Robert Newson <ReapNewsB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Mark Kent wrote:
>
>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>
>>>DRM won't last: Zimmermann
>>>
>>>,----[ Quote ]
>>>| "I think that in the long run, we will look back at DRM as a
>>>| temporary phase," says Phil Zimmermann, inventor of the PGP
>>>| (Pretty Good Privacy) cryptography system for e-mail.
>>>`----
>>>
>>>http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=1406
>>>
>>>American Studios' Secret Plan to Lock Down European TV Devices
>>>
>>>,----[ Quote ]
>>>| An international consortium of television and technology companies is
>>>| devising draconian anti-consumer restrictions for the next generation of
>>>| TVs in Europe and beyond, at the behest of American entertainment giants.
>>>|
>>>| [...]
>>>|
>>>| Having failed in those efforts, they have now turned to creating
>>>| technical standards that, when backed by law, are likely to
>>>| restrict consumers' existing rights and threaten the future of
>>>| technological innovation.
>>>`----
>>>
>>>http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/american-studios-secret-plan-lock-down-european-tv-devices
>>
>> Does anything good ever come out of the US these days? Personally, I
>> will not buy anything which doesn't have a standard, unencumbered I/O
>> capability. I've got a few DVB devices, all of which provide standard
>> video out - they work fine.
>>
>> My suspicion is that if the current mainstream manufacturers try to
>> shaft their own customers in this way at the request of some Americans,
>> then people will get upset and will look for alternative suppliers.
>
> I find it interesting how the Americans are butting in everywhere and the
> current comments about a replacement for Trident in the UK.
>
> The start of the first series of Yes Prime Minister (the satrical sit-com of
> 1986+) was at the time of the replacement for Polaris (by Trident!). In it
> Jim Hacker PM as his first job as PM decides to cancel Trident and go with
> conventional forces, saving £15b. Here was an exchange between Sir Humphrey
> & Jim Hacker when Sir Humphrey tells him that the Americans would have to be
> informed and they wouldn't like the £15b order cancelled:
>
> JH: Who is it who has the last word about the government of Britain; the
> British Cabinet or the American President?
> SH: ...I must admit to being a bit of a heretic. I think it's the British
> Cabinet, but...I know I'm in the minority.
>
> How true, how true...
>
I recall Yes PM very well indeed, in fact, there are some audio re-runs
on BBC7 which are well worth the listen. On the governance front,
I am increasingly concerned with the direction the US government
is going, and just how close it is appropriate for HMG to be to it.
C4 news tonight had a lot of coverage of an Arab chap who'd confessed to
pretty much everything from assinating a President to assinating a Pope,
bombing parliament, inventing nuclear weapons and probably half-inching my
dinner money when I was a kid. Of course, and *this* is the major issue,
you can get anything from someone if you torture them, deny them legal
representation and deny them access to witnesses. You'd think we were
discussing a banana republic, not a country with pretensions to freedom
and democracy.
And how does Blair publicly describe Guantanamo Bay?
"It's an anomoly".
What a foul person he is - the sooner he is out of office the better -
anyone who aids and abets torturers should be in jail, not in No 10.
Ahh, politics.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
|
|
