Google and MPEG LA Reach VP8 Patent Agreement (Slashdot, 07.03.13)

VP8 and MPEG LA (WebMproject, 07.03.13)

Google and MPEG LA Announce Agreement Covering VP8 Video Format (07.03.13)

The only real open-source alternative to the Content Mafia’s h.264 video codec died earlier this months when Google payed off the patent trolls and thieves from the MPEG-LA with “licensing fees” for the – until then – “open-source” VP8 codec. The MPEG-LA is the organisation that steals video footage from every child, woman and man who pushes a record button on an h.264 camera (like on every “smart phone”).

You do not own your own work with h.264. Never. It belongs to a patent pool behind which stand companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and some others.

VP8 was a real alternative. It is interesting that the MPEG-LA never had a problem with the codec before it was open-sourced. It had been in use in Sykpe for years already – and still is…

This is why patents are so very wrong, this is how the late Thieve Jobs – excuse me Steve Jobs got rich (“All video codecs are covered by patents. A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now.” – blogs.fsfe.org, 30.04.10)

This is where I stop entirely with publishing online video

I was so upset when the true story behind h.264 (osnews, 01.05.10) came out that I almost stopped publishing online video entirely. Then came an alternative. It did not work as well as the other codec, but it was there.

Now there is nothing. *)

I will now stop uploading any video to the web as long as there is no free and open-source video codec available. I do not support, work for – directly or indirectly – patent pools, their lawyers that steal my work, the companies hiding behind the patent pool that make money from stealing my work, the coders who develop anything related to h.264 and thereby steal my work. *)

I am deeply, deeply disgusted by all of you. Your business is based on stealing. Your business is based on stealing the moving image from society. History will judge you.

If you read this and care for the moving image, if you are film or videomaker: I urge you to consider boycotting 100% all companies on the list, as well as ending any collaboration with any of the “research institutes” on the list (like Frauenhofer).

Google you can keep VP8 (WebM) to yourself. I do not want it any more. It is MPEG-LA now. You are now paying off Content MAFIAA companies like Apple:

Apple › S. Jobs › Disney/Pixar › MPAA, MPEG-LA › ACTA › End of Democracy › Corporate Fascism

Oh, and Steve: FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU IN ALL ETERNITY FOR H.264!

*) Update 29.03.13: There is Theora of course, the only working choice left now as far as I know. Unfortunately (thanks to software patents) it can not compete with the others in terms of quality at this point. I may start a new video blog project one day with Theora downloads, but without embeds from YoutTube etc. my options for reaching an audience will be limited…!

Amelia Andersdotter’s (Pirate Party) speech at the Internet Governance Forum 2012

Transcript via her blog:

Thank you, Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, participants of the Internet Governance Forum 2012.

My name is Amelia Andersdotter. I am a member of the European Parliament on behalf of the Swedish Piratpartiet since December 2011. I am mindful of the fact that I am one of only two women speaking in the opening session. Also, I am probably the youngest person speaking. I am only 25 years old.

The Piratpartiet wants to change the legislative framework for communication, interaction, innovation and culture. We formed around the idea that communication technologies and culture present fantastic ways of building broad global communities.

We want interactions, social, cultural and economical to be determined by and under the control of the people interacting.

When information, communication and culture can be freely accessible and used, which on the internet is basically always the case, this should as a general principle always be allowed and any exceptions or deviations to that general rule must be kept exceptional.

Unfortunately, laws at both nation state level and the international level are very ill‑equipped to achieve these goals.

For instance, direct interventions by nation states into communication and cultural flows of their citizens are ubiquitous in the world. More insidious are the restrictions on communications imposed on users by private network operators or intellectual property rights holders.

We hear words like ”freedom of speech” and ”Human Rights must be respected online”, but so far very few top political figures in the world have acknowledged, or are willing to acknowledge, that this will require regulatory intervention on some private sectors. We may also have to let go of some regulatory protections for private sector actors that we’re currently putting in place to block communications between people.

It is clear to me both at the personal and at the political level that we need to fundamentally reconsider our approach to communication. We need communication to be open and accessible. This is how we make friendships, it is how we make societies, it is how we form worlds.

The control over communities and the ability to shape them must be with the communities themselves. Infrastructure must be regulated to enable that ability and such autonomy.

The raw material for cultural identities, the culture itself, must be made more accessible than is currently the case. Copyright is not only an untimely instrument for the 21st century, it is doing active harm to culture and to communities around the world.

During one of my travels this summer I met a young man who told me with a straight face that he liked open torrent trackers because he wants to be able to seed the unpopular files[1]. I want to seed the unpopular files. I want to see the unpopular torrents and I want to live in a world where a social network, a community on its own initiative preserves the cultural wealth through the spontaneous contribution of all its members. All of the changes that are needed in our laws to ensure that these communities can exist must be undertaken and now.

To all of you here and to all of the Governments and to the public officials and lobbyists that haven’t been able to bring themselves to support these actually very extensive reforms that are necessary for these places and creative communities to exist, I would like to paraphrase George Michael from I think 1992, ”fuck you, this is my culture”[2] and if copyright or telecommunications operators are standing in the way, I think they should go.

Thank you.

[1] In the conference transcription they have put ”see the unpopular files”.
[2] Cruising culture and George Michael, in the Guardian from 2006. And the real quote was ”Fuck off, this is my culture.”

Updates…

16mm short

In case you have been wondering about that 16mm short (4 min.) of mine: I had to figure out something and that’s done. The project is coming back from pause mode now…!

Blender 2.65

In other news: Blender 2.65 has been released last week, another wonderful update for this free and open-source 3d, compositing, video editing and much more package – available for all major platforms (and you can easily share e.g. your video projects/.blends between Linux, Windows and Mac – it really just works…!). Release notes. Download.

(choir)

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away
Рut Putin away, put Putin away

(end chorus)

Black robe, golden epaulettes
All parishioners crawl to bow
The phantom of liberty is in heaven
Gay-pride sent to Siberia in chains

The head of the KGB, their chief saint,
Leads protesters to prison under escort
In order not to offend His Holiness
Women must give birth and love

Shit, shit, the Lord’s shit!
Shit, shit, the Lord’s shit!

(Chorus)

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist
Become a feminist, become a feminist

(end chorus)

The Church’s praise of rotten dictators
The cross-bearer procession of black limousines
A teacher-preacher will meet you at school
Go to class – bring him money!

Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Bitch, better believe in God instead
The belt of the Virgin can’t replace mass-meetings
Mary, Mother of God, is with us in protest!

(Chorus)

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away
Рut Putin away, put Putin away

(end chorus)

in German:

Punk-Bittgottesdienst “Mutter Gottes, Jungfrau, vertreibe Putin“

Mutter Gottes, Jungfrau, vertreibe Putin
Vertreibe Putin, vertreibe Putin.

Schwarzes Ornat, goldene Schulterklappen
Alle Bittsteller kriechen zur Verbeugung
Das Gespenst der Freiheit im Himmel
Gay-Pride ist in Ketten nach Sibirien geschickt worden

Der Chef des KGB ist ihr oberster Heiliger
Führt die Protestierer bewacht in Haft
Um den Heiligsten nicht zu betrüben
Müssen Frauen gebären und lieben

Göttlicher Dreck, Dreck, Dreck
Göttlicher Dreck, Dreck, Dreck

Mutter Gottes, Jungfrau, werde Feministin
Werde Feministin, werde Feministin

Kirchliches Lob für die verfaulten Führer
Prozession aus schwarzen Limousinen
In die Schule kommt der Pfarrer
Geh zum Unterricht – bring ihm Geld!

Der Patriarch Gundjaj glaubt an Putin
Besser würde der Hund an Gott glauben
Der Gürtel der Jungfrau ersetzt keine Demonstrationen
Die Jungfrau Maria ist bei den Protesten mit uns!

Mutter Gottes, Jungfrau, vertreibe Putin
Vertreibe Putin, vertreibe Putin.

Source: freepussyriot.org

Pussy Riot (en.wikipedia.org)

Pussy Riot found guilty of hooliganism by Moscow court (www.bbc.co.uk, 17.08.2012)

Change “Quality” to HD: via gears symbol (appears on playback, bottom right video)

What this is

This is a short clip originally made for an ongoing fashion event in Vienna. We (now former) Schule Friedl Kubelka students produced a series of shorts you currently still can see (until 29th August) on DVD in the Icon shop window at the MQ in Vienna. Topic: “fashion”…

While this week the European Parliament gloriously defeated ACTA (see discussion/articles on Slashdot, TorrentFreak and Netzpolitik 1, 2) the above clip en vogue – about a fashion victim features some more ACTA-like as well as other related acronyms:

ACTA, INDECT, IPRED, SOPA/PIPA, TRIPS, GATS – EC/ECB/IMF (EC, ECB, IMF), WTO, FRONTEX, ECOFIN

If you are from Europe make sure to check out INDECT…

4th of July 2012, European Independence Day: the European Parliament votes against ACTA by 478 to 39 votes

How it was made

We shot this in Vienna back in March using a Bolex (hand-cranked) and 16mm color negative film (that I got developed/printed at Synchro Film). Since we were supposed to have a first version for school in an analog film format I then cut the rushes on a Steenbeck.

Later I got my negatives transfered (2K) and re-cut the clip digitally in Blender (using single frames, 16-bit TIFFs – Ubuntu does not seem to be eable to handle 12-bit TIFFs (!!!))  – while having a cheap transfer/telecine from that 16mm cutting copy as reference).

Grading was also done in Blender.

For exporting/encoding to .webm (VP8) Kdenlive was used.

I have another 16mm short (4 min., experimental/minimal story telling) that I plan to post at some point this Summer (pictures is done, I’m still thinking about the rest) and I’ll be posting more details from that 16mm footage/Blender workflow together with that…

Everything is a Remix Part 4 (2012, Kirby Ferguson, 15:26; watch it on vimeo or on YouTube)

This is the final part of this wonderful series by Kirby Ferguson, a good summary of the key points.

This one also features some well known patent trolls…

From the V.O.:

Our system of law doesn’t acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity. Instead, ideas are regarded as property, as unique and original lots with distinct boundaries. But ideas aren’t so tidy. They’re layered, they’re interwoven, they’re tangled. And when the system conflicts with the reality… the system starts to fail.

As you would expect there were quite a few people with Guy Fawkes masks and other internet and reddit memes. So what I found most interesting were the banner people had brought and here is a best of selection of my favourite ones:

ACTA = Stasi 2.0

A movie is not a car

ACTA ad Acta

.

System failure: Capitalism not working

System (I) Reset

.

Stopp ACTA

Sharing is not stealing

bekACTA Scheiss (= Shity Shit)

“Niemand hat die Absicht eine Mauer zu errichten.” (= “No one has any intention of building a wall.”)

ACTA Assholes Creating Tyranny Again

ACTA La Vista

.

Capitalism not working

End?

Yes No

Join the revolution.

.

Meine Freundin ist schwanger. Mein Provider wußte es vor mir. (= My girlfriend is pregnant. My provider knew it before I did.)

You can’t control 500 Million PPL w/o making a few enemies.

Yet the best one and the one that most demonstrators seemed to agree on was pretty short, a good one to shout as well:

FUCK ACTA

Expect us.

Update (29.02.12):

There were two more banner at the demonstration that I keep thinking of and that I have not mentioned here yet (I did not write down those in my notebook – at least in terms of meaning they should be accurately quoted):

Wenn ihr uns das Internet nehmt, nehmen wir euch eure Faxgeräte (= If you take away our internet, we’ll take away your fax machines)

Ignorant me I did not quite understand that one at first and so one of my friends who was there with me on Saturday enlightened me: apparently unfriendly politician’s fax machines are being served by activists with a pitch black piece of paper – that has been looped… Now that’s mean.

And last but not least there was this one, surely way too important to be forgotten!

Don’t take away my porn

I do have a feeling that they could need one or the other new feature for post production/editing on the way and this can only be good for Blender’s VSE (Video Sequence Editor) -  my tool of choice for (video) editing, a wonderful minimal style – yet quite powerful – free and open-source solution that works on/across all platforms: share/edit your .blends across Linux, Windows or Mac – this simply just works!

Concept art: CC 3.0, Blender Foundation

From the press release:

The new short film – code named Mango – is a short story about a disastrous break-up that almost leads to the destruction of planet Earth. It will be filmed on several locations in Amsterdam. A team of six artists and three developers will be working for half a year on realising the visual effects for the film. As for previous short films, the online community will be able to assist on tasks as well. Premiere is being targeted at September 2012.

The 3D tool Blender – open source since 2002 – has steadily been growing to become a popular and serious 3D package for artists. This is thanks to the very active participation of its online community; 3D artists, 3D developers, studios and universities all over the world. A recent development is that also renowned Hollywood studios are opening up parts of their technology. Blender will be the first program to bring together work from ILM (OpenEXR, Alembic), Sony Pictures Imageworks (OpenShading, OpenColor, OpenImageIO) and Disney (PTex).

Check out the project’s blog, pre-order your own copy and support open-source VFX/video post production – as recent months have shown it is indeed a very good idea to have (open-source) alternatives ready: the apple that looked so fresh only a while ago now seems more and more rotten down to the core with every day going by…!

Update: I just saw that yesterday Blender 2.62 was released: see the release log, download Blender for your platform or read the announcement and discussion on Blendernation.

