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MUMBAI, INDIA: Mphasis has announced its strategic partnership with Delta Power Solutions to bring sustainable innovation across the ATM industry. The partnership for the ATM Security Solutions will enable Mphasis offer the most comprehensive single-window solution for e-surveillance and integrated ...See More
Sources said NEC is open to paying a premium to buy out HP's Mphasis stake, which at current market price is worth around Rs 4800 crore.Japan-based software solutions and products major NEC is in preliminary talks with HP (erstwhile Hewlett Packard) to buy out its 60.49 percent in Indian software ...See More
MphasiS said: In the area of e-surveillance of ATM sites and path breaking innovation in power optimisation solutions, the alliance with Delta Power Solutions will help the company develop an intelligent solution that can provide a single user interface for a 360 degree view of an ATM and ATM ...See More
One of the key factors contributing to this Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) market growth is the massive availability of data that needs to be analyzed and processed. The Global Knowledge Process Outsourcing market is also witnessing the ...
Moneycontrol.comMphasiS, Delta Power Solutions partner for ATM innovationsMoneycontrol.comMphasiS said: In the area of e-surveillance of ATM sites and path breaking innovation in power optimisation solutions, the alliance with Delta Power Solutions will help the company develop an intelligent ...See More
Economic TimesMphasiS partners Delta Power Solutions for innovations in ATMEconomic TimesBANGALORE: HP-owned IT services firm MphasiS today announced its strategic partnership with Delta Power Solutions, a power management solutions provider, to bring sustainable innovation across the ATM industry. ...See More
MphasiS climbs 2% as HP's earnings beat estimatesMoneycontrol.comShares of MphasiS climbed over 2 percent intraday on Friday as its majority owner Hewlett-Packard (HP) reports better-than-expected earnings. HP owns 60.49 percent in the Indian software services major MphasiS and contributes ...See More
Mphasis Board to consider audited financial results for the quarter ended ...Equity BullsA meeting of the Board of Directors of Mphasis Ltd is being convened on March 13, 2014, inter-alia, to approve the audited financial results of Mphasis Limited and Group for the quarter ended January 31, 2014. ...See More
MphasiS reduces exposure to government dealsHindu Business LineMid-size software services firm MphasiS Ltd is gradually reducing its exposure to Indian Government contracts even as it increases investment in sales and marketing, according to an official. There are plans to exit at least two ...See More
Economic TimesMphasiS unveils new corporate brand, new logoEconomic TimesBANGALORE: HP-owned IT services firm MphasiS today unveiled its new corporate brand including a new logo. "We are launching a new MphasiS that will leverage our transformation journey and deliver cutting edge solutions in ...See More
Ajinkya Sathe
Pawan Kumar
IT Hardware
Ramachandiran A
Yogita Gunjal
Kamlesh Shaw


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subset: commoncrawl


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Getty Images/Stockbyte
The MDC may be putting on the brakes for cyclists who ride at the West Hartford Reservoir.
For the second day in a row, a man riding a bicycle has been struck and killed in Sunrise.
The latest incident happened around 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, in the 2500 block of W. Sunrise Blvd.
Police say a silver Toyota Camry stationwagon was traveling eastbound on Sunrise Blvd. when it collided with the unidentified bicyclist.
The victim, who police described as a white middle-aged man, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tuesday's fatal accident happened at around 6 a.m. Tuesday in the 1500 block of Flamingo Road near Sunrise Blvd.
In Tuesday's incident, a woman driving a white sedan struck and killed a cyclist who was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the drivers stopped and remained at the scene in both incidents.


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2 posts tagged "Mike Feldman"
A Perfect Pair: Oliver Peoples and Parabellum-------
In a craftsman meeting of the minds, Oliver Peoples has joined forces with fellow Los Angeles-based luxury label Parabellum for a limited-time run. "It's an honest L.A. collab. It's very local and a very organic project," Mike Feldman, one half of Parabellum's founding team, along with Jason Jones, said of the partnership. "We're actually right down the street." For Lise Tyler, design director of Oliver Peoples, collaborating offered her the chance to contribute to a design process that bears integrity to each brand. "They have a similar discoverability that Oliver Peoples does."
Handcrafted locally in Los Angeles, the exclusive design is a riff on the iconic seventies-inspired Linford aviator imagined in two wearable limited-edition colors—one in matte black with custom black acetate detailing and another in rose gold with Sahara tortoise acetate detailing.
"They're instantly recognizable as Oliver Peoples," Tyler explained of the unisex frame's temple detailing. "And we've been able to add another discoverable detail for the wearer since we do custom glass lenses," Tyler said excitedly of the breath logo that is revealed when you breathe on the lens. Known for their work in bison leather, the duo behind Parabellum set out to create an accompanying case that was of equal importance to the glasses. "We went through the history of older cases and it really came down to functionality," Jason Jones explained of the lightweight bison leather pocket case, their first foray into eyeglass cases. For his partner, Feldman, it came down to the set's local-leaning elements. "The way that houses are built and designed and decorated in L.A., things are done really well but they're not done in a rigid fashion, they flow. Between the glasses and the case, there's a natural flow and feel." For her part, Tyler stands in agreement: "The materials they use are super high-end but really understated in a way that feels very L.A." Cue the Indian Summer.
Oliver Peoples for Parabellum, $695, available now at Patron of the
New, 151 Franklin Street, NYC, (212)-966-7144, and at Oliver Peoples boutiques starting September 1.
Buffalo Soldiers-------
It would take an American heritage aficionado—or maybe a Hopi Indian—to identify the heavily textured leather Parabellum uses for its rugged accessories. Designer Commodore Jason Jones discovered the longevity of the buffalo as a child in Hollywood at Used Stuff, his stepfather's antiques store, where he became fascinated by a turn-of-the-century gun holster. Jones' father, who was in fact born on a Hopi reservation, explained that the holster was still so soft after a hundred years because it was made from American bison hide. That fact stayed with him, and after working with Armani and as a leatherworking apprentice with Henry Duarte in Los Angeles, Jones was ready to indulge his passion. He and his partner, Mike Feldman, launched their accessories collection Parabellum to pay homage to an inherently American kind of luxe. "The American buffalo has made a comeback over the past half century," Jones says. "They were almost extinct by the late 1800′s and now there's 500,000 of them."
Parabellum—from the Latin for "If you desire peace, prepare for war"—works with free-range ranchers and a micro-tannery in the Midwest, which Jones visits to oversee the cutting of each hide. Using 15-year-old bison without stretching or shrinking the hides gives the leather a unique soft, wrinkled texture; it also ensures that each piece is unique. The bags and computer cases are accessorized with military-grade ceramic hardware and Kevlar-lining, with hand-skiving and hand-turned corners. The range—which also includes belts and iPad cases—was originally intended for men, but after getting snatched up by girls, Jones and Feldman added women's styles, too. Colette, Japan's Tomorrowland, and L.A.'s Maxfield all quickly picked up the collection, and it arrives at Bergdorf Goodman just in time for Father's Day.


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Earth Treks' Climbing Centers are state-of-the-art indoor climbing gyms located in Columbia, Timonium and Rockville, MD. We pride ourselves on offering the best rock climbing in the greater Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland region. Each gym is among the largest in the country with climbing for every skill level.
The Bowling Classic hosted by Haruki Nakamura and other Ravens players gives football fans the chance to meet up to six players while bowling for a charitable cause. Attendees talk football and strategize cross-lane tackles as they bowl, wander, and mingle with Haruki, who will spend time at each lane alongside Ravens players and fans. Guests can compare an 8"x10" signed photo to Nakamura's actual likeness as they bid in a silent auction or enter raffles to win Ravens memorabilia and tickets. The winning team will receive a basket of autographed Ravens items, which they can hoist overhead or spike to the ground in victory. Bowlers can whet whistles and toast to big-league dreams at the full bar or nosh on concessions available from area vendors. Part of the event's proceeds will be donated to a charity of Haruki's choice.
Gold's Gym began more than 45 years ago, and today features an impressive array of next-generation fitness gadgets, a results-oriented focus, and squeaky-clean facilities. With today's deal, one of Gold's Gym's staff of certified personal trainers will test each client's strength and flexibility, among other metrics, to help determine and design a personalized fitness regimen. Thus inspired, neophyte iron workers can complement their one-on-one sessions with regular attendance at the gym, where they can hop on a cardio machine, pump up in a controlled manner on strength-training machines, tighten up in the abdominal- and functional-stretching area, or stick with lifting huge, heavy pieces of metal and commercial chest freezers.
Terrapin Adventures never fails to live up to its name—even their swing set gets the stomach fluttering with excitement. To be fair, though, the swing in question is anything but the traditional apparatus you'd find at a city park. It seats three people and starts its trajectory 40 feet above the ground, generating 2Gs of force as it swishes riders back and forth over the landscape. The park's other attractions are equally exhilarating. On the high ropes course, visitors attached to sturdy safety harnesses cross 18 traverses situated between lofty platforms; some must be tackled via a rickety bridge, while others require leaps of faith. The 43-foot high climbing tower offers 10 routes up and down, including a head-first downward climb over the Rainbow Serpent. Otherwise, the 330-foot-long zipline sends visitors gliding through the treetops at speeds of up to 20 mph, fast enough to beat the USA track team's star squirrel.
The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring's 13 courses are color-coded by difficulty level, from yellow for beginners to double black diamonds for experts. They aren't ski trails, though—they're climbing challenges. More than 150 platforms adorn 5 acres of trees, which participants trek among by way of cable, wood, and rope bridges, as well as ziplines. A short safety briefing precedes all excursions, covering how to use the included gear and harnesses.
The park's main courses aren't the only place to test climbing skills. Over in the Monkey Grove, visitors can scale 10 trees fastened with the footholds and grips of a classic rock wall. Younger climbers, meanwhile, can explore The Labyrinth, a small, contained structure featuring more than 40 junior-sized versions of the park's other challenges. The courses illuminate on select Glow-in-the-Park evenings, when food, live music, and hoot-owl choruses await climbers upon their return to terra firma.
Rebel Race's military-style obstacle courses challenge athletes from all backgrounds to shed humdrum day-to-day routines to experience the primal joys of mud, sweat and glory. Emerging from the mire in various states across the country, each Rebel Race packs its rucksack with tests of physical and mental toughness, rousing racers and washing machines alike to triumph in the face of sloppy opposition. After dashing through fire, climbing walls, and scaling mountains of hay, race participants bask in the collective kudos of parties, which include live entertainment, food, and beer for purchase. Camping options encourage participants and spectators to transform races into weekend getaways, while awards recognize each day's standout competitors and most-humble mud pits.


