Hitler orders a DMCA takedown

The entertainment mafia Hitler orders a DMCA takedown.

Hitler, as "Downfall producer" orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.

Cleanternet

Offering some "support" to EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström, a firm believer in censorship and the useful idiot of the entertainment mafia:


Found on idg.se

UN abandons human rights - embraces copyrights

There's really no other way to interpret this statement. The United Nations has sold out to the entertainment mafia, abandoning ideals of human rights enforcement and instead embracing the tyrannic fight for stronger copyright enforcement. I'm using the word instead because these two rights don't go very well together. A tighter enforcement of copyright does mean sacrificing human rights.

Way to go ruining your credibility, UN.

Found the link through futuriteter.

You want some plague to go with that cholera?

The upcoming general election in Sweden is already turning into quite a bizarre spectacle, with 5 months left of campaigning.

The socialist coalition are working incredibly hard on ruining people's economy, making what kan only be defined as threats to increase taxed across the board should they be elected:

• Increased income tax (as if 56,7 percent isn't enough...)
• Increase fuel taxes (because clearly, in an effort to make it less profitable to work only raising the income tax isn't enough, the actual travel to work should also be punished!)
• Increase the payroll tax (you didn't think only the employee should be punished for working, did you?)
• Increase alcohol and tobacco taxes (God forbid you should be allowed to enjoy a drink after a hard day's labour)
• Restore the hopelessly outdated wealth tax (making sure companies as well as people move their wealth abroad - we don't want those rich bastards living in socialist Sweden!)
• Restore the arbitary and unfair housing tax (also known as the "Stockholm tax", because obviously it should be considered a crime to live in or near such an expensive city and spend all your money on that several million kronor mortgage)
• Introduce a new "energy" tax on the horribly polluting hydropower (well, actually the reasoning seems to be that the energy companies have a healthy profit, and the socialist coalition feels its only natural to introduce special taxes to get a bigger share of that profit - I guess a phone company tax, a lawyer tax or a property broker tax is next, and we all know who will get the bill in the end - the consumers)

Meanwhile the non-socialist coalition, "Alliansen", are hell-bent on finding new ways to strip the public of the last shreds of personal integrity and freedom:

• Random drug tests in school (clearly giving the police mandate to perform drug tests on kids without parent's permission wasn't enough)
• Publishing pictures of suspected criminals (because apparently the stigmata of sending purple letters to the families of suspected sex buyers wasn't enough...)

Not to mention all the disgusting laws that have been passed already during the last 4 years.

Of course, the socialists aren't friends of freedom and integrity either, supporting the new and oppressive laws that have been passed during the non-socialist government, the FRA-law, the data retention directive and the Ipred-law. They've even suggested every kid in school should get a "personal police officer" watching over them, making sure they don't do any mistakes (you know, being out partying on a Saturday night), and accepting any incriminating information they might have on other kids, in effect creating a society based on fear and squealing.

So the question is really, would you like some plague to go with that cholera, or is cholera enough? I'd like neither, thank you so much.

I noticed blogger Ravenna shares my views on some of this insanity. A post well worth reading.

Oops...I made a mistake

Well, color me embarrased. Here I was ranting about the delayed delivery date of my new phone, and it turns out it's at the post office at this very moment, ready for me to pick it up only 2 days after I placed the order. I don't know why PC City wanted to scare me like that, putting expected delivery dates next week in my confirmation mail, but I guess an apology is in place nevertheless.

Sorry, PC City! I'll try to ignore the expected delivery date next time and be a bit more patient.

To fly or not to fly

I guess the last week's turbulence (no pun intended) over the volcano on Iceland is good for one thing: It clearly shows which airline carriers are serious and thrustworthy, taking care of their travellers, and which ones are merely a joke that should be avoided whenever possible. According to this article on SvD the list is as follows:

The good:
SAS - covering costs for travellers within the EU for an indefinite period of time, and 48 hours for travellers outside of the EU.
Lufthansa - covering costs for travellers for an indefinite period of time, worldwide.
British Airways - covering costs for travellers for an indefinite period of time, worldwide.

