bouncing wall to wall

Acta protests continue.

Rubberball — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:12:40 +0000

Last weeks protest were quite succesfull. After these protests Germany, Bulgaria and the Netherlands put ACTA on hold in their countries. Bulgaria even came out against ACTA. But the protests go on. The movement is not satisfied yet because ACTA is still on the table for many countries in the EU and this movement seems not to stop until ACTA is stopped.

In a youtube video, which shows the picuteres of protests of 11-02, they call for another protest on 25-02.

Already some protests, like the one in Mannheim, have a doubled the amount of signups compared to the protests of last week but some also have shrunk quite a bit, like the protests of Amsterdam and Dusseldorf. However, with a week to go there is still plenty of time to promote these protests. To find the facebook page of protests near you, you can use this map of the facebook protests pages. For more information on the protests you can visit the Stopp ACTA wiki or contact them on Twitter. If you want to support these protests retweet this information, share it on facebook, hop on omegle and convince a total stranger to go to the protests.

Crowd Funding; a Double Fine example.

Rubberball — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:48:40 +0000

What if you were a talented man and the head of a game studio. What if you had a good idea for a new game, a huge following of fans but all publishers can say is: ”Stop bugging us about it, the genre is dead!”

This is exactly the problem of Tim Schafer. I don’t often revere people on this blog, but when i do, that person is Tim Schafer. You might know some of his work, he worked on The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Psychonauts and more recently Brütal Legend. He was in need of funding for his next adventure game but no game publisher dared to fund the release of an old fashioned ‘point-and-click adventure game’.

Well it turns out that a creative mind can work around that problem. He reached out to his fans after he started a Kickstarter project to get the budget he needed. His aim was $ 400.000. Of this budget $300.000 would go to the game and another $100.000 would be used to make a documentary about the whole project. Don’t just take my word for it, here is the whole thing explained by Schafer himself:

Since Tim Schafer has a loyal fanbase who can be found at any region of the world wide web, the whole project quickly went viral and spiraled out of control. Generally when things go out of control on the internet, they usually end up either dead in a ditch or become huge.

And huge it is. Since Schafer needed $400.000,- any money above that would go to further improve the game and the documentary film. Getting a good soundtrack for example, making it available for more platforms and translating it into many different languages. Eight hours into the kickstart project, the much needed $400.000 was already raised. At this moment the project has raised $ 1,695,774. All of this was donated by 48.520 gaming enthusiasts, which shows that the ‘point-and-click adventure’ genre is far from dead.

Germany postpones signing acta

Rubberball — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:19:34 +0000

Yesterday Germany announced it will not sign acta until it has been through the European Parliament. This was very good news on the eve of the worldwide acta protests. Germany had not yet signed ACTA and has now stated it will not sign it before it is examined by the European Parliament.

Previously Poland Czech Slovenia and Slovakia, who all have signed ACTA, have stopped the ratification process. Large protests going on for weeks have caused these countries to change their stance on ACTA. And with ACTA protest day, more countries are expected to re-examine their stance on the trade agreement.

To get an impression of the protests, here is an overview of the ACTA protests in Europe.

Tribler; a tough file sharing network.

Rubberball — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:33:35 +0000

Researches from the university of Delft, in the Netherlands, have created a bittorrent network in 2006 that does not need a torrent distributor to function. Its called Tribler and with filesharing websites and torrent websites being shut down it has some key advantages. The network can start downloading from multiple sources without needing a file from a separate website. This makes the created file sharing network hard to shut down.

Tribler was not only intended for file sharing, it was also intended for use as a p2p TV client. It allows TV broadcasting through torrent videos. This way its easier to deliver video to consumers and saves the broadcaster bandwith. The client can, like with normal bittorrent downloads, download the material from other viewers, and not just from the broadcaster with regular streaming. It also includes a videoplayer, making it even easier to preview and watch downloaded movies.