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I just bought a pair of 28i's off of Ebay for 40 bucks :D
Great deal so far except for one thing. When I unpacked the speakers one of them had a tweeter driver loose and is falling inward . I think this was caused by the heat expanding the rubber ring that goes around the driver. I unscrewed the front panel and did my best to reset it using a rubber band to hold it in place ( just a temporary fix).
It is 80% in there but is not really snug like it should be. It seems to be holding right now ( as long as I don't lay it on its back) and I don't hear any distortion.
Should I mess with it anymore or what?
I will try to post pics of it tommorrow.


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The official roof report is closed at Reliant Stadium for Sunday's Pink Ribbon Day matchup against the Green Bay Packers.
The predicted high temperature currently is 86 degrees with a 25% chance of precipitation.
Kickoff is at 7:20 p.m. CT. Watch the game live on NBC. Listen live on SportsRadio 610, HoustonTexans.com and the Texans Mobile app.
To receive final roof reports for game days, follow us at Twitter.com/HoustonTexans, or by text NEWS to 88222 to receive a text alert.


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Your Search Returned 3 tagged news reports
tool goes here Whatcom County Council member Sam Crawford is now leading in his bid for re-election, according to the latest ballot tally, a dramatic shift from a previous count that had challenger Christina Maginnis beating the 12-year incumbent.
The race between first-time candidate Christina Maginnis and Whatcom County Council Chairman Sam Crawford has tightened after updated ballot counts were released Thursday, Nov. 10. Maginnis was within 200 votes of Crawford Thursday, with the
tool goes here Sam Crawford is a Whatcom County Council member and a land-use consultant. Does that present a conflict of interest? he was asked during a League of Women Voters candidates forum...The council makes all land-use laws that directly


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Leaked specs and image of HTC 606w smartphone hit the web
If you're a fan of HTC smartphones but can't see yourself paying the money for something along the lines of the HTC One, a new device has leaked online that you may find interesting. A few specifications and some images of the device said to be the HTC 606w have surfaced. The device looks similar to the HTC One, but uses cheaper components which should mean it's a cheaper smartphone.


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ALGONQUIN – The golf course was "unbearable," according to Joliet Catholic Academy coach Kathy Major. As Monday's Class A Westminster Christian Sectional evolved, the Angels began to bear down.
Junior Maddy Troha finished with a 99 and junior Claire O'Connor came up with a 104 as JCA's girls golf team placed third to advance to the finals of the state tournament for the first time in school history.
"We're ecstatic," said Major, who coached the Angels' volleyball team to the Final Four back in 1998. "This group of girls has worked so hard together and they have absolutely no drama to their games.
"When they got off the course, they knew their scores were a little higher than they might have wanted, but it became clearer as the day went on and they realized, 'Hey we did what we needed to do."
Along with the Troha-O'Connor combination, junior Carmella Bolin (Plainfield) scored with a 108 and senior Laurel Stofan added a 110. Senior Kelsey Fenske (124) and junior Alexa McClintock (143) also competed.
Marian Central Catholic won the sectional title at the Golf Club of Illinois with a 385 and Byron placed second with 414. JCA grabbed the third and final qualifying spot with a 421, edging out Rockford Lutheran's 427.
"The course was the great equalizer," Major said. "I think what helped our girls was we shot a practice round there on Saturday and it gave the girls confidence. They knew the course was not going to be easy to score, so they would have to grind it out and keep going after it.
"The way they set it up, we were in a group with Wheaton St. Francis, Marengo and Rockford Lutheran. Marian Central, Byron, Nazareth were in another group. And as those teams started coming in, we could look up at the leaderboard and we were picking teams off one by one."
That buzz carried indoors, where the girls congregated after their round. Eventually, the news settled in.
"The girls knew they shot higher than they wanted, but it wasn't 10, 12, 15 strokes higher," Major said. "And we didn't just have one girl scoring. We had four solid scores, and that hurt the teams behind us.
"I don't think the girls could believe what was happening right away because it was beyond their goals."
A dream weekend qualifies JCA for the state finals, to be held at Red Tail Run Golf Course in Decatur. One of the leading Angels will be Troha, who continued her steady pace during the sectional.
"Maddy missed a putt or two that she would have liked to had back," Major said. "But for the most part, she golfed very well. That has been her game all year long. She holds it together and keeps going."


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Perpetual Pedro Returns
According to Mets.com, Pedro Feliciano has been signed to a minor-league deal.
With his minor-league contract comes an invitation to spring training. Feliciano spent the last two years enjoying the comforts of the Bronx Country Club, collecting many millions from the Steinbrenners. In an unusually remarkable stroke of good luck, the Mets let a pitcher go at just the right time — and may have brought him back at just the right time.
If Feliciano is healthy and back to the form that saw him pitch as often as three times in a doubleheader (OK, maybe I'm exaggerating – but only a little), he's a cinch to make the 2013 Mets. However, I haven't seen him since his rotator cuff injury (and surgery), so have no idea whether he still has the stuff to pitch at the Major League level. Feliciano nearly returned to the bigs late last year, after appearing in ten games at four different levels of the minors during his rehab assignment. He struck out 10 in 9 1/3 innings, but I don't really know what that means, considering it was such a small sample size, and since 8 of those innings happened below AA.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to see if there is any drama in Mets camp upon his return. For those who forgot, there was something of a shouting match in the New York tabloids back in April 2011 between Feliciano and Dan Warthen (thanks to Bleeding Yankee Blue for the reminder). From The New York Post:
"That's not right when he said, 'That's why we let him go,' " said Feliciano, who is on the 15-day disabled list with a sore left shoulder. "I read that and it hurts because I like Dan."
Feliciano then pointed to May 20, when the Mets come to Yankee Stadium.
"I will show him in the Subway Series," Feliciano said. "When I strike out Ike Davis and I jump on the mound [pointing his finger as if Warthen were in front of him], I'll say, 'That's for you.' "
"That was part of the reason we decided not to re-sign him," Warthen said, "because we knew we had used him 270-something times in the last three years."
"I feel hurt a little bit about [Warthen's comments] because they didn't really let me go because I pitched a lot of games," Feliciano said. "I didn't sign with them because they offered me one year. Me and my agent wanted a multi-year [contract], two or more years, and they just gave me one. That's why I'm not a Met right now."
Naturally, there will be a public apology / love fest / group hug between Feliciano and Warthen at some point after pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie. But I get the feeling that, behind closed doors, Warthen is saying "Nyah, nyah, I told you so!"
About the Author
Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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Comments5 Responses to "Perpetual Pedro Returns"
Is it just me or is Warthen's admission that they blew out Feliciano's arm a very, very stupid thing to say in the context of 1) trying to bring any new pitchers on in the future and 2) trying to retain your job as a pitching coach?
I heard Warthen went to scout Pedro before the offer – asked him to throw 375 pitches at the workout.In an offseason that has been blah so far for Met fans, I must say that it would be nice if Perpetual Pedro found a way to contribute to the Mets once again after the Yanks paid him $8 mil to throw zero pitches at the major league level.
Oh boy another hollow feel good story to try to hide another losing season. Does anybody remember when the goal was winning?