Consequences:

- equal redistribution of wealth in the long run (end of poverty; physical and psychological health stabilise society, prevention of pandemics; dramatically reduced chances for terror since there is hope/perspective for a good life on earth during one’s lifetime; strong basis for true Democracy)

- economies can simply serve the People, no need for growth, economies grow when needed (e.g. more people), shrink naturally when less demand (e.g. fewer people)

- no more bubbles, no more speculation affecting the lives and future of billions of people

- no more wars needed – the most cynical instrument of Capitalism that is there to destroy/create room for new “growth”

- no more destruction of nature in the name of “growth” (oil industry, rain forest, nuclear waste)

- no more rating agencies needed that are there to help the speculators destroy whole countries/continents

- no more aggressive ads/advertising industry needed as motor for “growth”, minimal style ads can serve a good purpose: information for those who seek that piece of information

- all the other helpers of our abusive system of exploitation like copyright and patents can easily get rid of as well, both have striking similarities with the interest concept/serve a similar purpose: make sure that those who have power (knowledge or financial one) get even more of it, while those who have little of it remain without it or loose the little they have (and with that monsters like ACTA, SOPA/PIPA or whatever they call those bills in their baby talk like language can get rid of easily as well – update: Sopa: Sites go dark as part of anti-piracy law protests (www.bbc.co.uk))

- Greed then will be excluded from the system by design instead of being built-in via interest, copyright and patents like now

***

It’s only one change in the system from which everyone will profit in the long run.

Imagine what it can do for you and those who are close to you. Imagine what it can do for others and how this will in return do even more for you. Just imagine.

Leave aside ideologies or believes: keep them for yourself, they belong to you. However this world belongs to everyone.

Just imagine what this one tiny change in our system can do for all of us. And then let’s get started with this a.s.p.

I decided to make those stats public and link the report: as you can see this still is a rather small blog yet it seems I can reach those (few) people that are actually interested in the topics I write about.

In the report they suggest to write more about those topics (from some older blog articles) that still get new readers. Good suggestion but I really hope that this particular topic (has to do with video encoding…) is done and won’t need so much attention from me anymore. To be honest I am a bit sick of it (it still can upset me quite a bit) and I really want to move on to more uplifting subjects now.

But most of all: I want to be more creative and productive in 2012!

So here is that WordPress.com report:

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,800 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Choice #2

(Both images above posted under traditional copyright, found on teh wide, wide Internets via reddit.)

So this is not really so much about a physical resemblance but rather about externalising what she sees going on inside those people she paints.

I told her I was going to post the result on my blog, yet I’ve been hesitating to do this for months.

Here is what I like/don’t like about it:

If you don’t know me you might think I’m chubby, wrinkled/old and grumpy. Yet in real life people tend to think I’m much younger than my physical age (which is 40) and for some reason I never had a weight problem, I simply often like to wear a comfortable sweatshirt.

However I know I’m often sort of lost in deep thoughts and my facial expressions are often misinterpreted as being grumpy when I’m really in a good mood but just thinking intensely about something. And this seems to be the kind of moment that Anna choose to paint/externalise. That I like about the painting, that inner state of mind is probably quite truthful.

Still I am a bit shocked about what this seems to make me look like when externalised – flattering it is not.

Yet I believe it is part of an artist’s job to be honest and if this is what my friend Anna sees in me I have to accept it and should post it, even though it might give a wrong impression to some.

But so what!

Me interpreted by Anna Safary Purath.

(Image posted under traditional copyright. Posted with permission by the artist.)

Transcript (via LYBIO.net):

“Can you imagine your internet service provider policing everything you do online? Can you imagine generic drugs that could save lives being banned? Can you imagine seeds that could feed 1000′s being controlled and withheld in the name of patents? This will become reality with ACTA!!!

ACTA is the “Anti-Counterfeiting Trading Agreement”. Disguised as a Trade Agreement, ACTA goes much, much further than that.

For the past three years, ACTA has been negotiated in secret by 39 countries. But the negotiators are not democratically elected representatives. They don’t represent us, but they’re deciding laws behind our backs.

Bypassing democratic process, they impose new criminal sanctions to stop online file sharing. ACTA aims to make Internet Service & Access Providers legally responsible for what their users do online, turning them into private copyright police and judge, censoring their networks. The chilling effects on Free speech would be terrible.

In the name of patents, ACTA would give large corporations the power to stop generic drugs before they reach the people who need them and stop the use of certain seeds for crops.

The European Parliament will soon vote on ACTA. This VOTE will be the occasion to say NO, once and for all, to this dangerous treaty. As citizens, we must URGE our representatives to reject ACTA!!!

NO To ACTA

Learn more
laquadrature.net/ACTA“

Two old school 16mm projectors each loaded with (a sandwich of) loops consisting of short pieces of “black” (basically non-transparent) emulsion and bleached (= transparent) emulsion arranged in rhythmical patterns are pointed to the center of the cinema’s screen where they create one single black/white flickering round corner 4:3 window-like shape – covering only something like 1/3 or so of the actual screen.

Two flickering strobe lights (during the first part of the performance) – positioned in front of the screen on the left and right – are pointed to the screen as well.

The what might be described (superficially) as hardcore avantgarde techno music (first part of the performance) is basically generated by what the optical sound head of (one of) the projectors makes of the rhythmically arranged non-transparent/transparent pieces of 16mm film, this sound being manipulated live by going through a series of  distortion pedals and other quite basic analogue sound (mixing) equipment.

Additionally the brightness of the projector’s lamps is being manipulated live as well.

That’s a rough (and possibly a bit inaccurate) description of the technical setup that Bruce McClure used for his “Smells Like Teen Spirit 1991? 2011?” projection performance at the Tonkino Saalbau in Vienna on October 20th, 2011.

This was not-a-movie cinematic experience

The actual experience as a member of the audience was nothing less than mind blowing. It was one of the best cinematic experiences I’ve ever had. Really. And there was no movie to see – at least not a movie in the classical sense.

Before the performance started earplugs were handed out. I ended up not using mine. Yet it was loud. Really loud. Think of going to a rock concert and being somewhere up front close to the speakers. With the difference that there is no band playing but you are watching those hardcore flickering patterns while the artist is creating his music sitting in the back of the room next to/underneath the 16mm projectors working on that old school analogue sound equipment as well as manipulation the brightness of the projector’s lamps.

Basically there were two things you would see: that what happens externally (the performance as described above) and that what happens internally. It’s hard to say which part was more interesting. In other words: think of something like a psychedelic experience while being 100% sober. I had not smoked anything that night. Yet when I left the cinema after the performance (first part 25 min., short break, second part 35 min.) I was pretty loaded. That is loaded with ideas I’ve had for my own project(s) that I’m thinking of at the moment:

This is not-a-classic-film school

Thing is I am back to film school. (I previously did the L.I.F.S., now just L.F.S. back in the early-mid ’90.)

Yes, that’s right, me being 40 years old and now having explored (some of) the basics of 3D/animation (using Blender) for the last couple of years I decided it’s time to go back to the roots of filmmaking – in order to come back later to what I do with 3D and hoping to find that unique combination of (minimal) 3D, (analogue/avantgarde) filmmaking and digital post production/compositing that I am looking for for my own future projects.

This is a new chapter in my filmmaker’s journey, my own quest in trying to combine all my skills and trying to create something that I am happy with and that others are willing to pay money for. Basically I still think I can make movies and sell art without becoming a prostitute. Maybe that’s (still) naive. But I won’t give up trying.

So last Wednesday was our first meeting at Schule Friedl Kubelka. We are only 10 students and everything here is close to no-budget and (at school) is happening in a rather confined space, Friedl Kubelka’s Atelier/flat. Projects are shot on either Super-8 or 16mm, we will be developing (and for 16mm) printing film ourselves using the filmkoop wien facilities. While editing may happen digitally (for Super-8) my plan is to avoid digital post production – at least for the picture – and  go back to the Steenbeck for editing (16mm) and then cut the negative myself – that I have never done before.

So while sitting in Bruce McClure’s projector performance last Thursday my inner eye was seeing that (possible) project to be made at some point in those coming eight months till the end of May 2012 when school ends. (I still live in Berlin and come to Vienna for the workshops, some key events etc.)

Following the performance at the Tonkino Saalbau last Thursday we had our seminar with Bruce McClure at film school on Friday, Saturday and Sunday last week:

This was not-a-workshop with Bruce McClure

There are a couple of things that Bruce McClure does not like: don’t call him a filmmaker. At least not after he told you he does not want to be called a filmmaker. You also might not want to call him an artist. And what he does is not a-r-t. Yet you might say he does t-a-r. He is much more happy with that.

Another thing that Bruce McClure does not do is give workshops. So what we had was not a three day workshop with BruceMcClure who is not a filmmaker and not an artist. Now that’s the short version.

The slightly longer version is this:

For three days we slowly, very s-l-o-w-l-y, went back exploring – opening one thread after the other, maybe coming back to it, maybe not – for three days we s-l-o-w-l-y went back exploring the roots of what a (presumably) moving (think strobe lights and a hand and its shadow) image is, for three days we s-l-o-w-l-y went back exploring – while freely associating and drifting to a new topic that came up and then coming back, for three days we s-l-o-w-l-y went back exploring the roots and fundamental basics of (re)producing (live) a (presumably) moving image in its most radically reduced form (loops consisting of rhythmical patterns of (non-)transparent (“black”) emulsion), we s-l-o-w-l-y for three days, sometimes painfully s–l–o–w–l–y went back for three days to our ancestor’s caves, their paintings and fire flickering, while we had two strobe lights and one single projector, one loop of found footage plus on top of that those loops Bruce McClure designs (sandwiched/laced up on top of each other, going through the 16mm projector), for three days we s-l-o-w-l-y kept going deeper, and deeper and deeper back to the roots of what a cinematic performance/moving images – and sound – may consist of in their very basic and reduced form.

There also was quite a lot of theory text reading. Excerpts here, a quote there.  S-l-o-w-l-y. Chewing one sentence after the other. Sometimes almost word by word. And then starting all over again after the first paragraph. Reading the same text once more. Chewing one sentence after the other. S-l-o-w-l-y.

Partly it was painful. At one point on the first day in the afternoon I had an impulse to just get up and go. And maybe come back the next day – or not. Yet having seen the performance first I knew I could/should trust Bruce McClure, who is not a filmmaker and not an artist and who gave not a workshop for three days.

So in the end I stayed (and so did everyone else). Going through what happened – both externally and internally – in those three days was definitely worth it in the end. Not everything was pleasant and that’s how it seems Bruce McClure wanted it: “I like to make people suffer” he said more than once. Yet I would question that. Here is my theory, be it something he did consciously or not: due to the s-l-o-w and often repetitive process of getting to a point via freely associating, going one way, coming back another and so on you end up being tired and your mind may drift to a more dream-like state. Just like at the performance at the Tonkino Saalbau. And possibly just like that state of mind where your brain is happy to learn new stuff, that state where you are open for new ideas or prepared to go deeper, and deeper, and deeper and deeper…

I should add that Bruce drew a lot of sketches to make a point. So the spoken/written word was translate to an image/icon for us to see. The workshop that Bruce – who is not a filmmaker and not an artist – did not give was, while minimal, still done with a multisensory approach.

Once in a while Bruce said a couple of other notable things in between our discussions like: “At home I eat shit every day.”

Did I mention he is not an artist and he did not give a workshop for three days…?

So in the morning of the second day of that workshop that Bruce McClure – who is not filmmaker and not an artist – did not give he was sitting outside in the courtyard waiting for us to arrive. (Wearing shorts while it was pretty cold. To make those who are late “feel guilty”.) When I arrived I had a short conversation with him and I said something that – seemed to – upset him:

Bruce: So you think I’m a jerk…?!

Me: Yes.

Bruce: Thank you!

Me: You’re welcome.

We then all went to church. That is we tried to get in but the actual entrance inside the building was closed. Bruce McClure’s former day job used to be the one of an architect. Hence the interest in that small church close to our school. Later in the afternoon when Bruce set up one of his projectors – using a compass and pointing it North our visit to that church was mentioned again, in regards to the geographic direction of how it was built. The found footage loop we went on watching – each time for 10 minutes – without sound, with sound and with one of his loops laced/sandwiched on top showed pelicans. One of them just took off and flew away. As one of us observed the bird was flying exactly South – that is in relation to Bruce’s projector/the screen that was pointing exactly North.

Bruce was quite thankful for that observation because this was the way he intended it to be – the bird flying South while the projector was pointing North – he simply had forgotten to actually mention it.

P.S.

If you are reading this and were there in those last couple of days feel free to comment and possibly let me know if I got e.g. some of the description of the performance at the Toonkino Saalbau wrong, if you feel something important is missing, if you disagree with what I write, you just want to add your own thoughts or link your own related blog entry etc.

This blog is published under a Creative Commons license – BY-NC-ND 3.0 – that e.g. allows you to copy/republish this text for non-commercial use as long as you give me credit.

Comments belong to their authors.

This blog currently gets around 600-700 hits/months. The unique visitors number may be quite a bit lower. A large part of the traffic comes via Google and people searching/reading only specific blog posts. Yet depending on how much I write etc. there may be about 100-200 (unique…?) visitors checking out the blog’s main page each month. Most of those might be interested in 3D, video and/or film. It’s a small platform but over the years I think I am able to reach at least a part of that audience that this blog is meant for. Why I mention this…? If you have something to say and comment there is a chance that – over time – those you may want to reach will actually read your comment. They might never contact you or let you know that they have read what you wrote. But your thoughts are out there and – over time – become part of a wider discussion about independent and/or avantgarde filmmaking etc.

Thanks for reading.

Update 25.10.11:

As usual when writing a longer blog post I now went through the text once more after publishing it and found/got rid of a couple of (minor) spelling etc. mistakes. English not being my first language and blessed with a dyslexic talent writing these things takes hours, sometimes days.

Also when thinking of that short projector/pelican story I’m wondering if something here may be 90° the wrong way round – or not. Maybe I’m misquoting directions, maybe not. Yet the essence of that story is still 100% true. So I leave it the way it is. Also: mistakes can be a true source of inspiration for new discoveries. That’s simply how we learn.

Underneath I now uploaded three pictures I took this morning of Bruce McClure’s program he handed out before the performance at the Tonkino Saalbau. I publish those images under traditional copyright since I am not the author of that program. I only took those pictures.

