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Law

The Good Lobbyists?

Published on 15 February, 2010 in Inspirations View Comments

I guess if it’s in favour of an health reform or greener factories, I am in pro lobbying. Or at least, I feel it’s not that bad.

“As Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus is one of the most instrumental lawmakers in crafting the health care reform that President Barack Obama has promised. In his many years on the committee, Baucus has amassed a wealth of connections to the health care and insurance industries, often through his ties to former staffers turned lobbyists.

The five former Baucus staffers who now lobby for the health care or insurance interests represent twenty-seven different companies or associations. In some cases these lobbyists have the same clients. This map of connections expose how close the many organizations seeking influence on health care reform are to one of the most powerful players in Washington.”

All data was taken from OpenSecrets.org.

The Max Baucus Health Care Lobbyist Complex

(via Visual Complexity)

Fahrenheit 451… Book burning as done by lawyers

Published on 12 January, 2010 in Inspirations View Comments

Fahrenheit 451… Book burning as done by lawyers:

“January 1st 2010 — and every January 1st – is public domain day, the day we celebrate the entry of copyrighted works into the public domain.  In the United States no published work will pass into the public domain tomorrow — nor the next year, nor any year until 2019.  (If you lived in Europe you might now be celebrating the release of the works of Freud or Yeats.)  Thus, we have little to celebrate, and many costs to mourn.  Its sad to look at the works that could be entering the public domain today.”

Monday’s Tune Special: Life on Mars?

Published on 2 March, 2009 in Monday's Tune View Comments

Arcade Fire & David Bowie – Life On Mars? (Live at Fashion Rocks) Get Adobe Flash player

Greetings!

Life on Mars? is one of David Bowie‘s best and most moving songs. Appeared for the first time on the album Hunky Dory from 1973, BBC Radio 2 later called “a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dalí painting”.  The attached version is a recorded performance of David Bowie together with Arcade Fire (featured last week) at Fashion Rocks on 8th September, 2005 in New York. [click to continue…]

My Dissertation

Published on 5 December, 2008 in Projects & Writings View Comments

This is my dissertation “The Freedom to Create & Creating freedom”. It was written as part of my final year project for BA Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins College in 2006.

A lot of the ideas came to me from reading Lawrence Lessig blog posts and books, as well as the work of The Creative Commons.

I’ve uploaded the PDF to Issuu.com, Scribd, and you can view it here, or you can download and share the PDF (908 kb).

The Freedom to Create and Creating Freedom

This work is presented with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 – you are free to share and remix the work, under the conditions that you will give credit and distribute the result under the same license.

How did I change?

Published on 26 January, 2008 in Writings View Comments

I took this test few years ago, when I joined StumbleUpon. I haven’t logged in to the site in a few years, until today, when I saw my result  and I decided to take the test again.

Its interesting to see the differences in me, from being creative to becoming managerial. Funnily, it happened in my job too…

Zohar in 2008:

ESTP (Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving)

content, emotionally stable, outgoing, social, group oriented, finisher, does not like to be alone, open, decisive, likes external praise, likes to be center of attention, frequently joking, adjusts easily, likes crowds, self confident, neutral moods, good at getting people to have fun, disorganized, messy, talented at presentation, not easily annoyed, does not like to be alone, enjoys crude jokes, likes to lead, likes sports, more likely to come off as masculine, risk taker, tends to dominate conversations, fearless, can handle criticism, hard to discourage

Favoured careers:

ceo, sports management, fighter pilot, marketing specialist, business manager, race car driver, supervisor, economist, airline pilot, bar owner, consultant, cia agent, security specialist, technician, businessman, mechanical engineer, public relations specialist, coach, manager, marketing director, sales associate, mechanic, politician, publicist

Disfavoured careers:
poet, artist, art teacher, novelist, bookstore owner, graphics designer, museum curator, librarian, freelance writer, author, florist, painter, school psychologist, songwriter, musician, professional college student, editor, philosopher, english professor

Zohar in 2005:

INFP (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving)

creative, smart, idealist, loner, attracted to sad things, disorganized, avoidant, can be overwhelmed by unpleasant feelings, prone to quitting, prone to feelings of loneliness, ambivalent of the rules, solitary, daydreams about people to maintain a sense of closeness, focus on fantasies, acts without planning, low self confidence, emotionally moody, can feel defective, prone to lateness, likes esoteric things, wounded at the core, feels shame, frequently losing things, prone to sadness, prone to dreaming about a rescuer, disorderly, observer, easily distracted, does not like crowds, can act without thinking, private, can feel uncomfortable around others, familiar with the darkside, hermit, more likely to support marijuana legalization, can sabotage self, likes the rain, sometimes can’t control fearful thoughts, prone to crying, prone to regret, attracted to the counter culture, can be submissive, prone to feeling discouraged, frequently second guesses self, not punctual, not always prepared, can feel victimized, prone to confusion, prone to irresponsibility, can be pessimistic

