Posts by Sacha
-
Loved your Humans post, Gio #kiaora
-
Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Google is the Friend of the People
No, but at least their business models are from this century.
pervy
I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're right :)
-
Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Russell Brown,
The Farmer case would not and could not, I think, have been pursued by a public defender
It's what happens when you get laws made by people who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Next, cost-benefit assessments determining police pursuits as in George Lucas's first movie THX1138. The sheer efficiency would get Simon Power all moist.
-
Of course the ultimate solution might be for tech companies like Google simply to buy out the entire recorded music industry who are driving reactionary law like the one our parliament has just passed at their behest.
Rumours about Google's music service have been swirling for a while now, but they certainly seem to be reaching a new stage with stories like this:
The latest rumor to emerge from the Google campus is that the company's much anticipated music service is just about at the end of their rope with the major label licensing process. A source close to the negotiations characterizes the search giant as "disgusted" with the labels...
...how about if Google *did* buy the music industry? That would solve its licensing problems at a stroke. Of course, the anti-trust authorities around the world would definitely have something to say about this, so it might be necessary to tweak the idea a little.
How about if a consortium of leading Internet companies -- Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Baidu, Amazon etc. -- jointly bought the entire music industry, and promised to license its content to anyone on a non-discriminatory basis?
-
Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Matthew Poole,
at about 7 minutes into Jacinda Ardern's speech
That was admirably clear about the politics, and she's one of the few who impressed me.
However, Ardern still minimised the 'guilt on accusation' aspects (note the use of "infringers" rather than "accused"). She also had an overwhelming focus on the interests of rights-holders, not challenging the handy industry lie that it is individual artists/creators rather than corporations who will benefit from this.
Serious question I haven't seen an answer to: was there an agreement between Labour and National not to vote for any supplementaries like Hughes's as part of securing suspension of the termination provision?
Sure, Labour have less freedom than smaller parties to be pure rather than pragmatic. However they need to be prepared in some situations to take a risk that some harm will happen and that they may need to wait to fix it - with their hands clean and their integrity turned into stronger support from voters and allies. As Russell noted, there are other issues right now to die in a ditch over. A few high-profile account terminations is not one of them, especially when informed commentators reckon the whole thing can't be properly implemented anyway.
The prime political management problem (again) is that no one made sure a coherent explanation of Labour's voting reasons was developed, agreed and consistently communicated.. Instead we have Curran waffling all over the show on the party's blog amidst many openly shifting their support elsewhere. And who can blame them?
-
Hard News: Friday Visions, in reply to Steve Barnes,
So many misinterpretations
lolnui
-
John Roughan's ignorance of economics doesn't stop him offering an opinion about financing Christchurch's recovery in the upcoming Budget.
The Finance Minister runs his contradictory themes by invoking two different sorts of national debt. When he is stern about general expenditure he cites the total external debt, which is horrendous and has been for as long as I can remember. But the bulk of it is private debt raised by banks and lent to companies and households.
When he says he can safely borrow billions more for Christchurch he takes refuge in government debt, now a small part of the total thanks to Ruth Richardson who trimmed social welfare and bequeathed budget surpluses to finance ministers for the next 15 years.
But the truth is, low government debt is no longer the main criterion creditors use to assess our national solvency, as Mr English explains for the purposes of his first theme. The global financial crisis has told the creditors that all debt raised through a nation's banking system can become a public liability.
One clue, Johnboy: those banks are Australian-owned. The claim about Ruthless Richardson being the benificent mother of Cullen's surpluses is just laughable. Been taking notes from Katrina Shanks or Melissa Lee, have we?
-
Engineer and straight-talking troubleshooter Wayne Brown has offered advice about ways to rebuild quake-damaged suburban houses better and more cheaply. Naturally both Sideshow Bob and Field-Marshall Brownlee have ignored him.
Brown - who is speaking for a 12-strong engineering review team that went down to Christchurch early last month - says thousands of timber-framed houses with damaged brick veneer cladding and tile roofs could be recladded easily with new weatherboards and corrugated iron roofs.
Timber-framed houses that have shifted off their foundations could easily be lifted, shifted and connected to the foundations ("in many cases for the first time").
...
Well before Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and his departmental team sent in the bulldozers to demolish houses in at-risk suburbs, they should have at least done Brown the courtesy of reading the report which Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has wilfully ignored.
-
Hard News: Friday Visions, in reply to nzlemming,
only here, mind :)
-
Hard News: Friday Visions, in reply to recordari,
you said not to, but we're all thinking of your friend
I'm doing as I'm told