The third one may be the most interesting since it shows a sketch of those loops that Bruce McClure used for his performance and I have not mentioned those details in the text.

Update 26.10.11:

I just realised Bruce McClure’s performance at the Tonkino Saalbau took place on October 20th, 2011 (an not on October 25th as it says on the program – the location was Flachgasse 25…). So I changed the dates in my text even though the images say something different.

Additionally I also made it clearer where those two strobe lights – description performance beginning of text – were actually located.

Click the images (“open in new tab”) to see a larger version:

Detail (from page 1 out of 4) of the program for Bruce McClure’s projection performance at the Tonkino Saalbau in Vienna on October 20th, 2011

Page 4 (out of 4) of the program for Bruce McClure’s projection performance at the Tonkino Saalbau in Vienna on October 20th, 2011

Detail (from page 4 out of 4) of the program for Bruce McClure’s projection performance at the Tonkino Saalbau in Vienna on October 20th, 2011

Yesterday the Blender Foundation released Blender 2.60:

Download for all platforms.

While the previous Blender 2.5x series was all about making Blender ready for a wider user base (switch to an intuitive User Interface, a new Animation System, Color Management/linear workflow and much more) the Blender 2.60 series now focuses on upgrading Blender in some key areas important for those looking for a free and open-source all in one video post, compositing, special effects/3D package:

VSE Proxy Support now and Motion/Camera Tracking coming soon…

Sequence editor proxy support (missing in 2.5x) is now restored:

“Proxies are lower resolution versions of image or video files, that can be used instead of the full resolution for faster editing. Additionally to the way Blender 2.49 worked where you could make proxies for individual strips, you can now select several strips at once and build proxies in the background.”

Basically this means that Blender 2.60 is not only a platform independent NLE (edit/share your .blends across Linux, Windows or Mac), but Blender 2.60 with Sequence Editor proxy support brings high-end free and open-source video editing to almost any PC you might be using: the Blender VSE (Video Sequence Editor) works quite well even on older hardware recycled with e.g. Linux Mint.

New Blender versions are coming out every two months now and while 2.60 is great news the truth is that there are many now waiting for Blender 2.61 – expected to be released mid-December: Motion/Camera tracking (!) as well as Cycles, the new render engine, will be added.

You can always check out unofficial builds and test/use the new features months ahead of a release via those builds available from GraphicAll.org.

Extend Blender, Mango and links for new users

Blender can be extended via Add-Ons (scripts), either write your own in Python or get those from the Blender 2.5 Scripts Catalog (learn how-to install an Add-On). For new users e.g. the Compositing Presets or for editors the Jump to Cut Add-On may be of interest…

The Blender Foundation’s current open-movie project (previously Elephant’s Dream, Big Buck Bunny, Sintel) is called Mango, a “Sci-fi in Amsterdam” and “with real actors, 3-5 minutes”. Basically this one is about upgrading Blender in the SFX department.

For documentation see the BlenderWiki.

For community support see the Blender Artists Forums.

For “Fresh Blender News, Every Day” see BlenderNation.

For “Developer musings on Blender” see the Blender developer Blog.

For more about Blender and video post production see the Blender’s VSE blog.

You can also still check out my old Blender 2.4x Presets for editing and 2D titles via my tutorials page. (Learn the basics using the old/classic Blender 2.49b and then switch to Blender 2.60.)

If you want to report a bug here is a good place to start.

Blender is a truly amazing piece of software. Blender means high-end 3D, video editing and compositing for everyone. On every platform. For free.

Blender is Power to the People.

8,9% of Berlin voted for the Pirate Party last month and I’m proud to say that I was able to contribute to that outcome: while being an Austrian living in Berlin I am allowed to vote in my district. For the first time there was the candidate “Piratenpartei” on the ballot and that’s where I made my cross. And So did many other. And news that close to 10% of Berlin is now in Pirate Party hands spread quickly around the globe (blog.p2pfoundation.net).

I was actually a bit surprised about just how wide that news travelled: it seems people have been waiting for this (blog.p2pfoundation.net). Those 8,9% for the Pirates in Berlin are a signal for others: if Berlin can do it your city, your country can do it too.

And guess what, now after the success in Berlin the German Pirate Party gets around 7% in polls – that is 7% Germany wide: should there be general elections next Sunday we’d had the Piratenpartei sitting in the German Bundestag.

And there is still much more potential for sure: I would not be surprised at all should Pirate Parties around Europe get two digit results in elections within the next five years.

People this is it, this is the time to get out and vote for the Pirates. And if you can’t vote let your family know, your father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt etc.:

Let them know why you want the Pirate Party in your (local) government, explain to them why the Pirate Party is like “a patch for Democracy” as I read somewhere.

Let them know why (software) patents are truly evil and why Copyright is in fact Copywrong.

Let them know about the Patent Trolls and Copyright Thieves.

Let them know about h.264.

Let them know that Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Frauenhofer Institute and all those others h.264 patent holders are S-T-A-E-L-I-N-G everyone’s video footage using software patents (you do not own your own h.264 video footage, not even after transcoding to e.g. an open format: licensing fees for any “commercial” use will need to be paid to all those thieves hiding behind the acronym MPEG-LA).

Let your people know the truth about why a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs could “achieve” what they did in those last 30 years:

Gates, Jobs etc. are a simply a special kind of breed of thieves who (while now retired used to) organise, set up and run a wide range of (in the US legal, in Europe for sure quite illegal) extortion schemes based on software patents and related “legal” constructs. Latest examples: the Samsung tablet that Apple tries so hard to block via court orders or the fact that Microsoft will make money with basically every Android phone you buy ($5/phone Protection Money for the IP lawyers thanks to software patents).

Or maybe there is something else that makes you angry…? Maybe it’s the RIAA or the MPAA (better know as MAFIAA)…?

There surely are many good reasons to be very angry these days (WikiLeaks censorship, youngsters/hackers who defend Democracy put in jail, Greece looted by the Banks, …) and each reason is a good one to turn your anger into real political change by voting Pirate Party!

This is our chance to get rid of those governments that have been corrupted be the Content and Copyright Mafia.

This is our chance to get rid of ACTA and all future attempts by the Content Mafia who is trying to undermine Democracy in order to save their dying business model, a model that never was right in the first place, a business model that is based on stealing but never giving back to society. One of the best examples being The Walt Disney Company and the Micky Mouse Protection Act from 1998.

Occupy Wall Street and World Revolution

“I see Corporatism, Fascism, chronic Capitalism. I don’t see a free market. I see a police state, I see an American Empire, I see 700 military bases in 135 foreign countries. I see 5000 dead bodies in Iraq. A welfare warfare state which gives out billions of dollars in foreign aid for dictators (…).”

(From the Voice Over/interview at the beginning of the embedded video about the current Occupy Wall Street movement:)

Nobody Can Predict The Moment Of Revolution (2011), 8:01

by Martyna Starosta & Iva Radivojevic, CC BY-NC 3.0

Video’s page on Vimeo.

One more thing…

Now that we have Freedom from Steve:

Steve Jobs,

You personally may get away with this and keep making your dirty money for quite a while. Yet not forever.

Thing is you are old and I am so much younger than you. Chances are I’ll still be around when you are long gone. And I’ll make sure the world will hear the true story about h.264. I’ll make sure that people get a chance to remember Steve Jobs for who he really was. You are no innovator, your are no inventor. At the end of the day you are simply that: a thief.

And Fuck You for that.

FUCK YOU STEVE JOBS FOR H.264.

FUCK YOU.

FUCK YOU.

FUCK YOU.

And FUCK YOU.

Update (06.10.11) :

Steve Jobs died this morning. Here the discussion on Slashdot.

Yes, it’s always very sad when someone dies and I’m sure many including his family will miss him. Yet death does not mean you have to be dishonest. The man may have done a lot for the Apple shareholders and may have pushed the industry in the directions he wanted, but for me personally he is one the biggest disappointments when it comes to role models:

I used to watch his Apple sales shows back in the ’90 on a Performa 5200, connected to the internet via modem. He was a brilliant sales person. He really was. Unfortunately he was not honest about his products shortcomings and he betrayed a whole generation of artists, film makers and young ones who bought his h.264 pitch. Steve Jobs choose to betray and steal from everyone (h.264 video footage) so that he could build a monopoly around/by using the moving image:

* He tried to push h.264 as the only legal video codec for distribution: when you already own an online store for movies (iTunes) as well as parts of a Hollywood film studio (Disney, before that Pixar) this simply is extremely greedy and shows you do not like competition at all. For over ten years open-source audio/video codec developers were severly bullied by all those who stand behind h.264. In his own words (blogs.fsfe.org):

“All video codecs are covered by patents. A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now.”

* At the same time, knowingly, just as all the other h.264 patent holders, he was happy with stealing your and mine h.264 video footage: I got an h.264 camera and went out shooting footage, for weeks, months. I was planing to use that footage commercially until I found out about the scheme that Jobs etc. had set up/were happy to make their dirty deals with: the MPEG-LA.

Jobs not only wanted a monopoly on distribution but he also wanted to control independent content, e.g. accepted – and never communicated – the MPEG-LA’s rules e.g. about how long (!!!) your h.264 online video can be before you have to start paying fees to them. Steve Jobs was prepared to and did sell his user, did betray those artists who trusted him and who supported his company in all those years when Apple almost went out of business.

Steve Jobs betrayed us with h.264. I won’t forget that. And I will make sure that this story reaches as many people as possible, now and in the future.

A monopoly on the moving image is simply a very, very dangerous thing. It would be highly irresponsible not to let future generations know about this. Basically what Jobs opened up/promoted is a road to Fascism. People need to hear the h.264 story so that something like this can never happen again!

I agree with David Cameron that society as such (not just in the UK) is “sick”. Yet when you have a serious flue what does the doctor do to cure you? Punish you for being sick? Or find out why you are sick and see how he can help you getting back to normal?

It is most astonishing to hear Nottingham Magistrates’ Court Judge Devas say to a convicted looter: “Don’t you feel ashamed that you are now counted among the hundreds of yobbos arrested and now considered as scum by the public?” So this is justice in the year 2011? Public humiliation..? Just wow. And people wonder why there is no respect for society and the system. Just listen to yourself Judge Devas…!

We have David Cameron talking about “phony human rights concerns” (in context of identifying potential rioters) and hear suggestions to evict people involved in riots from council houses.

Of course with this kind of language there was quickly a successful e-petition (100 000+) that asks for rioters loosing their benefits.

A social media ban for suspected rioters is yet another of David Cameron’s brilliant ideas.

And of course we had a suggestion of assembling all the rioters in Wembley stadium… Just wow.

This is politics and courts failing those they have failed before yet once more:

rubber bullets, humiliation and exclusion are the answers to a “sick” society from those in charge. Fail, fail, fail.

Yes, society is sick. But it’s also true that:

The fish always stinks from the head downwards.

Be careful who you call “scum”. If the tone we hear does not change quickly this will backfire sooner or later with much greater force than what we have seen in recent days. And next time I guess the mob will be smarter and attack the CCTV cams first: Big Brother is not the solution but part of the problem.

This surely does look like Capitalism failing and Fascism rising.

Update 1:

The system is obviously a joke: you steal a bottle of water worth £3.50 and get six months in jail plus the prime minister’s and the honorable judges’ “scum’” tag. Yet those who looted society – politicians helping bankers, bankers helping politicians – are still walking around freely, anonymously and with no justice done whatsoever! David Cameron tries to punish and exclude the UK youth out of fear of loosing his job. So 11-17 year olds, their families and communities are now paying the prize for the failure of politics. The world is looking at you UK, the world’s youth is looking at you David Cameron and be sure that people know who the real “scum”, the real looters are. Can you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y…?

Why, just why is it that the majority of our leaders are such a miserable failure…?!

Update 2:

London riots: Wandsworth council moves to evict mother of charged boy (www.guardian.co.uk): “…they will have to find housing in the private sector and that will be tougher for them. But they should have thought about that before they started burgling” = “Let them eat cake.”

David Cameron, your society is very, very sick. Excuse me, I now need to go and puke while thinking of you and your pals from Wandsworth coucil!

So instead of blaming social media (expect more calls from clever politicians to censor teh evil Internets) why not blame the bankers who robbed and looted our society for months and years and who received bonuses on top…?

Maybe those young people (some around 10-14 year olds!) are not just “criminals” as the politicians and the police say but maybe they simply also expect some “bonuses” now…? You know the young ones, the “copycats” just do what they are being shown on TV by the responsible adults, the social-funds cutting politicians helping the “markets”, the bankers and the corporations.

We are loosing much more than “trillions” of made-up money on the stock markets these days, we are loosing so much more than what is being destroyed physically by the looting. We are loosing a generation of young ones who don’t see a future. And as a society this is our future.

Go capitalism! More growth! Go markets! Go…!

Here some of the best comments and articles I have found so far:

There is a context to London’s riots that can’t be ignore (08.08.11, http://www.guardian.co.uk)

Looting ‘fuelled by social exclusion’ (08.08.11, http://www.guardian.co.uk)

Panic on the streets of London (09.08.11, pennyred.blogspot.com)

Also, in case you are a BlackBerry customer, you may want to know more about this: RIM Helping UK Police Track Down Rioters (08.08.11, yro.slashdot.org)

Updates…

Young adult unemployment (www.poverty.org.uk)

and

If the rioting was a surprise, people weren’t looking (08.08.11, http://www.guardian.co.uk)

International press reaction to UK riots (09.08.11, http://www.bbc.co.uk)

UK riots: What turns people into looters? (09.08.11, http://www.bbc.co.uk)

The UK riots: the psychology of looting (09.08.11, http://www.guardian.co.uk)

The sad truth behind London riot (09.08.11, worldblog.msnbc.msn.com)

Riots without responsibility (10.08.11, http://www.guardian.co.uk)

These riots reflect a society run on greed and looting (10.08.11, http://www.guardian.co.uk)

and

BlackBerry blog site hacked by TriCk – TeaMp0isoN against London riots (09.08.11, http://www.thehackernews.com)

IWW poster printed 1911

(Source: Wikipedia)

While this old days info graphic style poster is now 100 years old it could hardly be more up to date today – and it also works for any kind of suppressive regime (with e.g. a centralised economy): “We shoot at you” is what is happening in Syria these days (www.bbc.co.uk).

