Too Much Fun

I definitely ate too much yesterday and I am suffering for it today. I may be getting too old for this kind of over indulgence. Anyway, I had fun so now it's time to pay the piper. 'Nuff said.

Family Gathering

I'm looking forward to the annual family BBQ today although the weather forecast doesn't look too good. I always have a great time at family gatherings. A get together with my family is very earthy and has an eat, drink, and be merry, atmosphere, so it is very relaxing. It has always been this way in my family. When we still lived in Cape Town, my parents hosted many gatherings and they had the very same atmosphere.