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Igor Greenwald, Contributor
I study stocks, markets and the political economy.
Somewhere in a parallel universe, there's an American International Group (AIG) that spent September 2008 craftily negotiating with its creditors over credit default swaps, ultimately paying pennies on the dollar. That AIG did not become a financial pariah, was pushed by no disgruntled counterparty into bankruptcy nor bailed out by the U.S. government. Its shareholders were the luckiest on Earth, making out like crazy while the rest of the financial world crumbled.
That's the premise of the ungrateful souls suing the U.S. government over the $182 billion federal bailout widely considered to have rescued the insurance giant from the brink of extinction.
The Treasury and the Fed extracted their pound of flesh of course, but at the time were justly criticized for being too generous to shareholders facing the deserved loss of their whole hide.
But that was then and this is now and now no good deed goes unpunished. So former AIG boss Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who remains a major shareholder, is leading a group suing the government for $25 billion, contending that it overcharged for an unnecessary rescue.
Hank Greenberg's case is being argued by hotshot celebrity lawyer David Boies, who neither broke up Microsoft nor got Al Gore elected president. Still, Boies has won a few and knows a thing or two, though maybe not about public relations.
He's arguing that the rescue of AIG was really "a backdoor bailout of Wall Street." Wall Street had loaded up on AIG's promises to pay if things went sour, bought them by the bushel before and after AIG became the last schmo in town to realize sour was the flavor of the coming decade. And it got paid in full under the terms of the deal a broke AIG struck with the Fed in 2008.
So here come Greenberg and Boies pleading the Fifth – and not the self-incrimination part of the constitutional amendment but the bit that prohibits the seizure of private property without compensation. And they want AIG to join in the fun. In fact, tomorrow, DealBook reports, Greenberg will be back at AIG headquarters at long last as his representatives make the case for a united legal front.
There's a legal argument that joining the suit against the government might shield AIG itself from legal liabilities. Whereas the government can't sue AIG simply for suing it.
But it's never a good idea to piss off your regulators. And that's not even the main reason why AIG should fumigate the building after Greenberg departs.
The main reason is that AIG got to death's door by denying the financial reality all around it. And Greenberg is a reality denier like few others. Matt Taibbi of the Rolling Stone has called his lieutenant Joe Cassano, who ran the AIG-FP subsidiary that sold the ill-fated default swaps, "Patient Zero" of the global financial epidemic. If so, Hank Greenberg was the infection.
According to Bethany McLean and Joseph Nocera in All the Devils Are Here, Greenberg ran the company "with an iron fist" but without adequate risk or accounting controls or enough qualified subordinates to oversee the spider's web of subsidiaries he created in pursuit of regulatory advantages.
Greenberg was ousted by then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2005 over—surprise!—an accounting scandal, in which he was accused of overseeing transactions designed to misrepresent the company's financial position. But by that time he'd already installed Cassano, another bully and monomaniac, as head of AIG's trading subsidiary. And he forgot to tell new management that Cassano had carte blanche to gamble with the company's balance sheet.
Cassano was such a bully, according to Michael Lewis, that when subordinates belatedly learned that the mortgage derivatives on which they'd written protection were vastly toxic they only had the courage to urge him not to write any more, but not to start cutting their already massive exposure.
And after Cassano walked away from the global financial wreckage with hundreds of millions in his bank account, he had the gall to tell the inevitable crisis postmortem panel that AIG's losses were caused by its auditors and regulators, suggesting all that subprime exposure would have worked out just fine if AIG had been left alone. It was basically a preview of Greenberg's claims against the government.
If AIG buys into those arguments, it will be announcing to its employees and the world that it has learned nothing from the crisis, that short-term legal and financial expediencies still dictate how it views any situation. It will be explicitly endorsing the corporate culture of denial that Greenberg fostered and Cassano exemplified. It will, in short, be cutting its own throat a second time.
Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter and subscribe on Facebook.
More on Forbes:
A simple solution, would be, if AIG turns it's back on the American Tax payer, than the American taxpayer should turn it's back on AIG. Stop supporting a company that is only motivated by GREED.
This is why we never should of lent them any money in the first place. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. To even consider this demonstrates that these executives, board, and CEO have no inkling how much horrible PR would come down on them (Congress more investigations and bad front page stories in all the major newspapers) for such poor judgement and lack of gratitude.
As a taxpayer, I want these guys to stop this madness now drop this idea of joining a lawsuit against the very people who saved your company from the toliet and apologize to all of us – taxpayers. Now!
You people need to get educated about what really happened behind the curtain and why AIG was bailed out in the first place. If anyone should be running thank you adds to the American people it should be Goldman Sacks who were paid in full from AIG! What about the GM bailout that screwed the bond holders to give the UAW a sweet deal so Obama could get his votes. The government deserves to be sued for doing what they have done.
I definitely agree about the killing. The $25 Billion dollar lawsuit if joined will definitely not help the company. Greenburg does have some muscle to throw around. John Grgurich just posted a clearer picture of this potential suit involving
AIG on fool.com
"Recently, AIG even launched a national ad campaign, thanking the country
for the $182 billion dollar bailout. How could it then turn around and sue the
government, and maintain any kind of credibility with the American public "
AIG will definitely gain some advertising coverage for this but it looks to me to be a loosing battle and Greenburg is up for a big loss on this one!
A thoughtful article, Igor!
Why should the public pay for the rescue of AIG in the first place. I understand the system may have temporarily come down if we had not rescued AIG, but how else will those people involved be punished by the market! We let them walk scott free. I believe they owe all of us!
This idea of suing the U.S. for what we did in a crisis to save the system and AIG is absurd. It looks like Hank Greenberg is trying to get his pound of flesh!
If we allow this to happen, we are more cattle that I believed.
john murphy
At the very least those people should have been barred from ever serving as a company board member, chairperson or CEO.
Don't forget Hank's new company, CV Starr, he's trying to take over the insurance world with them too.
I hope they do, all these greedy corporations whose own incompetence caused them to fail making profits deserved to die in the first place. Please sue as AIG so you can go away forever and we can finally prove to the government that "too big to fail" is a myth.
My adrenaline is shooting through me and burning like fire..I can't believe the gall of Greenberg's, and that the board of AIG would even consider to sue the government–which represents the tax payer, i.e. YOU AND ME. Countless people and businesses are still struggling and many have failed because of the financial crisis that we ALL went through. AIG made it (thanks to YOU AND ME), and they're still not happy?! This is abominable, revolting, and what a slap in the face for all of us who forked out our money to save them!!!
Email the AIG board members with your thoughts: firstname.lastname@example.com


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This article can also be found in the Premium Editorial Download "Storage magazine: The lowdown on solid-state storage."
Download it now to read this article plus other related content.
But the deduplication reports from the FalconStor appliance showed how much redundant data was being eliminated before backup. Armed with that information and some off-the-shelf storage management tools, Watkis now regularly scans his servers for redundant files and has recovered 40% of the space on his 16 TB storage-area network (SAN). Those savings are critical since he had to cut his storage budget by 20% in fiscal 2009.
Joseph Stedler is senior engineer and Dallas data center manager at External IT USA Inc., a managed service provider based in Richardson, Texas. For data deduplication, he considered both a Data Domain Inc. appliance and Veeam Software's Veeam Backup & Replication software, which combines deduplication and backup for VMware ESX virtual servers. Despite its much higher cost, Stedler said, he went with the hardware-based Data Domain appliance because of its higher performance and the ability to replicate data among his various data centers.
The host-based deduplication provided by EMC Corp.'s Avamar has received "a lot of favorable feedback" from Gartner customers, said Roger Cox, research vice president at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc., as have target-side deduplication products from Data Domain, Diligent Technologies Inc. (which was purchased by IBM Corp. last year) and Quantum Corp. (which is OEMed by EMC).
David Floyer, chief technology officer and co-founder of the Wikibon project, an online IT support community, said NetApp's
Users need to look out not only for overall reduction ratios, but for how long it takes a product to compress or deduplicate data, and then return it to its original, readable state, said Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst at StorageIO Group in Stillwater, Minn. Saving huge amounts of space isn't much good if you can no longer work within your backup or restore windows, he noted.
This was first published in September 2009


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Mitchell® Pesca Spinning Combo, 6'
Item # WX2-164708
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This item is shipped directly from the factory. To see the expected shipping date, please add to your Shopping Cart. Sorry, no express shipping available. We are unable to ship factory direct items to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or APO or FPO addresses.
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Mitchell® Pesca Spinning Combos, a perfectly affordable medium power rig! SAVE BIG!
Catch your limit without busting your budget! The reel features a ball-bearing design with a durable, lightweight aluminum spool, and comes balanced on a strong, durable 2-Pc. graphite composite rod that's sensitive enough to feel the nibbles. And such a great Guide price... you save BIG BUCKS!
Top-quality tackle for less! Order ONLINE today!
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|Call Number
|Item Status
|Due 06-12-14 Billed
Edition: [Widescreen ed.]
Description: 1 videodisc (117 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in
Language: English
Special features: Deleted scenes; behind-the-scenes - Making-of the movie; "Who is Tyler Perry?" featurette; "You can do it ... It's electric" featurette; feature commentary with Tyler Perry; The Tyler Perry collection trailer; trailer gallery
Kimberly Elise, Steve Harris, Shemar Moore, Tamara Taylor, Lisa Marcos, Tiffany Evans, Cicely Tyson, Tyler Perry
Helen McCarter would seem to have it all. She's married to Charles who is one of Atlanta's most successful attorneys. But despite having wealth and prestige, things are not as they seem in the McCarter home. On the evening of their anniversary, Charles drops a bombshell on Helen - he's divorcing her for another woman. Thrown out of the house with nowhere to go, Helen moves in with her grandmother Madea, a sassy woman with no shortage of opinions and a gun that she's not afraid to use. As Madea helps Helen get back on her feet emotionally, she meets Orlando, a nice and handsome man who is obviously attracted to her. But after her experiences with Charles, Helen isn't sure if she's ready to trust a man again
MPAA rating: PG-13; for drug content, thematic elements ,crude sexual references and some violence
DVD, region 1, widescreen presentation; Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
English dialogue, English or Spanish subtitles; closed-captioned
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Elise, Kimberly, 1971-
Harris, Steve, 1965-
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Marcos, Lisa
Claessen, David, 1959-
Ross, Elvin
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text: It was inetersting to me to read some of the other reviews on this CD, because I also was not overly impressed the first time I listened to this CD except for a couple of the songs. However, after giving it another try I was absolutely hooked. I have both "Wonder What's Next" and "This Type of Thinking…" and they are both highly recommended if you like this type of music (especially through headphones!). I find Chevelle's music to be original and emotional. Dark minor key melodies and thick, vibrant textures make it very worth the purchase musically in my opinion. They are both good musicians and songwriters. They take themselves waaaay too seriously in an "I'm young and full of angst" kind of way, but overall both CDs are highly recommended.


