Massive copyright lawsuits – not a great idea

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I must confess, I truly do fail to understand why the entertainment industry embarked upon a campaign of massive copyright lawsuits against their own customers. There is a great deal to be said about all this, and also the obvious observation that technology has greatly disrupted their business model, but in what universe is suing your customers a good response.

There is much that could also be said about the concept of copyright itself. I do indeed understand the driving force. The originator of a work needs to be able to retain the rights to that work. Preserving income is desirable, and ensure that we can continue to receive a stream of future works … but then the industry appears to have lost the plot – exactly how many new works do we honestly expect John Lennon to produce by preserving the copyright of all he did?

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Islamic Facebook group encourages censorship – I’ve reported them as a hate group

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I stumbled across a Facebook page today called “Against Anti Islamic Groups and Anti Islamic Content on FB”. Basically, the sole purpose of this group is to encourage other Muslims to report any other Facebook group or page as a hate group if they dare to insult Islam or their Prophet.

The guidance they give says …

Anti Islamic Groups to be removed no more insult of Islam in the Name of freedom of Speech

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Catholicism in Ireland facing financial bankruptcy

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The UK’s Guardian reports today that many parishes in Dublin are  close to financial collapse due to child abuse compensation payments. Their source for this is a leaked internal report from the Council of Priests that was published in this week’s edition of the Irish Catholic newspaper. The Guardian article says …

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New Skeptics Dictionary – Just for Kids … cool.

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The Skeptic’s Dictionary is a fabulous collection of cross-referenced skeptical essays written by a really smart chap called Bob Carroll. He has published it all on his website, skepdic.com, and also made it available as a book. If you have never seen it, then you really should go check it out, I highly recommend it. The site itself started in 1994, but it was not until 2003 that the book came out. Is it popular? Well, according to the back cover of the book, the on-line version receives approximately 500,000 hits per month, so he must be doing something right.

So what is it all about? Basically he tackles all flavors of woo including: alternative medicine, cryptozoology, UFOs,  new age beliefs, the paranormal,  the supernatural, etc… Is this another of those “balanced” works that present all views? Thankfully no, instead he opts for truth and rips into all the silly claims (quite right too).

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JREF on ABC’s Primetime Nightline, Weds. 10pm / 9pm Central

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I’ve cut and pasted the following article written by Sadie Crabtree  from here …

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Wednesday night at 10:00pm (9:00pm Central), ABC’s Primetime Nightline will air a one-hour special on psychic abilities.

James Randi, along with JREF President D.J. Grothe, JREF’s Million Dollar Challenge Director Banachek, and advisor Jamy Ian Swiss, worked with Nightline producers on two of the segments and participated in three days of taping, including the JREF’s first-ever open Million Dollar Challenge event where hundreds of New York City psychics were invited to take our tests.

Watch ABC’s 30-second teaser for the show here, click “Read More” for behind-the-scenes photos, and make sure to watch Wednesday night!

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Religion & Money – Where does the $$ come from, and where does it go?

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Belief is a very powerful tool for gathering wealth, and because of this some of the wealthiest organisations around are religious groups that also often attract followers that are quite poor. Here now are some interesting statistics that list where some of the main players get their wealth from, how much they have, and what they spend it on. I confess that some of this was a surprise to me.

Looking down the list, if I was to vote which were the slimiest scumbags around, its really difficult to decide between Scientology, Catholicism, and Televangelism.

  • The catholics have spent over half a billion in compensation to abuse victims and also kept a pile of plundered Nazi gold for themselves
  • The scientologists have simply scammed all their loot
  • The Televangelists use all donations for ‘God’s work’ to maintain a life of luxury

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