The key characteristic which makes the Tribler network resistant to censorship is that it does not need a server or website with torrent files. The Piratebay is a good example of such a website. With a normal bit torrent client you need to download a magnet or torrent file to start the download in your client. With Tribler you can just search for the item you wish to download and it will start downloading. There is no need to visit a website to get a magnet link of a torrent file anymore.

Ironically enough the Netherlands just joined the ranks of China, Iran, Nort Korea and Saudi Arabia because the Piratebay is being cencored in the Netherlands since last week. Two large dutch ISP’s, Ziggo and XS4ALL, were mandated by court to censor thepiratebay.org. Outside of the fact that the censoring is not working since there are plenty of working mirrors, such court mandated blockades would be useless against Tribler. As long as people keep on using the network it will keep on working. No amount of website censoring will impair the Tribler network making this a very difficult network to shut down.

The main drawback of the tribler network is that it is still a very small network. Clients like this haven’t been very popular since they haven’t been needed before. With the blockade of the Piratebay in the Netherlands and with every take down of a torrent site the appeal of this network will grow. Tribler shows that there is enough innovation in the world of p2p filesharing to withstand the current storm of legal action of the entertaintment industry. Every cent the entertainment industry spends on legal action against filesharing, instead of innovating their service, will make it harder for the entertainment industry to survive.

Breakthrough in ACTA protests; Poland pauses ratification!

Rubberball — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:50:38 +0000

Good news everyone! The thousands of Polish citizens who took to the streets have convinced their government to stop the ratification process of ACTA. Prime minister of Poland Donald Tusk announced that his government will pause the ratification process of ACTA. The reason for this decision is that he feels that ACTA did not get a proper review and could be harmful. Where Donald Tusk has defended ACTA up to three days ago, it now seems the huge protests in Poland have finaly been heard.

Now that Poland has put a rejection on the table to the agreement, the future of ACTA is all but certain. If Poland doesn’t ratify ACTA it will be in trouble all over the EU. Earlier this week Slovenian ambassador Helena Drnovsek Zorko who signed ACTA on behalf of Slovenia published a letter of apology for signing it. In it she states:

I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness, because I did not pay enough attention. Quite simply, I did not clearly connect the agreement I had been instructed to sign with the agreement that, according to my own civic conviction, limits and withholds the freedom of engagement on the largest and most significant network in human history, and thus limits particularly the future of our children.

And:

On Saturday, 4^th February, a protest is planned in Ljubljana for those who object to the ratification of ACTA. The true concern and determination of those Slovenian citizens who feel that the agreement must be stopped will be reflected in the number of people who attend this protest. I would like to ask for somebody to please attend in my name.

It does not happen often that an Ambassador openly calls out for a protest on a treaty she helped sign. With the Polish rejection on the table and the protests brewing all over Europe, ACTA seems to have taking a severe blow this week. However, its not over yet, the Polish government will be severely pressured into ratifying this treaty. Now the protests are spreading other governments might also choose not to ratify ACTA, which will make Poland stand stronger against it, don’t let the Polish protesters down and keep on protesting this treaty.

Where are you going?

Rubberball — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:23:22 +0000

In the future 1/10′th of the population of earth is projected to be migrating due to climate change. It will be the largest migration of the human populace on earth ever in history. If you are like me and live in an area that could be swallowed by floods or droughts you might need to make migration plans for your future.

Temperature is going up, polar ice is melting, ocean levels are rising. This is not controversial or disputed hypothesis. These are facts. Politicians in many countries are unwilling to act on this so the world will need to prepare for the consequences of this. The climate conventions organised by countries politicians have been disastrous and are being blocked by countries who are afraid of the change that is needed to turn the tide on global warming. Although China has now shown to be willing to agree (Yes. ”China has shown to be willing to agree…”, I didn’t make that up, politicians do) to a limit for their carbon emissions in the future. India and the USA are still refusing to do this.

With countries not doing much about it, it leaves the citizens themselves to make even bigger changes or they need to address these issues to their politicians. This is a process I don’t have much faith in. Not only does the average voter not bother very much when it comes to politics, there is also a group of politicians trying to discredit the global warming movement. In the Netherlands an example of that is the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders which criticized an important scientific weather institution for being biased on global warming measurements.