text:
Posts Tagged 'Facebook'
#WikiLeaks Links
The New WikiLeaks IP address:
The German Pirate Party stepped up to help:
(Pssst… hey You, Pirate Party of Canada… yeah you guys….
howsabout you step up and offer to host WikiLeaks North America…?)
*Note: when the WikiLeaks plug was pulled:
- the WikiLeaks Identi.ca @wikileaks2 account
- the WikiLeaks Twitter @wikileaks account
- the WikiLeaks Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/wikileaks were still live.
For all the slagging we give Facebook, isn't it interesting that they kept WikiLeaks up while Amazon et al did not.
Other Good Resources:
The Guardian: Julian Assange answers your questions
And if anyone managed to hang onto any doubt about the fact that both WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, personally, are actually under attack, just look at the frequency of attacks on his Wikipedia biography:
Wikipedia: Revision history of Julian Assange
More Good Articles:
TechDirt: Why The Wikileaks Document Release Is Key To A Functioning Democracy
ComputerWorldUK: Simon Says… The Internet's Voltaire Moment aka: why we need to stand up for Wikileaks even if we hate it
Wikileaks: So, this is what cyberwar looks like
Prosecuting WikiLeaks For Publishing Documents Would Raise Serious Constitutional Concerns, Says ACLU
Of course the ultimate irony is Pravda justifiably criticising US for trying to stifle a free press in Valerie Plame, YES! Wikileaks, NO!
[Dr. Roy Schestowitz directed me to the TED TV interview with Julian Assange which is well worth watching.
As usual, for accessibility I'm hosting an OGG conversion here: Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
And this is the higher quality YouTube version:
[Thanks Roy!]
Julian Assange at New Media Days 2009 Photo by New Media Days / Peter Erichsen
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (cc-by-sa)
OGG conversion via TinyOgg
digEcon scandals
[I'm breaking some of my digEcon issues down into a three part series across my blogs. The first part is published in the wind where I usually look at copyright issues as a content consumer and a writer. This second part here in Oh! Canada and the final part in StopUBB. When all three are complete I'll add link arrows.]
One thing we all seem to love about the Internet is the opportunities we have to "Like" things. A simple mouse click bestows or withdraws our approval on comments or news stories on the Internet. It gives us the power to be heard.
Voting in the Digital Economy Consultation
The Canadian Government recognized our liking for "Liking" and gave us the means to do so on the Digital Economy Consultation website. The top three ideas appeared on the home page, right under Industry Minister Tony Clement's video opening. Every time I logged in to the DigEcon site the same three ideas were on the front page. If you wanted to participate in the consultation you had to be registered and logged in to vote for an idea.
I'm not entirely sure how these ideas got there although I think they originated in the online discussion forums.
digEcon Voting Scandal?
One idea did really well, one which sought to Reinstate our Census Long Form aka Questionnaire 2B based on the understanding that in a digital world information is vitally important, especially for Government's long term digital economy planning. A great many visitors to the digEcon site agreed with this idea and it quickly rose through the ranks.
Apparently the Government didn't like this.
So the Government relocated it.
'Reinstate our Census Long Form' was pulled and tucked in an out of the way corner. Even after being pulled, at the end of the day it still held second place, having received +389 votes.
I learned about this from
- Russell McOrmond's Digital Copyright Canada: Why no formal submission to Digital Economy consultation?
- Jennifer Ditchburn, Globe and Mail: Web links to census discussion vanish
- Data Libre #1: Conspiracy about the Census & the Consultation?
- Datalibre #2: Industry Canada says the census is not part of the Digital Economy
- eaves.ca: We want to consult, until you say something we don't like
- eaves.ca : Minister Clement, privacy and (un)balanced views
But "officially" it didn't count. As far as the Government was concerned, only the three ideas on the home page were the "winners".
To Compete You Must Compute with +463 votes
A discourse on the importance of Supercomputers, it also appears to be an advertisement for Compute Canada
The idea to provide Open Access to Canada's Public Sector Information and Data called for the creation of "a data.gc.ca for Canada's public sector information" garnered +338 votes.
Finally in third position a proposal for improved access to publicly-funded data
with +197 votes.
The Census idea was removed July 9th, a day after Compete/Compute arrived onsite.
The Census idea was unfairly treated, but in all fairness you could still vote for it– if you could find it.
The Government claims the subject matter was outside the guideline, which clearly was not the case. Even if it had been true, it should have been taken down much sooner. It sat on the front page for a very long time to get that many votes.
The sad thing is that it has been well proven that this type of "voting" system can be easily "gamed". The fact that it was done so heavy handedly is bad. I have to wonder about the appropriateness of Compute Canada's vote getting campaign. Clearly the only concern is getting votes. I would hope that the Canadian government isn't planning policy based on such flimsy data.
From the Compute Canada Website:
Does Canada really want our future decided on the basis of an advertising campaign?
As amazing and important as supercomputers may be, in the real world there are very few Canadian Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) that would actually need supercomputer access. Certainly there are a few specialized cases where it would be ideal, but I suspect that most SMEs don't use the PCs and equipment that they have now to the fullest. Everything changes so quickly, just keeping up is both cost and labor intensive. It would be a lot of fun to play around with a Supercomputer, but as a writer all I actually need to write novels is my ancient laptop.
digEcon Canadian Content Scandal?
I didn't have time to be active in the forums, but something about the Digital Economy Consultation website disturbed me a little at the time. The more I've thought about it the more irritated I've become.
The site gave you the option to share your submission, and probably your forum ideas as well via email, Twitter or FaceBook.
And of course there were problems with the Twitter partnership, most likely because of Twitter's extremely proprietary nature. Although it is the kind of thing that frequently happens with proprietary software and digital locks…
So often ordinary users aren't aware that the technical difficulties they are experiencing are DRM side effects.
What bothered me is that the Government of Canada has chosen to include both Twitter and FaceBook here on an official Canadian Government website. This is effectively an advertisement and a government endorsement of these two American corporations.
I am well aware that Canadians use these services, as I myself do.
That's not my problem. I am wondering where the Canadian Content was. Hmmmmm… isn't that one of the things that our current Heritage Minister James Moore is in charge of watching over?
In particular, I'm wondering why the Canadian Government chose not to give equal time to Identi.ca?
Why wasn't Identi.ca included along with Twitter and FaceBook? Identi.ca is a Canadian Micro-blogging service. Like Twitter, only better in a lot of ways. I do almost ALL my "Tweeting" as "Dents" on Identi.ca
Like a lot of people, I have Identi.ca and Twitter connected for the best of both worlds.
Identi.ca runs on open source Status.Net software. Which isn't at all surprising since both are part of the same Canadian company from Montréal. People and corporations all over the world are creating their own Status.Net sites. A corporation can easily run Status.Net software on their own LAN. It can be contained as an internal system or interconnect with other systems (without FaceBook type privacy issues) because it isn't proprietary software. I know individuals who run their own Status.net domain they then connect to Identi.ca
I am not saying we can't use American services like Twitter or Facebook. I'm writing this blog post on a blog on the American WordPress site.
But Status.Net is a Canadian digital economy success story.
I would have thought it elementary that the prime directive of the Canadian Government's Digital Economy strategy would be
promotion of the Canadian businesses who are out there building Canada's Digital Economy.
At the very least I would expected our Government to give equal time to Canadian Digital Enterprises.
Back to digEcon backstory (Bill C-32)
Forward to stacking the digEcon deck
Image Credits
"Thumbs Up" by David Benbennick, Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 License
Image Credit "Thumbs Down" by Joe Goldberg under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generc
was #copycon futile?
Last year the Canadian Government held a Copyright Consultation to ask Canadians what we thought was important for Canadian copyright law. More than 8,000 Canadians from all across Canada made #copycon submissions. We have yet to see if we were heard, although rumour has it that the legislature will be seeing a new Canadian Copyright bill soon… possibly for June 2010. Many of us have serious concerns about whether it was an exercise in futility or not.
From my perspective, even if the government does not listen and learn from the #copycon, I know I have learned an enormous amount about copyright and how we think from other Canadians who made submissions. From things I've read and learned from the #copycon, if I were to make a copyright submission today it would be very different. But that's another post.
Canadians are talking about copyright, and understanding the forces at play much better. The conversation is far from over, and we need to get a handle on things and come to a consensus about before law is made.
What was said by Canadians in the formal Copyright Consultation submissions has laid the foundation of a valuable resource for all Canadians. A reference primer of "What Canadians Want".
we don't want bad law
But the law may be made anyway. Rumours that the government will try to push through a Canadian DMCA (a Bill C61 clone) have many citizens worried. But sometimes that happens, bad laws get passed.
Probably one of the biggest exercises in lawmaking futility was the American 1919 Volstead Act which we know more familiarly as Prohibition. God fearing law abiding solid citizens— people who wouldn't have so much as dreamt of jay walking before Prohibition— instantly transformed into criminals frequenting speakeasies when the American law outlawing alcoholic beverages went into effect. The roaring twenties came and went before Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
Because prohibition favored the goals of a special interest group over society's mores it just couldn't work. Aside from fostering near universal flagrant contempt for the law among citizens, a serious byproduct was the support this bad law gave to the growth of organized crime. Before American Prohibition, the mafia was just some petty disorganized criminals. After Prohibition gangsters became rock stars. How many books, articles, movies and even musicals have grown up out of the gangster mystique. Canada's own gangster wannabes in The Boyd Gang seem to have hatched out of the gangster mythology. Folk heroes even.
What I know of history has shown that when bad laws are passed the populace initially chafes and suffers. Although the government passing the bad law hopes that people will put up with it, one thing that they never seem to expect is that bad laws provide their opponents with points of commonality.
Often people who are ideologically incapable of co-operating are galvanized into finding a way to work together when a bad law is passed. The bad law itself becomes a visible rallying point, a specific dragon to slay.
One of the most compelling things that any bad law provides to its detractors are the martyrs.
Although I talked about this story as an example of what to expect if the secret A.C.T.A. treaty is passed, it is a real life demonstration of what is happening right now in the US under the existing American DMCA. A young woman went to jail for the crime of recording her sister's birthday party.
And although history shows that bad laws tend to be overturned in time, I still think it's better not to have bad laws in the first place.
In the case of copyright, the people who will be most harmed by bad copyright law are the younger generation, many of whom have not attained voting age. As a mother, this special interest group is important to me, because I don't want to see bad things happen to our best and brightest.
As a student of history I do know that there will very soon be a time when this generation will not only be able to vote but, may well be able to form a government. When I was a teenager we thought running for student council was a big deal. Today Canada's newest political party has been formed largely by people barely old enough to vote.
Digital Economy Consultation
In the meantime the Canadian government has again asked us for our input.
This time it is for a Digital Economy Consultation. How the Canadian Government reacts to the changes caused by the digital world will have a huge impact on our future. Our economy.
A long time ago Canada had climbed to the forefront of the world of technology with the Avro Arrow. Yet an incredibly short sighted government pulled the plug on that and well and truly killed the project. Naturally it triggered a "brain drain", as many of Canada's best and brightest migrated to the United States to work at NASA. Surely we don't want to go that route again.
We certainly don't want to end up in a legislative shambles the way the United Kingdom has. Their ill advised Digital Economy Bill (know to Twitterati as #DEBill) which was rushed through the legislative procedure without proper scrutiny resulted in a hung parliament and the fall of a Prime Minister. Surely Canada doesn't want to go that route either.
