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|Free Culture: Version 2004-02-10
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|Chapter 4. "PIRACY"
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There is piracy of copyrighted material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in many forms. The most significant is commercial piracy, the unauthorized taking of other people's content within a commercial context. Despite the many justifications that are offered in its defense, this taking is wrong. No one should condone it, and the law should stop it.
But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of "taking" that is more directly related to the Internet. That taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before we paint this taking "piracy," however, we should understand its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past.
All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, copy it, and sell it--all without the permission of a copyright owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion every year to physical piracy[1] (that works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy.
This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong.
Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, treated as right.
That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally legal wrong as well.
True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood.
If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of intellectual property law.[2] In my view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of these nations, this piracy is wrong.
Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they otherwise would have had.[3]
This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, "You wouldn't go into Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why should it be any different with on-line music?" The difference is, of course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, there is not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the intangible are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible.
This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property right of a very special sort, it is a property right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to "take" copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner wants to sell. But where the law does not give people the right to take content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the permission of a property owner. That is exactly what "property" means.
Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese "steal" Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather than steal it. And hence over time, because that buying will benefit Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from the piracy. If instead of pirating Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the free GNU/Linux operating system, then these Chinese users would not eventually be buying Microsoft. Without piracy, then, Microsoft would lose.
This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees).
Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right to say who gets access to what--at least ordinarily. And if the law properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of access, then violating the law is still wrong.
Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong.
But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all "piracy" is. Or at least, not all "piracy" is wrong if that term is understood in the way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of "piracy" are useful and productive, to produce either new content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any tradition has ever banned all "piracy" in that sense of the term.
This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it to the gallows with the charge of piracy.
For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services.
These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive.
The key to the "piracy" that the law aims to quash is a use that "rob[s] the author of [his] profit."[4] This means we must determine whether and how much p2p sharing harms before we know how strongly the law should seek to either prevent it or find an alternative to assure the author of his profit.
Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the Internet as well[5]), Shawn Fanning and crew had simply put together components that had been developed independently.
The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.[6] Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend-- or your 20,000 best friends.
According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music--28 percent of Americans older than 12.[7] A survey by the NPD group quoted in The New York Times estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange content in May 2003.[8] The vast majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive quantity of content is being "taken" on these networks. The ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before.
Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one might think. So consider--a bit more carefully than the polarized voices around this debate usually do--the kinds of sharing that file sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails.
File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different kinds into four types.
There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead of purchasing.
There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased.
There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a solid weekend "recalling" old songs. She was astonished at the range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright owner is not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is zero--the same harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s 45-rpm records to a local collector.
Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away.
How do these different types of sharing balance out?
Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.[9] Type B sharing is illegal but plainly beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard question to answer--and certainly much more difficult than the current rhetoric around the issue suggests.
Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that type A sharing is a kind of "theft" that is "devastating" the industry.
While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, "Rather than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels fought it."[10] The labels claimed that every album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales fell by 11.4 percent in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was proved. Technology was the problem, and banning or regulating technology was the answer.
Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record turnaround. "In the end," Cap Gemini concludes, "the `crisis' . . . was not the fault of the tapers--who did not [stop after MTV came into being]--but had to a large extent resulted from stagnation in musical innovation at the major labels."[11]
But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry in particular, and society in general--or at least the society that inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR--the question is not simply whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also how harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the other types of sharing are.
We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "net harm" to the industry as a whole is the amount by which type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have little static reason to resist them.
Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest it might be close.
In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.[12] This confirms a trend over the past few years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since 1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising prices could account for at least some of the loss. "From 1999 to 2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to $14.19."[13] Competition from other forms of media could also account for some of the decline. As Jane Black of BusinessWeek notes, "The soundtrack to the film High Fidelity has a list price of $18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for $19.99."[14]
But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 percent.
There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording industry constantly asks, "What's the difference between downloading a song and stealing a CD?"--but their own numbers reveal the difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download were a lost sale--if every use of Kazaa "rob[bed] the author of [his] profit"--then the industry would have suffered a 100 percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped by just 6.7 percent, then there is a huge difference between "downloading a song and stealing a CD."
These are the harms--alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?
One benefit is type C sharing--making available content that is technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that are no longer commercially available.[15] And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense to the company to make it available.
In real space--long before the Internet--the market had a simple response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands of used book and used record stores in America today.[16] These stores buy content from owners, then sell the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and sell this content, even if the content is still under copyright, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell.
Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording of Bernstein's "Two Love Songs," I still have it. That difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the class of content that is not currently commercially available. The Internet is making it available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with the market.
It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as well?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D sharing to occur--the sharing of content that copyright owners want to have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, for example, released his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution would be a great advertisement for the "real" book. People would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, then both he and society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a great book!)
Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something important in order to protect type A content.
The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably says, "This is how much we've lost," we must also ask, "How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be unavailable?"
For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much of the "piracy" that file sharing enables is plainly legal and good. And like the piracy I described in chapter 4, much of this piracy is motivated by a new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that balance will be found only with time.