The bad:
Ryanair - as expected, violating EU regulations and cover no costs at all.
Finnair - takes the Ryanair approach, violating EU regulations and covering no costs.
Air France - only cover costs for travellers who were en-route and got stuck in Paris???

So, there you are. Food for thought when booking your next holiday.

Steve Jobs: "Want freedom? Buy Android"

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs people who want porn or political satire should choose an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Because Apple has a "moral responsibility". You know, just like those Iranian priests have a "moral responsibility" to ban anything they find morally offensive (which is basically everything). In addition Jobs bans applications that are too similar to functionality already found in the iPhone, or applications that could perhaps in some way maybe be used to perform copyright infringement. Or applications he just doesn't like.

So I couldn't agree more with Jobs, if you want freedom on your phone instead of a "moral police" filtering out applications that they deem "inappropriate" for whatever reason, go buy an Android phone. I did.

Photo: barockschloss

What's worse - ignorance or incompetence?

I don't know what to say. Apparently Sweden is represented by a deaf, dumb and blind guy in the much criticized Acta talks. According to this moron, Stefan Johansson from the Department of Justice (!!!), there's nothing peculiar about the Acta agreement. They're not out to fight non-commercial file-sharing or any other small scale copyright infringements. We can all rest peacefully knowing that our personal integrity and civil liberties will be well taken care of.

– Ja, så är det, dokumentet tar sikte på mer omfattande intrång. Acta tar inte specifikt sikte på fildelning utan på fysiska produkter.

Yeah, right. Either Mr. Johansson has been spending most of his time sleeping during these talks, or he's just hopelessly incompetent. I don't know what is worse. Actabloggen has made a preliminary summary of the recently released documents, and they're not exactly painting a nice picture:

• 
  
  Customs officials will have the right to search through your luggage for any kind of pirated goods, including searching through your electronic devices looking for pirated content.
• 
  
  The "mere conduit" principle will cease to exist, and the ISP's will be held liable for what their users do on the web. In order to avoid liability they will be forced to filter web-pages pointed out by the entertainment mafia to contain infringing material, and they will be forced to terminate user accounts based on allegations from the very same mafia, effectively introducing not only a 3 strikes, but a 1 strike regime!
• 
  
  The most grotesque part is that all these measures are effectively bypassing the code of law. There's no right to have one's case tried by the court of law, there's no presumption of being innocent until proven guilty, it's basically the entertainment mafia playing judge and jury.

I'm guessing we'll see a lot more evil appearing as the Acta agreement is dissected by the community.

Links:
- ArsTechnica has a comprehensive analysis of the entire process behind Acta.
- IDG.se has a few words (in Swedish), although not very comprehensive at all.
- Europaportalen.se (also in Swedish) lets a couple of critical voices be heard.
- Christian Engström, Pirate Party politician and member of the EU parliament, gives his view on the 3 strikes threat.

Photo: chaouki

Who's trying to control the web?

Google have just released this nice little tool showing us which country's governments have made requests for Google to release user data, and who has made requests to have information removed from the web.

"Of course many of these requests are entirely legitimate, such as requests for the removal of child pornography. We also regularly receive requests from law enforcement agencies to hand over private user data. Again, the vast majority of these requests are valid and the information needed is for legitimate criminal investigations. However, data about these activities historically has not been broadly available. We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship."

googleblog

Goddamn delivery dates!!!

As I'm in desperate need of a new phone I just placed an order for an HTC Desire. As usual I consulted the price comparison website http://www.prisjakt.nu/ before deciding where to buy, and it all looked good. Several well-known shops had it in store, and I chose PC City.

Nothing on PC City's website led me to believe anything else than the phone being in stock, so I clicked "Köp" and went ahead.

The order confirmation shows up in my e-mail, and...what the hell... "Expected date in stock 2010-04-26" - in almost a week??? Well why the hell didn't you say so before I ordered the phone? Why wasn't your stupid website updated with the words "temporarily out of stock"? And why didn't http://www.prisjakt.nu/ show a red symbol next to your listing of the phone?

Gaaaah...this annoys me way beyond what words can express. If there's anything I hate it's waiting.

Another rigged referendum coming up...

