Category: Life

If I were analyzing the situation with the RIAA and it’s suing of filesharers, I’d say that it’s part of their multifaceted approach to reducing current levels of illicit file sharing. I’d say that their approach isn’t so much measured by the number of actual lawsuits, but rather by the impact these have on the general file sharing population. A psychological war, if you will. After all, it is unfeasible for them to sue every single P2P user. But if they can scare enough people into stopping, by appearing to be this ruthless entity – then they are succeeding.

To this extent, I can understand their lawsuits against single mothers, old ladies, and children. Nevertheless, they tread a fine line. The fact that they’ve launched action against people that haven’t even owned a computer has already elicited negative attention. If they aren’t careful, the politicians they haven’t bought might turn against them.

Today comes news that the RIAA is deposing a ten year old child, who would have been seven at the time of infringement. According to RIAA’s previous statements, they maintain that infringers cause damages of $150,000 per song downloaded. The press is going to find this one tough to swallow, and if the RIAA isn’t careful, their efforts may backfire.

I remember speaking to one of the members of a small Canadian contingent dispatched to Russia. He was talking to me about the kind of corruption that was seeping through the system. For instance, all the delegates were staying in hotels exclusively owned by Putin.

One of my favourite authors – Anna Politkovskaya – was assassinated in her Moscow apartment block last October. When the news came through, I already had two of her books in my possession. Her book on Chechnya was perhaps one of the most important political works of the last decade. I found Putin’s Russia flawed, but nevertheless I respected her tremendously for her pioneering work.

And now, the following news:

Russia’s next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections.

Russia’s supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had violated electoral law by having too few members. The party is one of very few left in Russia that criticises President Vladimir Putin.

While one cannot link Politkovskaya’s death to Putin, it is a product of a sick system. A system which is being used to fatten Putin’s pockets, and represented by a morally ambiguous leader. My objection isn’t so much to the fact that the Supreme Court has banned the Russian Republican party from participating in the coming elections. After all, they did only carry 5 of the 447 seats. My objection is that the conglomerate of parties that represents opposition to Putin only hold so few seats to begin with.

Putin is undeniably popular within his home country. But when you have large protests on the streets voicing the position counter to the dominant party, and those voices go unheard in the election polls – it does not speak well of things to come. If not for within the country, then for the relations between Russia and the polarized West.

I was interviewed tonight by Digital Production Buzz, a great podcast about video production. It was really an honour to be on their show, which regularly features fascinating people such as Boris Yamnitsky and Stu Maschwitz.

If you’re into film making, I highly recommend that you give their podcast a chance.

Here’s an interesting thought experiment:

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians out there own MP3 Players that can hold 30GB or more of music. Given the apparent need for these companies to create 80GB models, it should be assumed that 30GB is simply not enough to store all the music that many of these consumers apparently possess.

And yet, how many students can afford 30GB of music? In my completely faulty math, that’s about 30,000 minutes of music. Now let’s say that each song is on average 5 minutes (we’re being generous), that’s 6,000 songs. At $1 each (again, very generous), that’s $6,000 of music. Even over a period of multiple years, no University (much less High-School) student can afford to pay that much for something like that.

They have more music than is legally permissible. Bad thing? Good thing? Economist: Baaad.

Well, the “On Piracy” documentary is finally off of my mind. It’s a huge weight that’s finally gone. Great timing too – I’ve never been busier. University wise, I have three massive term papers due next week. These constitute my top most priority, and take up all my time.

At the same time, I’m also co-leading a team to recreate the campus in 3D. This means we need to model thirty-five university buildings, create textures for them, and then geospatially reference them. This is a fair amount of work, and we only really have two months to do it in.

Aside from those, I’m continuously working on the script for Docks. I’m also re-creating a board game for a friend as his birthday present, which is enjoyable albeit time-consuming. I’ll be doing that as soon as those term papers are complete. I once quickly hashed up a PHP-based sort of French-English glossary for Geological terms. I was asked if I’d refine it – I don’t know.

Finally, I spend the left-over time trying to port Command & Conquer to the NintendoDS. It’s not really porting though so much as a ground-up rewrite. This and Docks will constitute my summer projects.