Archive for the ‘International law and structures’ Category

The interplay of copyright and creativity – a Storify collection

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

I've recently started playing around with Storify. In the piece embedded below, I'm gathering together various different snippets concerning the interplay of copyright and creativity. http://storify.com/funferal/copyright-and-creativity

Reducing US spending? Cut the military budget

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

From Just Foreign Policy: FCNL has established a toll-free number: 1-877-429-0678. Urge your Rep. and/or Senators to press the Supercommittee to end the wars and cut the military budget. In talking to your Rep., urge support for the Lee-Campbell bipartisan letter to the Super Committee on cutting military spending.

Global Facebook subject to Irish Data Protection rules

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Turns out that all Facebook user accounts, outside of the US and Canada, are overseen by its European headquarters in Ireland. That means that it's subject to Irish data protection rules, and the Irish data protection commissioner has now launched an investigation. This is one to watch.

Traitors

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

I've been advocating, privately, the prosecution for treason of David Drumm and other Irish former bankers who are manipulating foreign and domestic bankruptcy proceedings to retain their ill-gotten gains. Having made their fortunes by fuelling a speculative bubble, they then engage in clearly deceptive tactics to avoid their personal responsibilities ...

Definitions matter

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

EUObserver reports on internal EU Commission documents that seek to redefine palm oil plantations - "the source of one of the most destructive forms of biofuels" - as forest that "would not per se constitute a breach" of rules on sustainability. While forests are generally seen as desirable under such ...

War declared! (kind of)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Well this could be awkward. (Are we expected to cut off all communications?) The EU is threatening a visa war with Canada, because of its withdrawal of visa waivers from visitors from the Czech Republic. That decision, in turn, had been prompted by a large number of applications for asylum ...

Postal services in Europe – have your say

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

This from the Comreg list:ComReg was asked by ECORYS for help in identifying consumers who are willing to participate in a short web-survey on customer needs for postal services.  This is part of a study that ECORYS is undertaking for the European Commission on The Main Developments in the Postal ...

The Cliff Richards performance copyright extension

Friday, February 15th, 2008

The EU commission is proposing to extend copyright terms for performers of music, to match the existing terms for composers. The notion of retroactive extension is problematic (though not unprecedented), but there are some interesting aspects to the proposal:For session musicians, the record companies will set up a fund reserving at least ...

A Critical Ear – 24 January, 2008

Friday, January 25th, 2008

We're now posting this evening's edition of A Critical Ear. It lasts about 90 minutes. Contents: Interworld Radio news headlines (3-4 min) Interworld Radio feature about healthcare services in Zambia (6 min) Discussion of Iran and US foreign policy regarding Iran (30-40 min) Gaza - recent developments and contextJose Padilla (5-10 min) Economic developments in ...

A Critical Ear – latest edition

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

This week's show is now online. It lasts just around an hour, and features Bob Naiman and myself discussing Pakistan, Iran, and the success of Brazil's AIDS drugs policy. Locally we discuss SEIU's possible strike and the growing support from the campus community, and the CCHCC protest about the exclusion ...