The huge and desperately needed infrastructure project Förbifart Stockholm is being questioned by the socialist opposition in Stockholm, contrary to previous promises, and they promise to let the people decide through a referendum provided they win the upcoming elections.

We all know how well that went the last time Stockholmers were asked for their honest opinion: The question on the voting slip was tendentious to say the least ("Miljöavgifter/trängselskatt innebär att avgifter tas ut i biltrafiken i syfte att minska köer och förbättra miljön. Intäkterna återförs till Stockholmsregionen för investeringar i kollektivtrafik och vägar.") and interestingly enough only the votes of those living in or in the immediate vicinity of the city center were counted. You know, those who are within walking distance or a short ride on the subway from everything. Those who see the car only as an annoyance.

So given this great track record in referendums I'm guessing we'll see yet another rigged referendum coming up after the elections. How about the following alternatives on the voting slip:

• "I believe in preserving the nature and not to destroy the future for my children _ " or
• "I am a selfish bastard who wants to build nasty, polluting roads and contribute to the destruction of the planet _"

Furthermore, I'm assuming only the votes of those living in the center of Stockholm, and particularly of those who do not own a car themselves, will be counted. Anyone wanna guess the outcome?

Still wonder why?

If you're still wondering why you should boycott the entertainment mafia, this is it (article in English here). Considering how this industry has influenced politicians throughout the world to adopt the most bizarre laws, and how some of this ridiculous suggestions are actually being seriously discussed in the Acta talks you can be damn sure that they will show up in one form or another pretty soon.

Every penny you spend on a CD or DVD, or going to the movies, is one penny that this destructive industry will spend on deteriorating the freedom and personal integrity of people all around the world. Stop feeding the monster.

Don't you dare play any music!

Playing music on the radio has been banned in Somalia. Yet another destructive scheme by the seemingly unstoppable entertainment mafia, Sony BMG, Warner & associates? You'd think, but this time it's actually radical islamists coming to the industry's "rescue". If it isn't one it's the other, all working together with great efforts to ruin the modern society.

Crime pays

In case you're wondering, crime does pay, provided you're high enough up in the food chain. The property director of the City of Stockholm, Torbjörn Johansson, has personally been certifying more or less phony invoices on purchaces and trips he's allegedly made himself contrary to the applicable regulations.

This jerk has wasted over 200.000 SEK of taxpayer's money in only 1,5 years of working as a property director, and for that he receives a dishonorary discharge AND a whoopping 2 years salary in severance pay - amounting to 2 million kronor, also taxpayer's money. You would think that severance agreement would include a clause on fraud, but apparently the bright minds at the City of Stockholm didn't think so.

Photo borrowed from Fastighetssverige.se

No 3rd party app support = fail

Oh dear. Microsoft have once again followed in Google's footsteps and released their own line of cell phones. Unfortunately the similarities end there. The Google-phone, Nexus One, is a full-blown smart phone packed with bells and whistles, gadgets and widgets here and there, and with the option to download as many 3rd party apps as your heart desires through the Android app-store.

The Microsoft Kin One and Two, on the other hand, are basically toys, apparently running some strange version of the upcoming Windows Phone OS (?) that seems unable to accomodate 3rd party apps. Yes, believe it or not, that's what they say. Meaning you're stuck with your built-in twitter and facebook app, more or less the only thing these phones contain.

I don't know about you, but unless these useless little gadgets are given away for free I'm not interested.

No spam, please!

What part of my "Ej reklam, tack" sign doesn't my stupid mailman understand? I don't want any unsolicited junk in my mailbox, and that includes spam from various political parties who have already started the election campaign for this year's elections. Only yesterday two unsolicited and utterly pointless brochures, from Kristdemokraterna and Socialdemokraterna, ended up in my mail. If you insist on ruining the rain forest printing this shit that's your business, but keep me out of it, please!

Taliban loves iPhone

The Taliban apparently loves Apple's iPhone. Perhaps they feel Apple's ideology goes well with their own? You know, a totalitarian view of the world where one strong and unquestionable leader tells you exactly what to think, what to do (and most importantly in Apple's case, what NOT to do) and exactly how to do it in the most limiting and narrow-minded way?

Something tells me the Taliban are not huge fans of the more democratic approaches of open standards, interoperability and compatibility.