[LINK] political action for 'pirates', and against

[Jan Whitaker]

An anonymous reader writes "Due to outrage over 
the verdict in The Pirate Bay trial, the Swedish 
Pirate Party has gained 3000 members in less than 
7 hours. It is now bigger than 3 of the 7 parties 
represented in the Swedish parliament. 'Ruling 
means that our political work must now be stepped 
up. We want to ensure that the Pirate Bay 
activities ­ to link people and information ­ is 
clearly lawful. And we want to do it for all 
people in Sweden, Europe and the world, continues 
Rick Falk Vinge. We want it to be open for 
ordinary people to disseminate and receive 
information without fear of imprisonment or astronomical damages.'"
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/17/2041208&from=rss

An anonymous reader writes "Bill C-61, the 
previous attempt at a Canadian DMCA, may have 
failed, but it is clear that the music, movie, 
and business software industries are engaged in 
putting massive pressure on the Canadian 
government to bring it back. Lobbying records 
show several meetings each week with Government 
Ministers for CRIA, CMPDA, and Microsoft over the 
past month. Meanwhile, the CRIA is preparing a 
grassroots campaign in support of new copyright 
laws, even claiming that the current rules are 
costing jobs to truck drivers delivering CDs and DVDs."
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/036204&from=rss

Demigod is an RTS/RPG hybrid developed by Gas 
Powered Games and published by Stardock, a 
company notable for their progressive and lenient 
stance on DRM. The game was set to be released on 
April 14th, and shipped without any form of copy 
protection. Unfortunately, retailer Gamestop 
broke the street date and released it earlier in 
the week. A day after pointing this out, Gas 
Powered Games posted some numbers about the 
players hitting their servers. Roughly 18,000 
connections were made from legitimately purchased 
copies; over 100,000 were made from pirated 
copies. Meanwhile, the servers, which were not 
yet ready for that level of traffic, buckled 
under the strain, resulting in poor experiences 
for people trying to participate in multiplayer. 
While some reviews were positive, others 
criticized the game for the connectivity issues. 
After another day, they were able to stabilize 
the servers to the point they'd planned on for the original launch.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/0255254&from=rss

explosivejared writes "Forbes is running a story 
discussing the verdict in the Pirate Bay case and 
its implications on file sharing, specifically 
with regard to Google. The article points out 
what most people on Slashdot already realize: 
Google provides essentially the same service that 
the Pirate Bay does. The Pirate Bay case may be 
far from over, accounting for appeals, but the 
Pirate Bay's assumption of being unchallengeable 
was shattered. The article raises the question of 
whether or not Google is untouchable in the 
matter. The story is quick to point out how the 
situation resembles a futile game of 
cat-and-mouse, but given how the Pirate Bay's 
confidence was ultimately broken, is Google beyond reproach?"
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/1125211&from=rss


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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