"But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the target just what you call type A sharing?"
You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not good enough. Napster had to push the infringements "down to zero."[17]
If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero copyright infringements caused by p2p.
Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes less.
So, as we've seen, when "mechanical reproduction" threatened the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the recordings made by these recording artists, and they complained to Congress that their "creative property" was not being respected (since the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough.
Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the content, so long as they paid the statutory price.
This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, served two important goals--indeed, the two central goals of any copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure compensation without giving the past (broadcasters) control over the future (cable).
In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the device that Sony built had a "record" button, the device could be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that infringement.
There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy only if there were a special "copy me" signal on the line. It was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of shows would not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious preference, Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity for copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose.
MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti called VCRs "tapeworms." He warned, "When there are 20, 30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of `tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious asset the copyright owner has, his copyright."[18] "One does not have to be trained in sophisticated marketing and creative judgment," he told Congress, "to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of basic economics and plain common sense."[19] Indeed, as surveys would later show, percent of VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or more[20] --a use the Court would later hold was not "fair." By "allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the means of an exemption from copyright infringement without creating a mechanism to compensate copyright owners," Valenti testified, Congress would "take from the owners the very essence of their property: the exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it and thereby profit from its reproduction."[21]
It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in its jurisdiction--leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, refers to it as the "Hollywood Circuit"--held that Sony would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar technology--which Jack Valenti had called "the Boston Strangler of the American film industry" (worse yet, it was a Japanese Boston Strangler of the American film industry)--was an illegal technology.[22]
But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,
Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new technology.[23]
Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "taking" notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a pattern is clear:
Table 4-1. Table
|No protection
|Statutory license
|Recording artists
|Cable TV
|No protection
|Statutory license
|Film creators
|No protection
In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way content was distributed.[24] In each case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a "free ride" on someone else's work.
In none of these cases did either the courts or Congress eliminate all free riding. In none of these cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every case, the copyright owners complained of "piracy." In every case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of the "pirates." In each case, Congress allowed some new technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at stake.
When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?
We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all possible uses of his work."[25] Instead, the particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by balancing the good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the burdens such an exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically been done after a technology has matured, or settled into the mix of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content.
We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not become a tool for "stealing" from artists. But neither should the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the last chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we allow the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the law against the strong public interest that innovation continue.
This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "potential public benefits," as John Schwartz writes in The New York Times, "could be delayed in the P2P fight."[26] Yet when anyone begins to talk about "balance," the copyright warriors raise a different argument. "All this hand waving about balance and incentives," they say, "misses a fundamental point. Our content," the warriors insist, "is our property. Why should we wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether the car thief had a good use for the car before we arrest him?"
"It is our property," the warriors insist. "And it should be protected just as any other property is protected."
See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003, July 2003, available at link #14. See also Ben Hunt, "Companies Warned on Music Piracy Risk," Financial Times, 14 February 2003, 11.
See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? (New York: The New Press, 2003), 10�13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS framework.
For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan Liebowitz, Rethinking the Network Economy (New York: Amacom, 2002), 144�90. "In some instances . . . the impact of piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if pirating were not an option." Ibid., 149.
Bach v. Longman, 98 Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777).
See Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller That Changed the Way We Do Business (New York: HarperBusiness, 2000). Professor Christensen examines why companies that give rise to and dominate a product area are frequently unable to come up with the most creative, paradigm-shifting uses for their own products. This job usually falls to outside innovators, who reassemble existing technology in inventive ways. For a discussion of Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, Future, 89�92, 139.
See Carolyn Lochhead, "Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood Nightmare," San Francisco Chronicle, 24 September 2002, A1; "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide," New Scientist, 6 July 2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, "Napster Names CEO, Secures New Financing," San Francisco Chronicle, 23 May 2003, C1; "Napster's Wake-Up Call," Economist, 24 June 2000, 23; John Naughton, "Hollywood at War with the Internet" (London) Times, 26 July 2002, 18.
See Ipsos-Insight, TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music Distribution (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their computers.
Amy Harmon, "Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight," New York Times, 6 June 2003, A1.
See Liebowitz, Rethinking the Network Economy,148�49.
See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Technology Evolution and the Music Industry's Business Model Crisis (2003), 3. This report describes the music industry's effort to stigmatize the budding practice of cassette taping in the 1970s, including an advertising campaign featuring a cassette-shape skull and the caption "Home taping is killing music." At the time digital audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical Assessment conducted a survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of consumers older than ten had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the Law, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1989), 145�56.
U.S. Congress, Copyright and Home Copying, 4.
See Recording Industry Association of America, 2002 Yearend Statistics, available at link #15. A later report indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of America, Some Facts About Music Piracy, 25 June 2003, available at link #16: "In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based on U.S. dollar value of shipments)."
Jane Black, "Big Music's Broken Record," BusinessWeek online, 13 February 2003, available at link #17.
By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law--Coming Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of the Future of Music Coalition), available at link #18.
While there are not good estimates of the number of used record stores in existence, in 2002, there were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, an increase of 20 percent since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, The Quiet Revolution: The Expansion of the Used Book Market (2002), available at link #19. Used records accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See National Association of Recording Merchandisers, "2002 Annual Survey Results," available at link #20.
See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 (N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at link #21. For an account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269�82.
Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., 459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.).
Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475.
Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Sony Corp. of America, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979).
Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack Valenti).
Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Sony Corp. of America, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981).
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984).
These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the United States Code), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. 4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. �1001. Again, however, this regulation did not eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See Lessig, Future, 71. See also Picker, "From Edison to the Broadcast Flag," University of Chicago Law Review 70 (2003): 293�96.
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, (1984).
John Schwartz, "New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software Echoes Past Efforts," New York Times, 22 September 2003, C3.
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|CHAPTER FOUR: "Pirates"