So as I am planning for my future, I am now left trying to decide where would be a good place to migrate in the future and planning up to that event, in case I might need to. Will you be affected by global warming migration? And if you need to, where would you migrate?

Now that acta is signed, what can we do?

Rubberball — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:14:01 +0000

If you missed it in the news acta was signed by the ambasadors of 22 countries in the EU. Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia didn’t sign it but are expected to sign it soon.

The hand of the entertainment industry lobby is visible in this. In Poland the government has ignored heavy protest by signing it, thousands took to the streets to protest ACTA. In the Netherlands one party, the controversial Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, who has said to stand for Internet freedom and who claimed to oppose ACTA quickly flipfloped in line on the day of the vote on the matter.

Does this mean ACTA will make it? That depends on the European Parliament and the people they represent. The countries of the EU might have ratified ACTA but the European Parliament also has to ratify it before it can come in effect.

And not all politicians seem to be willing to sell the freedom of their constituents. One member of the european parliament from france, Kader Arif, has resigned from the parliament over ACTA. He proclaimed to be very frustrated about how little influence European Parliament has gotten in the draft of ACTA and claimed this was undermining the function of the European Parliament. He is not the only one with serious concerns about ACTA. Marietje Schaake, member of the European Parliament on behalf of D66/liberal democrats, is urging European citizens to oppose acta. If you are against ACTA, consider following her on twitter, @MarietjeD66.

So what can YOU do? You can convince the European Parliament to not sign it. Write your countries representatives in the European Parliament. You can find an overview of who they are and how you can contact them here. They all list their email addresses. Some list their twitter pages and other social media where you can reach them. Make sure you tell them that you are a European citizen with concerns about the consequences of ACTA and the undemocratic way it has been drafted and therefore don’t wish to see it passed. If our representatives vote against ACTA this treaty it will not be ratified.

How the internet could take down Hollywood

Rubberball — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:20:15 +0000

While the battle for the internet has broken loose, more and more voices are going up to cut off the source of the problems. Hollywood is becoming obsolete. The internet can take over many of its rolls and the movie industry is fighting for its life. More and more internet users are proposing a boycott of Hollywood. I personally think that this will only be a temporary success and think a long term solution would be better.

One of the only things the internet isn’t doing yet is funding movies. Its one of the few things hollywood can do and the internet doesn’t have a answer for yet. Well, until yesterday. A group of redditors (users from the site who proposed the internet blackout) has started an initiative to fund movies publicly. Its still in a developing phase and testing the waters to see if there is more support for it. You can find more information here.

The idea revolves around crowd funding. Anyone can buy a share in the movie with a small donation. If the movie profits, a part of it is divided over the holders of the tiny shares. If it doesn’t profit, well then at least you saw the film get made you donated for. If there is not enough money to start the movie, the shares can be returned.

The concept is not totally new. Its already available for the music industry. http://www.sellaband.com/ is a prime example of that. Its a proven concept and with the current outrage directed against Hollywood it stands a good chance.

Amazing short film: Archetype

Rubberball — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:48:09 +0000

Archetype. Its the passion project of Aaron Sims, a concept/creature designer who also worked on Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and The Thing. He made this short film in hopes of turning this concept into a feature film. An amazing detail about this short, is that it was made with a $0 budget, and allready it looks more attractive then most of the sci-fi material that is being produced by Hollywood.

Meanwhile a small group of redditors, under the banner of Hivemind Features, have decided to see if there is enough support for this concept in order to fund a feature film for it. You can support this initiative here.

ACTA Petition per country

Rubberball — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:15:51 +0000

Sopa sparked some renewed attention for ACTA and people are signing petition against it. These petitions are often nationally oriented because they can be used to urge governments to discuss the issue. An example is the Netherlands where 40.000 signatures are needed to take an issue to parliament. Because there are so several petitions I’ve decided to make a list of them.

United States of America / 2

There are also international ones like this one:

If you know of any other petition that should added to the list please add them in the comments so i can update the list.