Category: Life

Well, in case you haven’t been following my exploits, I’ve finally completed the “On Piracy” documentary. You can catch more info about it, and where to download, at the main website.

The original intent of the film was that the views would be presented in such a way that every side would be happy with their representation. Industry people would be happy, consumer groups would be happy, artists would be happy, etc. My biggest concern remains that the industry isn’t getting a fair shake.

The only relief I’ve had is that my step-dad has become completely polarized in the stance that CRIA detailed, esp. at the end of the film. Combined with the fact that certain consumer adovates have also voiced their approval, I breathe a little easier. That said, I won’t be doing another documentary on such a polarized issue for some time to come.

So onto the fiction titles: H4CK3R5 is on hold. Simply said, the scriptwriting is near complete, but I need $10,000 to get it off the ground. Given the fact that I’m barely able to pay for university, that one’s out the window. Instead, I’ll be shooting a comedy called Docks. The shoot starts this June, and the film should be out by Winter 2007/2008. It’s been in the works for a while now, and is financially much more viable. We’re looking at a cost of no more than $1,500. I’ll be using my share of the revenue from that film to finance H4CK3R5.

Docks is about a day in the life of a ticket seller in a disfunctional boat tour company. Think of it as Clerks meets Trailer Park Boys. With Youtube hitting it off, there’s been lots of user-based content generated over the last year. This film will not be of that calibre. The idea is that at the end of the day, you won’t be able to distinguish our work from an indy title with a $300,000 budget. Sorry to H4CK3R5 fans, but recent realities made funding the film unrealistic.

Those were the final words of a CNN on-air personality, as he berated music industry execs on the foul thing that was hip hop. He also managed to put in the fabled “as a parent” in there, somewhere.

There was an industry rep to represent the opposite side (as well as an old school hip hop artist), but the reporter gave neither a chance to reply. To conclude, a particular song was called into question, which to be honest, wasn’t all that lewd. I’d post the lyrics here, so that you’d have an idea of what I’m talking about, if it was legal to do so.

In any case, of course it’s about money. If the song is catchy, it sells. Lyrics aren’t all that important. Think about all the people that like Nirvana out there. Now how many of them do you think actually know what the songs are about? I just don’t see what’s the point of grilling the industry over this. It’s not like it’s even real hip hop.

If they have a problem with lewd material during Much Music prime time, that’s something else. If they want to enforce a ratings system to protect minors from such crap, that’s something else. But it’s almost as if the reporter wanted the complete elimination of this genre. Somewhat anachronistic.

“Following up on an earlier story, the IIAA wants to add Canada to a blacklist of the worst intellectual property offenders. A powerful coalition of U.S. software, movie and music producers is urging the Bush administration to put Canada on an infamous blacklist of intellectual property villains, alongside China, Russia and Belize. ‘Canada’s chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections’, the International Intellectual Property Alliance complains in a submission to the U.S. government.” Full Story.

This is baloney. I don’t know about you, but when’s the last time you’ve ever seen anyone sell pirated DVDs on the streets? I sure haven’t. In fact, for the sake of research, I asked a cop that would be informed about such things. There was apparently a stall in this mall…. somewhere in Toronto. But he wasn’t sure.

I have seen pirated DVDs being sold in one country, however: the US of A. Yep, I was walking down a pretty prominent section of downtown New York City, and a guy was selling his pirated wares on a side alley. In daylight. In central Manhattan. But in Canada? I’ve yet to ever see an actual pirated copy. How dare they compare us to the likes of China, or Indonesia, countries in which legitimate goods are harder to find than their pirated equivalents.

And mod chips. “Piracy chips?” Hardly. More like “Unlock Chips.” This has nothing to do with piracy, it has to do with the ability to free consoles from the artificial lock-in of their manufacturer. Why? Well so that you can turn your NintendoDS into an IRC client, or an MP3 player. Cool stuff. Or heck – use an XBox to play a live audio stream for parties. Think about buying a computer, but it only allows you to run software from manufacturer X. Now if you change the hardware, so that it runs software from manufacturer X, Y, and Z, these guys want manufacturer X to be able to sue you.

Now granted, some of these chips are indeed used for the purposes of playing pirated games. I’m not denying this, and I think piracy should be stopped. But these mod chips, reguardless of their use, are too few in numbers to warrant this justification that Canada is a piracy haven. The whole situation is especially hypocritical since mod chips are just as prevalent in American markets – the law has done nothing to curb their use; or actually their distribution. So to use this as motive to prove that Canada is a cesspool of piracy is utter bullshit.

Oh and “it’s not illegal to camcord in Canada.” Bullcrap. You’re not allowed to do it in theaters. If you do it, and you’re not kicked out, it’s because the people working in the theatres are in cooperation with you. Laws have no impact over this. Am I against such a law? Not really. Do I think it’ll solve things? No, and as such is poor justification to warrant this labelling.

This is no more than an arm twisting tactic to force the imposition of laws. Laws which are not necessarily what’s best for the interest of the people (corporations included.) Want to have a debate over TPM/camcording/you-name-it legislation? GREAT! I’m all for that! Have qualified individuals from all camps to discuss their points in an elaborate manner. But I resent these hypocritical attempts to paint Canada in such a bad light, especially given that the US is in the same shape we are. They might have the laws, but they’re in no better shape.

As compared to general inflation, tuition fees have skyrocketed. We all know this. Meanwhile, while wages have increased, they haven’t reached anywhere near the levels necessary to match the same kind of lifestyle one could maintain back in the early nineties. Being a university student has never been harder.

People say we’re being gouged. Ask them by whoom, and they can’t answer. However, what is overlooked is that while tuition has increased, it has matched the inflating cost of running such institutions. It costs more to run universities these days. Why? Now that’s the million dollar question.

What I can tell you is that I’m frustrated at the lack of productivity that arises from oversimplifications of “students vs. big bad ________.” There are economic dynamics at play here that are far more complex, and that are not properly exposed to the general populace. It is these that we must understand, in order to enact the small shifts necessary to better the situation. Or at least understand how good the situation already is.

But no. People will instead focus on the path of least resistance, which is to banter and banter until the powers that be themselves react to the situation. That said, given the recent hikes in tuition, there’s not much promise there. It’s deceptive really, because the idea of making small changes to a complex dynamic is much more implementable than trying to influence the entire dynamic alltogether.

Seeing how Quebec manages to maintain their low tuitions seems like a good start.

Well, believe it or not, comment spam is a huge problem for this blog. At one point, I installed a small catchpa script (you know, those annoying boxes where you have to re-type an obfuscated mix of numbers and letters.) It worked – up until last month.

You see, spammers hire individuals to fill out these forms for them. It’s an automated process, and those that fill out the forms get fractions of a cent per completed form. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s viable in third world regions where there is access to cyber cafes.

These are the terms that are on my blacklist. If you type any of these words, your post will automatically be deleted. No moderation, just straight-out deleted. If anyone else has a new way of defeating these spammers, I’m all ears.

Blacklisted words:
emistry.com
forex
phentermine
casino
xanax
syntrax
71.104.7.176
59.92.39.221
72.197.80.212
206.222.30.2
69.93.240.143
207.226.172.18
66.98.134.34
analsex
195.225.176.84
69.61.29.218
38.96.1.97
68.87.64.106
http://www.axo.ho.com.ua
tramadol
phpbbx.de
freepowerboards
blogspot.com
.info