blog.aidanwalsh

"The internet seems to ignore legislation until somebody tries to take something away from us…..."

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:28:21 +0000

“

The internet seems to ignore legislation until somebody tries to take something away from us… then we carefully defend that one thing and never counter-attack. Then the other side says, “OK, compromise,” and gets half of what they want. That’s not the way to win… that’s the way to see a steady and continuous erosion of rights online.

The solution is to start lobbying for our own laws. It’s time to go on the offensive if we want to preserve what we’ve got. Let’s force the RIAA and MPAA to use up all their political clout just protecting what they have. Here are some ideas we should be pushing for:

* Elimination of software patents
* Legal fees paid by the loser in patent cases; non-practicing entities must post bond before they can file fishing expedition lawsuits
* Roll back length of copyright protection to the minimum necessary “to promote the useful arts.” Maybe 10 years?
* Create a legal doctrine that merely linking is protected free speech
* And ponies. We want ponies. We don’t have to get all this stuff. We merely have to tie them up fighting it, and re-center the “compromise” position.

”

- Joel Spolsky on Google+ bringing back an oft suggested but seemingly never implemented idea.

TJ McIntyre: Ireland's SOPA - An FAQ

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:12:32 +0000

TJ McIntyre: Ireland's SOPA - An FAQ:

What’s this all about?

Long story short: the Irish government plans, before the end of January, to bring in a law which would allow Irish courts to block access to websites accused of infringing copyright (and possibly do other things as well).

Isn’t that a short time for parliament to examine it?

The Irish parliament won’t have a chance to debate it before it’s passed. The law is to be brought in by a statutory instrument, something which requires only the stroke of a minister’s pen.

IT Law in Ireland: Adrian Weckler confims that "Ireland's SOPA" will be vague and open-ended

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:07:50 +0000

IT Law in Ireland: Adrian Weckler confims that "Ireland's SOPA" will be vague and open-ended:

The clear implication from his interview with Sean Sherlock is that the proposed measures will be lacking in any real detail, leaving it entirely up to the judges as to what types of blocking might emerge. (Possibly going beyond web blocking to also target hosting and other services.)

This is very worrying. As bad as SOPA And PIPA are, at the very least you could say that they had a clearly defined punishment should a website or business be found to be in contradiction to them. Sherlock has no such plan, instead wanting to wait and get a test case to measure the proportionality of a judges response against.

rten: “The Bark Side” Imperial March barked by a dog choire

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:03:40 +0000

rten:

“The Bark Side” Imperial March barked by a dog choire

"With half the internet blacked out in protest against SOPA on Wednesday, it’s worth knowing that the..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:15:54 +0000

“

With half the internet blacked out in protest against SOPA on Wednesday, it’s worth knowing that the self professed “Innovation Island” is about to publish its own law allowing music labels and other copyright holders to ban internet service providers from allowing their customers access to sites that (the copyright holders think) infringe their copyright. We’re about to get our own, local, Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA).

“Minister of State for Enterprise Seán Sherlock is to publish an order early in the new year that is expected to allow music publishers, film producers and other parties to go to court to prevent internet service providers from allowing their customers access to pirate websites.”

”

- Will Ireland block the Internet to save CDs? - newswhip.com

"A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:05:00 +0000

“A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to
stage this “blackout” to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.”

- Howard Gantman of the MPAA not at all missing the point.

Netflix quietly started accepting UK and Ireland memberships...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:40:06 +0000

Netflix quietly started accepting UK and Ireland memberships late last night. €6.99 per month, and the selection isn’t terrible. Pity about the 28-56 day delay for movies to reach streaming after the DVD release, but you’re going to get that on iTunes too.

Cobh, New Years Day 2012.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:03:00 +0000

Cobh, New Years Day 2012.

The teaser to Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi,...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:32:16 +0000

The teaser to Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi, Prometheus.

Next years blockbusters are looking great so far.

Twelve days after releasing his self produced Live At The Beacon...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:48:53 +0000

Twelve days after releasing his self produced Live At The Beacon Theatre as an experiment, Louis CK has hit a payoff of $1 million. And he’s giving most of it away.

So I’m breaking the million into four pieces.

the first 250k is going to pay back what the special cost to produce and the website to build.

The second 250k is going back to my staff and the people who work for me on the special and on my show. I’m giving them a big fat bonus.

The third 280k is going to a few different charities. They are listed below in case you’d like to donate to them also. Some of these i learned about through friends, some were reccomended through twitter.

The Fistula Foundation

The Pablove Foundation

charity: water

Kiva

Green Chimneys

That leaves me with 220k for myself. Some of that will pay my rent and will care for my childen. The rest I will do terrible, horrible things with and none of that is any of your business. In any case, to me, 220k is enough out of a million.

The Man Who Slipped On The Ice One year on from the now...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:12:48 +0000

The Man Who Slipped On The Ice

One year on from the now infamous scene on an RTE News report, a documentary team catches up with the most popular weather casualty in Ireland.

The first trailer for The Hobbit, due for release next...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:43:25 +0000

The first trailer for The Hobbit, due for release next year.

Hard to believe that the first Lord of the Rings movie was released 10 years ago last Monday here in Ireland.

laughingsquid: Vampire Bash, A 5 Second Long Animated Story

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:16:44 +0000

laughingsquid:

Vampire Bash, A 5 Second Long Animated Story

And now, an important safety message.

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:41:05 +0000

And now, an important safety message.

Target Practise (via The Doghouse Diaries)

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:40:06 +0000

Target Practise (via The Doghouse Diaries)

laughingsquid: William Shatner Covers Bohemian...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:23:42 +0100

laughingsquid:

William Shatner Covers Bohemian Rhapsody

Shatner does Bohemian Rhapsody.

I don’t know which is worse, the track or the video.

usersillusions: OmniTouch - a collaboration between Carnegie...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:09:08 +0100

usersillusions:

OmniTouch - a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft, is a pretty neat wearable computing prototype allowing multitouch interaction across many surfaces. It can also use surface vector distribution to switch between public and private mode allowing for context sensitive applications.

laughingsquid: Mega Super Store

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:35:52 +0100

laughingsquid:

Mega Super Store

Serious data security vulnerability discovered in latest HTC Android systems

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:36:23 +0100

Serious data security vulnerability discovered in latest HTC Android systems:

New logging tools introduced by HTC are exposing a massive amount of private data to any application that requests access to the internet.

Logging out of Facebook is not enough

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:55:56 +0100

Logging out of Facebook is not enough:

rten:

If you’re concerned of privacy remember that just logging out of Facebook is not enough, you can be tracked while you’re logged out. Whether this is being done in reality is something we can only speculate on.

Nic Cubrilovic: The primary cookies that identify me as a user are still there (act is my account number), even though I am looking at a logged out page. Logged out requests still send nine different cookies, including the most important cookies that identify you as a user

This is not what ‘logout’ is supposed to mean - Facebook are only altering the state of the cookies instead of removing all of them when a user logs out.

With my browser logged out of Facebook, whenever I visit any page with a Facebook like button, or share button, or any other widget, the information, including my account ID, is still being sent to Facebook. The only solution to Facebook not knowing who you are is to delete all Facebook cookies.