All Canadians should try to participate…
…even if we say what we think and what we want, and they choose not to hear, the ideas will still be out there floating in the ether.
Judging by the quantity and passion of the comments I've been reading in online articles to do with weighty issues like UBB and copyright, many of us have thought about this and have a lot of good ideas. This is a good place to put them. And what better time to be heard than when we are lucky enough to have a minority government. At times like this, governments at least try to give the appearance of listening.
Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but as a mom I can tell you, when you ask your kid to pretend to go to sleep, before long he really is asleep. Maybe if our government starts out by appearing to listen to our submissions they will accidentally find themselves actually listening.
It's worth a shot.
I think that the #digicon will be just as valuable for Canadians as the #copycon was. The process isn't quite the same as the earlier consultation. As I understand it, off topic comments (such as talking about copyright reform) are likely to be moderated out of the forums.
Read the #digicon Consultation Paper
Participate in the digicon forums – see what other people have to say
DENT about #digicon
tweet about #digicon.
Talk about it on your wall.
Then write your own submission.
**Note: They want a 250 – 500 word summary of the submission as well. I assume to make it easier to sort the piles.
the process
It seems that although the 40 page Submission Guidelines can be downloaded as a PDF, they are also available in clear HTML on the website. Yay! I love that they are asking for submissions in
text-only format or as a document upload (e.g., Word, RTF or WordPerfect formats"
Sounds like they'd rather not get stuck in the PDF morass they had for copycon. Deconstructing all the PDF submissions is probably the chief reason why it took so long for all the submissions to be posted online.
(I hate PDFs!)
time limit
As of today, there are 49 days to make a submission. But there's a lot to think about, so don't leave it until the last minute (as so many of us did with #copycon)
Things you might say today may help someone else develop a brilliant strategy that would benefit us all. (Hint: that's why re:mixing is such a good idea)
I read a comment yesterday from someone who was concerned that the comment or link they'd posted to the #digicon page had been subsequently removed (or moved somewhere else).
If you're concerned that may happen to your comments or links, or if you've something you want to say about the Canadian Digital Economy Consultation that you feel may not survive their moderation, feel free to put it in the #digicon links & comments
My only rules: no spam, no personal attacks/hate mongering.
Similarly, if you have pertinent links you think may help answer questions or examine the issues, feel free to include them. If they start to pile up, when I have a minute I'll list them under #digicon links in the sidebar.
Because some Canadians are a bit cynical, we not only submitted our formal #copycon submission to the government, we also posted it on our blogs or websites as (ahem) insurance.
As any emerging artist knows, the wider you can disseminate your art the more people will have the opportunity to become a fan. Or in this case, the more people who can see and read the argument, the more can understand the argument.
to blog or not to blog
If you don't have one, you can get a free blog from various sources; personally I'd recommend WordPress.
If you don't want a blog, but want to be heard, I'm willing to post submissions on the Oh! Canada blog as a guest post.
Consultation Questions
Innovation Using Digital Technologies
- Should Canada focus on increasing innovation in some key sectors or focus on providing the foundation for innovation across the economy?
- Which conditions best incent and promote adoption of ICT by Canadian business?
- What would a successful digital strategy look like for your firm or sector? What are the barriers to implementation?
- Once copyright, anti-spam and data breach/privacy amendments are in place, are their other legislative or policy changes needed to deal with emerging issues?
- How can Canada use its regulatory and policy regime to promote Canada as a favourable environment for e-commerce?
Digital Infrastructure
- What speeds and other service characteristics are needed by users (e.g., consumers, businesses, public sector bodies) and how should Canada set goals for next generation networks?
- What steps must be taken to meet these goals? Are the current regulatory and legislative frameworks conducive to incenting investment and competition? What are the appropriate roles of stakeholders in the public and private sectors?
- What steps should be taken to ensure there is sufficient radio spectrum available to support advanced infrastructure development?
- How best can we ensure that rural and remote communities are not left behind in terms of access to advanced networks and what are the priority areas for attention in these regions?
Growing the ICT Industry
- Do our current investments in R&D effectively lead to innovation, and the creation of new businesses, products and services? Should we promote investments in small start-ups to expand our innovation capacity?
- What is needed to innovate and grow the size of the ICT industry including the number of large ICT firms headquartered in Canada?
- What would best position Canada as a destination of choice for venture capital and investments in global research and development mandates?
- What efforts are needed to address the talent needs in the coming years?
Canada's Digital Content
- What does creating Canada's digital content advantage mean to you?
- What elements do you want to see in Canada's marketplace framework for digital media and content?
- How do you see digital content contributing to Canada's prosperity?
- What kinds of infrastructure investments do you foresee making in the future? What kinds of infrastructure will you need in the future to be successful at home and abroad?
- How can stakeholders encourage investment, particularly early stage investment, in the development of innovative digital media and content?
Building Digital Skills
- What do you see as the most critical challenges in skills development for a digital economy?
- What is the best way to address these challenges?
- What can we do to ensure that labour market entrants have digital skills?
- What is the best way to ensure the current workforce gets the continuous upskilling required to remain competitive in the digital economy? Are different tactics required for SMEs versus large enterprises?
- How will the digital economy impact the learning system in Canada? How we teach? How we learn?
- What strategies could be employed to address the digital divide?
Improving Canada's Digital Advantage
- Should we set targets for our made-in-Canada digital strategy? And if so, what should those targets be?
- What should the timelines be to reach these targets?
There are a lot of questions. After reading the material, listening and/or participating in the forum discussions, chatting with co-workers around the water cooler or the oil rig, or the kids in your youth group, or with your e-friends on Identi,ca, Twitter or Facebook…
Say what you think.
Our government is asking us for input. Let's give it to them.
[Digital Economy Simulpost: Since this will affect all Canadians, I'm posting the same post in all three of my blogs, Oh! Canada, StopUBB, and in the wind]
Canada don't need no stinkin' DMCA
Canada don't need no stinkin' DMCA
(or DCMA)
Title amendment at June 1st, 2010
Michael Geist says that they are planning to call the new "copyright" law
the Digital Copyright Modernization Act or Canadian DCMA
I guess that ways they can say it isn't a "Canadian DMCA" with a straight face…. llr
Yesterday morning I was just taking a quick peek at Twitter before getting back to revisions when I saw a tweet from The Electronic Frontier Foundation:
RT@BoingBoing Canadian Prime Minister promises to enact a Canadian DMCA in six weeks http://bit.ly/c8Re4h
That did not sound promising. In fact it sounded downright scary. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is widely known to be a deeply flawed draconian copyright law. And that isn't just a Canadian perception, that's an opinion shared by many people around the world. It is reasonable to assume that a good part of the citizen resistance to A.C.T.A. is a direct result of seeing the DMCA in action.
You might wonder why I am so concerned. After all, this is just the announcement of a bill that won't even be available for First Reading before June. This bill is so new it doesn't have a number yet. But previous drafts of so called Canadian "copyright reforms" have been bad. And the fact that representatives of this government are involved in the fast tracked secret A.C.T.A. negotiations does not instill confidence.
being heard
It seems that increasingly our elected representatives choose to ignore Canadians. After all, more than eight thousand concerned Canadians made submissions to the copyright consultation. What we said appears not to have been heard by our government.
As a mother, I have a powerful stake in the future. As a creator and a consumer, copyright is also very important to me. But I am only a private citizen. One person. So it takes a lot to make my voice heard.
When my government demonstrates its willingness to ignore not just my voice, but the voices of thousands of my fellow citizens, then I need to do my best to encourage even more citizens to speak up. That means starting now, before the new bill is released to public scrutiny because there must be time to inform many more Canadians of the issue.
In 2007, the architect of the DMCA and the WIPO Internet Treaties admitted:
"…our attempts at copyright control have not been successful…"
—Chairman Bruce Lehman, International Intellectual Property Institute March 24, 2007
boingboing: DMCA's author says the DMCA is a failure, blames record industry
Like most Canadians, back then I was so busy with my life that I wasn't paying much attention. I was leaving politics and lawmaking to the professionals. After all, that's what they're paid for, right?
It seems that the politicians want Canada to ratify the WIPO treaties. But that can't happen until we have enacted domestic laws to back them up. This is why first the Liberals, and now the Conservatives, are trying to put through copyright reform.
The thing of it is, according to Howard Knopf Canada has strong copyright Laws, maybe too strong. In many ways stronger than American Copyright Law.
Now, in 2010, the EFF has made this assessment of the DMCA:
- The DMCA Chills Free Expression and Scientific Research.
Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats against Princeton Professor Edward Felten's team of researchers, and prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students, programmers, and members of the public.
- The DMCA Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for circumvention, the DMCA grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the public's fair use rights. Already, the movie industry's use of encryption on DVDs has curtailed consumers' ability to make legitimate, personal-use copies of movies they have purchased.
- The DMCA Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing on pirates, some have wielded the DMCA to hinder legitimate competitors. For example, the DMCA has been used to block aftermarket competition in laser printer toner cartridges, garage door openers, and computer maintenance services. Similarly, Apple has used the DMCA to tie its iPhone and iPod devices to Apple's own software and services.
- The DMCA Interferes with Computer Intrusion Laws.
Further, the DMCA has been misused as a general-purpose prohibition on computer network access, a task for which it was not designed and to which it is ill-suited. For example, a disgruntled employer used the DMCA against a former contractor for simply connecting to the company's computer system through a virtual private network ("VPN")."
— Electronic Frontier Foundation, Unintended Consequences: Twelve Years under the DMCA
Canada has been under heavy pressure from the United States to follow their legislative lead and create our own DMCA.
First, the Liberal Party of Canada gave it a try with Bill C-60. Fortunately for Canada, the Liberal Party had a minority government at the time and a non-confidence vote killed their Bill C-60. I have no doubt that this law would have passed had there been a Liberal majority.
Next, the Conservative Party of Canada put forth their own Bill C-61 in an attempt to create a Canadian DMCA. Canada was again lucky to have a minority government. There was an even greater outcry from the citizenry. Embarrassing articles in ars technica: "Canadian DMCA" brings "balanced" copyright to Canada and boingboing: Canadian DMCA is worse than the American one seem to have been prevalent. I have no doubt that this law would have passed had there been a Conservative majority.
Luckily for us, Bill C-61 was scrapped by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first premature prorogation. The Conservatives promised to re-introduce Bill C-61 if they were re-elected. But although they were re-elected, it was without the majority they expected.
but we can't bank on being lucky
With a minority government, the Conservative government took the reasonable path of addressing one of the chief complaints about the previous attempts — lack of meaningful public consultation. The Ministry of Industry mounted a Canada wide Copyright Consultation. They held "Town Hall" meetings across the country. Unfortunately complaints of "stacking" the speakers, incidents of interested parties being prevented from disseminating literature, or citizens being denied access to the "town hall" venues of these "public" meetings were leveled throughout this part of the process.
But this is the 21st Century. They don't call this the Information Age for nothing. And to their credit, Industry Canada's web site hosted an online consultation that would accept submissions from any and all Canadians who cared to speak up. As a citizen, I thought this a good use of technology. This is a prime example of just how democracy can be fine tuned to accurately reflect the will of the people in the 21st Century.
