Good news! I’m really pleased to see that work is in progress to start adapting the Creative Commons licenses to the Australian legal system. Respect to Tom Cochrane, Brian Fitzgerald and Ian Oi and all who are working on it.
Look, this trade deal will bring on a host of legal changes that will make our lives worse. In the Intellectual Property area, it looks like we will end up with new laws that will sacrifice our rights for those of the big global copyright holders.
And bye-bye multi-region DVD players, I bet.
I think you and I need to work on our Senators to make sure the enabling legislation does not get through our senate.
Here’s a quote from the informative press release from Electronic Frontiers Australia:
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today expressed dismay about the intellectual property clauses of the recently announced Free Trade Agreement with the United States of America, saying they would leave average Australians at the mercy of legal action from multinational media companies, and represent a massive step backwards for Australian Intellectual Property law.
“The United States has one of the worst systems of intellectual property laws in the world.” said EFA board member Dale Clapperton. “Their Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been widely condemned by civil liberties and users groups throughout the world, and now the Howard government has committed itself to implementing its worst, most insidious provisions.”
Congratulations to ABC Reporter Leigh Sales for putting her finger on the big issue re: Janet Jackson’s alleged “wardrobe malfunction” in the US Superbowl Half-time show:
While the nation’s in uproar over the appearance of Janet Jackson’s breast on TV for two seconds, a study by the National Coalition on Television Violence shows that American children witness 8,000 murders on TV by the time they finish primary school.
Full transcript from the ABC World Today website.
Global Trade Watch is a new Australian group campaigning for democratic, environmentally sustainable and people-centred trading systems.
I like it. Democratic, Environmentally Sustainable, People-Centred trading systems. Sounds like the future to me.
From Reconciliation Australia’s “Australia Day for Indigenous Australians”
For many Indigenous Australians 26 January is an occasion to reflect on past loss and suffering.
There are also people in the wider community who share these mixed feelings about our national day and they are keen to acknowledge that Australia Day evokes a variety of emotions.
Today, organisers of Australia Day events are more mindful of Indigenous heritage and culture, and of the continuing problems faced in Indigenous communities.
Our national day is an important annual opportunity to recognise the honoured place of Indigenous Australians in our nation’s history, and to promote understanding, respect and reconciliation.
It is also a time for each Australian to think about our identity, the many aspects of Australian life that give us pride and areas where we have the opportunity to make the nation stronger for the future.
These reflections are individual and special to each Australian.
I’ve spent the day wearing my well-worn Coexistence t-shirt and thinking a lot about what being Australian means to me. I’ve really had enough of the fireworks and the triumphant ra-ra patriotism.
Our government is locking up refugees for years at a time. Locking up people for running away from oppression and murder.
Our government will not attempt reconciliation with Indigenous Australians.
Our government will not say sorry for past wrongs to the original inhabitants of Australia, who were pushed aside when Australia was occupied.
If we fix some of these things, then I’d find something to celebrate on Jan 26.
Our silly old government is off pursuing a “Free Trade Agreement” with the United States.
Like we need it.
At its best it will make a lot of complicated trade rules we don’t need.
At it’s worst it will accelerate the Americanisation of Australia.
Register your oppositon at the Vote No the the FTA site.
The latest possible date for our next federal election is Saturday 16th April 2005.
Sometime before that, we get to decide the direction of our nation for another 3 years.
It is time for a change away from fearful conservatism.
We yet another big coastal development sprawl proposed on our beautiful coastline.
SaveMooreRiver.org is a community group aiming to limit the scope of this development:
The Moore River empties into the Indian Ocean at Guilderton. Guilderton, a very small town (permanent population around 150) is built on the North bank of this pristine river system. Although the town is small, The Moore River area is enjoyed by tens of thousands of holiday makers every year. Moore River is a beautiful, unspoilt wilderness that is only an hour’s drive from Perth.
The Developer has plans to turn this area into more urban sprawl with a development consisting of around 7000 houses on the tongue of land between the River and sea on the South side of the Moore River.
It is a pity that our communities, with only their own resources, have to fight to control rampant developments. Where is the government support for the community groups?
Anyway, these folk need your support. Have a look at the website to see how you can help.
