Author: madfinn

The European Parliament condemn attack on Mari-El activist

Couple of weeks ago a group of Members of the European Parliament comdemned the attack on Galina Kozlova.

Now the entire European Parliament has done the same. EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes had this to say about the attack:

The commission regrets the violent attack on Galina Kozlova, which took place on January 25 in the capital of Mari republic, and I express my sympathy to her, to her family, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery from her injuries.

Russia will probably answer by attacking the messenger rather than addressing the serious human rights problems they have in regards to ethnic minorities.

-TPP

Greed kills

Copyright Royalty Board has released its new rules for royalty rates on Internet radio. .08 cents per song per listener in 2006, and increased every year upto .19 cents per song per listener by 2011. Seems reasonable.

However, when you look closer, you start to realise quickly the rates are completely out of whack. Take Pandora.com, an extremely popular online music site that enables users to easily find new music. Essentially it’s a music promotion tool that’s run at no cost to the record labels. Pandora.com has 6 million subscribers, each of whom can have upto 100 channels (or music streams). The theoretical maximum annual royalty payments of Pandora.com are astronomical (easily in the hundreds of millions of dollars). Even the probable costs will run so high it will be impossible for Pandora.com to run without losing money. They will have to shut down. And so will all other net radio sites run by hobbyists or startups.

You have to wonder about the wisdom of royalty rates this high. Is the purpose of the royalty rates not to raise money for the artists? If so, then these rates won’t cut it, because net radio will simply cease to exist and the royalty payments from net radio stations will be exactly $0 USD. Maybe the true purpose is something else.

More background and insights from independent net radio operators, and Mark Cuban in an article at LinuxJournal.com.

-TPP

Take Two sues Jack Thompson

The delusional Miami attorney, Jack Thompson, infamous for his assault on the First Amendment finds himself on the other side of the table this time as Take Two Interactive, a video game publisher behind the controversial Grand Theft Auto series of video games, sues him in an attempt to pre-emptively block Jack Thompson from filing lawsuits against upcoming games by Take Two Interactive and their subsidiary Rockstar Games.

The suit claims Jack Thompson’s SLAPP suits are violating Rockstar Games’ First Amendment rights to publish the games.

This should be interesting. Jack Thompson has a habit of going completely batshit insane when attacked, criticized or when things don’t generally go his way.

Let’s hope Take Two bankrupts the “fine” attorney or that Jackie boy does something so stupendous the Florida Bar Association has no choice but to finally disbar him. Payback is a bitch, Thumper!

The full text of the lawsuit has been archived by GamePolitics.com.

-TPP

Timbaland to produce video game music for Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games, a controversial video games developer behind the Grand Theft Auto series of games, has teamed up with Timbaland to produce music for their upcoming PlayStation Portable game, Beaterator.

How cool is that!?

I wonder if Timbaland is going to use music he stole from others in this game?

-TPP

When bigotry hits home

The New York Times is writing about unintended consequences of a new federal rule that prohibits illegal immigrants from claiming medicaid.

It turns out the rule is keeping more American citizens from medicaid than illegal immigrants. The lawmakers didn’t anticipate the number of American citizens unable to provide the proper documentation to prove their citizenship. So now these American citizens are unable to receive medicaid at all.

-TPP

Hate and Hypocrisy – The Right Way of doing politics

John Edwards is a “faggot” [1], Al Gore is “a total fag” [2], Barack Obama is hunted in Pakistan [3] and cheating is ok in the Speaker’s house, but not in the White House [4].

So those would be examples of compassionate conservatism and family values, eh?

Let’s just leave it at that, no other comment is really necessary.

-TPP

1. Coulter on Edwards at CNN.com
2. Coulter on Gore at MediaMatters.org
3. Fox News chief on Obama at Huffington Post
4. MSNBC on Newt Gingrich

Members of the European Parliament condemn attack on Mari-El activist

A group of Members of the European Parliament has tabled a motion for a resolution strongly condemning an attack against Ms Galina Kozlova, board member of the Mari national organisation, Mari Ushem.

Read the rest of the story on the original article.

I’ve written about the attack on Galina Kozlova before:
Russian oppression of Mari-El activists still going strong

-TPP

Danny Wen featured on AsiaConnect

A friend and ex co-worker of mine founded a web consulting business a few years ago after the company we worked for went bust. The company, Iridesco, is in the middle of transitioning from a consulting business to a product development business. They already have a couple of really cool products out.

An online publication called AsiaConnect has a profile/interview of Danny on its latest issue.

-TPP