Jared McAteer’s Blag – jaredmcateer.com

YouTube – How to lose friends and alienate countries.

I can’t put it any better than redditor, gcranston, puts it:

See, this is why Fox News can’t get a broadcast license in Canada.

I might also mention

1. War of 1812: Lit the White House on fire; American’s commemorate this in their National Anthem
2. Vimy Ridge: First time Canadian Troops under Canadian command; advanced so fast troops were ordered to halt because supplies couldn’t keep up. When asked how we took the untakeable position [so] quickly, Canadians respond with “No one told us it was impossible to do”
3. Passchedaele: Canadian troops inspire the original use of the term “Storm Troopers”
4. Dieppe: Canadian troops undertake practice invasion of the coast of France. Terrible loss of Canadian life. Lessons learned directly led to the successes at Normandy.
5. D-Day: Despite lessons learned from Dieppe, no beach head other than Juno – the Canadian Beach – was successful. American pilots actually bombed Canadian troops stating “no way are they that far inland; we’re still stuck on the beaches!”

I’d go on but I’m just too furious with this lack of respect for my country. I will only say that Canada is in Afghanistan cleaning up America’s mess, operating in the most dangerous part of the entire country. Maybe the reason Fox can’t remember Canadians are in Afghanistan is that THEY WERE DOING SO BADLY THERE THEY HAD TO START ANOTHER WAR WITH IRAQ TO DRAW PEOPLE’S ATTENTION AWAY?!?

Fox News, I say to you with with deep sincerity: Go Fuck Yourself.

Popularity: 45% [?]

It was so apparent during the controversy surrounding Harper’s economic debacle a few months ago that the general population has no idea how our government operates so this may educate a few of my fellow citizens.

YouTube – RMR: Canada explained.

Popularity: 44% [?]

Since the election is coming up I think it’s important to remind everyone of Bill C-61, the copyright law introduced by M.P. Prentice at the end of the spring. It is a draconian bill meant to appease the American lobby in Canada (CRIA among others.)

Take a look at the following scenarios and see if you’ve ever done something like it.

Scenario 1:

Jim and Josee live in a Calgary suburb together with their three children Stephen (age 16), Rona (age 10), and Diane (age 4). Jim is the chief librarian at the National Energy Library, while Josee teaches media and communications at a local high school.

This post focuses on Jim. Soon after he arrives into the office on Monday morning, he is contacted by a researcher located in the field who asks him to track down an article and to email an electronic copy as soon as possible. Jim finds the article, scans and sends it via email. After work, he drops into the local HMV and purchases a DVD copy of the movie Juno. At home, he transfers a copy of the movie to his video iPod for viewing on an upcoming business trip.

If the Canadian DMCA becomes law, Jim is a criminal.
source: A Week in the Life of The Canadian DMCA: Day 1

Scenario 2:

Rona is a huge American Idol fan, faithfully watching each episode and buying CDs released by former contestants with her savings. Last January, Jim set the family’s PVR to tape and retain each episode to allow Rona to watch how the contestants progressed. That night, Rona records an Internet-only broadcast of American Idol highlights on her personal computer. She also asks her brother Stephen to transfer songs from her newest CD to her computer. The CD is copy-protected, but Stephen uses a circumvention program to transfer the music files.

If the Canadian DMCA becomes law, Jim, Rona and Stephen are criminals.
source: A Week in the Life of The Canadian DMCA: Day 2

Scenario 3:

In the morning, Josee teaches a class on media in the digital world. The class is conducted in a distance-learning classroom and includes both her students and students from a school in Edmonton using Alberta’s SuperNet network. This is the second year that she has run the course and she is using the same lessons, which include extensive copies of articles for course materials. In the afternoon, Josee teaches a communications class, making use of a website that features a copyright and an “all rights reserved” notice. A student in the class presents a research assignment that features short excerpts from a DVD copy of the movie Broadcast News and passages that are cut-and-pasted from an electronic book that contains a digital lock. Josee is a big Calgary Flames fan. The Flames are playing that night with the game broadcast on pay-per-view. Josee has a dinner commitment, but decides to buy the game and record it with her PVR to watch when she gets home.

If the Canadian DMCA becomes law, Josee is a criminal.
source: A Week in the Life of The Canadian DMCA: Day 3

Scenario 4:

Diane, who is four years old, is a huge fan of the popular TV character Dora the Explorer. For her birthday, she received four Dora DVDs. Given Diane’s habit of scratching them, her dad has begun to create backup versions. That day, Diane brings home her kindergarten class photo, which was taken by a local photographer. Josee digitizes the photo and sends a copy to Diane’s grandmother.

If the Canadian DMCA becomes law, Diane is a criminal.
source: A Week in the Life of The Canadian DMCA: Day 4

Scenario 5:

Stephen is a big music fan. Tonight, he is going with his girlfriend to see his favourite band in concert. He has purchased every CD issued by the band. To get ready for concert, he downloads a live version of one of his favourite songs that was released commercially in Europe (it is not available in Canada) that he finds on a file-sharing network. The song is downloaded to an external hard drive that he uses to store his music. While on the network, one hundred songs on the hard drive were available in his shared folder for others to download, though none were. At his girlfriend’s request, he also copies three of the band’s best songs onto a CD to play during the drive to the concert. He gives the CD to his girlfriend as a gift.

If the Canadian DMCA becomes law, Stephen is a criminal.
source: A Week in the Life of The Canadian DMCA: Day 5

All of these scenarios were created by Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa, he’s an expert in Copyright law.

Technorati Tags: Copryright, Prentice, Harper, Industry, Canada, Bill C-61, Conservative, Election, DMCA

Popularity: 59% [?]

Minister of Industry Jim Prentice recently introduced the Bill designated C-61 into the house of parliament here in Canada. The bill for every intent and purpose is a clone of the United States’ DMCA with extra draconian clauses tacked on for good measure. Prentice and party are doing their worst best to try and put a good spin on this horrible bill but not too many people are buying it. Both the NDP and Liberal parties have overtly criticised the bill. Copyright experts such as Michael Giest and Howard Knopf have pointed out until they are blue how this bill is wrong, the public spoke out, yet Prentice proceeded anyways. We can only hope his fate is parallel to the last couple folks that tried to push the American agenda.

I’m beginning to rant and that’s not what I want, I started this article to bring to your attention some work done by a fellow named Felix G.; he put together a document showing exactly how the Canadian Copyright Act is going to be affected by this bill should it pass as it currently stands. If you have the time and legalese interest to read it, it’s a very chilling outlook.

If you don’t feel like sorting through the Copyright Act you can also check on the same page linked above, a side-by-side comparison of of Richard Stallman’s Right to Read and the new bill. The scary thing is that almost every prediction of the worst case scenario outlined in Right to Read would come true in.

Popularity: 65% [?]

Watch as President Bush gets booed at the season open of the Washington Nationals. I really don’t have anything more to add to that other than I don’t know whether it’s funny or sad.

Source: HuffingtonPost.com

Technorati Tags: George W. Bush, Washington Nationals, Booed

Popularity: 78% [?]