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Chapters 18 through 23 Summary
In chapter eighteen, Farrell almost shoots the woman in the doorway but Mrs. Pollifax intervenes. They go to the house and the woman disappears inside. They follow and find there is a man and a young boy at the house as well. The woman feeds the three and provides clothing. Though there is a language barrier, they come to understand that Mrs. Pollifax, the Chinese man who escaped with them and the man of the house are going to crawl in the midst of the herd of goats to the lower pasture, which is out of sight of the compound on the cliff above. Anyone watching from there will see only a man and a boy driving the goats as is their typical morning ritual. Farrell, who cannot crawl because of his splints, will be dressed in the man's clothing and...
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This section contains 1,521 words
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subset: commoncrawl


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Quick talk about my first post before I begin with this one.
So the reaction I got was very unexpected but very positive at the same time. I got a lot of people telling me they were proud of me and that it took balls, so to all of you that read it and said those things, thank you for your support, it means the absolute fucking world to me. And if you're reading this then thank you for coming back. I just kinda wish that it didn't "take balls". I wish there was a clearer way to speak out for people suffering through this. But that's the shit thing about depression, it locks you on your own in a cage with a terribly sad and destructive, yet strangely powerful version of yourself. Well it did with me anyway. I just want to say though that it warms my heart knowing so many people care about this. It's an issue that needs more exposure to ensure people they aren't alone. Now back on to blog things…
Speaking of loneliness, no one likes to be on their own. Lucky for me then that I never am. As I just said, he's always there, the other me. My shadow, the creeping monster at the back of mind. The even darker version of me (I'm half Indian and that was a race joke, please don't sue me). Me and my friends call him Darth Maul. No, not because we love The Phantom Menace (WE DEFINITELY DON'T BY THE WAY)… But because I have a little bust of him and we figured it would be as good name a name as any. If you can identify your enemy then you can learn to understand them. Yeah he got the drop on me at first, wormed his way inside of me and turned me in to someone I'm not. I was in shock and in that shock he turned off all of the controls, left me on autopilot whilst he battered my internal defenses down. Broke the connections with what I held close to me.
But I am in control now. Feels good. Feels like freedom. But I'm not quite fully free, no… Not yet. Maybe not ever. And i still have a long road ahead of me.
Thing is, I got lucky. Luckier than other people in that position. I was so tired and battered down, so raw and exhausted. Everything was falling, swirling, turning to shit. Then out of no where the right series of events in just the right order managed to drag me out of the pit. Some of it was my own will, but a lot of it was my surroundings. Made me remember, switched me back on. Yet, it could so easily be taken away from me. If I get complacent or indulge in those thoughts that appear every day then I will fall. I'm in a pretty good place though and don't think I will let it take me over again. It's deep down now, locked away. But with depression there's always the chance it may come back. I would say having any affliction, same with my Crohn's disease is like Pokemon right? Hear me out. You play the first Pokemon and you build up a few levels. Then you meet that twat Blue (Gary, same guy, same stupid hair who we all rename dick head or something similar because we are FUCKING HILARIOUS) near the league… And you beat him and go on your way and then have a period of niceness and then every time you meet him, you have to fight him and he's stronger. If you've played the game right (unless you are REALLY bad at it) then you should have become stronger too. So that's what I have to do… Level my shit up so next time he appears I will be able to beat him.
Yup. I did just compare battling depression to the basic plot of Pokemon Yellow. You're welcome.
So theoretically that means that I have to keep getting stronger before it rears it's fuck ugly head again. Sounds like a plan me talking to myself, sounds like a plan! So how do I do that? How do I keep strong and positive? I mean, sometimes depression doesn't give a shit what you have it can just appear. What I reckon is that I just have to keep building on the best parts of myself. My best friend recently asked me how I knew I was back. How I was sure that I was myself. And I told her it was because I felt it. You know… It. I hadn't felt it in so long and it was back, that gut instinct, when you know you're yourself you know you're yourself. I felt emotional in a good way and still do. So I have to chase that feeling.
It's probably pretentious and wrong comparing depression to an actual battle. Although both risk lives so I guess it isn't. One is mental one is physical. Also probably pretentious me speaking of it as if it were an actual enemy. But again, both risk lives. So no. It isn't. Pokemon doesn't really do this justice does it?
Anyway! If i am resigned to living with a nemesis who is locked inside my mind then I can cope. Least this way I can keep an eye on him. Make sure he stays where he belongs. In the dark. I still get sad at what he has cost me. Every day. Still have the odd panic attack mainly due to the regrets. But I have a plan to combat them too which I will disclose to you soon. Each persons struggle is different. So all I can suggest is try and identify the struggle like I did. Try and personify it so you can beat it. Not too much personification though… I recently watched The Babadook which I thought was both meaningful and scary as shit. If you watch it you can take it how ever you like, but I took it as a metaphor for mental illness. A horrific physical manifestation of a woman's troubles. Don't want to be going to that much length to deal with this problem. Stay positive. Stay safe. Stay happy. Beat that motherfucker in to submission. AND TAP OUT.


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In this, the year 439 A.D..
Battle of Ilchester kills Sir Ole, sir Dole and sir Doff.
The young squires are knighted at Sarum Rock. Kenryc falls asleep during mass the night before. Gawain make a wonderful leap, whilst Edmyg trips over the horse.
Battle of Charlion.
Kenryc leads the battle against the Irish. The battle is a victory.
Afterwards, all characters are hastily wed. Kenryc and Edmyg are married to vassal knights daughters. Gawain is married to a household knights heir. That winter sons are born to all knights.
During the summer Edmyg is unfaithful to his wife. Kenryc suffers a religious encounter and Gawain made a friend.
Attendance: Leif, Kim, Magnus


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On August 24th, 2015 the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan visited Detroit to speak with the leaders of the Hip-Hop community. The Minister spoke on unity, as well as the importance of protecting our women not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally. Mr. Farrakhan said that the message he delivered to the people in that room was special because it was not written it came from the heart. He also went on to call the Detroit Artists in that room the most important people in his life right now. You could feel the power in that room from wall to wall. In my personal experience It was as if we got to meet not only the Minister, but Elijah, Malcolm and Dr. Martin in one. Many may not agree with the views expressed by Mr. Farrakhan, but for Black Men who grew up with out fathers in the streets of Detroit, we say IF NOT THE MINISTER THAN WHO? I'll leave it at that! Some of the Artist present were Seven the General, Ice Wear Vezzo, Trick Trick, B Down the Boss, Nick Speed, MU, Supa Emcee, Kash Doll, and many other Very Important Detroit Media Outlets.
- Seven the General
Watch Video here : (Courtesy of 7 Mile Radio)
Some of Detroit's Top Artist


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The Dead Sea has an historical and spiritual legacy of its own. Today, its eastern shore is sparsely populated and serenely quite.
If you are looking for leisurely stay, with much of the landscape virtually unchanged since ancient times, spend the night at a comfortable hotel that looks across the sea to the western banks. Enjoy sunbathing, swimming, or dining. Relax in the gently lapping waters and be amazed that you can't sink! Treat yourself to a soothing massage, or try the well-known healing powers of minerals from the sea'a muddy floor.
This west-facing view affords visitors to the Dead Sea the unique treat of its spectacular sunsets.


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Routes : North America : United States : Colorado : South Western Colorado : Redstone Boulders : Stein Boulder : Aretestein
Aretestein - V7Average Rating : 0.00 out of 5
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Description:This great problem climbs the left arete formed by the huge crack in the Stien Boulder. From the pocket on the left side of the huge crack, fire horizontally out left onto the face, gaining a terrible sloping edge with your left hand. From here fall into the arete/sloper with your right hand. Then dyno up the the top with your left hand. Hard!
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Route ID: 22421


