Snapped Shot

That's the word from my #1 source for copyright news, anyway. Hopefully quoting with permission, paragraph breaks added by me:

In a decision entered today in Meshwerks, Inc. v. Toyotal Motor Sales, Inc., No. 06-422 (10th Cir. June 17, 2008)(pdf), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an order granting summary judgment and dismissing the copyright infringement case brought against Toyota by Meshwerks, which had created digital models of Toyota cars for use in Toyota's advertising.

As the court explained, "[t]hese digital models have substantial advantages over the product photographs for which they substitute. With a few clicks of a computer mouse,the advertiser can change the color of the car, its surroundings, and even edit its physical dimensions to portray changes in vehicle styling; before this innovation, advertisers had to conduct new photo shoots of whole fleets of vehicles each time the manufacturer made even a small design change to a car or truck."

Professor Patry strongly criticized the lower court's decision and will no doubt be unpersuaded by the 10th Circuit's affirmance. The court concluded, however, that the digital models did not have a sufficient degree of creativity to entitle them to copyright protection...

All of the software engineers that worked so hard to make the models as incredibly true-to-life as they are will most likely be extremely disappointed by this offer.

Of course, we all know what happens when software engineers get angry: Continue reading »

Man, things have been especially quiet around here for the past few days. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly without reason. The server decided to blow itself up on Sunday, and only came back to life with some serious technical intervention on the hosting company's part. Fortunately, no data was lost, but not-so-fortunately, the blogging engine completely shut itself down. None of us have been able to log in for the entire day, and none of y'all have been able to comment.

Argh.

After poking around with the server all day, adjusting PHP session settings, and even going so far as upgrading Serendipity to the latest codebase, things were still fairly monkeyed up around here. (In fact, if you see anything on the site that looks odd, just let me know about it, and I'll get it fixed promptishly.)

The final solution ended up being upgrading to PHP 5.1.6, which cured all of my ills. Hopefully it didn't introduce any woes over on Phill's side of the house.

All that being said, let the blogging continue. I've got a lot of catching up to do!

My hat's off to Reuters photographer Fayaz Kabli, who captured this photograph with the most delicate of timing. Fayaz, that's some trigger finger you've got there!

An Indian police officer fires a tear gas shell towards Kashmiri Muslim protesters led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq during a procession in Srinagar April 25, 2008. Police in Kashmir's main city fired tear gas on Friday to disperse several thousand demonstrators protesting against human rights violations they said were committed by Indian security forces. The protest came hours after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began a two-day visit to the troubled Himalayan region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed since a revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in 1989. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR)

Incidentally, from the looks of the photo, we've got a Rent-a-Riot Round-up going on in Srinagar, Kashmir at the moment. There are currently no Rage Boy Sightings on the wires, but I'm going to be keeping my eyes peeled. For live coverage, be sure to check out the Yahoo! slideshow from today's festivities.

Update: A legal way to embed the image? I'm game:



And before you ask:—Yes, that's all you get... for free. I'm just glad it's not another browser-killing Macromedia Flash object.

France24 is reporting that a parcel bomb has exploded in a former law office of President Nicolas Sarkozy, killing a legal assistant in the office. No word yet on if any groups are responsible for this attack, though there is one group in all of France that's particularly vocal about how they feel about Sarkozy.



(Of course, there are plenty of other suspects to go around, so I won't dwell too long on the possible "Youths" connection. The package was also reportedly "addressed to someone on a different floor from the one where Sarkozy's old firm is located," so take all of this for what it's worth.)

Update: Parisian blogger No Pasaran has more on this story:

UPDATE: Reports now indicate that two likely targets are located in the building where the explosion took place. A law firm co-founded by Nicolas Sarkozy and a Holocaust Memorial Foundation ("Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah").

Maybe there is more to the theory that this is our rioting "youths?"

It looks like the riots continued last night in France, with over a thousand police officers deployed to try and quell the unrest. There are some signs that, as in the previous two flare-ups, the riots are spreading to other "disadvantaged" areas in town. And, just as quickly as ever, the traditional meme that these "youths" are somehow rioting because they're discriminated against is already being bandied about, yet it would seem to me that the fact that these "disadvantaged" enclaves even exist suggests that these people are getting more than enough help (in the form of "social welfare") from the government. I'd even go so far to say that they're unemployed in such high proportion because they would rather not work, and collect the resulting welfare payments.