Yesterday I started again reading Robert Peston’s business blog: How close is Credit Crunch 2? His latest post from today: The origins of today’s market mayhem (www.bbc.co.uk).

For a look at alternatives to our current money (based) system see the P2P Foundation blog and those posts with the P2P Money tag (blog.p2pfoundation.net).

And for those enjoying their rides on the world’s biggest Casino today: just don’t forget that when “zero” comes up it is always the Bank that wins! You won’t be able to change that… Yet we might be able to change the rules. So that it won’t happen again. Of course this means that there would need to be serious consequences. The pyramid scheme would need to go and those responsible would need to be held accountable.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that currently Apple Inc. has more cash than the United States of America (!) (www.bbc.co.uk): (software) patents and traditional copyright have brought us here. Yet it is also no coincidence that right now software patents as well as copyright are finally being investigated and changed by those in charge: UK to legalize private copying of CDs (www.reuters.com) (“Britain will signal on Wednesday that it intends to legalize copying of CDs or DVDs onto digital music players or computers for personal use“). Basically this is the beginning of (a long…?) end of traditional copyright! Software patent reform is happening (politics.slashdot.org) as well as mentioned in a previous post.

And while companies like Apple now have started selling hot air over the internet (“cloud services”) they forget to mention that where there are clouds there will be rain. Sooner or later.

People like Steve Jobs are like those bankers who also generated their financial “products” out of thin air. Their greed brought our financial system close to collapse while the lobbyists were busy targeting Democracy via ACTA. *)

Today we are only a few steps away from real Corporate Fascism, a system where those who can’t pay shall have no voice. More than one politician made suggestions along that line in recent weeks and months. Shame on you.

So have a nice day, make your bets – faites vos jeux, before the croupier says: “Rien ne vas plus!”

And then…?

I guess the People will let you know when the Day of Glory has arrived, when le Jour de Gloire est arrivé…

Update:

*) One of many reasons why ACTA is a real, dangerous threat to Democracy: Leaked “ACTA” Lobby Letter Reveals Hollywood Pressure On EU (06.05.11, torrentfreak.com):

“A letter sent on behalf of 21 pro-copyright outfits including the Motion Picture Association and IFPI shows how the European Parliament is being urged to sign the controversial ACTA anti-piracy agreement. The backroom lobbying effort document which came into TorrentFreak’s possession, reveals how the organizations ask Parliament not to wait for a response from the European Court of Justice but simply sign “with no further delays.”“ (!!!)

Here is my public comment, I took the liberty of adapting some of my favourites lyrics for the occasion. Do sing along by all means!

Another big Bag of Hurt (part 2)

We don’t need no software patents

We don’t need no Jobs control

No unfree codec in the classroom

Lawyers, leave them kids alone

Hey! Steve! Leave them kids alone!

All in all it’s just another big Bag of Hurt.

All in all you’re just another big Bag of Hurt.

“This video is based on an old Apple commercial with real pictures of Spain and Greece.” (Video’s page.)

See also: real-democracy.gr (or in English via Google Translate)

Video may need to load first for smooth playback! A smaller Flash and a high-res open-source encoded version will be posted later. Thank You! (You can also right click “Click To Play”, then “Save Link As…”  to download the video and use the VLC for playback!)

Space Visual – Early Period (v2) (2011), 3:48

Music: Jan Joachimsen Video: Valentin Spirik (CC) 2011 BY-NC-SA

The above video is version 2 of this project first posted last October.

Some thoughts to the project

Overall Space Visual (v2) is closer to where I want it to be than version 1 was, yet a couple of things are not quite there yet:

technical:

- there is an issue with the toon edges, they appear in places where there is a certain 2D/3D logic, yet where they don’t make real sense. Not sure if this can be fixed easily… Overpaints (can be time consuming and not so much fun) will be the most practical solution here. If so then for a full HD rendered version:

- it is still only rendered in 960×540, Full HD simply takes that much longer and files are that much heavier to handle (in compositing). A hardware upgrade will make it much easier to go full HD with my online videos.

- there are a couple of features missing that I originally wanted for version 2 but then left out for various reasons: a believable cam shake, stars and grass (on the outside)

- it’s not been colour corrected in a technical sense, most of my online videos are not. There are practical reasons (effort vs necessity) and then there are artistic, or rather philosophical questions that I still have: basically the artist in me wants this to be a fully trust-your-own-eyes-and-feelings-process whereas the reality of colour correction is a rather cold, technical one with neutral-Grey-workplace-calibrated-monitor-trust-the-scopes-readings.

I want to understand how a Leonardo, a Van Gogh or a Turner could do what they did in a pre-digital time and why we today need all this complex high-tech equipment and then still are rather limited and have to make sure we don’t e.g. broadcast “illegal colours”. The artist in me says: no colour can be illegal. It’s simply a limitation and therefore can/should be challenged.

concept:

- while the minimalism of it is fully on purpose, I am wondering if part 1 (going down) works as well as it could. Since in part 2 we see halo light it may work to have dust/sun rays in part 1, this could further help with getting a feeling for the room (this I already tried to improve via textures and light:)

workflow:

- this was my first Blender project where I was not able to do an all in one render at the end: (in addition to a Sun and a Spot, and Sun/Sun for the Color/Shadow pass layer) I was using AO, Environment Lighting, toon edges and that Color/Shadow pass. So I had 3 copies of the same mesh in different layers for light/compositing reasons. Now in this setup, even if you exclude AO/Environment Lighting from the Color/Shadow pass layer, it seems that you will still get an “overall” AO/Environment Lighting render for this mesh once combined in the Compositing Nodes (=unwanted effect of meshes on top of each other)…! There is a certain logic to it, yet it also seems limiting (at least in this setup) and not quite right at the same time. So I ended up rendering my main layer first without any nodes, and then do a second round and render toon edges as well as Color/Shadow over that first render plus add other 2D effects on top (all by going through the Compositing Nodes, loading the first render and adding the rest).

As with all things 3D: there may well be a better solution for this workflow, I just may not have figured it out yet… Non photorealistic rendering (NPR) can be more tricky than you first think!

(Note: The 3D/visual part of this project was entirely made with Blender 2.57b.)

encoding:

- I still find it ridiculously hard to do open-source video (e.g. VP8) encoding (and no Blender is not the problem…). I really want this. I’m really trying. (See here and here). I’ll get there, our tools are about to get there.

Yet I also know who is to blame for high-quality open-source video encoding not being there today in every video “app” – on all platforms – in the year 2011, about 15-20 years (!) after the digital post-production “revolution” took place:

There are forces out there, multinational corporations as well as specialised law firms, who want a monopoly on a particular video codec since:

- it would be the key to control content ($$$) (imagine the possibilities if you were to own parts of a Hollywood film studio at the same time as well as an online store for movies…)

- it would be the cash cow of the century if you could just get people to pay fees for every single frame of video that is shown (“commercially”) at every given moment on this planet!

Just think of it: you could first sell them the cameras (or better: sell them a “smart” phone with a camera), and then make them work for you! Imagine a whole generation of minors, working for free for you and uploading their videos to Web 2.0…! You could make the video platform pay licensing fees and those stupid kids who work for free for you will on top of it then pay for it via having to watch yet more ads! Wouldn’t that be a plan or what…?!

I know who to thank if high-quality, open-source audio/video encoding still does not work out of the box in 2011.

I know who took care of this and who is to blame.

And I won’t forget!

Copying Is Not Theft – Official Version (1:00)

Creative Commons license: BY-SA 3.0

Video’s page (questioncopyright.org)

Copying Is Not Theft

Show this to your kids, pupils and everyone you can think of and educate them about the merits of a free (digital) copy!

And someone show this to all those RIAA lawyers that “Hope” Obama brought to his government:

Obama Taps 5th RIAA Lawyer to Justice Dept. (www.wired.com, 13.04.09)

Obama, Keep Filling Administration with RIAA Insiders (www.wired.com, 21.04.09)

Obama Nominates RIAA Lawyer for Solicitor General (www.wired.com, 24.01.11)

And someone show this to Obama’s choice for the vice president, Joe Biden, who not only famously said:

Biden to file sharers: ‘Piracy is theft’ (news.cnet.com, 22.06.10)

but went on displaying his competence and wisdom when he commented on Julian Assange in late 2010:

Julian Assange like a hi-tech terrorist, says Joe Biden (www.guardian.co.uk, 19.12.10)

and then while the People were out on the streets of Egypt:

Joe Biden says Mubarak isn’t a dictator, questions legitimacy of protesters’ demands (boingboing.net, 28.01.11)

Software Patents = Organised Theft

You see the same people that still want to uphold traditional copyright are of course also the ones that keep supporting the patent trolls and thieves:

Obama cites Steve Jobs’ wealth, product success (news.cnet.com, 22.12.10)

To all you Corporate Fascists, to all copyright thieves and patent trolls, to all the abusers, to the Joe Bidens, the Steve Jobs and the Bill Gates of this world (and their patent troll Moloch organisation MPEG-LA that steals everyones h.264 video footage *), h.264 still being used in every Apple smart phone as we speak while the first Android phones using the open-source WebM/VP8 codec are coming out right now), to all you greedy thieves:

I turned 40 earlier this year and I believe I now have seen enough crap and need to clearly warn the generations coming after me! You know those who may or may not vote for you at the next election and opt for the Pirate Party instead, or those who may stop buying your products because they realise you simply screw them wherever you can (would you trust a company with non-linear video editing that at the same time holds patents on a video codec that you (may need to!) use and that you need to pay licensing fees for every time you use your own work commercially…?!).

To all you rich, disgusting, organised thieves:

FUCK PATENTS. FUCK COPYRIGHT. AND FUCK YOU.

—

*) See also: Web Video Rivalry Sparks U.S. Probe (online.wsj.com, 04.03.11): this is basically about the MPEG-LA finally being investigated for their abusive comments (see also what Steve Jobs had to say) made after Google’s free and open-source WebM (VP8) codec was announced a year ago!

Download Blender 2.57

More about this release on Blendernation.

I’ve been using/switching to the Blender 2.5x beta releases since around late last summer (my first test project “space visual – early period” done in 2.5 from last October) and found it more than usable while still being labeled “beta” for a coupe of months already…

Now that the transition from the classic Blender 2.49 with the old loved/feared interface is mostly done (I first feared it, then loved it) expect a quite significant addition of features to Blender for the next couple of releases.

Open-source animation and platform independent video post production have just been upgraded and there is so much more to come now…!

The interviewer does not interrupt and this is in contrast to so many of the fast cut, sensationalist style TV interviews, reports and also those misinformed or even hate-filled blog posts like some of those recently found on the usually respectable Boing Boing.

Recommended.

Frost over the World – Julian Assange (24:01), December 22, 2010

“The WikiLeaks founder talks about secrets, leaks and why he will not go back to Sweden.”

Al Jazeera English (www.youtube.com)

“Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company had removed the app “because it violated our developer guidelines.” Ms. Muller added: “Apps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or group in harm’s way.”“

This is simply an excuse for censorship.

I’ve been of course boycotting Apple (and switched to PC hardware/Linux) ever since they let me down with my broken iMac G5 after a Leopard “upgrade” that went badly wrong and when they then even removed my post to their forum about the matter in April 2008.

Apple is of course also on the list of patent trolls that steal your and mine (not any more since I got rid of that camera) H.264 footage.

Beware of those who offer you “Freedom from XXX” (techcrunch.com). You pay for it. You get it.

Freedom from WikiLeaks you got today.

Freedom from Freedom it will be tomorrow.

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

But then I saw the following video and even though I am not really that much into rap I think this one summarizes pretty well in pop culture speak what is going on right now and what is at stake…

Much more interesting than what I had prepared!

Rap News 6 – Wikileaks’ Cablegate: the truth is out there (6:23)

Update:

Creative Commons license for the video (as shown on the artist’s YouTube page): BY-NC-SA

Artist’s website (thejuicemedia.com) for donations and more. For their lyrics and more (www.reverbnation.com).

The video’s website on YouTube offers an interactive transcript in various languages (click icon bottom right of video).

What follows are the lyrics from http://www.reverbnation.com via saving the whole page as a .html – somehow that widget did not allow me to simply copy/paste the lyrics…:

Rap News 6 – Cablegate: The truth is out there
Lyrics by Hugo Farrant & Giordano Nanni

Good morning, this is a Juice News call out
in the wake of Cable Gate and the subsequent fall-out
balls out revelations, observations of diplomats
giving actual confirmation of hidden facts

spilling backroom deals, leaking leaders’ chit chat
money laundering and tit for tat spits and spats:
The picture that emerges, provided by the servers
shines light further behind the wire curtain

Certainly this has divided views of the populace
Some say it’s obvious, ‘nothing new in these documents’
Others say it’s ominous, and applaud the revelations
Others still call for the messenger’s assassination

Following Assange’s arrest and calls for his head,
over nine 9000 counterattacks on all of the web,
the state department being forced to defend
spying at the UN and a secret war in Yemen

Despite DDOS attacks on Wikileaks’ system
Day by day cables still spray through mirror reflection
Will cable-gate change the game or lead to repression?
We get face-to-face with Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton, how does it feel to get leaked on?
It’s scandalous, this is a case of high treason
It’s against the land of the brave and divine freedom –
We’re the good guys, for democracy, we fight evil

And we’ve waged peace around the world, proud of the flag
These leaks could devalue this powerful brand
Bring military operations straight to a halt
Our shareholders, clients and partners would plainly revolt

But, aren’t you beholden to the American Public?
And isn’t the US one of the primary culprits,
In overthrowing governments?
Such as? Chile, Iran, Nicaragua?
Please, stop with the drama!

