I’ve been reading about Hull based ISP Karoo which is owned by KCOM (Kingston Communications) disconnecting customers suspected of downloading copyrighted material without notice. It’s been a worrying trend as ISP’s in the United Kingdom have adopted the United States system of 3 strikes, three written warnings and then disconnection. The freedom that the internet was built upon is slowly being eroded by big multimedia companies throwing their weight around demanding ISP’s release customer details and disconnect persistent offenders often with government support. The reality of the situation is that music and movie industry failed to move with the Internet revolution and instead of changing their ways; they are using scare tactics to intimidate users and forcing ISPs to cut their access to the Internet. The problem is that Kingston/Karoo have a monopoly in the Hull area so the only other option would be a satellite Internet connection which is costly and still requires a traditional uplink connection or slow mobile Internet. Although Karoo has now adopted a 3 strikes system in line with selected other ISP’s it’s still very much a piss take by KCOM to disconnect without warning. And get this; the only way to get reconnected is to visit Karoo’s office and sign a piece of paper admitting guilt while promising to not do it again! I would instantly cancel my subscription and if they tried to charge me for outstanding contract fees, they would have to take me to court as they disconnected me; I’m certainly not admitting guilt or paying for service I am not receiving!
While I am on the subject of illegal file sharing/downloading, a 32 year old mother of four from Minnesota has been ordered to pay $1.9m in damages for sharing 24 music files. That’s over $79,000 per song, talk about a disproportionate punishment for the crime. Assuming that each track was bought on iTunes for 99¢ each track would have been downloaded over 79,000 times to amount to that size penalty. Even if each track had been downloaded that many times, the record industry wouldn’t have lost that much money because people who download music have no interest in paying for music. The land of opportunity my arse; opportunity to be screwed!
The anti-American establishment theme continues with my next rant. In the past week one 2 year old child was shot by her 4 year old brother and a five year old boy shot himself in the head with a gun found in his fathers car. I don’t like the American right to bare arms as I believe it’s just asking for trouble; why carry a gun unless you intend to use it. But the death of the little boy and the little girl in critical condition is the biggest reason for banning guns when parents are clearly not responsible enough to have a gun. Leaving a loaded gun somewhere a child can easily get hold of it is unbelievably irresponsible! People like that should be sterilised at birth!
Update (25/07/09 – 10:07): Another child has been shot by a sibling in the US; more reason to revoke handgun privileges. In addition to the shootings above a four year old boy was shot in the stomach after his three year old brother found a gun under a bed. The boy is expected to make a full recovery but this is another case of irresponsible parenting leaving loaded guns around where a child can get hold of it. “Critics of the current gun laws link high levels of gun crime and gun-related injury with high levels of gun ownership.” – not that anything will be done about it!
In Formula 1 it seems that FOTA have gotten what they wanted; a seizure of power from the FIA. That is what I understand from what was written on Andrew Benson’s blog on the BBC website. Ferrari, McLaren and Williams are supposedly negotiating individual contracts because of their historical importance. As a first point of contention this is complete bullshit; one contract for all teams should be standard, no preferential treatment, haven’t they learned from Ferrari VETO-gate? The second point of contention is that the 8 FOTA members will have more power than the non-FOTA teams which basically means that the five non-FOTA teams will be told “you either play by our rules or race elsewhere”. The third point of contention is that CVC could start up a new series called Formula 1 World Championship and leave governing body the FIA out in the cold. That last point I believe will be a legal minefield as CVC only own the commercial rights, I believe that the FIA and F1 name are inextricably linked; but I could be wrong of course!
In my last entry I wrote about Liverpool and England footballer Steven Gerrard’s behaviour assaulting man in his local bar over control of a music player. Gerrard was seen to throw several punches at Mr McGee after he refused to hand over control of the in house music system. Gerrard said that he was defending himself but CCTV footage clearly show it as an unprovoked attack but despite this he was found not guilty in court. I believe it’s a case of his status as a football legend that got him off in the face of damning evidence. I am not writing this because Gerrard plays for a rival team or I dislike him. It’s simply a miscarriage of justice being found not guilty by a group of probable Liverpool FC supporters when the evidence says otherwise!
And finally; something from my own insignificant life. Erin, Conner and I are going camping this weekend with our friends Amber and Travis at Lake Cheney. This will be Conner’s first camping trip so we don’t know how he will react but we are hoping it’ll be a positive experience for him. It’s only one night as Erin has to work this Saturday as she does every damn Saturday. I just hope the tent we bought will survive the night as the first one we bought had a huge tear in the seam when I erected it. I was amazed to see that it had only been glued and not stitched at all; I hope that was a manufacturing screw-up as the replacement is being set up by Travis as we won’t be able to get there until about 5:30pm because of the aforementioned work situation.