Big Storm. It Came, It Went, and it's coming back.
16/06/08 11:16 AM
Like most of the
communities here in the Centre of the Universe,
(COTU), we had a very active weather pattern move
through the area Friday night last. For a while I
thought the world might end and then it did. I was
watching the half season finale, (the TV writers
strike gave us a whole new language, didn’t it?) of
BSG. That is Battlestar Galactica to the four of you
who are not fans of this magically reworked Lorne
Green original SciFi big adventure. A really terrific
vehicle for a very talented Edward James Olmos who
for once plays a brooding, strong character who is
not that way just because he is hispanic and
misunderstood. I love this show.
At 10:17 PM, the storm of the century caused all of our lights to go out. The world had indeed come to an end. The TV was blank, the room was dark, I was alone in the dark void that had been my family room. I tried to read the newspaper by tiny flashlight all the while hoping that the power would come back on any minute and I would not have missed much of my show.
It did not come back until 3:38 AM. Who knew if the Cylons had killed all of the hostages? Was the rescue successful? Will they find Earth? This is important stuff and I had missed it.
A few days before that, I would have been OK. As a tech savvy person, I know where to look, I know how to get, and I know how to watch video that I can access through the communications tool of the 21st Century, The Interweb.
I knew that I could log on, down load and burn out, the right file to allow me to see the episode that Thor, the God of Thunder, had blocked me from watching. It would take me mere minutes.
As the old Chad and Jeremy song goes, “that was yesterday, and yesterdays gone” . Now, Jim Prentice, the Industry Minister of our “nomore BIG government or BIG Brother” Conservative government of the day, has introduced Bill C61, a new, made in Hollywood production, passing itself off as a well thought out Copyright overhaul to bring Canada squarely into the 19th century.
Now, for me to download and view that copyright protected episode of BSG could get me and the person who uploaded it into serious jail time and tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
You might think that you have another option. Your buddy Ralph loves the show, works nights and always tapes the show with his VCR. You know he will have come home, watched the show and if you move fast, you can get that tape from him before he overwrites it with Desperate Housewives.
Not so fast Felon Face! Under C61, Ralph is ALLOWED to tape the show. HE can watch it once and then he must erase it. If he lends it to you, there is a good chance a SWAT team from the local RCMP detachment will break down your door, his door, seize everything with a power cord attached to it and cart you off to the Crowbar Hotel.
All this, for a 1 hour television show that was BROADCAST for FREE over the airways and the cable networks. You could pick this show up with rabbit ears, why the hell does it need to be protected to such a degree. One would think, I don’t know, based on 50 years of being bombarded with TV schedules full of shows chosen only because of their Neilsen ratings, that the idea behind this whole Television thing is to get as many eyeballs on the product as you can. More eyeballs, better ratings, etc. , etc.
Not in Canada in the 21st century you don’t. I don’t even want to get started on how if you BUY a CD from Sony music and you load that CD onto your computer so you can then download it to your iPod to listen to it while you jog or ride the subway, you have now won the right to pay $20,500. per song and possibly times 4 if you get sued by the song writer, song singer, the band and the cleaning lady at the studio.
So a 10 track disc violation like that would amount to $820,000, if all fines are applied. That is $500 per track, $20,000 for breaking the digital lock on the CD by loading it onto your computer, time the number of complainants that will come out of the woodwork if Sony decides to make you their newest best friend and example to felons everywhere.
Folks, I am not making any of this up and it is a lot worse. For the first time in my life I sent an angry email to a cabinet minister, Mr. Jim Prentice, and told him how I felt about this regressive, draconian piece of legislation. Make no mistake, this is not about piracy, or stealing anything from various “stakeholders” as they like to style themselves these days. This is just about the money.
The Recording Industry has not evolved since Edison recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet on Dec. 6, 1877. Every technological advancement has been met with massive resistance, lobbying, new legislation and fear mongering on the part of the Recording Industry.
Their time is up, their business model can no longer support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, their Star system of artist promotion is gone, the radio business no longer supports a Top 50 format and their sales are in the tank while Apple sells a Billion songs over the Interweb.
My local FM radio station used to have a playlist numbered in the hundreds or thousands. Since the dawn of the “targeted format” aimed at computer selected demographic groups the number of songs played on the largest Rock FM radio station in the largest market in Canada has dwindled to less than 40 songs.
And they wonder why artists are not selling records. Less than 10% of all songs written in Canada every year ever get aired on radio. Yet when I go to Best Buy and purchase a package of blank CD’s to burn my photos, my Computer OS software to, I am forced to pay a large fee, (roughly $10 per spindle) on top of the cost to be given to the 11,000 English songwriters in Canada who have registered with the Government program designed to ‘compensate’ artists for my “stealing” their work.
I am not to blame for this. Any of it. If Mr. Prentice and his cronies in my once favourite Conservative caucus would get their heads out of their collective asses and look around a little bit they might just figure it out.