The American People are our employees
whose taxes fund the wars that support our schemes
their kids become troops we send overseas
in return for mega malls and the American dream

And if our client states don’t like the things that we do
we install a dictator with a CIA coup
in foreign relations, subversion is the method we use
Wikileaks threaten this system so it’s a terrorist group

But the people of the world seem to generally approve
of Wikileaks’ actions in spilling the truth…
They do? Well, then, they’re terrorists too!
dissentors are traitors, as history proves

And they always lose. That’s curious,
weren’t some of our greatest heroes persecuted for this
reason. Who? Mandela, Gandhi, …Jesus
Ahhh… you idealists.

Now for a different perspective, Prison-Planet host,
Alex Jones. Sheeple, heed the megaphone,
This Assange has apparently shown
The emperor on the palace throne grabbing at clothes

But I’ve heard anecdotes, I’ll show it fits
This Patsy’s a triple agent for the globalists
He claims openness, but he’s actually a catalyst
For the one world government of commie nazi fascists

Robert, I’m getting paranoid, I need to state
This is a false flag to bring in a police state
A cyber 9-11, that’s the secret vision
Right now they’re de-briefing Julian in a British prison

So Wikileaks is an inside job? They hide the thruth
To distract from the climate deal in Cancun
You try and do my job without hiding something
I ain’t called the SECRETary of State for nothing.

But surely, now the leaks are exposed out on the stage
You’d expect the world’s leaders to be outraged
By the spying, lies, emerging charges
Now on the line it’s Colonel Gadaffi

Asalamalekum. Alekumasalam,
Are you outraged? Well, now that there’s a muslim
Brother President of US, we expected secrets
to be kept, but now we have to keep abreast

Of these.. huge… security leaks.
Obama must get firm grip on Wiki-tits
Er.. ok, how about you Mr Berlusconi, will
your reputation fall more in this pandemonium?

Ma Roberto! Gli italiani mi amano come bambini
E glielo metto in culo come Mussolini
The American flag is symbol global of liberty
And I love Hillary… though she’s a bit too old for me

By the way, Robert, how much for your news show?
I pay cash — I just got some Rubles
Sorry, Silvio, we have scruples, it’s not for sale
Va bo, Hillary, come have a cigar at the hotel

Well, Hillary it appears that the leaders
Are not that outraged. Ha! Are you serious?
Of course not. We’re one happy family tree, son
As you’ll see soon when we hang  Assange for treason

Treason? could an Australian ever stand trial?
Ha! Australia’s in the American Empire!
We have puppet states, franchisees, subsidiaries,
Provided they obey, they’re guaranteed liberty

We’re not letting Assange get out of our grip
You know how hard it was to plant a condom that split?
Hill, ya turd, your Bilderberg lies are blatant
But, Alex, where’s your evidence that Assange is an agent?

Well, obviously this is a globalist psi-ops plot designed to keep us in the dark

They’re climbin in your windows
They’re snatchin your income tax
tryna enslave you so y’all need to
hide your kids, hide your wife
buy a gun , buy a knife
watch my show, buy your gold
and buy your silver
cuz they enslavin errbody out here
We don’t have to look for no facts
we know this is true …
they gon chip you
they gon tag you
but we can run and yell that,
run and yell that
run and yell that! New World
New world order!

We got his IP
he done left data discs and all
he is so done
he is really going, on trial
But what is Assange accused of?
I was molested by Julian in the Stokholm

So done, so done, so done, so

Ok, It’s almost time to end for the day
But until we meet again, a few questions remain
Is Wikileaks really the greatest threat that we face?
Or is it the response we are seeing in defense of the state?

A response which is building and seeks
To turn back the clock on freedom of speech
And fundamental rights earned over a century
This should ring alarm bells for all who know their history

From this evidence, are we neglecting our memory
And repeating the trajectory of the twentieth century?
And if so, upon seeing the facts
But ceasing to act, don’t we deserve the leaders we have?

What needs to befall before we open the door
and yell “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”?
Or shall we sit waiting for messiahs or aliens,
Or a super-hero, if they’re not all one and the same meme?

History, dear viewers, is happening
Will we ever get a similar chance again?
History books will be written about events this month
The story they will tell — is up to us

So sanity has prevailed after all. It also seems that politicians are finally starting to understand the dynamics of the net and what the online generation can contribute to that ongoing experiment we call Democracy.

It still remains to be seen how a future version of the JMStV will be drafted and what it might look like: anyone planing an online project in Germany is well advised to follow closely all developments leading towards a JMStV v2011…

See also Scheitern des JMStV ist ein Sieg der Vernunft (ak-zensur.de)

Update:

See also JMStV vor dem Aus (www.heise.de/tp) for a critical look at the way the JMStV v2010 was drafted. The article basically says that the process was not an open one and that old media (TV) and its close ties to politics had a lot to say. Some of the comments to the article also question the motivation for stopping the JMStV and suggest mainly tactical reasons.

There are lessons to be learned for everyone, that seems pretty clear to me. For me personally one lesson is: even if you live in a supposedly free country like Germany there are certain values like free speech that constantly need to be tested and defended if necessary. JMStV v2010 had the potential of destroying (not only) wide parts of the German blogosphere. In the end sanity prevailed, but things could have gone the other way and this is something that I simply had not anticipated in this country in the year 2010. Everyone needs to keep their eyes of vigilance open at all times from now on.

For more about this, not quite as diplomatic as the German text that follows, see my previous blog entries here and here and here.

For the latest news about this see also JMStV: Die Woche der Entscheidungen and JMStV: Vor-Vorentscheidung in NRW? (www.netzpolitik.org).

Update…

It now looks like all parties in NRW will vote against the JMStV on Thursday. I believe it when it happens.

+++ Eil & Kurz +++ (Update) JMStV in NRW vor dem Aus (www.netzpolitik.org)

Offiziell: Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrag gestoppt – Landtag NRW wird #JMStV morgen ablehnen (www.netzpolitik.org)

Yet of course many questions still need to be answered:

* Who drafted the current proposal and why and how and for whom?

* How will a future version of the JMStV be drafted and how will it look like?

Germany’s politicians will still have a lot of explaining to do if they want to regain some of the trust they lost to the net community. At the moment it is also unclear why exactly NRW will possibly vote against the JMStV.

Free speech and free access to information are too important and should never have been taken so lightly by those in charge in Germany today.

Let’s keep those eyes of vigilance wide open…

JMStV: Nach dem Vergnügen kommt die Arbeit (www.netzpolitik.org)

Mein Kommentar

Sehr geehrte Entscheidungsträger,

Der Ihnen vorliegende JMStV scheint mir, höflich gesagt, im besten Fall ein Schildbürgerstreich der Sonderklasse zu sein.

Als Netzbürger mit 15 Jahren Onlineerfahrung, Blogger, New Media Künstler und ehemaliger Moderator auf der Medienplattform Ourmedia kann ich nur meine Hände über dem Gesicht zusammenschlagen, in Verzweiflung den Kopf schütteln und sehr unschöne Worte über den JMStV laut ausrufen.

Hier haben die Verfasser ihre Hausaufgabe nicht gemacht, und die Konsequenzen bei Abnicken dieses JMStV würden verheerend für die Zukunft des Internets in Deutschland sein.

Ich bin 1999 von Wien nach Berlin in Ihr schönes Land gekommen, um der wie ich meine dort (damals) vorherrschenden engen Sichtweise bezüglich Film und Neuen Medien zu entkommen.

Ab 01.01.2011 könnte nun Berlin/Deutschland wegen des JMStV auf einmal ein völlig unattraktiver Standort für mich sein. Ich bin ehrlich schockiert. Fragen stellen sich: wer hat warum, wie und für wen diese Vorlage erstellt?

Alleine die Idee mit den “Sendezeiten” ist, wieder höflich gesagt, sehr verwunderlich. Selbst wenn das technisch für meine Onlineauftritte durchführbar wäre, würde ich dann ja immer noch, für die der Vorlage nach zu schützende Jugend, z.B. in den USA erreichbar sein…

Besonders übel würde es, wenn man in den USA dann auch noch auf die Idee mit den “Sendezeiten” käme… Usw.

Es scheint mir schlimm genug, daß es der vorliegende JMStV überhaupt zu Ihnen zur Abstimmung geschafft hat, und ich bitte Sie, den Vogel jetzt nicht auch noch mit Ihrer Zustimmung abzuschießen.

Schützen Sie die Jugend, stimmen Sie für den globalen Zugang zur Information für die Ihnen nachfolgenden Generationen, und geben Sie diesem Land weiter eine Zukunft in Sachen Internet und Neue Medien!

There is some war footage in there (the one previously released) that is disturbing. But so is war.

Recommended viewing.

WikiRebels – The Documentary (2010), 57:25

Video’s page (svtplay.se).

Here is US Congressman Ron Paul saying what should seem obvious to anyone with a clear mind when looking at the facts around the latest WikiLeaks revelations. Ron Paul asks questions and I believe he asks the right ones. Questions are always more powerful than answers and he knows it.

Ron Paul recently also said: ‘What we need is more WikiLeaks’ (www.rawstory.com)

Politics in a pre-WikiLeaks aera mainly seemed to be about spitting out insulting sound bites towards the political enemy. And so it came that politicians and governments all over the world not only have become whores to lobbyist and big money, but also to that important Fourth Estate (en.wikipedia.org).

Ron Paul is one of those rare politicians, be it on the left or right of the political spectrum, who is not caught up in a narrow-minded ideology and some -ism, but simply analyses with sanity, asks questions and speaks his own mind.

We not only need more WikiLeaks, we also need more Ron Pauls.

Lying is Not Patriotic (5:23)

To those few – on all parts of the political spectrum – who yesterday voted against the JMStV because you care about free speech and your good conscience means more to you than “parlamentarische Zwänge” (“parliamentary necessity”): I raise my virtual hat to you!

To all those who voted against it simply for tactical reasons and to all those who voted for it simply for tactical reasons (while you actually would have liked to vote against it but felt you could not because of the “parlamentarische Zwänge”) I say: you’ve proven yourself an unworthy representative of the people. May another generation forgive you your weakness. I can’t.

I believe it is now fair to say that the majority of the delegates of the city of Berlin:

* may be to weak to vote according to their conscience or

* may be uninformed/incompetent in regards to new media and internet or

* may have been corrupted by lobbyists.

This is a very sad outcome for the capital of Germany!

All bloggers, (online) artists, new media producers, filmmakers and investors take note of this. Serious and very dangerous online censorship in Germany is now one step closer!

Here one comment from the netzpolitik.org article linked above:

“Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten

Wer war mit dabei? Die Linkspartei.

Wer verrät uns eh? Die FDP.

Wahlen boykottieren!”

For me this is another very good reason to only vote Pirate Party in all future elections!

No politician who voted for – or against – the JMStV and who did not vote according to his or her good conscience after thoroughly listening to the experts *)

* is in a position to ever lament again over a low turnout at any future election

* should be surprised about (political) radicalisation of young people

* and in the case of Berlin should not be surprised at all about new media artists now possibly leaving this wonderful city and moving on to another country where there is political sanity and understanding for online media.

You have utterly failed. Shame on you!

*) see:

Gesellschaft für Informatik und SIBB e. V. fordern Stopp des JMStV! (2. Update) (www.netzpolitik.org)

Schützt endlich unsere Kinder! Katholische Junge Gemeinde fordert Stopp des JMStV – “Echter Jugendmedienschutz geht anders” (www.netzpolitik.org)

One seriously wonders why but:

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange refused bail (www.bbc.co.uk)

This of course will not stop WikiLeaks:

WikiLeaks to keep releasing cables despite Assange arrest (www.guardian.co.uk)

The Guarding quotes in the WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates (www.guardian.co.uk) US defence secretary Robert Gates:

“Speaking to reporters on a visit to US troops in Afghanistan, Gates smirked on hearing the news. “I hadn’t heard that, but that sounds like good news to me,” he said.”

Since Julian Assange is simply supposed to clear his good name in front of a Swedish court one can only assume that the US defence secretary was glad that this matter can now be cleared up… Right…? Right…?

See also Justice for Assange (www.justiceforassange.com).

Consumers, Freedom of Speech and Internet-Vietnam

After Amazon, EveryDNS, Tableau Software, PayPal, Switzerland’s PostFinance and Mastercard now Visa joins the club of “independent” entities that consumers who care about free speech will want to investigate for their business practices and may want to avoid in the future:

Wikileaks’ Visa payments suspended (www.bbc.co.uk)

For how-to donate to WikiLeaks see WikiLeaks – Support (wikileaks.ch)

*** *** ***

Update 2:

The shit hits the fan now…

WikiLeaks cables: US ‘lobbied Russia on behalf of Visa and MasterCard’ “US diplomats intervened to try to amend draft law so that it would not ‘disadvantage’ US credit card firms, cable says” (www.guardian.co.uk)

The actual cable in the Guardian: US embassy cables: Revealed: US secret operation to help Visa and Mastercard (www.guardian.co.uk)

Also: PayPal admits US pressure over WikiLeaks account freeze (www.guardian.co.uk)

*** *** ***

The Austrian Green Party wants to set up an association, Freiheit, and a capital company, Freiheit GmbH, for supporting the freedom of the press on the net. In regards to the ongoing infowar:

Pilz: “Das wird das Internet-Vietnam für die USA” / Pilz: “This will be the Internet-Vietnam for the US” (diepresse.com)

Recommended reading: Julian Assange in The Australian today. Don’t shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths (www.theaustralian.com.au) and `The truth will always win’ – Julian Assange writes (blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au)

And of course for a good overview to all new WikiLeaks and the latest related news see: The US embassy cables + News (www.guardian.co.uk) or BBC News – Wikileaks revelations (www.bbc.co.uk)

It’s most interesting to see which (online) newspaper brings which WikiLeaks (and related) story…

This is where you can see where everyone stands. This is where you can see whom you can trust.

