michaelwyres.com.au | musings of a geek

Why Legislated Internet Filtering is Utterly Pointless

The powers that be, in their infinite wisdom, believe that the way to stop people from viewing and distributing the so-called “worst of the worst” or copyright protected material online is to legislate various forms of filtering mechanisms.

In Australia, we have Stephen Conroy’s mandatory internet filtering scheme. In the US, there is the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) to supposedly protect copyright holders from piracy.

We are told it is the only way, that it will be completely successful, and that we must accept it for our own betterment.

Really?

That didn’t take long, did it?

The problem is, these filtering schemes cost money. Lots of money.

Spending that is clearly pointless, because the “filtering” it is funding is trivially circumvented.

Funds that could and should be used to hunt down the dirtbags producing the child pornography they are trying in vain to block, and save the children they are abusing.

Protecting copyright holders is even easier.

Infuriating.

Screw You, Greedy Music Industry

We’ve heard a lot lately about how piracy and music downloads are supposedly killing the music industry.

How all those nasty people downloading music for free are “taking the caviar off the 50-foot marble dining tables” of the recording artists, and leaving them to cope with “only 17 bathrooms in their palatial mansions”.

Poor snookums.

Is it true though?

“AUSTRALIANS are crazy about music. By year end, we’ll have bought 50 million singles and 37 million albums.”

“That’s 50 per cent more music than we consumed in 2005 and it doesn’t even include the millions of songs we stole via the internet.”

So, what they are saying is that the music industry is doing 50% better than it was six years ago – (irrespective of illegal downloads) – and they still say that it is all slowly killing the industry?

Huh?

Here’s a better idea – drop your prices to reasonable levels, and people won’t even steal your content. As soon as the price of legally purchasing your content is effectively less than what it costs people to download it – (for free or otherwise) – people won’t want to download it for free.

Because it will be cheaper for them, and you’ll sell a lot more units.

It isn’t downloads that are killing your industry – it is your own overpricing greed and lack of vision that’s doing it.

Not the people…but you!

Screw you music industry!

Jason Richards: Always A Winner

The passing of Jason Richards on Thursday evening leaves a huge hole in the hearts of Australian racing fans.

Everybody loved Jason. Always happy, always smiling.

He might only have won a single race in his V8 Supercar career – (at Winton in 2006) – but we loved him because he was always having a red hot go, no matter where he was in the field.

One of his most memorable charges was at the 2003 Sandown 500, where he made a lunge at leader Mark Skaife on the penultimate lap.

He didn’t get the pass done, but he showed his passion for what he was doing over the radio after it became clear the car wouldn’t get out of the sand.

That’s the passion we loved in Jason Richards.

And why we’ll miss him.

RIP Jase.

F-Bombgate: Media Cares, Most People Do Not

The media circus arising from the Stephen Conroy F-Bomb continues today. The media seem to care a hell of a lot about it.

Problem is, according to a Fairfax online poll, it seems most people do not.

As of 2pm AEDST, December 14, 2011 – the poll which asked the question “How do you rate Stephen Conroy’s F bomb on TV?” saw 72% of people not thinking it was significant.

Indeed, the remaining 28% thought it would either “harm him”, or “not help him”.

The rest thought that it “won’t matter” (37%) or “made him look like a goose” (35%).

Which he probably is.

Maybe the public are becoming intelligent enough to filter out the usual crap from the usual media?

Hope so.

That Political F-Bomb

Stephen Conroy dropped the “f-bomb” at the National Press Club (NPC) today.

So what?

As much as I detest some of the policies Conroy holds dear to his heart – most notably his mandatory internet filtering plan – it is actually interesting that much of the media has gone on the attack because he showed that he is human.

More politicians should be more “real”. So he said “fucking”?

As Tony Abbott would say, “shit happens”.

Move on people.

It’s Not It’s!

Another one from my recent work at a major Melbourne hospital network – it’s the engineering department badge I had to wear every day – (with the hospital name removed to protect the guilty):

It’s funny how people just don’t know the difference between “it’s” and “its”. You might need to click on the photo for a better view.

Facepalm.

Should File Sharing Be Legalised?

The ongoing battle between AFACT and the Australian ISP iiNet through the so-called iiTrial has become a very public face of the file-sharing debate, particularly in Australia.

Is file-sharing “good”, or is it “bad”?

A very black and white question the answer to which, is generally quite grey.

I read with interest an article brought to my attention via Peter Black on Twitter in regards to an interesting position that has been taken by the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC):

“People have always shared music and always will. The music we share defines who we are, and who our friends and peers are. The importance of music in the fabric of our own culture, as well as those around the world, is inextricably bound to the experience of sharing.”

And they are right – people have always shared music.

From almost the day Edison invented the phonograph, people will have been able to share recorded music.

Who remembers recording music off the radio? Or putting two tape recorders in front of each other to play a cassette on one, and record onto a blank cassette on the other?

I remember the very first CD I ever bought – (and still have) – the 1989 Icehouse hits compilation Great Southern Land.

Thing is, I didn’t own a CD player back then, so the first thing I did was record it off the CD onto a cassette, using a CD player with a tape deck owned by my eldest sister.

It sounded almost as good as the CD, and if it wore out, all I had to do was record another copy. I could have recorded copies for my friends too, and shared them.

Nobody wanted to ban dual tape-decks and CD/tape-decks, or cassette players that could record off the radio. That opened up music sharing. The fact that it is predominantly done on the internet these days, doesn’t change “the crime” – just the method of delivery.

The SAC talk about making file-sharing legal, and then compensating the artists for it. How exactly that might be achieved is difficult to understand right now, but at least they are thinking a lot straighter than most of the copyright holders in this debate.

About bloody time.

Zap! I Think This Powerboard is Broken!

Amidst some recent project work for a major Melbourne hospital network, I stumbled across this powerboard in the engineering department of one of the hospital campuses.

Given I found it in the engineering department, I’m sure it was there due to the “degraded” state it was in – (ie: taken out of service) – but given this particular campus specialised in aged care, I started wondering what caused the “degradedness” of the unit.

Gladys stuck her fork in it? Alfred tried to water it?

However it was done, not a bad effort.

Optus: ICS for Original Galaxy Tab “Soon”

Good news for owners Optus-branded versions of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab – (myself included) – with news that the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) coming to the device “soon”.

I commented on Twitter over the weekend that my device had finally updated from Froyo to Gingerbread, but lamented that it wasn’t taken all the way up to the latest ICS.

Then comes this tweet back this morning from Optus:

Sweet.

Epic Dragon Sculpture

I spotted this awesome sculpture in North Laverton on the way to work this morning – (avoiding a heavily congested Princes Freeway) – made out of scrap metal, and used to advertise a scrap metal merchant.

If memory serves – (and it often doesn’t) – I do think I have seen these before, but had certainly forgotten about them.

Also, sample one of the fine potholes you’ll find on Melbourne roads.