No, not a serious piece on the issues mariners face in many areas of Asia and Africa, but instead links to a couple of articles on plans to punish those who download and share copyrighted material by withdrawing their access to the internet.
On one hand, we have the British government considering such plans, whilst members of the European Parliament have voted against (only just) such rules, at least at a Europe wide level. Individual governments will obviously still retain the right to put such policies into practice.
Even without any actual UK legislation in place, I know from personal experience that repeat offenders in Britain can find their ISPs cancel their account. Perhaps I know from being caught downloading movies or programs? Nope, part of my job a few years ago was to trace specific users (those who didn’t use PeerGuardian at least 😉 ) that were caught by organizations who scour Peer2Peer networks, looking for illegal copies of copyright material. However, all that would happen back then was if I found a specifically named file was still being actively shared by a customer, they would receive a warning. If the same person ignored the warning, or was caught with new files we were alerted to, their account would be closed. However, as we ran more than 100 different branded ISPs, all working on the same equipment, we’d often see the same people come back again, under a new ISP label 🙂
May 01 2008
Pirate Isolation Plan
Comments Off on Pirate Isolation Plan
Jun 21 2007
Vodka Not Equal To Champagne
At least in terms of exclusiveness, according to MEPs (Members of the European Parliament to my American readers). They have judged that spirits made from different ingredients can still be called vodka.
Why the champagne reference? Well here in Kazakhstan, the situation is the same as it was a while ago in Europe – pretty much any fizzy wine can call itself Champagne. However, in Europe at least, the grapes have to come from a certain region, and strict rules apply to the production process before a wine is allowed the pretige of having champagne on the label.
MEPs from the Nordic and Baltic states had asked for the legal definition of vodka to be tightened even further than originally proposed, to only include spirits made from potatoes or grain. The manufacturers will need to note on the label what the drink is made from, if not spuds or wheat, but there will be no minimum font height/percentage.
Vodka producers in Western Europe (Britain, Germany and France mainly) will be very happy that spirits made from grapes, citrus fruits and sugar beets can still be called vodka.
Russia is of course the world’s largest producer of vodka, but if the Nordic definition had been applied, Britain would have been kicked out of second place.
Comments Off on Vodka Not Equal To Champagne