Anonymous, Operation Payback and a possible candidate for a viral video

Meanwhile Anonymous (en.wikipedia.org) is on the move:

Wikileaks defended by hacktivists (www.bbc.co.uk)

This is their latest video, total views on YouTube are rising fast for this one at the moment…

Operation Payback – Anonymous Message About ACTA Laws, Internet Censorship and Copyright (1:50)

Update 1:

It’s a bit hard to catch everything that’s being said in the V.O., so here is the text from the video’s YouTube page (click those arrows under the total views number to see it):

“Corrupt governments of the world, we are anonymous. For some time now, voices have been crying out in unison against the new ACTA laws. The gross inadequacies of the new laws being passed internationally have been pointed out repeatedly. Our chief complaint is that such measures would restrict people’s access to the internet.

In these modern times access to the internet is fast becoming a basic human right. Just like any other basic human right, we believe that it is wrong to infringe upon it. To threaten to cut people off from the global consciousness as you have is criminal and abhorrent. To move to censor content on the internet based on your own prejudice is at best laughably impossible, at worst, morally reprehensible.

The unjust restrictions you impose on us will meet with disaster and only strengthen our resolve to disobey and rebel against your tyranny. Such actions taken against you, and those you out source your malignant litigation too, are inevitable, unavoidable and unstoppable.

We Are Anonymous,

We Are Legion And Divided By Zero.

We Do Not Forgive Internet Censorship

And We Do Not Forget Free Speech.

We Are Over 9000,

Expect Us!”

“We are no longer that generation that does not care. (…) We are now the generation at the heart of the Fight Back. We are now the generation that will stand with everyone who is fighting back.”

Coalition of Resistance conference | School Student | 27 Nov 2010 (4:50)

Counterfire (www.counterfire.org) and Coalition of Resistance Against Cuts & Privatisation (www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk)

Found via P2P Foundation (blog.p2pfoundation.net)

So this is basically like an Alpha/Beta test run for getting started with Lightworks if you don’t mind using Windows and know what you are doing.

Having seen Paul give a Lightworks demo at our last final BUG meeting I was still quite impressed. So assuming the source code will be released in 2011 and all remaining issues they might have will be solved I definitely can see the potential here:

* I believe after seeing that 30 min. or so demo I’d feel comfortable enough to start editing/working on a (short test) project without any further manual reading (assuming I’d have a stable version already installed). Lightworks is pretty easy and intuitive to use while also being different to others NLEs:

* Basically there is not much to see at first except for that left hand (floating) side bar with those icons. What you then do is choose the tools you need for the particular task you wish to perform. So at first it’s tabula rasa and not the usual timeline with the player/recorder (or whatever they might be called) windows on top. Experienced Blender (2.49b) users will be familiar with this kind of philosophy…

* It has advanced trimming features some of which not even Avid has. Again these tools are easy to use, also easier compared to what you need to do in Avid and certainly much easier and much more useful than what in comparison seem to be only half hearted trimming features in FCP.

* While the Blender VSE (see my Tutorials page for more) is a wonderful, minimal style NLE that already works on all major platforms and will most probably remain my tool of choice for my own (3D) shorts, Lightworks has the potential of becoming something like the LibreOffice (was OpenOffice) of the NLE world: it’s a specialised tool for (film) editing, it’s very powerful, quite elegant and has a well known track record in the industry.

From the Lightworks website:

“Having cut hundreds of films such as Pulp Fiction, The Departed, Centurion and Shutter Island, it includes a full feature set of editorial tools, from advanced trimming and media management, through to stereoscopic support and realtime effects including multiple secondary colour correctors.”

In any case: competition is always good for the users. :-)

There will be another Lightworks session at the next final BUG meeting, so drop by if you are in Berlin and want to check out what may well turn out to be the (open-source) film and video editing solution in the not so distant future.

So Avid, FCP and all others beware of that shark…!

Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne

Und die trägt er im Gesicht

Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer

Doch das Messer sieht man nicht

(Source)

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,

And he shows them pearly white

Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear

And he keeps it out of sight

(Source)

PayPal Cuts WikiLeaks’ Access to Funds Amid Global Scrutiny (www.businessweek.com)

Paypal bans Wikileaks just before midnight Friday (www.boingboing.net)

Paypal stoppt Geldfluss an Wikileaks (www.spiegel.de)

Maybe Flattr is an interesting alternative for you…? (en.wikipedia.org)

Update: see also Wikileaks, UFOs, Fatwas und PayPal (www.heise.de/tp/)

Julian Assange answers your questions (www.guardian.co.uk):

Do you have leaks on ACTA?

Yes, we have leaks on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a trojan horse trade agreement designed from the very beginning to satisfy big players in the US copyright and patent industries. In fact, it was WikiLeaks that first drew ACTA to the public’s attention – with a leak.

Recommended reading.

Showdown for free speech in Germany

As previously discussed it does not look good at all for blogging, online indie media, art and free speech in Germany. Next week might already tell if Berlin and Germany will still be a relevant place to be for new media, online art and anyone considering investing time and money in this country:

Berlin: Infoveranstaltung & Entscheidung zum JMStV (www.netzpolitik.org)

JMStV: Emails an Abgeordnete (www.netzpolitik.org)

And there is yet another potentially serious problem for bloggers in Germany, the Leistungsschutzrecht: think of it as software patents for snippets of words. Basically established media will have exclusive rights to certain phrases they “created”. The article says a website explaining the problem will go online in mid-December.

Ein neues Monopol mit irreführendem Namen (www.heise.de)

Update 1: This is related… One wonders if the same might not have happened in Germany in regards to the JMStV…?!

Wikileaks cables reveal that the US wrote Spain’s proposed copyright law (www.boingboing.net)

Update 2: The Wikileaks Copyright Cables: Confirmations Not Revelations (www.michaelgeist.ca)

In the Land of the Fee free speech is no longer welcome:

WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US political pressure (www.guardian.co.uk), Sen. Joe Lieberman: Amazon Has Pulled Hosting Services For WikiLeaks (techcrunch.com) and WikiLeaks website kicked off Amazon’s servers (finance.yahoo.com)

That’s it for Amazon for me then. I was just about to order a whole bunch of DVDs and I do like the idea of voting with my wallet. Boycott Amazon now!

WikiLeaks is the best thing that could have happened to this crazy world we live in. I can’t express with words how grateful I am for the courage of all those making this possible. Finally some sanity.

Being a 100% Atheist I usually don’t quote from that particular book, but this is a good one: “The truth shall set you free”

WikiLeaks links

The US embassy cables + News (www.guardian.co.uk) and News blog: see daily WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates (www.guardian.co.uk)

Documents WikiLeaks (www.lemonde.fr)

Los papeles del departamento de estado (www.elpais.com)

State’s Secrets (www.nytimes.com)

Die Botschaftsdepeschen (www.spiegel.de)

also:

WikiLeaks website (wikileaks.org) and Cable Viewer (cablegate.wikileaks.org) and for donations: WikiLeaks Support (wikileaks.org)

Update 7:

WikiLeaks – Mirrors of our website (wikileaks.ch)

Update 6:

See also WikiLeaks address finder (savewikileaks.net)

Update 5:

WikiLeaks website: http://wikileaks.ch/ or http://wikileaks.de/ or http://wikileaks.fi/ or http://wikileaks.nl/ or http://88.80.13.160 or http://213.251.145.96/

WikiLeaks on Twitter (twitter.com/wikileaks)

WL Central (wlcentral.org)

Source WikiLeaks logo

Update 1: See also Assange lawyer speaks for more about those “rape charches”… (www.crikey.com.au) and No, Wikileaks’s Julian Assange isn’t accused of rape “Assange is being prosecuted for having sex without a condom…” (!!!) (liberalconspiracy.org)

Update 2: As always my favourite news source for breaking news, also one of the best ones for a quick overview of all new important WikiLeaks is BBC News as well as their Wikileaks revelations (www.bbc.co.uk)

Update 3:

Cyber attack forces Wikileaks to change web address (www.bbc.co.uk)

WikiLeaks web address killed after week of attacks (www.guardian.co.uk)

Lieberman Introduces Anti-WikiLeaks Legislation (www.wired.com)

WikiLeaks.org killed – discussion on reddit (www.reddit.com)

Wikileaks Mirrors (wikileaks.info)

Update 4:

France seeks to bar hosting WikiLeaks website (www.reuters.com)

Troubled Wikileaks Moves To Pirate Party Domain (torrentfreak.com)

The legal hoops for a small blog like mine with self produced media content (incl. links and “making available for free download” of my own feature film Vincent, 44 min., 16mm > 35mm blow-up, made in Austria in 1996/2003) seem too complicated, expensive and for sure too risky to take without legal advice, that I now seriously ponder about doing the following:

* remove my indiworks.wordpress.com blog
* remove my indiworks.blip.tv videoblog
* remove all my online videos from the Internet Archive (incl. Vincent and His Girl Friday – Between the lines edit (www.archive.org) as well as all my 3D shorts)

and

* move from Berlin/Germany to another EU country where I find political sanity and understanding of new media/online art/blogging etc.

If you happen to be a new media investor, blogger, artist, film maker etc. planning to move to Berlin/Germany (as I did in 1999) because you’ve heard of a vibrant, off-mainstream (online) art/media scene:

* you may want to think twice now and keep a close look at the events unfolding in the days and weeks to come and opt for another location than Berlin/Germany for your investments and business to be

* it may well be that we now only have 31 days left until a de facto censorship law will make it easy for (big media) lawyers to either get rid of your work or to force you into classifying your work with a (from) “18″ (years on) label

I do hope that EU commissioner Neelie Kroes (and her staff), who recently held a vibrant speech for a copyright reform (europa.eu) will recognise these established media tactics for what they are: force indie content provider (self made, original works!) to shut down distribution of their e.g. Creative Commons licensed works using laws like the Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrag (JMStV) that is really only going to be there to help big media widen it’s existing monopoly-like position.

Not only copyright law needs to be reformed but Europe also needs to protect art and artist from hidden censorship like the German Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrag (JMStV).

In other words: even if you are trying very hard to abide to the already very restrictive copyright and “intellectual property” laws (e.g. doing remix works with Public Domain footage like myself) you may still get into expensive legal troubles or have to label your work with only for “18″ in order to be on the safe side. I’d rather move to another country. Thank you very much Greens for betraying us (parlamentarische-zwaenge.de)! Yet another reason for only voting Pirate Party in all future elections!!!

So this in short is why I now soon may have to say:

Goodbye to Berlin

Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs,

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome

Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret

…

Update(s):

see also:

http://t3n.de/news/neuer-jmstv-286977/

http://www.schockwellenreiter.de/blog/2010/11/30/jmstv-und-weiter/

http://yuccatree.de/2010/11/jugendmedienschutz-staatsvertrag-bundeslander-beschliesen-juristisches-chaos-fur-blogger/

http://blog.pantoffelpunk.de/brechmittel/wieder-neue-wahlplakate-der-gruenen-geleakt

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,732060,00.html

http://www.netzpolitik.org/2010/wider-das-grose-blogschliesen-wegen-des-jmstv/

http://www.netzpolitik.org/2010/jugendmedienschutz-wende-nach-dem-shitstor/

http://www.netzpolitik.org/2010/jmstv-in-berlin-parlamentarische-zwange-auch-bei-der-linken/

http://www.golem.de/1011/79772.html

http://ak-zensur.de/

and some first legal analysis (found via http://blog.fefe.de/):

http://blog.beck.de/2010/11/30/jugendmedienstaatsvertrag-und-altersfreigabe-im-internet

yet more…:

http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2010-11/gruene-nrw-internet-jugendschutz

http://www.testspiel.de/archives/2010/11/30/linksammlung-zum-jugendmedienschutz-staatvertrag-jmstv/ (more links, some listed here some not)

http://berlinnow.org/?p=737

http://www.robertbasic.de/2010/11/jmstv-novellierung-herkunft-und-gruende/

http://www.indiskretionehrensache.de/2010/11/deutschlands-parteien-unwahlbar-eine-wutrede/

http://itspublique.de/archives/8795

and don’t forget:

https://twitter.com/gruenenrw/status/9305356467445760:

Wir sind weiterhin gegen den #JMStV, die Fraktion hat sich aufgrund parlamentarischer Zwänge anders entschlossen.

some more links:

http://pressetext.at/news/101201003/internet-jugendschutz-geht-an-realitaet-vorbei/

http://diepresse.com/home/techscience/internet/614762/Jugendschutz_Deutschland-droht-die-InternetWueste

and not much more to say than that one…

http://www.fischfresse.de/2010/11/jugendschutz-medien-der-neue-jmstv-satire-jugendmedienschutz-staatsvertrag/

WikiLeaks is expected to release a substantial number of documents that seem to make the US pretty nervous: “Reports say Turkey, Israel, Denmark and Norway have also been warned to expect potential embarrassment from the leaks.” (www.bbc.co.uk)

I think it’s only fair that some politicians should feel really embarrassed: the Irak War was started, as most wars, under a pretext, there was, as always with wars, a higher good that needed to be defended, yet many people already knew at the time that it was really only about oil and influence in the region.

100 000s of people paid with their lives (en.wikipedia.org) for the greed, cowardice and incompetence of those in charge. The truth must be known. That’s the least we can do now.

I also feel that there is some real justice about to be done by these leaks: governments all over the world ignore their people’s calls for more (online) privacy and have simply become whores to big money/lobbyists: RIAA, MPAA (today better know as MAFIAA) or TSA porn scanners are just a few of the more recent and better known examples.