Favoured careers:
poet, painter, freelance artist, musician, writer, art therapist, teacher (art, music, drama), songwriter, art historian, library assistant, composer, work in the perfoming arts, art curator, playwrite, bookseller, cartoonist, video editor, photographer, philosopher, record store owner, digital artist, cinematographer, costume designer, film producer, philosophy professor, librarian, music therapist, enviromentalist, movie director, activist, bookstore owner, filmmaker

Disfavoured careers:
business professional, manager, executive, administrator, business owner, supervisor, office manager, business analyst, financial analyst, public relations manager, ceo, executive assistant, judge, event coordinator, lawyer, office worker

Smartphones patented — A minute later everyone got sued

Published on 26 January, 2008 in Media+Tech & Writings View Comments

Could it be right? It almost sounds like a joke.

For me, it is just another point to prove how ridiculous the world, and more accurately, the capitalist world, has become.

Slashdot reported that US Patent and Trademark Office issued a really broad patent for a “mobile entertainment and communication device“.

“It’s a patent for a mobile phone with removable storage, an internet connection, a camera and the ability to download audio or video files. The patent holding firm who has the rights to this patent wasted no time at all. At 12:01am Tuesday morning, it filed three separate lawsuits against just about everyone you can think of, including Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, ATT, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, Samsung and a bunch of others. Amusingly, the company actually first filed the lawsuits on Monday, but realized it was jumping the gun and pulled them, only to refile just past the stroke of midnight. “

Did anyone ever patented the wheel? I need to check that. Could be a good way to pay my student debt.

Stop DRM – another right is lost!

Published on 24 September, 2006 in Writings View Comments

From Wikipedia:

Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is any of several technologies used by publishers (or copyright owners) to control access to and usage of digital data (such as software, music, movies) and hardware, handling usage restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work.

The producers of films and music are trying to keep the rights to their own. Slowly government rules are taking place, forbidding the right to copy digital work, even if its for personal purposes.
Lately, a bill has passed in France, known as DADVSI (in English: “law on authors’ rights and related rights in the information society”).

Most of the bill focuses on the repression of the exchange of copyrighted works over peer-to-peer networks and the criminalizing of the circumvention of DRM protection measures. The law… could significantly hamper free software, and also may significantly restrict the right to make copies of copyrighted works for private use.

StopDRM, (translated, original page here), a group of French activists are calling against the law.

After the adoption of law DADVSI by the government, greatest confusion reigns: the users of peer-to-peer received the insurance of the Minister for the culture which justice will be lenient, but the members of the StopDRM Collective worry for the consumers, who “do not pirate” but buy the music and films: what will arrive to them, now that the law was promulgated, if they circumvent the DRM for the legitimate use of works? And if they say it and inform the population? Are they assured them also any leniency?

3 members of the group have stepped forward. They went to the police to get arrested under the slogan “A lawsuit is wanted“.

The three have bought the original work of either music from iTunes or DVDs and transferred them to their portable media players by circumventing the code, thus breaking the law. One of them even have created a page Internet explaining how to remove the DRM of a protected bought work so that everyone can transfer its pieces on its portable player. While waiting for the response of the legal authorities, this page is accessible to all and is on http://drm.mediaarea.net.
The third, for its part, used a free software to read a DVD under GNU/Linux.

All of the three are about to face charges. The police officer was thinking that they are kidding with him, but at some point he discovered that they are right – this is illegal.

They most probably are facing sanctions of 3.750 euros fine for deliberated use with technical measurements realized by a Net surfer by his own means, six months of imprisonment and 30.000 euros fine for the provider of means of skirting, which acts in a deliberated way.

The problem is not the fact that you can do it at home, and nobody will know, but the fact that it is illegal to do so. A similar law is already applied in the US, and sooner or later, will take place in most of the countries in the world.
Ripping a DVD that I bought in order to save a copy of it at home or to be able to transfer it to a portable device and breaking the DRM of a song I bought from iTunes in order to play it on a non Apple device are my rights.

Lately, microsoft have released their own portable player, Zune, which is applying DRM to every song and video which is transferred to it, even if the title is under a GNU or a Creative Commons licence (of which, its against the licence to apply DRM).

The fight has only just begun.