Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore: The iPadLock Minister? Michael Geist
Since his appointment as Canadian Heritage minister in 2008, James Moore has carefully crafted an image as “Canada’s iPod Minister.” Young, bilingual, and tech-savvy, Moore has expressed regular support for the benefits of the Internet and is always ready with a quick “tweet” for his many followers. Yet as my op-ed in the Hill Times notes (HT version (sub required), homepage version), according to the scuttlebutt throughout the copyright community, Moore may be less iPod and more iPadlock. As the government readies its much-anticipated copyright package, Moore is said to be pressing for a virtual repeat of Bill C-61, the most anti-consumer copyright proposal in Canadian history. Moore’s about-face on copyright will come as a surprise to those who have heard his enthusiasm for new technology and the Internet. In June 2009, Moore told Industry Minister Tony Clement’s Digital Economy conference that “the old way of doing things is over. These things are all now one. And it’s great. And it’s never been better. And we need to be enthusiastic and embrace this things.”

The Queen appoints internet pioneer to put Royal art online Telegraph
The Queen studies the new layout of the Monarchy Website at its relaunch in 2009 Photo: PA Always keen to take advantage of the latest technology, the Queen has made a fascinating appointment. Mandrake learns that she has taken on an internet pioneer to help make the Royal family’s art collection available online. The Queen has created a new post for Jemima Rellie, who put the Tate Gallery at the cutting edge of the online art revolution. She will be the director of publishing and new media at the Royal Collection, which contains around 200,000 works of art worth an estimated £10 billion.

Comical Video Highlights Dangers of EU Plan to Block Internet Websites ISP Review
Alexander Lehmann has created an incredibly clever and subtly comical video that seeks to illustrate the dangers of new European wide internet filtering / website blocking plans, which are currently being proposed by EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. Malmström seeks to make it possible for all EU countries to fight for a cleaner and safer Internet by blocking websites containing content such as child porn. Fair enough, nobody wants that filth on the internet! The problem is that it won’t stop at abuse images; as we’ve already seen with the Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA) and excessive copyright enforcement measures.

Letterman Puts iPhone 4G Ordeal in Perspective PC World
Perhaps the most refreshing commentary on the iPhone 4G came last week on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” when the longtime talk show host weighed in on Gizmodo’s acquisition of the supposed next iPhone. Of course, Letterman riffed on the Apple engineer who lost the phone in a bar, without mentioning him by name. The Top Ten list, which seemed rushed and not that funny, was “Top Ten Excuses of the Guy Who Lost the iPhone Prototype.” Letterman’s thoughts on the ordeal were more enjoyable to watch than the list itself, namely, this part: “This comes under the category for me of ‘who cares?’

Sony to stop selling floppy disks from 2011 BBC
Sony has signalled what could be the final end of the venerable floppy disk. The electronics giant has said it will stop selling the 30-year-old storage media in Japan from March 2011. Earlier this year Sony stopped selling the disks in most international markets due to dwindling demand and competition from other storage formats. The slow death of the “floppy” or “diskette” began in 1998 when Apple decided to not include a floppy drive in its G3 iMac computer.

Bishop ‘ready to resign’ over sex abuse silence The Local
Bishop Anders Arborelius has said that he is “prepared to take the consequences” over the failure to investigate the alleged abuse of two sisters by a paedophile priest, first brought to the Catholic Church’s attention in 1990. On Sunday the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily published an interview with one of the alleged victims, who claims the Church kept quiet on her case for the past two decades despite repeated attempts to obtain justice. “As a bishop I take full responsibility for that and am prepared to face the consequences,” Anders Arborelius, the bishop of Stockholm, Sweden’s only Catholic diocese, said in a statement. He called for “a thorough investigation of this tragic case.” The woman, now in her 60s, told DN she contacted the previous Stockholm bishop, Hubertus Brandenburg, in 1990 to report claims of abuse she and her sister suffered in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Consumers International Video: When Copyright Goes Bad EFF
Consumers International has released an excellent short film, When Copyright Goes Bad, which chronicles the rise of copyright as a global consumer rights issue and the ongoing fight for fairer copyright laws. The film features interviews with EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann, Professor Michael Geist from the University of Ottowa Law School, Sunil Abraham from the Centre for Internet and Society, Hank Schocklee, co-founder of Public Enemy, and more.

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