Maybe if this C51 dies on the order paper, (as it could, and should) I will be able to find out if Adama, Laura, Boomer and Starbuck ever find Earth. You know, the important stuff.
If not, if this passes into law, there is another big storm coming. Hold on to your Tilley hat.
30
At 10:17 PM, the storm of the century caused all of our lights to go out. The world had indeed come to an end. The TV was blank, the room was dark, I was alone in the dark void that had been my family room. I tried to read the newspaper by tiny flashlight all the while hoping that the power would come back on any minute and I would not have missed much of my show.
It did not come back until 3:38 AM. Who knew if the Cylons had killed all of the hostages? Was the rescue successful? Will they find Earth? This is important stuff and I had missed it.
A few days before that, I would have been OK. As a tech savvy person, I know where to look, I know how to get, and I know how to watch video that I can access through the communications tool of the 21st Century, The Interweb.
I knew that I could log on, down load and burn out, the right file to allow me to see the episode that Thor, the God of Thunder, had blocked me from watching. It would take me mere minutes.
As the old Chad and Jeremy song goes, “that was yesterday, and yesterdays gone” . Now, Jim Prentice, the Industry Minister of our “nomore BIG government or BIG Brother” Conservative government of the day, has introduced Bill C61, a new, made in Hollywood production, passing itself off as a well thought out Copyright overhaul to bring Canada squarely into the 19th century.
Now, for me to download and view that copyright protected episode of BSG could get me and the person who uploaded it into serious jail time and tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
You might think that you have another option. Your buddy Ralph loves the show, works nights and always tapes the show with his VCR. You know he will have come home, watched the show and if you move fast, you can get that tape from him before he overwrites it with Desperate Housewives.
Not so fast Felon Face! Under C61, Ralph is ALLOWED to tape the show. HE can watch it once and then he must erase it. If he lends it to you, there is a good chance a SWAT team from the local RCMP detachment will break down your door, his door, seize everything with a power cord attached to it and cart you off to the Crowbar Hotel.
All this, for a 1 hour television show that was BROADCAST for FREE over the airways and the cable networks. You could pick this show up with rabbit ears, why the hell does it need to be protected to such a degree. One would think, I don’t know, based on 50 years of being bombarded with TV schedules full of shows chosen only because of their Neilsen ratings, that the idea behind this whole Television thing is to get as many eyeballs on the product as you can. More eyeballs, better ratings, etc. , etc.
Not in Canada in the 21st century you don’t. I don’t even want to get started on how if you BUY a CD from Sony music and you load that CD onto your computer so you can then download it to your iPod to listen to it while you jog or ride the subway, you have now won the right to pay $20,500. per song and possibly times 4 if you get sued by the song writer, song singer, the band and the cleaning lady at the studio.
So a 10 track disc violation like that would amount to $820,000, if all fines are applied. That is $500 per track, $20,000 for breaking the digital lock on the CD by loading it onto your computer, time the number of complainants that will come out of the woodwork if Sony decides to make you their newest best friend and example to felons everywhere.
Folks, I am not making any of this up and it is a lot worse. For the first time in my life I sent an angry email to a cabinet minister, Mr. Jim Prentice, and told him how I felt about this regressive, draconian piece of legislation. Make no mistake, this is not about piracy, or stealing anything from various “stakeholders” as they like to style themselves these days. This is just about the money.
The Recording Industry has not evolved since Edison recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet on Dec. 6, 1877. Every technological advancement has been met with massive resistance, lobbying, new legislation and fear mongering on the part of the Recording Industry.
Their time is up, their business model can no longer support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, their Star system of artist promotion is gone, the radio business no longer supports a Top 50 format and their sales are in the tank while Apple sells a Billion songs over the Interweb.
My local FM radio station used to have a playlist numbered in the hundreds or thousands. Since the dawn of the “targeted format” aimed at computer selected demographic groups the number of songs played on the largest Rock FM radio station in the largest market in Canada has dwindled to less than 40 songs.
And they wonder why artists are not selling records. Less than 10% of all songs written in Canada every year ever get aired on radio. Yet when I go to Best Buy and purchase a package of blank CD’s to burn my photos, my Computer OS software to, I am forced to pay a large fee, (roughly $10 per spindle) on top of the cost to be given to the 11,000 English songwriters in Canada who have registered with the Government program designed to ‘compensate’ artists for my “stealing” their work.
I am not to blame for this. Any of it. If Mr. Prentice and his cronies in my once favourite Conservative caucus would get their heads out of their collective asses and look around a little bit they might just figure it out.
Maybe if this C51 dies on the order paper, (as it could, and should) I will be able to find out if Adama, Laura, Boomer and Starbuck ever find Earth. You know, the important stuff.
If not, if this passes into law, there is another big storm coming. Hold on to your Tilley hat.
30
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