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Olivia Munn sure is making a name for herself around Hollywood. This once famous co-host of Attack of The Show has been landing some pretty cush acting gigs. After a break-out role in The Newsroom, she hustled her way in Kevin Hart's Ride Along 2 just before boarding the cast of X-Men: Apocalypse – playing the butt-kicking femme fatale Psylocke. And now, this actress/model/self-professed geeky gal, has earned herself into another huge IP. She's hopped onto Shane Black's Predator reboot-quel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Predator "plunks the alien hunter — whom audiences have seen fight in jungles, concrete jungles, frozen wastelands and alien planets — in the harsh environment of … suburbia." Boyd Holbrook has been set to play a Special Forces commando, while Munn will step into the role of a scientist.
A scientist, eh? Guess those expecting a woman commando as the lead in a Predator have got to be feeling a little disappointed (eh, maybe she'll be a butt-kick scientist?). Perhaps, though, not as disappointed in hearing about the films premise. Predator: The Burbs, an anticipated reboot-quel does not make.
Although fuller details remain under wraps, Black, who is co-writing The Predator with Fred Dekker as well as directing, has spoken out about what he wants his film to be:
"I think the Predator movies have slightly veered from typical sci-fi in that there is a sort of thriller aspect to them," he said recently. "I think it should be scary, I think it should be funny, and I think ultimately it should be wondrous and about perceiving things that human beings very seldom get a chance to see."
This is sounding a lot less like Predator and a lot more like Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Is Shane Black sure he knows what franchise he's rebooting? Oh, well, yes…
Black is quick to remind how connected this new iteration is with the films that came before it, particularly the first one starring Arnold Schwarzenegger:
"I think it has to stand on its own two feet, but our goal is to make sure it acknowledges that, yeah, it is 30 years later in the continuity of the story," he said. "In other words, Dutch Schaefer's patrol, which was attacked and largely slaughtered, happened 30 years ago in the context of the story. It's referenced, it's part of the mythology
Shooting on The Predator is expected to kick off in February for release on February 9, 2018.
Category: Film


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Sunday, November 16, 2008
A House for Dogs: Picking Carpet
3 comments:
- Melissa Christianson said...
Great choice! When I sold carpet I used to encourage people to either chose something the color of their pet's hair or something "dirt" colored.
I love hearing how your new home is doggy friendly!
- December 2, 2008 at 9:55 AM
- Steve said...
Thanks a lot for this carpet idea! Without a doubt, this would really work well in our house. Our Golden Retriever runs around the house a lot. He also loves to eat his dog treats wherever he goes. Thanks, Jan!
- August 4, 2010 at 12:50 AM
Pets should also be considered when selecting flooring. Dog poop and scratching can surely damage the carpet and cause a shorter period of usage.
Aside from carpet selection, it pays to know the most appropriate methods of carpet cleaning. Long Island, NY and other cities have reliable carpet cleaners that you can seek advice from regarding effective cleaning methods distinctively matched to the materials of your flooring. That way, you'll able to maintain the look of your carpet.
Interesting post. Thanks for sharing!
- August 4, 2010 at 12:57 AM


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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History presents a special showing of the 1975 thriller "Jaws" beginning at 6 p.m. Aug. 30 as part of Museum Nights.
Following the film, Florida Museum shark expert George Burgess will discuss his research and the truth about shark aggression. Burgess is director of the International Shark Attack File and the Florida Program for Shark Research, both housed at the Florida Museum on the University of Florida campus.
Burgess assisted in creating and is featured in the Florida Museum's new temporary exhibit "Megalodon: Largest Shark that Ever Lived," on display through Jan. 6, 2008. Visitors may enter the jaws of a 60-foot-long Megalodon sculpture and learn more about this giant creature that vanished 2 million years ago. The exhibit also explores how humans can help protect today's shark population and the oceans.
Funded by UF Student Government, Museum Nights are held many Thursday evenings following the UF academic calendar at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. The program strives to increase student and community visitation at the UF Cultural Plaza, located near the intersection of Southwest 34th Street and Hull Road. Museum Nights offers individuals who are too busy during the day the opportunity to visit the museums in the evening, when they remain open until 9 p.m. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the UF Student Government web site, www.sg.ufl.edu.
Writer: Christine Eschenfelder
Media contact: Paul Ramey, firstname.lastname@example.com


text: Bears' Depth Evident During Second Day of MVC Championships February 17, 2012 Feb. 17, 2012 MVC Friday Prelims Results CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Missouri State swimming & diving team picked up where it left off and is primed to extend its lead at the 2012 State Farm MVC Swimming & Diving Championships in Carbondale, Ill. The Bears opened the second day of action at Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium with the 400 IM, and Like Thursday's 200 IM, Missouri State showed its depth by qualifying all five swimmers for the championship finals heat. Senior captain Brianna Willoughby was MSU's fastest qualifier in second, followed by Suzanne Van Rensburg (t-4th), Kaylee Steffen (6th), Marta Nogueroles (7th) and Katie Lindeman (8th). Heading into the Championships, freshman Roni Balzam held the fastest time in the MVC in the 100 fly and this morning was no different. The Ramat Yishay, Israel native will be the top seed and take her season-best time of 56.16 into the A-Final, along with senior Ali Stauffer. For the second time on Friday, the Bears qualified all of their swimmers for the A-Final as Dimitra Drakpoulou, Hannah Molden, Dawn Richerson and Laura Peterson finished 5-8, respectively. Missouri State record holder Renata Sander snagged the top spot in the 100 breast (1:04.62), while teammate Melissa Oishi also eased her way into the championship finals as she sits in fourth place with a 1:05.99. In the final swimming event of the morning (100 back), the Bears claimed three of the top-five positions. Defending MVC champion Anna Ahlin earned the top seed (56.15), while Megan Holthoff is third and Janke Engelbrecht is fifth. Brynne Buell narrowly missed the championship finals by .22 seconds. Sophomore Paige Koebbe had an impressive day on the 3-meter board making the championship finals for the first time in her career. Consolation divers will compete Friday night, while Koebbe and the other finalists will dive in the finals on Saturday evening. The finals session is set to start at 6 p.m. Print Friendly Version


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Kannu and Diya
Here's something from another charity that I help run. This is home start Hillingdon. It's a charity which helps families with young children. When families have problems relating to alcoholism, drug abuse, unemployment, mental illness, unable to cope or a variety of problems, the police or NHS or social services or other relevant bodies pull us in. We deploy one of our trained volunteers to help out the family. Usually the assignment takes between 6-9 months although it can be as short as 1 month or as long as 2 years.
The volunteers are brilliant. They are normal citizens. All who have kids of their own. And they devote almost a day per week helping out some other family. They don't get paid. And most of the cases are serious. They are one or two steps away from the family breaking up and being taken into care. And if a family breaks up, it really ruins the members. And once a child is taken into care, the probability that the child's future life is screwed is very high. Did you know that a child taken into care can cost £50,000 per year? So we look after 100 families per year. Even if only 10% families were saved, from a cost side we are very effective. But the main benefit is to broader society to keep families together.
You two were and are raised in a well to do family. If a bit strange with a nutty baba and the books and loud noises and museums and strange habits but seriously, there are so many other families which are in serious need for comfort. See this list of outcomes we aimed for and completed.
Oh and another thing kids. And remember this very closely. We have to look after family members. Most of my cases do not have family members to reach out to. And the lack of family can cause severe loneliness and if/when you have issues there is nobody to reach out to. So that's why I was so happy that Both of you kids are so nice and speak well and keep in touch with dadu and didu and piya and pro and of course us. And at end of the day kids, you've got to love each other. Be patient. And help others.
Anyway I'll talk more about these families as we go on.


