Understanding the internet

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johannhari101
If you're looking for class war, you can find it - in David Cameron's policies http://bit.ly/aSGzZs

Censorship hides behind the great Australian firewall

Our digital future is being decided by idiots!

(Click to enlarge)

From the you'd-have-to-laugh-or-you'd-have-to-shoot-yourself department:

The Right Honourable Stephen Timms is the UK's "Minister for Digital Britain." He's the guy behind the Digital Economy Bill, which makes the US DMCA look good by comparison. Seriously, this is some terrible, terrible lawmaking.

Here's what appears to be a letter the DigiMini sent to another MP, explaining why the Digital Economy Bill needs to go forward. It reads, in part, "Copyright owners are currently able to go on-line (sic), look for material to which they hold the copyright and identify unauthorised sources for that material. They can then seek to download a copy of that material and in so doing capture information about the source including the Intellectual Property (IP) address..."

If this letter is genuine (and it seems to be), it means that the guy who's in charge of Britain's digital future thinks that the "IP" in "IP address" stands for "Intellectual Property."

Cory Doctorow (again) @'Boing Boing'

NYT ethicist: OK to pirate ebooks once you've bought the hardcover

Randy Cohen, author of the New York Times's The Ethicist column, was asked to venture an opinion on whether it's OK to download a pirate ebook after you've bought the hardcover. He says it's ethical, even if it's illegal: 

"An illegal download is -- to use an ugly word -- illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical. Author and publisher are entitled to be paid for their work, and by purchasing the hardcover, you did so. Your subsequent downloading is akin to buying a CD, then copying it to your iPod. Buying a book or a piece of music should be regarded as a license to enjoy it on any platform. Sadly, the anachronistic conventions of bookselling and copyright law lag the technology. Thus you've violated the publishing company's legal right to control the distribution of its intellectual property, but you've done no harm or so little as to meet my threshold of acceptability."

Cory Doctorow @'Boing Boing'

Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch

Bar 303 Northcote Tonight - Oxfam Benefit Gig

	Friday, 09 April 2010 at 19:30
End Time:	Saturday, 10 April 2010 at 01:00
Location:	303
Street:	high st
Town/City:	Northcote, Australia
	View map

Description

The Oxfam Trailwalker team of Tia, Ingram, Marte and Tim, whose powers combined, create 'Connex won't get us there', are proud to present a night of great music.

We are very lucky to have some fantastically enjoyable musicians doing their thing all in the name of a good cause, these include:

Saskwatch - http://www.myspace.com/saskwatchmusic
Saskwatch is a nine-piece collective of young Melbourne musicians playing original Soul, Hip-hop and Funk.

Sophia Exiner - http://www.myspace.com/sophiaxband
Sophia Exiner plays heartfelt songs about love, life and cups of tea.

Right Hand Foot - http://www.myspace.com/righthandfoot
Right Hand Foot is a dirty rock experience infusing dance, grunge, blues and folk influences into their raw rock 'n roll music.

Dan Musil + Friends - http://www.myspace.com/bitofadan
"Mesmerising lap steel guitar & honest original songwiting- your toes will soon tap the heartbeat". To be joined by the sublime David Grant & Jarred Shay.

Also there will be super cool DJ’s spinning a tune or two when the chance arises.

The cost is $10 paid at the door, with 100% proceeds going to Oxfam.

For our part we are foolishly walking 100km in 48 hours to help raise funds for Oxfam’s brilliant work around the globe.

This is what your $10 can supply: provide basic medical supplies for one month for a person living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Hmm, not much to contemplate really.

If for some vaguely plausable reason you can't make it on the night, please do not let this stop you getting behind the team. You can donate online at https://secure.oxfam.org.au/donate/twpaymentevent.php?TeamID=7380&eventstate=VIC

DISCLAIMER:

 That is son#1 impersonating Ringo Starr in the pic above!

The Look

Kim Gordon: Noise Paintings

New York
April 8 - May 8

God's Pee return

HERE

Important

@'iruntheinternet'

Anarchy in the UK

I used to have this poster for the Apollo in Glasgow (a gig that never took place!)

Making a movement

If there's one or two things I've learned from mucking about with brand participation ideas they are as follows.Whatever it is we want people to do it neads to be as easy as possible to participate and the quicker we can make it appear to onlookers that it's a good idea they need to get involved with, the better.

This doesn't mean it has to be a familiar idea.
In fact the more unfamiliar or innovative the idea is then the initial hipsters and 'early adopters', if you like, are more likely to have their interest piqued.

At that point it then becomes 'safe', or 'social proof' emerges, then the slightly more cautious are able to dip their toes in.

This is crucial because a participation idea needs to be 'in public'. The 'outsiders' don't see just the leaders, they mostly see the the followers, new recruits follow the followers, kind of thing, not just the the leaders.

Pondering this I recall a story from Bernie Rhodes (I think it was him).

Rhodes managed The Clash back in the day and was in cahoots with Malcolm Mclaren (Sex Pistols) and Jake Riviera (the unsung 3rd man of the original emergent UK punk scene, and erstwhile manager of The Damned).

Between the three of them they realised that to create a movement that initial 'social proof' needed to be apparent.

One band could not do it on their own, but 3 bands...

Do the arithmetic.

3 bands (Pistols, Clash, Damned) each with four members.
Say each band member has five 'friends', thats 60 people minimum.

So a triple header gig in a small strip joint in Soho has an instant crowd of 60 or so likeminded bods, to any waif or stray thats wandered in off the street it immediately looks like 'something' is happening.

As more people decide to join in it's no longer a risk, if they 'get it' no reason not to join in now, and the codes, language, style is all there for them.
It's very easy to participate.

We are a we-species after all.

And there's your movement. 

Easy in principle but the hard part is having the guts and purpose to innovate in the first place, because if it's not interesting and worth the effort to join in, there will be no takers.Malcolm, Bernie and Jake, my mentors ;)

 Eaon Pritchard @'Never Get Out Of The Boat'

(Thanx Stan!)

Dogmop - For Fifi XXX