Sunday, March 20, 2005

The Triumphal Entry

12On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

13took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, "Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel."

14Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written,

15"FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY'S COLT."

16These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.

- John 12:12-16, NASB.

Let us not behave as the Judeans did, welcoming Christ as king on the first of the week, and crucifying Him on the sixth.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

We're so kind...

I'm proud of my country. We recently made a trade agreement with Australia, the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. In this agreement, we allowed them very nicely to keep local content restrictions on television. Nice of us, since we have similar requirements for our cable TV. Australia was quite proud of their retention of this policy.

But all is not ok in Australia. Free Trade agreements are for the benefit of large companies, right? That's not explicitly stated, but that is why we're requiring them to adopt U.S.-style copyright law, like our Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). This law bans circumvention of copy-protection schemes. That means that you can't legally buy a copy-protected music CD and hold down the shift key while inserting it into your computer, becuase doing so prevents the anti-copying software from installing. Be aware that copying your own CD to your hard drive is perfectly legal, and when you buy the CD you are purchasing it, not licensing it.

So now Sony is suing Australians for doing something similar: making a chip, called a "mod" chip, for the Playstation II that allows the gaming consoles to play non-Sony games and watch DVDs purchased in the U.S. Why shouldn't people be allowed to play these games? Because 1) Sony wants them to buy Sony-approved games and 2) the new copyright law says that modifying these things is an illegal circumvention of copy protection.

That's right, it may be used to illegally copy games. This argument is similar to that given by Universal Studios in a lawsuit against Sony in an attempt to quash the emerging videotaping technology. The Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that Sony was not liable for copyright infringment by users of its Betamax tape systems, by U.S. copyright law. To quote the decision, "The judiciary's reluctance to expand the protections afforded by the copyright without explicit legislative guidance is a recurring theme." But Congress is allowed to do what the courts could not, and did so in 1998 with the DMCA. VHS player manufacturers haven't been sued, of course.

Here's the kicker. This trade agreement was to remove trade restrictions betwen the U.S. and Australia. However, this particular provision's effects are to 1) prevent Australians from watching DVDs sold anywhere outside of Central/South America, Australia, and a few Pacific islands, and 2) prevent buyers of Sony Playstations from using their machines in ways not approved by Sony. In a previous case, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission "argued that Sony was using the copy control mechanism to erect artificial trade barriers between Australian consumers and overseas games and DVD markets."

The Betamax case said that the makers of the video recorder was not liable, but rather the illegal copier. But Sony wants to sue the makers of add-on chips rather than going to the work of suing individual infringers.

Next thing you know, printer companies like Lexmark will be suing companies that make cheap printer cartriges that work in Lexmark printers. Wait, that has already happened.

What to do? Ask your federal representatives to repeal the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and to oppose efforts to pressure other governments into adopting such legislation.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Germany cracks down on speech

Deutsche World reported today that the German parliament overwhelmingly passed a law adding restrictions to freedom of assembly and nazi speech. From the article:

After weeks of heated debate, members of Germany's ruling government coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens as well as the conservative opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) on Friday voted overwhelmingly in favor of tightening the right of assembly and making changes to the existing criminal code.

The arguments in favor of this law seem to be given without any sort of thought.

Most parties on Friday hailed the vote as a boost to democracy. "We'll have a few additional possibilities in the future to prevent Nazi mischief on our streets and squares," said Dieter Wiefelspütz, SPD domestic policy expert.

While the article reports that Holocaust deniers have been active recently in Germany, the follow-the-party-line attitude that the article portrayed in the nation and it's leaders reminded me of the novel 1984, in which everything Big Brother says is parroted and parroted without question. And various entities admitted in the article that the new law may not be effective. While these restrictions may improve order, they are not "a boost to democracy" as the article said. They are a restriction to democracy.

It was reassuring to see that there were serious concerns about the bill being allowed under the constitution, and that it may well be struck down. I don't have any sympathy for holocaust supporters, but I do have sympathy for any nation without freedom of speech and assembly.

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On an unrelated note, I've been listening to German internet radio to get a feel for the language, especially pronunciation. The news sites are good, of course, as newscasters tend to use precise language.

The contemporary music sites have been less help than I thought. Well over 3/4 of the music is English. The genre is best described as pop; one song was called "Three is Family" by Dana Dawson . I've had somewhat better luck with the news/oldies station. After 10 minutes of music, basically '60s-'80s pop, I'm only now hearing the second English song, Concrete and Clay by Honkong Syndicat. Like the contemporary music, I haven't heard any of this stuff before.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Things are looking up

David Brooks wrote an article on the numerous countries that have gained democratic government recently. Ukraine, Iraq, and now Lebanon - it makes one feel warm and fuzzy all over. Now, how soon can North Korea and Cuba's despotic governments kick it?

Edit: now James Lileks has a similarly optimistic take on the destabilization and resulting democratization of the Middle East.