While the actual context is a bit different, I just need to quote again from that new Harry Potter movie when thinking of WikiLeaks: “You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide” Right…? Right…? I guess this is a bit like Operation Payback (torrentfreak.com) only bigger. Go WikiLeaks!

WikiLeaks links

WikiLeaks on Twitter (twitter.com/wikileaks)

WikiLeaks website (wikileaks.org)

Update 5:

WikiLeaks – Mirrors of our website (wikileaks.ch)

OWNI, Digital Journalism, is liveblogging about the events unfolding! (owni.fr)

Update 1, 28.11.10, 18:06:

WikiLeaks on Twitter:

“We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack.”

and

“El Pais, Le Monde, Speigel, Guardian & NYT will publish many US embassy cables tonight, even if WikiLeaks goes down”

davidleigh3 on Twitter: “The #guardian will publish US embassy #cables tonight, even if #wikileaks goes down”

Some other alternative news links

It’s always interesting to check out some more alternative/specialised news sites. Not only in context of the upcoming leak:

NachDenkSeiten – Die kritische Website: a critical look at (mostly but not only) German politics. (www.nachdenkseiten.de)

heise online is the alternative German tech news site. As with so many sites this is one where I just skim the articles and mostly read the user’s comments! (www.heise.de)

Fefes Blog, in German and from Berlin, is about not so well known or perceived events/facts. Recommended for news/trend hunters and critical, open-minded people. Not only, but also focus on Germany. (blog.fefe.de)

Slashdot is of course “News for nerds, stuff that matters”, a classic, tech news and more, it’s all about the discussions to those articles… (slashdot.org)

OSNews is “Exploring the Future of Computing“, this is the site that earlier this year had that MPEG-LA/H.264 story. (www.osnews.com)

TorrentFreak is about the People vs. The MAFIAA and more, in addition to the articles I also recommend reading some of those many comments. (torrentfreak.com)

Democracy Now: alternative world news from the US. (www.democracynow.org)

Update 3-4:

netzpolitik.org: in German, web, media, politics and more (www.netzpolitik.org)

TELEPOLIS: in German, politics, culture, media and more, sister site from heise online (www.heise.de/tp/)

Der Schockwellenreiter: in German, web, politics, media and more (www.schockwellenreiter.de)

Update 2:

Just one mainstreamish news link: one of the best and most comprehensive all in one news sites I know, with a wonderful layout in traditional newspaper style with columns (good to read), also has links to the most important major news sites/publications on the left hand sidebar:

Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate

“David” by Michelangelo can – at this point – still be seen at the Galleria dell’ Accademia, Florence/Italy

(Source: Wikipedia)

In the near future it may not matter how old you actually are (!!!), “erotic” depictions of your naked body or any erotic material may be highly illegal to produce or possess, even if you can prove that those involved are e.g. 25!

Of course there is a very cynical pretext, this legislative proposal says it aims at child pornography. Yet de facto this is “freedom from porn” the way Steve Jobs was preaching it. This law should be a pope’s wet dream come true…

So e.g. if your partner happens to be Asian and you made some nude snapshots on the beach you may already be out of luck: if a European judge feels that your Asian partner “looks younger than 18″ you and your partner may already be in serious legal troubles.

And what about art…? Caravaggio’s nude boy in “Amor Vincit Omnia”…? Will it have to be moved from the museum…? Could Michaelangelo’s David not seem (too) erotic and look like he was under age…? Careful if you are a film maker and planing a coming of age drama! I guess Larry Clark’s “Kids” could already be highly problematic in this context…

Of course a whole generation of Xtube, Porntube etc. (young) adults of 18+ will face a serious problem: if someone thinks you “look (!!!) under 18″ it will be enough to criminalise you and your fans. Your ID card will not help you here! And once e.g. a news paper writes that you have produced or possessed child porn it will be almost impossible to defend your good name.

“Amor Vincit Omnia” by Caravaggio can – at this point – still be seen at the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin/Germany

(Source: Wikipedia)

This really is simply how censorship starts. Just take a delicate topic like CP, broaden the definition and once the laws are put in place it will be easy to use this to get rid of anyone you wish to target. An art book with nude paintings or a David Hamilton photography book may be enough. And an erotic Manga style comic book may be even more dangerous to possess… Also be sure to get rid of that old sex education book or your parent’s naturist guide from the 1960s, it may well get you in serious trouble!

I wonder if those “looking younger than 18″ or those possessing “erotic” depictions of those “looking younger than 18″ will at one point have to wear some kind of label…? I suggest a star. Pink should do. This worked before and should work again.

As the lawyer linked from that article above says: this legislative proposal does not help children at all, actual victims of CP. What it does is possibly criminalise any “erotic” depiction of those who are 18+ and it also potentially criminalises a whole generation of teens/young adults. The only legal porn in Europe then would be one for and with old people. I’m sure there is a market too. Yet all youngsters and couples who might share nude pics and videos among one another or anyone using sites like Porntube could easily face jail time. So if you are a parent beware of your teenage kids: their naked bodies are about to be declared “illegal”. Be prepared to visit them in prison.

Europe beware. It looks like a storm is coming. (Corporate) Fascism is definitely just around the corner. This one is about censorship and the pretext is as cynical as it could possibly get.

And what a coincidence that at the same time the TSA porn scanners, that are according to experts not helping with safety at all, but as Americans found out are only there to humiliate you, are being installed at an airport near you. This is all about intimidation and control. “You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.”

ACTA is on the way (EU-Parlament begrüßt Anti-Piraterie-Abkommen ACTA/EU parliament welcomes Anti-Piracy-Agreement ACTA) (www.heise.de), “terror warnings” make the round and lobbyists are trying to pass laws that will bring us back to the middle age. That’s real “freedom from porn”. By all means do enjoy your iPad – while you still can…

It’s so good to know that young people will still be sent to fight wars and while they may drive a car and buy alcohol at (around) 18, “erotic” depictions of  their bodies and their sexual practices may soon be illegal and could destroy their and their loved one’s lives.

I also wonder if those very young, semi-nude boys with wings in all those Catholic Churches around Europe will then have to be removed one day too…? Probably they will be exempt from censorship for “religious” reasons – now that the pope has allowed condoms for male prostitutes it looks like these are going to be good times indeed for those highly respected moral guardians of our society. Think of the children…!

Witches will be hunted. Books will be burned. Again.

Specially the beginning of the “Deathly Hallows” is quite eerie since right now here in Germany we have to endure government “terror warnings”: as you might have guessed, those in favour of more restrictive (on-line) surveillance laws could not have hopped for a better occasion.

Who is trying to scare whom and for what purpose one might ask? Surely the financial crisis that the Euro/Europe is facing has nothing to do with it. And there is also no currency war as our papers, our “Daily Prophets” let us know.

Harry Potter fans will also find it too easy and inappropriate to replace “half-blood” with the latest minority scapegoat: Niedersachsens Innenminister fordert Handy- und PC-Verbot für “Gefährder” (Niedersachsen’s Minister of the Interior asks for PC and mobile phone ban for “endangerer”) (www.heise.de).

Meanwhile, also in real life, we have a new “Enemy Undesirable no. 1″, Julian Assange of Wikileaks, now there is even an international arrest warrant for him. Like before the charges are rape. Whatever the truth turns out to be, the whole story surely must be extremely inconvenient for some…

The timing for the release of the “Deathly Hallows” could not have been better, the only real downturn today were those 45 min. (!!!) of ads before the movie started. But not even they could ruin it for me. You just might want to be really late if going to see the “Deathly Hallows” at the Cinestar/Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. 45 min. of ads that’s half a feature film! They really try very hard to make you not wanting to go you to the movies these days and then even insult you with state television ads (for ARD, ZDF): I don’t have a TV, I don’t watch TV, yet I have to pay my GEZ fees since I own an “internet ready PC”. And when I go to the movies and pay for seeing a film I now have to watch ads for some crappy TV shows that I surely don’t want to see yet even had to finance with my GEZ fees for that “internet ready PC”… I’m just glad we still live in a Democracy, have free media and fair competition in the TV/media world!

Oh well, back to film life. There is a really quite wonderful and also beautifully edited moment/scene in the “Deathly Hallows”: Harry/Hermione dancing in the tent… This movie works because the film makers trust their own story, the pacing is very good, the music subtle and never over the top till the very end of the credits. J.K. Rowling’s story telling power totally pays off, I’m really looking forward to the last part of the series now.

While certainly not an indie movie, I’m writing here about the “Deathly Hallows” since the (hidden), what I’d call subversiveness of the story/the books (I’ve read them all) is really well captured and should be inspiring for anyone interested in (what I believe is great) story telling.

“Deathly Hallows” is told in darkish, almost pastel style colours *) (similar to the previous one from the series, also directed by David Yates who now did three in a row), the young heroes are on their final journey through a post-time England, London, small towns, (snowy) landscapes and forests, on the run and searching for those Horcruxes that need to be destroyed... *) After a second viewing: the colours are maybe better described as somehow desaturated, blue/grey and brown pastelish, the overall mood of the film being dark.

Having read the books I know of course how it all will end, yet I wonder, where a real life Harry Potter type hero would be looking for a Horkrux and what they might look like…?

“You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.” That’s a good one, really.

Will we be hearing more of those type of quotes in the not so distant future…?

Check your “Daily Prophets” to find out…

“Unter Freunden” is a short by WEED (www.weed-online.org) (Weltwirtschaft, Okologie und Entwicklung) about the intentions of the financial lobby/politics.

It’s in German with no subtitles: basically you have the Maker (politician), the Tactician (banker/lobbyist) and the Seller (finance fund industry/lobbyist). The Maker talks on TV and urges not to “question the whole financial system” just because there is a crisis… Then we are in a room where the Tactician and the Seller talk to the Maker and seem to tell him that banks etc. should be paying for the financial crisis and so on. The Maker is confused… In the end it turns out that the Tactician and the Seller were only joking, pulling the Maker’s leg…

I guess if you are Irish you would not know whether to laugh or cry when seeing this… Ireland ‘in preliminary talks with EU on bailout’ (www.bbc.co.uk)

Also in German but related: Neue Impulse (www.neueimpulse.org), see e.g. their Downloads section for a short about money/the financial system.

If you are currently researching that subject you might also want to check out writer/director G. Edward Griffin (en.wikipedia.org) and his work (“The Creature from Jekyll Island”). I have  neither seen the whole movie yet nor read the book, but from what I’ve seen this should be another mind opener like the previously posted “Zeitgeist: Addendum” by Peter Joseph.

I guess it’s time to wake-up, again… So be sure to know which is the blue and which the red pill. Scary stuff indeed.

Corporations, their lobbyists, the puppets they bought (aka politicians) and those who make the world go round (aka bankers) will be meeting for another secret round of ACTA talks soon: Anti-Piraterie-Abkommen ACTA wird weiter verhandelt (www.heise.de).

Time for the system we got to know as Democracy is running out.

I believe the only acceptable way out of this mess will be to completely:

* reject ACTA
* name and shame those who initiated, designed and promoted it

But this might not happen.

That’s why we should be thinking ahead, for a solution to ACTA, once/if it is put in place. After thinking long and hard about all of this I believe I found it: FACTAP

You see once a system is so badly broken, so unjust, so corrupted as ours, there might not be an easy fix, a simple reform might not do any more.

On the positive side…

Lately there seem to be a few sane high-profile voices joining in an important debate, see (EU) Commissioner Kroes: Copyright Reform Needed (www.osnews.com), European Commissioner Lambasts ‘Copyright Middlemen’ (torrentfreak.com) or UK copyright laws to be reviewed, announces Cameron (www.bbc.co.uk).

I wonder if this is not too little too late…?

I’ve been supportive of the Creative Commons movements for years by publishing all my online works under one of their licenses and I will be supportive of this movement in the future. It’s a good start. Yet I feel it might not be enough any more…

I used to vote for the Green Party and while I am delighted that the Greens are doing sensationally well in Central Europa at this moment (23% in Germany should there be elections) I will be voting for the Pirate Party at future occasions where possible. I can’t agree with the argument that “Those pirates who really want to shape intellectual property policy will be better advised to join the more established parties” (fosspatents.blogspot.com). I’d be glad to see the Greens taking on the copyright issue, yet so far I simply have not heard enough from them to satisfy me. And even the Pirate Party might not be enough once and if ACTA is in place…

“Reforming” a system that’s so badly broken as ours simply might not work out: once Democracy is gone for good and Plutocracy, Corporate Fascism or whatever you want to call it has (semi-)officially arrived it might be too late to even talk about these things in public.

We live in a time where those defending free speech (in Europe) have to fear for their safety: Wikileaks founder may seek Swiss asylum: interview (news.yahoo.com). Be prepared to hear about people with critical minds tragically dying in an “air plane accident”, a “car crash” etc. It happened before and it might happen again.

Add to the mix yet more government surveillance (look at the UK for inspiration). This of course will, as always, be for “public safety”: Big Brother, thanks to TV networks, is now simply known to most people as an entertainment format. That’s brainwashing at it’s best. George Orwell would be proud.

In the end I don’t care if the Green Party or the Pirate Party or (as unlikely as it seems) any of the more mainstream parties brings back sanity.

For me this is not about about left and right, simply about right and wrong, or better: it is about fair and unfair.

So what is FACTAP…?

First of all it is a cure for ACTA, the antidote.

ACTA is a “treaty” negotiated in secrecy by lobbyists. It’s about corruption and it is dangerously undemocratic.

FACTAP shall be a public discussion – if public discussions will still be possible that is… Food for thoughts: ACTA will force your ISP to censor your work if someone lodges an unsupported trademark claim (www.boingboing.net)

The idea is that the system then will be broken so badly, so corrupted that something more radical than a simply “copyright reform” will be needed.

Basically FACTAP is about:

* Getting rid of copyright altogether. No replacement. Whatsoever.

* Getting rid of (software) patents altogether. No replacement. Whatsoever.

* What remains is that someone gets credit for their work.