Isn't the point of a democracy the creation of laws that reflect society's mores?
How better than to assess the wants and needs of Canadian society than by soliciting the input of concerned Canadians?
More than 8,000 Canadians made written copyright consultation submissions answering the handful of questions posed by the Ministry. Michael Geist provided a nice breakdown and this rebuttal of Robert Owen's analysis is a good too.
The Canadian government asked for citizen input and they got it. Instead of the few hundred submissions that I gather are a more common response, they received thousands of submissions. Many Canadians assumed that our government might actually consider what we told them. After all, they asked us what we thought.
Was the copyright consultation all smoke and mirrors?
boingboing: Canadian Prime Minister promises to enact a Canadian DMCA in six weeks
Michael Geist: PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks
p2pnet: It's official – the United States of Canada
Zero Paid: Canadian DMCA To Be Tabled Within Weeks
Forums » O Canada! » Canadian » Canadian Broadband
» PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Within Six Weeks!!
Millsworks: Canadian DMCA In 6 Weeks
ideas revolution: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks?
Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights: Dear Canada, your voices don't really matter. Canadian DMCA in 6 weeks. Regards, Stephen Harper
Apparently the phrase "Canadian DMCA" got so much play yesterday that it actually became a Twitter trending topic. Hmmmm, sure sounds as though Canadians actually care about this issue.
the boingboing comment that got to me was
CG • #9said:
"…they didn't listen to the consultation; why would they listen this time?"
– boingboing: Canadian Prime Minister promises to enact a Canadian DMCA in six weeks"
If we look at it that way, and throw up our hands in disgust, THEY WILL HAVE WON.
How is the government looking at this? This is a protest by a "special interest group". A mere handful of Canadians… less than 9,000… made submissions. Come on, out of 33 million? That's only a tiny fraction. Do the math.
Prime Minister Harper doesn't think it is enough opposition to make a difference. After all, it is ONLY some lowly radical tech people who are against it. And maybe a few of the musicians who have begun establishing recording careers without having to give record companies their copyright. [Did you know that 30% of the Canadian recording industry has gone independent? Is THAT the real reason the music biz wants to stop p2p?]
The problem is that the Government is correct. Most Canadians don't understand what is happening or what this will mean.
Perhaps our government is counting on us getting angry at being ignored, and then frustrated beyond endurance, until we come to the point we have to give up and get on with our real lives, leaving them free to do whatever they want.
In this instance pandering to the American Government– who are in turn pandering to their own giant media corporations. Make no mistake– the American DMCA does not serve American citizens, it serves American corporations. You know the ones I mean. Corporations like Disney, who want copyright to never end. Corporations like the big music companies who used to control the entire recording industry of the entire world. In Canada, that's the CRIA, the "Big Four" American branch plants that used to control 100% of the Canadian recording Industry.
Since the advent of the Internet, and p2p filesharing, Canadian musicians are going independent. Leaving the four CRIA record companies in control of only 70% of the Canadian recording industry.
That is probably the real reason Canada makes it onto the USTR watch list every year. That USTR list is one of the main reasons why Canada is perceived to be a haven of piracy when in fact there is far less infringement here than most places. Certainly less than the United States. On April 14th of this year, Michael Geist reported American government findings: U.S. Government Study: Counterfeiting and Piracy Data Unreliable, and on April 30th USTR's Bully Report Unfairly Blames Canada Again. Yet the Canadian government didn't even make an issue of this or make a submission to the USTR.
So the United States keeps putting Canada on their "watch list". Our friendly neighbor to the south is accusing us — in the absence of credible facts — of being a pirate nation.
First they call us names, and malign our international reputation, but then they promise to stop if we give them what they want. Isn't there a word for that?
All they want is our sovereignty.
This is why it so important to NOT GIVE UP.
Canadians can't afford to give up in frustration. And there are things to do. If enough of us do them, we may be heard.
- 1. First: TELL everybody that you know. The mainstream news media isn't talking about it, so we need to.
- 2. EXPLAIN the issues to everybody who will listen. If you can't explain it, (after all, how many of us are IP lawyers?) send them to any of the links above, send them to Michael Geist, Howard Knopf, BoingBoing, p2pnet, zeropaid, wikipedia… wherever, whatever it takes.
- 3. Write letters to politicians.
- 4. Submit letters to the Editor to your local newspaper, or one of the national ones, or magazines like MacLeans. Comment online (where appropriate). Talk to your local radio station– great interview topic, make for a good phone in show… Or find a local Indie band. Chances are they will know exactly how important this fight is. Maybe they'll play a free concert in the park to raise awareness.
- 5. Blog if you've got a blog. If you don't, it's really easy to start one. (most blogs are much shorter than this. Really.) If you really don't want to start a blog, but you've got something to say, contact me (or another blogger of your choice) about doing a guest blog post.
- 6. Use Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook, IRC channel chat rooms– or any other internet information sharing thing you are part of– to spread the word. (Michael Geist has a Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook, and the Facebook CAPP group is still out there.
- 7. There is also Fairvote Canada a grass roots non-partisan electoral reform movement which is growing local chapters across the country. On Wednesday May 12th the Waterloo, Chapter is hosting a debate Debate: Strategic Voting – What's a voter to do?.
Michael Geist recommends sending an actual paper mail letter via snail mail postal mail. Right or wrong, politicians attach far more weight to paper letters than email. After all, anyone could say they were anyone on an email. (Like that doesn't hold true for a paper letter.) But email is EASY. It takes so little effort for us to send that maybe it doesn't mean we're really serious. We haven't showed our commitment to the issue by writing on actual paper and giving Canada Post something to do. Last year when I emailed politicians about an issue, some of them weren't tech savvy enough to turn off the email confirmations. Of those, about half confirmed that my email was deleted without being read. So look at it this way, if you send them a paper letter, someone in the office has to at least open it before throwing it out.
If you don't know who your representative is in your riding, this is a link to the MP postal code look-up. Find your MP and the first letter should go to your own MP, but don't stop there. Send letters to:
Prime Minister
The Right Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., B.A., M.A.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Minister of Industry
The Hon. Tony Clement, P.C., B.A., LL.B.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Minister of Heritage
The Hon. James Moore, P.C., B.A.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Liberal Leader
Michael Ignatieff, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
BLOC Leader
Gilles Duceppe
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
[*M. Duceppe would prefer communication in French, but I've heard that he's classy enough to respond to mono-lingual English speakers in English
(in other words, English would be better than a bad Google translation]
NDP Leader
The Hon. Jack Layton, P.C., B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
NDP Technology Critic
Charlie Angus
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Unelected leader of the Green Party
Elizabeth May
[The green party of canada only makes phone and web contact information available on their site. I guess that's a reasonable stance for an environmental party.
(Maybe I just couldn't find it since I'm tired, being up way past my bedtime to finish this.) You could call during business hours, but my guess is that emailing would be fine here.]
The Unelected Leader of the Pirate Party of Canada
Jake Daynes
Pirate Party of Canada
43 Samson Blvd #165
Laval QC H7X 3R8
[Since the Pirate Party exists to promote copyright reform, it's reasonable to assume they oppose any DMCA like legislation, but it wouldn't hurt to discuss the issues with them. One reason I plug them is because they legally distribute music from some great Canadian bands free online through their p2p Pirate Tracker. Great for Canadian heritage, eh? Last I heard the PPOC was expecting the official party status notification which will make them eligible to field candidates for the next Federal Election.]
It certainly wouldn't hurt to ferret out any smaller political parties that may exist in your riding. Wikipedia of course has a list of canadian political parties which would be an excellent starting point. The more people we have talking about copyright, the better
It has taken so long to get this article done that it's Thursday… and I'm just about to post this monstrosity but I thought I'd include a link to Michael Geist's latest on the subject Covering the Return of the Canadian DMCA as he's included many links to articles I haven't had time to look at yet both online and (ahem) in the mainstream news media.
(If there's enough buzz, the mainstream HAS to follow.)
Get involved. There are many ways to participate. It's for our future.
Update May 9th, 2010
It wouldn't hurt to add two more to the list of letter recipients:
Liberal Industry critic
Marc Garneau
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Liberal Heritage critic
Pablo Rodriguez
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
These late additions are courtesy of Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights. This group has a nice form letter on offer so you can Send A Letter To Ottawa To Stop The Canadian DMCA. You can customize the letter in their online form, and when you submit it, they will electronically submit your letter to an array of politicians (a less extensive list than mine, which is a kitchen sink approach) and then the CCER also undertakes to forward a hard copy to these same politicians.
Certainly it is less work to allow someone else to do the mailing for you, but that's always a bit dangerous. One of the simplest ways to protect yourself online–a simple internet security safeguard– is to not give out any more personal info than you absolutely have to online. There are times when we haven't a choice. When dealing with my bank, I HAVE to identify myself to them if I want to be able to access my cash. But then, I only access my bank through their secure (read encrypted) web page.
I wouldn't use a form myself, partly because I'm a writer, and partly because, like email, politicians assign less weight to a form letter. On the other hand, a form letter is much better than no response at all. Of course, I might cut and past their form letter into Open Office to use as a road map for writing my own.
This is not to malign the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights. They are just trying to make it as easy as possible for concerned citizens to put their two cents worth in, because the CCER understands the importance of speaking out. But ANY time you fill in a form like this and send your unencrypted personal information over the Internet it can easily go astray or be harvested by spammers. Especially in Canada where the CRTC has given Bell Canada permission to use Deep Packet Inspection on Canadian Internet traffic. DPI makes it possible for Bell to see anything unencrypted that we put online. Bell Canada assured the CRTC that it would not abuse this process, but there is no oversight or any meaningful complaint procedure in place should your personal information be compromised in any way.
I'll opt for caution.
P.S. The bill is scheduled to be tabled (introduced into the legislature, I think that means first reading but I may be wrong) this afternoon.
For breaking news check Michael Geist's blog. Curerently this is the latest:
"We Don't Care What You Do, As Long as the U.S. Is Satisfied"
A.C.T.A.: Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (double speak)
This is terribly important information for all Canadians.
Wikipedia: Double speak language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words."
Since 2007 Canada, Australia, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Switzerland have been participating in secret negotiations initiated by the United States for a supposed "Trade Treaty" called A.C.T.A., an acronym for the misleading "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement"
The American copyright lobby, made up of media corporations, trade associations and copyright collectives representing the Movie and Music recording industries have somehow convinced the American government that this would be a good thing for the United States. On the American side, the treaty is being pursued under an executive order, which means that the American president has the authority to ratify it on behalf of the United States without first subjecting it to congressional scrutiny or vote. A.C.T.A. negotiations are continuing at break neck speed under heavy non-disclosure agreements which mean that most of the elected representatives of the countries involved in the negotiations are not privy to the terms under negotiation.
President Obama has denied Freedom Of Information inquiries on the basis of National Security. This type of treaty negotiation is not only wholly unprecedented, but possibly illegal as well under 19 U.S.C. 2902(b)(2). Although it purports to be primarily about counterfeiting, the ACTA secret treaty negotiation seeks to regulate the Internet on a global scale.