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The furnished room districts of Chicago, 1890-1930
Joanne Meyerowitz
The physical space and cultural geography of the city provide a focus for Joanne Meyerowitz's innovative contribution to the discussion about the sexual revolution. Urban life opened up new possibilities for young women removed from the surveillance and supervision of families and small towns or rural communities. Meyerowitz acknowledges that such arrangements also rendered working-class women vulnerable to sexual exploitation, and she points to the low wages that motivated the exchange of sexual favors, whether in dating or in outright prostitution. But she cautions us not to take middle-class reformers' depictions of working-class women at face value: these women were not merely victims of city life and predatory men, but also active historical subjects who made their own choices about sexuality. At the same time, she questions a more positive representation of wage-earning women as it emerges in Hollywood movies and the work of urban sociologists: the image of the emancipated urban woman downplayed the constraints of poverty and the sexual vulnerability that women experienced. Finally, Meyerowitz challenges a view of the sexual revolution as a middle-class creation. Even as sexologists were articulating new theory about sexuality, working-class women were living out their own versions of a revised sexual code.
* * *
The broad outlines of the early twentieth-century sexual revolution in the United States are now well known. 1 From roughly 1890 to 1930, public discussions and displays of sexuality multiplied in popular magazines, newspapers, and entertainments. At the same time, women began to adopt more sexual, or at least less modest, styles; shorter skirts, cosmetics, bobbed hair, and cigarettes, once the styles of prostitutes, all seemed evidence of a larger change in mores when adopted by "respectable" working- and middle-class women. Men and women mingled freely in new commercialized recreation industries and in workplaces. And surveys of the middle class revealed increases in premarital intercourse.


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Research by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) showed that air pollution caused more than 4.2 million early deaths worldwide in 2015, making it the fifth highest cause of death, with around 2.2 million deaths in China and India alone, according to reuters.com.
The institute, which has also launched an online database showing the global impact of pollution on health (www.stateofglobalair.org), said 92 percent of the world's population lives in areas with unhealthy air.
Air pollution has been linked to higher rates of cancer, stroke and heart disease, as well as chronic respiratory conditions like asthma.
China and India, the world's two most populated nations, each accounted for 1.1 million deaths, the findings showed, but China is now pushing ahead when it comes to taking action, HEI president Dan Greenbaum said.
"(India) has got a longer way to go, and they still appear to have some ministers who say there is not a strong connection between air pollution and mortality in spite of quite a lot of evidence."
China's authorities have also been reluctant to draw direct links between air pollution and mortality, with the country's health ministry saying it had 'no data' linking smog to higher incidences of cancer.
A ministry spokesman said, "It is currently too early to draw conclusions about the extent of the impact of smog on health, especially its long-term impact on the body."
The government acknowledged the link between health and pollution, and pledged to assess the precise impacts as well as boost environmental monitoring capabilities.


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Boston Winter Sunset
View from the Prudential Tower
Boston Skyline Under Sunset Rainclouds
The Boston Skyline as a raincloud passes over at sunset, seen from the Tufts library rooftop.
Winter Pond
Jamaica Pond in Jamaica Plain, Boston, the day after a big snowstorm.
Golden Hour Storm Clouds On The Esplanade 2
Boston Back Bay Brownstones Reflected in Esplanade Lagoon
I love this view from the Esplanade of the brownstones in the Back Bay! The (not quite perfect) symmetry and the variety of colors is endlessly fascinating to me. I try to visit often because the clouds are never the same, and I love when the water is still enough to get these reflections.
Shot with iPhone 6s in built-in camera app using HDR, and then edited in Lightroom Mobile (all on iPhone).
Winter Skyline
Brownstones in Boston's Back Bay, seen from the esplanade the day after a big snowstorm.
Shot with iPhone 6s.
Copley Square Snow Day
First snow day of the year in Copley Square in Boston. Shot with iPhone 6s.
Union Park 1
Brownstones and leaves in Union Park in the South End of Boston.
A Gust Of Wind At Acorn Street
A gust of wind blowing fall leaves up in the air at Acorn Street in Beacon Hill, Boston, MA.
Shot with Sony a6000 and Rokinon 12mm lens.
Snowball Fight in Copley Square
A snowball fight in Copley Square in Boston, on the first snow day of the year.
Boston Esplanade and Back Bay Skyline Panorama
This was six vertical photos shot on iPhone 6s in RAW, processed in Lightroom Mobile (that's where most of the work happened - shadows, highlights, contrast, curves, selective adjustments, etc), then stitched into a panorama using Affinity on my iPad, with final panorama resolution comparable to one photo from a DSLR. I also used Snapseed at the end for a bit of spot removal. All mobile all the way.
Golden Hour Storm Clouds On The Esplanade
This one looks good either in a square crop or a 2x3 crop.
Sailboat on the Charles River
Cherry Tree in Bloom on the Esplanade
Back Bay Brownstones
Back Bay Brownstones viewed from the Prudential Skydeck.
The Back Bay, Charles River, and Cambridge, from Boston
View from the Prudential Skywalk of the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, with the Commonwealth Ave Mall running through it, the Charles River, and Cambridge and MIT across the river.
Glass and Brick
View from the roof deck at 470 Atlantic Ave in Boston. The building across the way is mostly highly reflective glass, so you can see 470 Atlantic Ave reflected back.
We went up there as part of a photography meet up, so all the people you can see reflected in the next building over are photographers and models.
Shot with Sony a6000 and Sony 35mm f/1.8 lens.
Cherry Blossoms in the Back Bay
Cherry Trees on the Esplanade
Colorful Brownstones at Blue Hour
Colorful brownstones in Boston's Back Bay at blue hour.
Downtown Boston
View of downtown Boston from the Custom House Tower.
This photo was chosen by the Instagram group @IGersBoston for their gallery and silent auction event, where a 13x19 inch print of it was sold with proceeds going to an anti-domestic violence charity. More info about that event here: https://igersboston.com/gallery/
This photo was shot with an iPhone 6s.
Daffodils on the Esplanade
wide anglerokinonrokinon 12mmsony a6000acorn streetacorn stbostonbeacon hillfallautumnleavesblowing leavesbrickvanishing pointcobblestonehistoric
From All Photos