Now it’s interesting that credit not only is about getting named in the context of your work/recognition for your work, but also has to do with credibility, someone might trust you with money (that is if money should still be worth the sum that’s printed on it in the near future…), someone gives you credit, since you previously have proven to produce something of value, e.g. written a book. Getting credit is like collection Karma points.

Since I still think that no one actually can “invent” anything that was not there already (we can only “discover” what nature previously “invented”), copyright and patents are simply an expression of human arrogance, they show our darker sides, the urge to control, conquer and posses for the sake of feeling in control of life, yet in the end we all still remain mortals. “Intellectual property” is really just the latest new age religion (without a spiritual element) for the rich and wealthy, an intellectual frame work constructed to justify their highly immoral deeds and practices.

I believe getting “credit” for one’s work is really all that we need.

Money of course always seems to mess up things and instead of going the more adequate, more humble road, we (might) end up with a monster like ACTA.

And if you think the content MAFIAA was bad then be prepared for the next round: White paper on 3D printing and the law: the coming copyfight (www.boingboing.net)

So dear “politicians”, if you still care a little bit about the people that elected you (that is if elections were not rigged), now is probably one of the last chances to stop this madness and reject ACTA for good!

Then maybe a “copyright reform” might still make sense.

Yet if ACTA should be installed, Democracy will be gone. There will be no need to insult us any further by holding elections that fewer and fewer people turn up to for good reasons. Be honest and call it Corporate Fascism. It’ll make things much easier for everyone. Really.

Once ACTA is in place the only thing we might need is FACTAP as its cure.

And FACTAP is so simple, that even politicians should be able to understand it:

Fuck All Copyright Trolls And Patents

That’s FACTAP.

“Choose wisely”, as they say.

LimeWire Resurrected By Secret Dev Team (torrentfreak.com)

It is based on LimeWire 5.6 beta and “in many ways, it is better”: “All dependencies on LimeWire LLC’s servers have been removed, all remote settings have been disabled, the Ask toolbar has been unbundled, and all features of LimeWire PRO have been activated for free.” “There’s no adware or spyware: the piratical monkeys are doing this for the benefit of the community.”

TorrentFreak’s verdict so far: “Currently only available for Windows, in our tests LimeWire Pirate Edition functioned perfectly well and is already circulating on BitTorrent.”

While I personally neither use Windows nor have use for this (see here for why) I believe it is a good thing to have yet one more P2P client available for those who need it!

As others have said before: cut off one of the hydra’s heads and two new ones will grow. Now there is not even a company behind this software that the nice gentlemen from the MAFIAA might be able to talk to.

Life finds its way. All for one, and one for all. The bitch is back.

space visual (early period) (2010), 3:48

watch the flash video above or download (xvid, 960×540)

music: jan joachimsen

video: valentin spirik

license: by-nc-nd 3.0 *)

a theora etc. encoded version will be added – this one needed to be in xvid for a submission!

as of today the flash video above and the download linked above feature an optimised encoded version (as opposed to the original upload to my blip.tv account from two days ago): same source but the more accurate gop size (from 15 to 5 now) got rid of a semi-visible encoding artefact and overall improves the quality without adding much to the file size.

*) 26.10.10: I will upgrade the license later to a more remix culture friendly one – the plan is to do this for a yet to do full HD rendered version that will also only be available in a real open-source codec that is actually compatible with remix culture. (The Xvid one then will be removed!)

Download

Discussion

or

get Blender…

Filed under: 3d, animation, blender, creative commons, open movie, sintel ]]> http://indiworks.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/sintel-the-new-blender-made-open-movie-is-here/feed/ 0 vsworks sintel_poster http://indiworks.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/the-content-mafiaa-vs-the-people-week-382010-mpaa-acta/ http://indiworks.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/the-content-mafiaa-vs-the-people-week-382010-mpaa-acta/#comments Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:56:47 +0000 vsworks http://indiworks.wordpress.com/?p=1629 ]]> The EU, Gallo and ACTA

Bericht über “geistige Eigentumsrechte” passiert EU-Parlament (www.heise.de)

Auch Tote unterstützen den Gallo-Report (www.gulli.com)

The MPAA > ACTA link

MPAA Asks If ACTA Can Be Used To Block Wikileaks (yro.slashdot.org)

MPAA Wants To Know If ACTA Can Be Used To Block Wikileaks? (www.techdirt.com)

Civil Disobedience

Stallman Crashes Talk, Fights ‘War On Sharing’ (news.slashdot.org)

Disconnecting the People

In France, Hadopi Reporting Begins, With (Only) 10,000 IP Addresses Per Day (yro.slashdot.org)

Multinational copyright companies will require French ISPs turn over 150,000 subscriber names and addresses per day (www.boingboing.net)

US ISP Suddenlink Claims The DMCA Requires They Disconnect Users (www.techdirt.com)

US ISP Adopts Three-Strikes Policy (yro.slashdot.org)

US ISP Disconnects Alleged Pirates for 6 Months (torrentfreak.com)

Bill Would Allow US DoJ To Shut Down Piracy Sites Worldwide (www.osnews.com)

Extorting the People

ACS:Law Anti-Piracy Law Firm Torn Apart By Leaked Emails (torrentfreak.com)

ACS:Law (Gay) Porn Letters Target Pensioners, Married Men (torrentfreak.com) (This by the way is what you get when you preach “Freedom from porn“ (techcrunch.com).”)

ACS:Law Email Database Leaked onto The Pirate Bay (www.slyck.com)

UK Anti-Piracy Firm E-mails Reveal Cavalier Attitude Toward Legal Threats (yro.slashdot.org)

Leaked Emails Reveal Profits of Anti-Piracy Cash Scheme (torrentfreak.com)

*** *** ***

In other news…

Google, Apple Settle Justice Dept. Hiring Probe (yro.slashdot.org)

EU stellt Verfahren gegen Apple ein (www.heise.de)

Apple Passes PetroChina to Become Second-Largest Stock (www.bloomberg.com)

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Now Richer Than Apple’s Steve Jobs (blogs.forbes.com)

Some perspective on those last links…

From Steve Jobs to MPAA, MPEG-LA, ACTA and your life

Steve Jobs of course is not only the CEO of Apple, but used to be the CEO of Pixar, that was before he sold Pixar to Disney and subsequently became “Disney’s largest individual shareholder at 7% and a Director of the company” (see Wikipedia).

***

Now there is an organisation called Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

“MPAA members include the “seven big” Hollywood studios:

Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group (The Walt Disney Company)

Sony Pictures (Sony Corporation)

Paramount Pictures (Viacom)

20th Century Fox (News Corporation)

Universal Studios (NBC Universal)

Warner Bros. (Time Warner)” (see Wikipedia)

***

And there is another interesting organisation called MPEG-LA (links to my related blog entries),

this is the patent pool behind H.264 and MPEG-2:

MPEG-2 is what everyone needs for a DVD.

H.264 is the codec used in basically any (prosumer) camera, including mobile phones like in Apple’s offerings. As previously discussed: you do not own your own H.264 footage, even transcoding will not help you in escaping the MPEG-LA’s licensing fees (for commercial use).

Apple of course is also an H.264 patent holder and was the only major player not willing to give some kind of official support to the free and open-source WebM project.

And of course you may not use any open-source codec if Steve Jobs will have it his way.

So there are two interesting sets of links to remember in all of this

Steve Jobs > Pixar > Disney > MPAA > ACTA > your (digital) life (think freedom of speech, WikiLeaks, …)

Steve Jobs > Apple > MPEG-LA > software patents > ACTA > your digital life (think fees for H.264, “freedom from porn“, freedom from…)

The Content MAFIAA

vs.

The People

Austrian newspaper derStandard.at reports Urheberrechtsabgabe auf Festplatten ab Oktober (derstandard.at) – (new) fees on hard drives etc. for the content MAFIAA in Austria (Austro Mechana etc.) from October on.

The funny part: they say it’s for media that consumers already legally obtained…! So if you are stupid enough to still buy your content at the iTunes store (all your songs have dirty DRM (techcrunch.com) on it), you’ll now pay again, and then again, and again for the DRM content that you paid for already and do not own.

Now that seems just a little bit too greedy to me…

***

Meanwhile Jean-Luc Godard has said: “Il n’y a pas de propriété intellectuelle. Je suis contre l’héritage, par exemple.” “There is no such thing as intellectual property. I’m against the inheritance [of works], for example.” (www.ecrans.fr)

More on Boing Boing (boingboing.net): “I am against Hadopi [the French internet-copyright law, or its attendant agency], of course. There is no such thing as intellectual property. I’m against the inheritance [of works], for example. An artist’s children could benefit from the copyright of their parents’ works, say, until they reach the age of majority… But afterward, it’s not clear to me why Ravel’s children should get any income from Bolero…”

***

In other news the HDCP (en.wikipedia.org) Master key has been “leaked” (by whom…?), Sony’s DRM infested Blue-Ray has been cracked (hardware.slashdot.org) and Intel Threatens to Sue Anyone Who Uses HDCP Crack (www.wired.com).

***

When you read the comments on derStandard.at from that article linked above you can see that a lot of people are getting really angry at the content MAFIAA’s doing.

It’s a good thing that there are elections in Sweden this weekend. Unfortunately I am not Swedish and so the Swedish Pirate Party will have to do without my vote. But I am sure others will be there.

You see once people are really angry it’s just a matter of time until the day of glory has arrived…

***

Update: In yet more related news TorrentFreak reports that in “a call to arms yesterday” 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites (torrentfreak.com). “Don’t mess with the Internet they say.” (19.09.10): See also 4chan to DDoS RIAA Next – Is This the Protest of the Future? (torrentfreak.com), RIAA Goes Offline, Joins MPAA As Latest Victim Of Successful DDoS Attacks (techcrunch.com).

Update 2 (19.09.10): Looks like Intel is now trying to win an unpopularity contest with Apple when it comes to lock-in strategies and screwing the customer, not only will they sue you for using the HDCP crack: Intel wants to charge $50 to unlock stuff your CPU can already do (www.engadget.com), Intel Selling Scratch-Off “Upgrade” Cards To Unlock Processor Power (techcrunch.com)

Update 3 (21.10.10): Discussion/comment (by user blacklightknight from September 18, 2010) on HDCP Master Key Confirmed; Blu-ray Content Vulnerable (www.pcmag.com):

‘“a huge blow to Hollywood” ……really.

The only huge blow to Hollywood is the cocaine they snort every morning for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have no love for them. They are nothing but organized criminals calling themselves an “industry”.‘

Hey Hollywood, notice just how much people love you…?!

For those not speaking German: the artist was angry when he could not watch a particular clip on YouTube because it “contains content from Sony Music Entertainment” and is “no longer available in your country”.

Fuck Sony Entertainment (sidsong.blog.de) by YouTube user KeinInterpret

C G
Ich wollte gestern morgen gern
am G
ein Lied von Rio Reiser hörn,
C em D
auf Youtube, wo sonst all seine Musik war, doch da hieß es:
C G
„Dieses Video enthält Content
C G
von Sony Music Entertainment.
am em D
Es ist in deinem Land nicht mehr verfügbar.“

C G D
Was würde Rio sagen
zu dem was Sony da tut?
Was würde Rio sagen?
Fände er das gut?
D D7
Ich weiß es nicht, aber ich sage:

G G/Fis em
„Fuck Sony Entertainment
für all die Videos die sie sperr’n!
Anwälte im Abmahnwahn
C G
sind Wichser vor dem Herrn!
G G/Fis em
Ich scheiß auf euern Content
ich kauf bei euch nix mehr ein!
Fuck Sony Entertainment
C G
und EMI obendrein!“

Ich seh das nicht zum ersten Mal
und am Anfang war’s mir fast egal,
doch langsam aber sicher packt mich echt der Hass.
Die sperren in Deutschland Stücke von
Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Van Morrison,
aber grad bei Rio finde ich das besonders krass!
Denn was würde Rio sagen?
Was hätte er gedacht?
Was würde Rio sagen
zu dem was Sony da macht?
Ich weiß es nicht, aber ich denke, irgendwie sowas wie

„Fuck Sony Entertainment
für eure Scheiß-Zensur!
Was Ihr euch davon versprecht
versteh ich nicht die Spur!
Ich komm zurück als Zombie,
das lässt mir keine Ruh!
Fuck Sony Entertainment
und Warner noch dazu!“

hm em
Ich finde, Rio ist für alle da
C G
doch scheinbar zählt ja nur
C G
deren Recht auf Umsatz
am G
und nicht unser Recht auf Kultur

Kein Pandora oder Spotify,
nein, in Deutschland geht das nicht.
Weil man ja hierzulande
mit streaming Gesetze bricht!

und wofür soll das gut sein?
Das ist es, was ich nicht versteh …
Denken die, wenn ich das auf Youtube nicht seh
renn ich los und kauf die DVD?

Das mach ich nicht, sondern ich sage:

„Fuck Sony Entertainment!
Fickt die großen Vier!
Die Plattenmultis, die ich hier
von jetzt an boykottier.
Ich zahl euch keinen müden Cent –
ich klaue, was ich brauch!
Fuck Sony Entertainment
und Universal auch!
Ich scheiß auf euern Content
ich kauf bei euch nix mehr ein!
Fuck Sony Entertainment
und EMI und Warner und Universal (und die Gema) obendrein!“

Watch the Flash Video on blip.tv

or

download

(you may want the VLC for playback)

This is a 2 min. remix using footage from my own movie “Vincent”, the original soundtrack to “Vincent” is by Konrad Richter.

“Me and h.264″ is distributed under this (by-nc-nd) Creative Commons license.

This is now the last video I upload in h.264, it’s also going to be the only one of my online videos left that will be in h.264.

All the others, old and new ones, will be in VP8 and/or Theora and other open-source codecs.

Yet this one just needs to be in h.264: as a reminder for why I have no plans to ever use h.264 again for anything!