I have spent a great deal of time attempting to make sense of this, since it will have serious consequences not only on Internet users but also huge impacts will be made on culture and economies around the world. The intent appears to be to legislating anti-progress by imposing strict control over the Internet.
A.C.T.A. " stands to fatally wound all user-generated content sites from mailing lists to YouTube; which stands to criminalize kids for noncommercial file-sharing; which stands to put your internet connection in jeopardy if anyone in your house is accused of infringement, and much, much more."
— Cory Doctorow: Everything you want to know about the scary, secret copyright treaty
The media isn't talking about A.C.T.A. which is possibly the most important and under-reported news story in the world so it is left to us to spread the word. Contact your elected reprentatives and tell them that A.C.T.A. is bad.
For more information on ACTA:
I have been blogging about A.C.T.A. in an effort to help other non-technical people understand what the issues are.
As well as some of the underlying issues: Nutshell Net Neutrality
Personal Use Copying vs. Bootlegging
Free Culture, Copyright and Open Video
I've blogged a great deal more about copyright in the wind
This might explain why my novel "Inconstant Moon" is not finished yet.
Weightier A.C.T.A. Sources
Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Law Professor and Copyright Reform Proponent has laid it out in detail.
The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date
ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and Leaked)
ACTA Guide, Part Three: Transparency and ACTA Secrecy
ACTA Guide: Part Four: What Will ACTA Mean To My Domestic Law?
The quantity of leaked material seems to be increasing, so the latest info can usually be found in Michael Geist's blog
Cory Doctrorow reports steadily on A.C.T.A. developments in his , and recently wrote a summary which can be found at Copyright Undercover: ACTA & the Web for Internet Evolution and he
Other excellent sources of information about A.C.T.A. include the digital liberty proponents:
- Public Knowledge: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
- Electronic Frontier Foundation,
- La Quadrature Du Net,
- Knowledge Ecology International and
- Movimento ScambioEtico
To connect with other people or groups you can join the A.C.T.A. group on Identi.ca, or the Facebook: ACTA site, search for #ACTA on Twitter or start your own. Another good source of information is the Pirate Party of Canada. There seems to be a Pirate Party in nearly every country in the world. The primary motivation for each Pirate Party is to keep the internet free and reform copyright for the good of society.
You don't have to read all the links at once. Understanding is important.
Tell someone. The only way to ratify treaties or laws that are against the public interest is to keep them dark.
Shine a light on A.C.T.A.
[This article is a summary of A.C.T.A. source material that can be found online, reprinted from my personal website, The Russwurm Family Bulletin Board.]
ProRogue Bay
People like Michael Geist and Jesse Brown are tweeting about "ProRogue Bay".
Because the scurvy pirates over there in the Pirate Bay are a real hoot.
They've plastered the caricature (pictured at the right) of our very own Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the front page of their website and wittily re-titled the page ProRogue Bay.
Some people might (and I'm sure do) believe that the Pirate Bay the most wretched hive of scum and villainy because it is the most famous and most slippery file sharing website.
The Pirate Bay site has changed hands and jurisdictions to stay ahead of those who want — at the very least to shut it down — but would prefer — to imprison those knavish pirates running it. I imagine that it's one of those high-burnout jobs… like being the Dread Pirate Roberts.
For myself, I worry that eventually the copyright lobby will succeed in killing file sharing as their incessant propaganda will eventually brainwash enough of us into thinking file sharing is bad. When in fact you can find out from my StopUBB blog that
There are other uses for BitTorrent that are not only legal, but even perfectly acceptable in polite society.
Actually one of the biggest problems with the copyright mess facing not just us in Canada, but citizens of many other countries around the world, is that laws are being written and civil liberties assailed supposedly in the name of "copyright". These changes to copyright law are designed to criminalize all copyright infringement, which was previously a civil matter.
Interestingly enough, the bar for the standard of evidence required in civil court is much lower than that in criminal court. It seems that the new criminal copyright laws will be transporting the lower standards to criminal court, along with adjustments such as removing annoying concepts like "innocent until proven guilty".
These changes to the law are being driven under secret treaties called CETA and ACTA. In the driver's seat you'll find organizations like the MPAA and corporations like Disney who are telling governments how to draft the law these organizations want. Worse, the whole process is being carried on behind closed doors with such strenuous non-disclosure agreements being applied that most of the elected representatives of governments engaged in these negotiations aren't even aware of the details.
Previously, laws in democratic nations were drafted according to the societal norms and ethics of the countries, not handed down from above like tablets from heaven… not in democratic nations anyway.
Seems things are changing.
Changing the name of Pirate Bay to ProRogue Bay is a brilliant bit of strategizing on behalf of the pirates, since this will surely drive a lot of traffic to their site, which is regularly de-listed by search engines like Google.
But interestingly enough, if you go to the ProRogue Bay page and click on Prime Minister Stephen Harper you will discover that it is a link to the No ProRogue website which has launched a new CAPP forum off Facebook. This will allow Canadians who don't use Facebook to participate in the grass roots consultation process.
So in fact, the pirate bay pirates are assisting Canadians seeking answers to our own home grown questions about democracy in our home and native land. There is precedent after all… if I recall my history, famed pirate Jean Lafitte was quite a proponent of democracy in his day.
Arr arr.
Courtesy of Andrew Davidson's CBC Online: UPDATED: H(ar-r-r)per gets the Pirate Bay treatment (but don't tell Ezra Levant…) article, I now know that The Pirate Bay's "Prorogue Bay" Link has been discontinued. Of course as I was typing this my teenager came in and told me about it too. Go figure.
But the No Prorogue CAPP Forum is alive and well.
Go Democracy Go!
Canadian Constitutional Law
My first exposure to legislative "regulations" was when I tried reading the Provincial Government's proposed Bill 160 back in 1997. Although I'm reasonably well educated and usually able to grasp the big picture, when reading through this proposed education legislation more than once I still couldn't figure it out. At first I worried that my critical thinking had been impaired by motherhood. As it turned out, that was not the problem. The problem was that Bill 160 wasn't complete, it was a framework.
Regulations are the details that get filled in later after the law has been passed. Regulations are decided behind closed doors by the cabinet. Bill 160 even specified that many of its regulations could be retroactive. As a citizen, this makes me nervous.
The point of our lawmaking procedure is to allow for laws to be made democratically in the light of day by elected representatives.
I can understand how it started… a government wanted to put through a law quickly, but they were missing a detail or two so they left a regulatory blank to be filled in later. But legislation made up of "regulations to be named later" bypasses the system of parliamentary legislation which is how our laws are supposed to be made. This is like signing a contract that hasn't been filled in.
One result of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's misuse of prorogation means that more than half of the legislation in the works has been killed.
From my perspective, it is rather a good thing that some of the laws were derailed. As it turns out, it is a very good thing that Bill C-6 Canada Consumer Product Safety Act was not actually passed.
Marketed under the Healthy Canadians Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan umbrella, this law has not yet passed. This law is being sold as "protecting you and your family'".
Constitutional lawyer Shawn Buckley explains about legislative regulations at the federal level:
Regulations don't have to go through parliament. There doesn't have to be a vote. If you want to pass a regulation and you're the government, you just publish it in the Canada Gazette Twice, and it becomes the law.
–Shawn Buckley YouTube Video: Part 1 Restricting Our Freedoms
Through a discussion board on the Facebook Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament CAPP site I first learned about Bill C-6. I was directed to National Health Products Protection Organization (NHPPA)'s Constitutional lawyer Shawn Buckley, who speaks on the two YouTube videos I've included in this page.
Although his focus is National Health Products Protection he very clearly lays out a few very frightening things that are happening in this legislation. Mr. Buckley's concern with the regulations within this proposed law because he believes once the law is passed the regulatory elements will be employed detrimentally.
PART 1 Restricting Our Freedoms – Shawn Buckley about Bill C-6
Bill C-6 abolishes the Law of Trespass
Our right to privacy, which Canadians enjoyed on our own land, or in our own homes, is abolished under this law. Established in British Common Law, Canada's Law of Trespass is older than confederation. The legal protection it afforded citizens was that any invasion of our privacy by citizens or the state had remedies in law. This law is why it is necessary for law enforcement to have a search warrant before invading citizen's homes. Currently all levels of Canadian law enforcement employ the standards laid out in the Canadian Criminal Code: there needs to be a substantial likelihood of evidence of a crime.
Shawn Buckley says that Bill C-6 will allow a Justice to grant a search warrant to a Health Canada Inspector to any place that is "likely to find something regulated by the act". Being skeptical, I went and looked it up on the government's own website:
Authority to enter place
20. (1) Subject to subsection 21(1), an inspector may, for the purpose of verifying compliance or preventing non-compliance with this Act or the regulations, at any reasonable time enter a place, including a conveyance, in which they have reasonable grounds to believe that a consumer product is manufactured, imported, packaged, stored, advertised, sold, labelled, tested or transported, or a document relating to the administration of this Act or the regulations is located.
Bill C-6 – As Passed by the House of Commons Version
Exerpting the scary bit: "reasonable grounds to believe that a consumer product is … stored."
My house has stored consumer products in it. Every house does. He's right.
This law means that no one's home is safe.
Of course, law enforcement isn't going to be breaking down doors willy nilly… would they?
The Rule of Law
The Rule of Law is one of my favorites. Currently, the state needs to go through the court before it can deprive us of our liberty or our property. The court only grants the state the right to deprive us of these things if there is the provision of a crime or a legal judgement.
Bill C-6 allows a Health Canada Inspector to seize your property without going to court for a warrant.
Under current law, anything that is seized under a warrant must be (a) reported to the court immediately, and (b) the enforcement agent must apply to the court to keep it. The court may decide the seizure was improper and order it's return.
Bill C-6 allows property seizure without having to bother with the court.
Worse, it allows the person whose property was seized can be billed for storage of their seized property. Or the Inspector can decide to destroy the property.
Keeping it cozy, the ministry that charges you keeps the goods they have seized.
So, in the name of "safety", a warrant may be obtained without evidence, goods may be seized without a warrant, and then kept, disposed of or destroyed without a court order.
PART 2 Restricting Our Freedoms – Shawn Buckley about Bill C-6
I know that I am not Shawn Buckley's intended audience because my only connection with the National Health Products Protection Organization would be as a consumer. I'm just a citizen. There are some really good laws in place currently protecting consumers.
If the inspectors are having trouble doing their job within Canada's existing laws, perhaps the real problem is that there are not enough inspectors to be able to do the job properly. Rectifying that problem would be beneficial to consumers.
As a reader and writer I can see all too clearly the realms of abuse that laws like this will open up. And once a law like this passes, it will be that much easier to pass others as bad or worse.
There are really good reasons to afford citizens protection from the state. That's why our legal system evolved the way it has… to ensure that the powerful state does not wantonly abuse its citizens. Citizens must be considered innocent until proven guilty. That's important.
This law will strip centuries old legal protections from me and my family. That's not good for us… that's bad.
Prorogation killed this law. We're safe from it now.
Well, no.
Bill C-6 was originally Bill C-52. It didn't get passed and it has come back. A hair's breath from being a law. So when parliament reconvenes it will no doubt be back. And this time, it will most likely be pushed through on a fast track.
We can get some good out of this prorogation if we can work to stop further erosion of our civil rights. Lets make democracy work for us.