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When I used to watch shows on HGTV where families would get rooms that had been cluttered with kid stuff made over, I would scoff at how ridiculous they were. How could they allow so much junk to accumulate? And how could they just leave it lying around like that?
I'm now eating my words. Annmarie is only (almost!) 2 months old, and I feel like our house has been overrun with baby stuff.
She's been more awake and alert this last week. During these alert times, I read that I'm supposed to engage her in conversation, play, music, etc. I had to laugh when I took a look at my living room and saw this:
What is NOT pictured is the super deluxe pack-n-play (it has a changing table and bassinet) and the car seat positioned appropriately in front of my wine cabinet.
I still don't know quite how to "play" with an infant. I usually just chat about random stuff. But I have found that she seems to like jamming to some tunes. I don't really know any children's songs so I've taken to my iPod. Each day, I've noticed that I focus on one artist (whoever's song happens to be in my head that day). The other day it was Billy Joel. Another day it was The Beatles. Yesterday it was The Carpenters.
I had "Close to You" stuck in my head but noticed that I didn't actually have The Carpenters' version of it. But I DID have The Cranberries' version of it (from the fantastic "If I Were a Carpenter" album).
This is my life now. And while the stuff is driving me kind of crazy – a part of me doesn't want Annmarie to get any bigger. She's recently outgrown all of her newborn clothing (my mom reprimanded me yesterday for "squeezing" her into newborn stuff) and I got a little sad about it. I am now THAT mom (actually – I realized that I am like MY mom…).
I'm also finding that I miss being pregnant. How crazy is that? I should just go back and read through all my recaps of the aches and pains. People weren't kidding when they said you tend to forget the bad stuff that comes with pregnancy and delivery (and aftermath!). I watched a blogger's video recap on her birth and actually cried. Someone needs to punch me in the face! I don't want to be emotional, weepy mom. I want to be laid-back, bad-ass, listens to awesome NON-kid music mom.


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Tequila, Cointreau or triple sec, lime juice and salt around the rim of the glass are the ingredients of a basic margarita. A margarita can be served blended, frozen or on the rocks. There are a number of variations on the basic recipe, with additions of fruit pulps, juices and liquors being the most common. When looking for drinks that are similar to margaritas, keep in mind the simple recipe, the fruity variations and/or the main alcohol, tequila.
Like the margarita, the daiquiri can be served frozen or over ice. Both drinks include lime juice and a sweetener as part of the basic recipe, though daiquiris use sugar rather than a liquor. The main difference between the drinks, however, is the main alcohol. Margaritas use tequila, while daiquiris use rum. Like a margarita, daiquiris are often found in a variety of fruity variations.
Tequila Sunrise
Tequila, orange juice and grenadine, or pomegranate juice, combine to make the tequila sunrise. The drink is similar to a fruity margarita, utilizing the same main alcohol and containing a citrus juice, though in this case it's orange juice rather than lime. A tequila sunrise is served over ice.
Take a margarita and substitute vodka for tequila and you have a kamikaze. The kamikaze is another drink with lime juice and triple sec, so the flavors are very similar to the margarita. A kamikaze is served over ice in an old fashioned glass or sometimes as a small serving in a shot glass.


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4:50:46 PM [Apache] Problem detected!
4:50:46 PM [Apache] Port 443 in use by "Unable to open process" with PID 2880!
4:50:46 PM [Apache] Apache WILL NOT start without the configured ports free!
4:50:46 PM [Apache] You need to uninstall/disable/reconfigure the blocking application
4:50:46 PM [Apache] or reconfigure Apache and the Control Panel to listen on a different port
4:50:46 PM [main] The Mercury module is disabled
4:50:46 PM [main] The Tomcat module is disabled
4:50:46 PM [main] Starting Check-Timer
4:50:46 PM [main] Control Panel Ready
Is there a way to change ports?


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born in 1980, françois coquerel as been photographing since 2006 and currently lives and works in paris, france. with a growing collection of portraits, coquerel often places his subject in the center of the image, searching for and focusing in on the small contradictions.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
come closer
Labels: photography
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text: CONSTABLE, Albert, a Representative from Maryland; born near Charlestown, Md., June 3, 1805; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1829 and settled in Bel Air, Harford County, Md.; moved to Baltimore and practiced law; later moved to Perryville, Cecil County, Md.; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1847); judge of the circuit court of Maryland in 1851; died in Camden, N.J., September 18, 1855.


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Current Law Students / Re: Post Your Grades as you get them!« on: January 15, 2008, 11:19:55 AM »
hmmm.... *&^%... well, i know, at least in undergrad, there is always a probation period before they revoke scholarships and the second semester grades are typically way different then first, so hopefully both of those factors will work to your advantage
Yeah, it isn't as dramatic a situation as I'm making it seem. If, after the first year I fall below a 3.0, the scholarship is reduced by half. If it comes back up above a 3.0 after the second year, then the full scholarship is restored. So I'm still okay. That grade was really just a shock to the system. Especially after the high of getting an A- as my first law school grade. Oh well. I can only work harder and smarter next semester.


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A Hyundai Santa Fe owner who won a lemon law suit against Hyundai Motor America is entitled to attorney fees for the time his lawyer spent to cancel third-party contracts for finance and insurance products, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled.
"The lemon law requires the consumer to be made whole and authorizes a counsel fee award if counsel is needed to obtain relief from any options sold through the dealer as part of the purchase transaction," the panel of the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court said in a unanimous opinion last month.
Hyundai already had settled the underlying lemon law claim, and the plaintiff, Jorge Casal, already had been fully reimbursed for the third-party contracts, said Jane Rigby, a lawyer for Hyundai in Newark, N.J.
Casal bought the Santa Fe new from Sansone Hyundai Inc. in Avenel, N.J., in June 2011. At the same time, he bought four optional protection packages financed through Hyundai Capital America: an anti-theft etching system; a Titanium Protection Plan for roadside assistance, windshield repair, tire-and-rim protection and dent-and-ding coverage; key replacement; and guaranteed asset protection, or GAP, which waived any gap in the difference between the actual cash value of the vehicle and the loan balance in the event of a total loss.
The bottom line on the retail buyer's order was $26,798, according to Casal's lawyer, Andrew Wolf of North Brunswick, N.J.
The vehicle developed problems two days after the purchase and by mid-July met the criteria for a lemon. When Casal requested a refund or exchange, Hyundai initially offered just $3,000 plus rental expenses, the court said. After he hired a lawyer, Hyundai agreed to replace the car but declined to transfer the protection plans to a new vehicle without additional cost.
Casal's lawyer spent several months working on the problem, the court said. Casal was reimbursed for the options but only after Hyundai "put pressure" on the dealer.
Left unresolved was Hyundai's liability for Casal's attorney fees after resolution of the lemon law claim.
A lower-court judge ruled that Hyundai was on the hook only for fees incurred to settle the lemon law suit and wasn't responsible for the optional contracts.
But the appeals court disagreed, saying Hyundai had "imposed the duty of negotiating with these third parties, the dealer and the finance company on Casal" and cited the dealer's ongoing relationship with Hyundai and the third parties.
Wolf, Casal's lawyer, said the scope of the state's lemon law, not fees, had been the main issue.
But Hyundai lawyer Rigby offered a different take, saying, "This case was always about fees."
Wolf and Rigby said they've now settled the remaining fees, but neither would disclose the amount of the payment.