We all secretly know deep down that us affluent first-worlders are living beyond the means of the planet just by living our normal first-world lives, driving a car, and buying and having and using and throwing out lots and lots of stuff.
So, how about making a resolution of two to make your existence more sustainable and your ecological footprint smaller in the new year? Here are some ideas:
Offset CO2 emissions from your car
Burning petrol or gas releases CO2 into the atmosphere. However, by planting enough trees, you can remove an equivalent amount of CO2 from the atmosphere. In Australia, for $30 per year, Greenfleet will plant and maintain 17 native trees that while growing should absorb the CO2 generated by your car in normal use.
Buy sustainably generated (renewable) power
Ask you electricity retailer to sell you renewable power or green power. In Western Australia, Western Power have two Green Energy products to choose from.
Make a committment to using public transport
Stop driving around in a car, and take on public transport instead. You save money and gain time by doing this, and make a more sustainable life for yourself. Also, somebody else is driving for you, so you can concentrate on other things. And you get exercise doing this as well. In Western Australia, see the TravelSmart site for support and details.
Focus on Less
Make a conscious commitment to buying less stuff. We fill our lives with many unnecessary or superfluous things, and then need to maintain and store them. If you never acquire them in the first place, you save money, energy and materials. If you want to get conscious and political about your consumption, have a look at The Media Foundation’s Buy Nothing Day site.
Creative Commons have a new flash presentation that talks about the first year of the amazing creative commons license. It is called Reticulum Rex or is that Remix Culture.
Very clever, very inspiring. Doesn’t look like anybody is adapting the licenses for Australian law yet. This is something we should get onto. Know any good Australian Copyright lawyers?
Back a few years ago the barking owls got deeply involved in Adbusters’ Buy Nothing Day. We had a lot of fun with that, and got a lot of joy out of creating one of the most popular features on barkingowl.com apart from the flash on our home page, the Big Love Gift Guide. The Big Love Gift Guide is all about giving and sharing ideas about how to gift gifts of love rather than expensive gifts.
Buy Nothing Christmas addresses Christmas gift-giving directly, trying to de-commercialise Christmas:
Buy Nothing Christmas is a national initiative started by Canadian Mennonites who offer a prophetic “no” to the patterns of over-consumption of middle-class North Americans
They have some good alternate gift ideas here too.
The Chinese President Hu Jintao has arrived in Australia, and seems like everybody in Australia is lining up to be friends with China.
But what about the occupation of Tibet? Hey?
The Australian Tibet Council is looking for donations of $100 to help place a full-page ad in the Australian to encourage The Chinese President into dialog with the Dalai Lama on the future of Tibet.
Here’s the partial text of the draft ad:
To the President of China, Mr Hu Jinta – a message from AustraliansWe, the undersigned, welcome you to Australia and wish you a successful and pleasant visit.
We are encouraged by China?s recent steps in regards to the situation in Tibet, in particular the re-establishment of contact between the Dalai Lama?s envoys and Chinese government.
We call on you to build on this initial contact and engage in a substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama and his representatives about Tibet’s future.
Mr Hu Jintao, please speak to the Dalai Lama
There is a tasty interview with Michael Moore in the Guardian online.
In a long interview, he talks at length about his Academy Award speech, Bush, Iraq, Blair, the end of democracy in the US and a whole range of other things.
Just home from seeing Billy Bragg and the Blokes.
He’s got it so right.
He supports Democratic Socialism, he says, because you can’t talk about Socialism any more without spending a whole lots of words saying that it doesn’t have to be totalitarian or Stalin. And, we need a society with Compassion as a core value. Things like that.
And he gave us a lot, a long set, a lot of good song and humour. Nice to come away uplifted.
The BBC will soon be providing a set of tools for activists in their quests to be heard and seen on issues in the UK, according to Wired News. The idea is a that activist groups can acess tools they need for their campaigns from a BBC-sponsored website, to be called iCan.
BBC reporters will be able to easily find the activists and find out what is going on.
Combine this with Cisco’s embedded eavesdropping tools and you have a law enforcement surveillance picnic with an activist honeypot.
New democracy? I don’t think so.