text:
CalPERS and CalSTRS reported vastly improved investment profits Monday, but both pension funds still face multibillion-dollar shortfalls that will put pressure on California taxpayers for years to come.
CalPERS said it earned 12.5 percent in the just-ended fiscal year, well above the 1 percent gain from a year ago. CalSTRS chimed in with a 13.8 percent return, a big leap from the 1.8 percent profit it earned a year earlier. The returns exceed each fund's official investment forecast of 7.5 percent.
Both funds benefited from a year-long runup in global stock prices. They also made strategic investment changes in response to the 2008 market crash; CalPERS, for instance, overhauled its real estate portfolio to create more predictable results.
"These numbers are convincing evidence that CalPERS has the ability to produce good returns on a sustainable basis," said Joe Dear, chief investment officer at the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
Still, each organization is wrestling with major long-term deficits, known officially as unfunded liabilities, that will strain state and local government budgets over the next several decades.
While both funds have plenty of cash to pay claims for the foreseeable future, CalPERS is $100 billion short over the long term and CalSTRS's deficit is $70 billion.
Of the two, CalSTRS probably faces the more severe problem. Unlike CalPERS, which has been raising contribution rates the past few years, the California State Teachers' Retirement System is at the mercy of the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown to increase the flow of taxpayer dollars into the fund.
Even though the state has finally emerged from years of budget deficits, lawmakers so far have resisted calls to pour more money into CalSTRS, and the fund says its deficit grows by $22 million a day.
"The reality is that even good investment performance addresses only part of the long-term needs of the fund, which suffered a severe setback in the crash of 2008," said Harry Keiley, chairman of CalSTRS's investment committee, in a prepared statement.
Added CalSTRS Chief Executive Jack Ehnes: "It's clear that the Legislature and governor must implement a long-term funding plan that includes gradual, predictable and fair contribution increases for all parties involved."
The Legislative Analyst's Office recently estimated that CalSTRS needs another $4.5 billion a year in contributions from the state, school districts and teachers. That's about 75 percent more than what the fund currently receives from those sources.
If nothing changes, CalSTRS says it's on course to run out of cash in 2044. That would force the state to directly pay for constitutionally mandated teacher pension obligations. Those benefits cost $10 billion last year.
The latest investment results barely put a dent in the problem, said Dan Pellissier, president of the advocacy group California Pension Reform.
"Our tremendous (pension) debt is probably a couple billion less," said Pellissier, who argues that California must take a tougher stance on pension benefits. "We're not even close to out of the woods."
Pellissier said he doesn't doubt either pension fund's ability to generate profits, but "we can't invest our way out of this."
Brown last fall signed a pension reform law reducing benefits for newly hired public employees. The new law rolls back many of the more generous benefits granted to workers in a now-controversial 1999 law.
Nonetheless, CalPERS and CalSTRS are still in a huge hole, with the market crash a major culprit.
The 2008 crash left the two funds with a smaller pile of cash to invest, and even though they've now recouped most of their losses, they haven't been able to keep pace with growing pension obligations as older workers accrue more service time.
Although CalPERS reduced contribution rates for the new fiscal year, that represents a modest breather in what has been a significant increase during the past few years. The increases are expected to continue.
In April, the CalPERS board adopted an accounting policy that forces the fund to fix its deficit far more quickly than before.
The result will be rate hikes of up to 50 percent over five years for state and local governments, starting in 2015. CalPERS currently gets $11 billion a year from taxpayers and public employees, including $3.9 billion from the state.
Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066. Follow him on Twitter @dakasler.