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Drain Cleaning Los Angeles
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Drain Cleaning Los Angeles
Drain Cleaning Los Angeles
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text:
Chili Chicken, Sweet Potato Cupcakes, Pepperoni Skillet Pizza, Broccoli Slaw & Slow Cooker Oatmeal
After the autumn equinox comes the rush of recipes with spices and autumn produce. If you're looking for something quick and fall-inspired this weekend, try the cheater skillet pizza or the pasta with cauliflower and sausage. If you feel like baking, don't miss out on the chai sweet potato cupcakes (oh boy) and apple fritters. And make delicious leftovers for the week with the help of this easy kale potato gratin.
New Recipes This Week
- Indian Chili Chicken
- Slow Cooker Quinoa Oatmeal
- Light & Easy Broccoli Slaw
- How To Cook Spaghetti Squash in the Oven
- Pasta with Cauliflower, Sausage & Breadcrumbs
- Pepperoni Skillet Pizza
- Kale & Potato Gratin
- Glazed Apple Fritters
- Chai Sweet Potato Cupcakes
- How To Make AeroPress Coffee (Two Ways!)
- The Palermo Cocktail
Published: Sep 26, 2014


text: Lawton is served by U.S. Highways 7 (E), 277 (N), 62 (W), and Interstate 44 (E). Lawton Municipal Airport is a full service field with a total runway length of 8,599 feet. Passenger service is provided by American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Comanche County has railroad service from Burlington Northern, Union Pacific, and Santa Fe.


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Fool's Gold (band)
Fool's Gold is a Los Angeles collective that weaves together Western pop aesthetics with African and Middle Eastern rhythms and melodies.[1] The group started as a side project of musicians Luke Top (a vocalist and bassist) and Lewis Pesacov (lead guitarist), who set out to explore their shared love of various forms of African music (specifically Congolese, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Malian), Krautrock, and 1980s dance influenced pop music.[2]
Fool's Gold
|Los Angeles, California
|World, Tropical, Indie
|Years active
|IAMSOUND Records
|Official website
|Luke Top
Lewis Pesacov
Garrett Ray
Brad Caulkins
Salvador Placencia
|Past members
|Extended Fool's Gold Family
Matt Popieluch
Orpheo McCord
Jimmy Vincent
Amir Kenan
Michael Tapper
Érica García
The band was formed initially as a collaboration between Top and Pesacov in 2007. Top had immigrated to Los Angeles from Israel at age three and earned his B.A. in Music and Recording at SFSU. Pesacov earned a degree in classical music theory and composition while studying under American composers Mark Randall-Osborn and Franklin Cox. Joining their cultural and musical backgrounds, the two began writing songs together, many of which would eventually appear on their self-titled debut album in 2009.
Top has said that the band's name came from a trip he and Pesacov took to Northern California in which a mutual friend described a time when she found fool's gold in the ocean.[2]
Fool's Gold expanded to a sizable band composed of numerous accomplished and unique musicians. Among the members joining Top and Pesacov were Garrett Ray, Jimmy Vincent and Matt Popieluch of Pesacov's other band, Foreign Born; Latin American pop star Erica Garcia; Orpheo McCord (former drummer for The Fall), Michael Tapper (formerly of We Are Scientists), and several others.
In late 2009, the band was chosen as of one Beyond Race Magazine's 50 Emerging Artists, resulting in a spot in the publication's No. 11 issue, as well as an exclusive Q&A for the magazine's site.[3]
Fool's Gold live shows have earned them invitations to The Hollywood Bowl; Summerstage in Central Park, New York City; and The Black Sessions in Paris. Fool's Gold have played events such as Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Oya, Austin City Limits Music Festival and London Calling Fest in Amsterdam. In 2011, they toured in England with The Red Hot Chili Peppers.[4]
Fool's Gold debut albumEdit
The songs for the band's debut album Fool's Gold were mostly recorded live over a two-day session at the Sunset Lodge recording studio in Los Angeles in 2008; tracks were later completed in various apartment living rooms in the early parts of 2009. Top and Pesacov collaborated on the music, written over a three-year span. The lyrics of the album are almost entirely in Hebrew.
The album was released on September 29, 2009 through Los Angeles label IAMSOUND Records on both 12" vinyl and compact disc formats; it was subsequently released worldwide on January 25, 2010.[5]
Leave No Trace redefines the bandEdit
After many tours following the release of their self-titled debut, the once sizeable collective organically evolved into a five-member band: vocalist/bassist Luke Top, guitarist Lewis Pesacov, drummer Garrett Ray, multi-instrumentalist Brad Caulkins, and percussionist Salvador Placencia.[6] This line-up redefined their sound for their sophomore LP, Leave No Trace, much of which was written in Wonder Valley, California[6] (an artist/musician collective in the Mojave Desert).[7] It was recorded at infrasonic studios in Alhambra in East Los Angeles, according to Pesacov, who also produced the album.[6]
A notable distinction in Leave No Trace is that it is sung predominately in English. This was an intuitive choice, much in the way the debut album leaned towards Hebrew. "Singing in Hebrew on the first record allowed me to find my voice; it helped me to come out of my shell and push myself into letting go, both as a performer and songwriter," says singer Luke Top. "As the words and themes for this record started to take shape, I knew I had to express them in English, my first language. Being that this is a far more personal and nuanced collection of songs, it was important to me that my ideas were expressed as clearly as possible, both to myself and to the listener."[6]
- Fool's Gold (IAMSOUND Records, 2009)
- Leave No Trace (IAMSOUND Records, 2011)
- Flying Lessons (ORG Music, 2015)
- "Surprise Hotel", Limited Edition 7" (IAMSOUND Records, 2009)
- "Nadine", Limited Edition 7" (IAMSOUND Records, 2010)
- ^ "Fool's Gold". OhMyRockness.com. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ^ a b Breihan, Tom. "Rising: Fool's Gold". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ^ Carlin, Shannon (2009). "Fool's Gold". Beyond Race.
- ^ Team JamBase (July 27, 2011). "Fool's Gold: New Album, UK Tour Dates w/RHCP". JamBase.com. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
- ^ "Fool's Gold Debut LP Available in the UK Today!". IAMSOUND Records. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ^ a b c d "BuzzBands.LA & The Satellite present Fool's Gold / Raw Geronimo / crash: Fool's Gold". thesatellitela.com. Los Angeles: The Satellite. 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
- ^ "Wonder Valley CSA". wondervalley.org. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
External linksEdit
- Official website
- Fool's Gold on Facebook
- Band profile at IAMSOUND Records (record label) website (archived)
- Fool's Gold at allmusic.com


