Monthly Archives: April 2012

How Copyright Seems to Keep Books Unavailable and Unexploited

Amazon Sales by Year of Publication

open quoteCrampton explains:

Recall that books published through 1922 are in the public domain in the US; those published since then are covered by copyright…..

So any arguments about underexploitation of unprotected works seem untenable.

If this were a moving wall, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad: eventually, books would come out of copyright and be released in new editions. But Disney does keep going back and insisting that nothing can ever be returned to the Commons from which they so liberally drew, and Congress loves Disney; we might reasonably expect another copyright term extension act to keep the wall fairly rigid.

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Budget: [Canadian] Government won’t police food labels in future

Some good news for a change:

open quoteThe federal government is getting out of the business of policing nutrition claims on food labels as part of cost-cutting at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The move, outlined in the budget, will help the agency cut $56.1 million from its overall budget by the next fiscal year.

It will now be up to consumers to go to companies or industry associations “for resolution” if they suspect bogus health claims or exaggerated nutrition claims on food packaging.

“The government will change how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency monitors and enforces non-health and non-safety food labelling regulations. The CFIA will introduce a web-based label verification tool that encourages consumers to bring validated concerns directly to companies and associations for resolution,” the budget document says.close quote (Read more)

CIA Secret Prison: Polish Leaders Break Silence About Black Site

open quoteFor years, the notion that Poland could allow the CIA to operate a secret prison in a remote lake region was treated as a crackpot idea by the country’s politicians, journalists and the public.

A heated political debate this week reveals how dramatically the narrative has changed.

In a string of revelations and political statements, Polish leaders have come closer than ever to acknowledging that the United States ran a secret interrogation facility for terror suspects in 2002 and 2003 in the Eastern European country.close quote (Read more)

Forced marriage: Girl aged five among 400 minors helped (in BRITAIN!)

open quoteA five-year-old girl is thought to have become the UK’s youngest victim of forced marriage.

She was one of 400 children to receive assistance from the government’s Forced Marriage Unit in the last year.

The figures have emerged as the public consultation into criminalising forced marriage in England, Wales and Northern Ireland comes to an end.

Amy Cumming, joint head of the Forced Marriage Unit, said 29% of the cases it dealt with last year involved minors.

“The youngest of these was actually five years old, so there are children involved in the practice across the school age range,” she said. close quote (Read more)

EU Ambassador to the US: Euro Crisis to Be Exploited to Further Fiscal and Political Integration

open quoteThe European Union’s ambassador to the United States, Mr. Joao Vale de Almeida, addressed a large and polite audience today at the University of Iowa’s School of Law. . . .

Today Europe is in the midst of a very serious economic crisis which threatens the future of the EU itself. What changed to bring about this potentially catastrophic development? Well, Mr. Vale de Almeida told us in unequivocal words–the desire of a European elite for political integration, using the euro crisis as the vehicle.

Mr. Vale de Almeida stated that economic integration had ensured that the errors of one nation could infect all others in the bloc. But this was not possible until 17 of those nations used a common currency, the euro. A nation that uses its own, national currency cannot cause inflation in its trading partners; it can cause inflation only in its own monopolized currency zone. But now all 17 nations can transmit inflation to all other countries in the euro zone via their roundabout ability to monetize their national debts via euro printing. All 27 nations in the EU, even those such as the UK which are not using the euro, are being coerced into bailing out those nations who have used euro printing to accumulate unsustainable sovereign debt. All Europe is at odds over this proposal.

Mr. Vale de Almeida informed his audience that the EU is moving further into political unification, having recently formed the External Action Service, a kind of super foreign ministry that purports to speak for all of Europe. He claims that the EU nations already hold common foreign policy positions on 90% of the issues. No doubt this is true. But it is the other 10% that causes all the trouble.close quote (Read more)

Israel mulls ways to penalize PA in wake of UN human rights probe

open quoteIsrael is considering sanctions against the Palestinian Authority after the United Nations’ Human Rights Council decided to establish an international investigative committee on the West Bank settlements.

Today, a forum of eight senior Israeli cabinet ministers is scheduled to meet in Jerusalem to discuss sanctions against the PA and representatives of the UN Human Rights Council in Israel. It is unclear whether any decisions will be made during today’s meeting.

Three members of the octet reportedly support freezing the transfer of tax revenues to the PA. According to one source, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz would back such a move. close quote (Read more)

Bernanke’s Deep Understanding

open quote“Gold standards are far from perfect,” Bernanke said. “ They waste of resources,.” citing Milton Friedman’s quip about taking gold from one hole in the ground just to transfer it to other hole.

Gold standards are far from perfect because government bureaucrats have always been in charge of managing them. The mere fact that heavy costs and resources are involved to mine the yellow metal is one of the factors making gold a perfect money.

A gold-shackled currency takes away central bank flexibility, which bothers Bernanke. But the question is, how much Bernanke flexibility can the dollar stand before it falls apart completely?

The Fed Chair admitted that the gold standard provides price stability–but only in the long run. He stressed that there have been short-term periods of price inflation and deflation under gold. Well sure, prices increase and then correct, that’s what a gold standard does. Under central bank management prices just increase; either slowly, quickly, or catastrophically.close quote (Read more)

Growing Antitax Movement Shows Irish Stoicism Wearing Thin

open quoteThroughout the European financial crisis, Ireland has won plaudits for the way it has handled austerity. But growth has stalled here once again, and an incipient tax revolt is being taken as a sign that even this most stoic of nations is becoming fed up.

Urged on by promoters of a tax boycott, fully 85 percent of Irish homeowners have yet to pay a $130 property tax that is due March 31. The latest official figures show that just 225,000 property owners out of 1.6 million have paid a total of $29 million — well short of the more than $200 million the government was planning to raise to help support public services.

The government has so far dismissed talk that the boycott is gathering strength, saying the Irish are notorious procrastinators on money matters.

“The Irish people are law-abiding citizens and will pay the charge before March 31,” a government spokesman said. “We are ready to cope with a late surge — Irish people always tend to leave it to the last minute to pay their bills.”

The boycott’s organizers see it differently. close quote (Read more)

Israel cuts contact with UN rights council, to protest settlements probe

open quoteIsrael’s Foreign Ministry orders envoy to Geneva to ignore all phone calls from rights council commissioner; ‘The council sparked this process’, says a senior Israeli official.

Israel decided Monday to sever all contact with the United Nations human rights council and with its chief commissioner Navi Pillay, after the international body decided to establish an international investigative committee on the West Bank settlements.

The Foreign Ministry ordered Israel’s ambassador to Geneva to cut off contact immediately, instructing him to ignore phone calls from the commissioner, a senior Israeli official said. close quote (Read more)