A promo is a copy...right?

The copyright wars continue.

BBC News report that Universal Music Group are suing an E-bayer who was selling rare, specialist promo CDs. They deem this as an infringement of copyright.

Have a read to make up your own mind, but to me, I can see it from both angles - the record companies give out these CDs free to DJs etc. Is there that much harm for a devotee fan getting hold of unreleased material from their favourite bands?! But then again, the company didn't give the disc for you to use and there needs to be some discipline in business.

At the end of the day, I think this all leads back to money. People want the money they think they deserve. If I remember correctly, we read in the Bible that the love of money is the root of all evil. Hmmm...?!

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Introducing Apture

Lessig, the guy who writes about copyright, copyleft, copywrongs, also wrote on his blog about a useful application for blogging.



It is a really effective reference tool that makes your entries more enhanced, or more multi-media. You simply highlight a word and it provides all the links that you may possibly want your users to see for reference, enlightenment etc.

You can choose from wiki information, youtube and google video, flickr images, yahoo website searches, or even upload your own images, along with Word, Powerpoint and Excel files, PDFs. It really has great potential in this area.

There is a slight downside in that the info box that pops up to users is quite like those adverts that most of the time you click off before it can even load.

As you can see, jotted around this post I've used Apture to add reference points to show what it can do. It makes it so easy.

So, those interested can have a browse, download and get adding more media to your blogs!

Apture.com

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Ironman - the technology

I know I'm a little late in getting into the buzz of this film, but I saw it the other night, and wow, was it impressive.

If I were to sum it up in two words, it would be this: technologically definitive.

The computer system seen in the film was unbelievable. For one, he had a voice recognition system that could perfectly handle a human conversation, including knowing when to stop and listen, along with being able to handle pauses for thought and interruptions. It seemed perfectly in sync with it's user. Cut to reality and we have robot like computer voices dictating direction for sat nav, or requesting that we repeat our request, for the seventh time! Speaking to a computer to dictate words seems bland in comparison.

Furthermore, Stark's system was intelligent, running commands in advance of being requested. The computer even mentioned the need to upload hundreds of terabytes, once more, confirming they are ahead of our current technology generation. Terabytes are slowly being introduced to our market at the minute. One terabyte is 1024GB and we deem this huge. It is! But I wouldn't be surprised at all if in the film, they streamed ultra HD (the next step up - yes, the generations can keep advancing!) media flawlessly. We are only just being introduced to HD streaming, and that is still a way off from perfection.



The film really was a computer geeks nirvana whilst watching. We've seen it before with the likes of Terminator, but the visual feed from the Iron Man suit that tracked items, referencing information just seemed unbelievable. The mechanics that work his suit were superb too. Who wouldn't turn down the chance to be able to fly?

The film in all, was exciting, gripping and very much a successful comic book translation. The CGI was superb, seeing him interact with holographic constructions.
I have the tiniest grain of sand of knowledge in 3D, but I knew this
must have taken ages, and from someone with real skill. Hats off to
them. It blew my mind!

Even the piece of kit Stark supposedly is able to produce in a grubby, dark cave to keep him alive is far superior to what we could do, both in size and functionality. Maybe I'm getting too hooked up in science fiction though. All this stuff is completely hypothetical, it's a story after all!

But I wish it was here now though... hang on, there is a place where I could live a life like that, and in 2008... Hollywood! lol

5 Stars from me.

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