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Welcome to Rethink Your Business LAS VEGAS!
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Kirton rider Ben Wilson is in hospital in Northern Ireland following a heavy crash in practice at the North West 200.
Wilson had already completed the Supersport and Superbike practice sessions with no problem.
But in the last few minutes of the Superstock session the red flag came out to bring the practice to an early end to enable the medics to attend to Wilson, who had crashed the Aprilia out on the course.
He has a compound break to his femur and was transferred from Coleraine to Londonderry hospital where, last night, he underwent a five-hour operation to clean the wound which will prevent infection.
Wilson is due to have a further operation within the next few days.
However, Wilson appeared in good spirits as he played up to the camera on his way to hospital and from his bed, offering a thumbs up and also posing as if he had one hand on the throttle and showing the 'number one' with his other hand.


text:
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It's Monday morning! You wake up and drive to the office, and then wonder, are we going to get any prospect leads today, or win some new customers this week? If so, how many?
In the past, you may have been targeted by pushy telesales campaigns offering Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), or Directory listings, promising you the Earth, only to find they have not delivered the results you had hoped for? Unfortunately, all too often these services offered are a scam, and it's fair to say that a high proportion of the people selling SEO or Directory Services have neither the knowledge, nor ability to add value to your business.
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Search Engine Marketing, or SEM involves 'buying traffic' by using various strategies, resources, techniques, applications and networks in order for a website to achieve greater visibility online with the search engines. Actions such as using Google AdWords, Pay Per Click, Cost Per Impression, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Press Releases, Article Submissions, Newsletters, and Video will enable your potential prospects to easily find your website.
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Local Business Optimisation, or LBO involves applying solutions to ensure your business is found easily by your local prospects. Not having any Local Business Optimisation is a potentially critical mistake for businesses, where their target audience is within the immediate surrounding area. Research has shown that 63% of consumers and small business owners use the internet to find information about local companies of which 82% use search engines such as Google (Webvisible & Nielsen). If you are not actively promoting your business locally, then you are undoubtedly losing a lot of potential prospects!
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text:
Get a FREE 10oz
The Queen's Beast 2019 Unicorn 10oz Silver Coin
The participants of the 1st Kamchatka Expedition (1725 - 1730) headed by navigator Vitus Bering sailed by "Saint Gabriel" sailing boat along the Kamchatka and Chukotka shores and reached the Arctic Sea via a strait dividing Asia and America, which was named later on after Bering. Vast geographical studies and for those days extremely precise cartographic works as well as investigations of life and manners of aborigines had been carried out during this expedition.
Mintage is this coin is just 2,000pc
Additional Info
|Metal Content
|173.29 gram
|25 Rubles
|St Petersburg Mint
|Diameter (mm)
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All shipments sent by LPM are insured, however orders are only covered while in transit. Coverage is terminated upon arrival of the package (marked as delivered or notice of signature from carrier).
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If you have been ignoring mobile marketing for the past year then you have a huge market that you haven't tapped yet. Just look at all the smartphones and tablets being sold today. Most of the people will be getting online using these devices and targeting them for your marketing is what you should be doing now.
The first step in entering the mobile market is by having a mobile version of your website. As we all know these mobile devices have pretty small screens. A website that may look good on your 20 inch desktop monitor might not look that good on a mobile screen. There are some tools that can automatically format your site for mobile viewing by creating a mobile version of it. I suggest you check these tools out.
Your next step is to get as much information as possible on the mobile scene. Try to stay updated on the latest news and trends on mobile. Listed below are some of the resources you can check out.
- MobileMarketer.com
- Mobile Marketing Watch
- Near Field Communications
- 2d Code
- Google Mobile Webmaster Tools Help
- Google Mobile Ads YouTube Channel
- Wikipedia – XHTML Mobile Profile
- W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
- WPBeginner
- Mobile Awesomeness
- Mobile Marketing Linkin Group
Now that you've got all the basics covered lets discuss about mobile marketing.
Use Narrow Targeting
One mistake you can make here is targeting widely. This is a problem since there is still no proper tool to track down analytics on the mobile front. Try targeting a specific handset model of a specific carrier. If you can target non-smartphone users then this will be great since they will give you a higher conversion rate.
Know What You Are Offering
Try to understand your offer and know how it converts. One important factor here is to also get to know how your competition is running their offer. This way you can do a comparison and see where they are succeeding. This may sound easy but it really isn't since there's not a lot of intelligence tools out there that can gather this data on the mobile front.
Constant Testing
Just like other marketing mediums, mobile marketing requires constant testing on your part. Try to run numerous ad copies and see how they perform. The data you gather from these tests will show you which ones will be successful and which ones are not. You will want to have at least 5 versions of a particular ad copy and see which ones work best.
Although there are still not a lot of people concentrating on mobile marketing efforts the shift is already in that direction. With tablets and smartphones currently dominating laptop sales we will be seeing more people accessing the Internet on the go. And with more people accessing content using mobile devices it's going to be a race as to who can provide the best marketing plan for this segment.


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Do you ever wonder what happens to all the kids you watch over the years as they grow up? Do they keep playing in high school? Go on to play in college? What do they do after college?
I can't answer for all kids of course, but I can tell you the story of one of those kids. Her name is Cristi, and she happens to be my daughter. Her story is one that can be your child's story, if you as a parent allow her sports experience to challenge, shape and tech her valuable life lessons.
This is what your child can get from sports if you let her….continue reading.
Get my free new report: Sportsparents' Guide: 55 time & money-saving tips guaranteed to make your life easier. You'll also get regular sports parenting tips each week and a weekly parenting tip. Sign up here.
Are you making it a point to save your child's sports memories?