But hey, what do I know?

Finally, the all-knowing Frogman speaks! You'll definitely want to hear what Le Expert has to say. But first, a taste:

Anybody with half an interest for the pathetic doings and wrongdoings of the French political caste(1) will remember then Minister of the Interior(2) Sarkozy's chest-beating promise hurled back at a Paris suburb resident upset with the Summer 2005(3) state of affairs in the occupied Banlieue strip to "clean it all up with a Kärcher", a best-selling German high-pressure hosing appliance, among other well-known tough-talk by the future President of La République.(4)

As always with Sarkozy, this genuine incarnation of the "All style, no substance" motto often attributed to the French at large(5), the cleaning spree never came, and rather than Police forces with high pressure washers, the streets were first flooded with taxpayer funded entertainment centers and sport complexes quickly trashed by the "disaffected youth", lavish subsidies to various acteurs sociaux, leftist NGOs and Islamic associations on the false premises and promises that they would fix things over there, before they had, as it becomes obvious today, to be once again cauterized by torching at the hand of the aforementioned youth, a politically correct shortcut for "Young French Muslims of Mostly Arab and African descent".

See-Also:

LGF, Infidel Bloggers Alliance 2, Brussels Journal, Confederate Yankee, Atlas Shrugs, The New Editor, Hyscience, Captain's Quarters, Covenant Zone, Pirate's Cove, A Blog For All, Hot Air, Power Line

It seems that the rioting in Paris has continued into the evening tonight. How long will this particular fire burn? And how long until we discover the dastardly identity of these pernicious "youths?"

Update: Youths rampaging in the streets with shotguns, 1 policeman shot. Your typical "youth" outing? At least Sarkozy is stating to think about doing something about it so soon.

See-also:

Atlas Shrugs, Blogs of War, LGF, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Jules Crittenden, Prairie Pundit, A Blog for All

It will definitely be interesting to see what, if anything, President Nicolas Sarkozy does about this now that he's in power. As you'll recall, he was roundly critiqued for taking a tough stance against lawlessness last time around.



It's interesting to note that a French prosecutor has ordered an internal investigation for what's described as, "involuntary manslaughter and failure to assist persons in danger," yet it was the bike that smashed into the patrol car, and even according to local witnesses, "neither youth was wearing a helmet." Locals accuse the police of fleeing the scene of an accident, which obviously is not an appropriate thing to do, yet the area in which this incident occurred isn't exactly notorious for its "kind" treatment of officers of the law, much like the hostility shown towards the law by drug dealers in Southeast D.C.

Also note that in their supposed anger at the police, the locals chose to attack innocent bystanders:

Officials said there were reports of "small groups attacking shops, passers-by and car drivers" to rob them. One suspect was arrested carrying jewelry from a looted store.

Gee, I wonder which side is being honest in this little encounter...?

See-Also:

LGF, Atlas Shrugs, The Pirate's Cove, Michelle Malkin, Hyscience, The Jawa Report, Nidra Poller

It's really interesting to see the Islamic Council's reaction to this:—Their first move is to ask that Norwegian muslims not act in an "unsuitable" way. As if that's ever been a problem before?

The outrage.

A passage where the controversial Hagen calls the prophet Mohammed a warlord, man of violence and abuser of women has, unsurprisingly, caused offense.

"That the Islamic council is disappointed and angry and furious is as expected. I had more or less counted on this to happen when I wrote that," Hagen told newspaper Vårt Land.

Norway's Islamic Council asked Norwegian Muslims to refrain from reacting to Hagen's book.

Hagen's remarks come in connection with the massive trouble linked to the publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.

Hagen writes that the government's handling of the matter led to freedom of speech "taking a back seat to respect for the warlord, man of violence and woman abuser Mohammed, who murdered and accepted rape as a method of conquest".

"If one puts religious feelings high, one cannot remain indifferent to such talk," said Islamic Council Norway leader Senaid Kobilica to Vårt Land.

The council is now working on a statement taking exception to Hagen's remarks and asking Norwegian Muslims not to react in an unsuitable way.

(h/t WesternCulture)

Quite a lot has gone on over the weekend in Pakistan since their latest bout of unrest. I'm sure most of you have already caught up on it, as a number of blogs have been providing very excellent coverage of these events, but in case you haven't heard, Pervez Musharraf has suspended his country's constitution, and is now ruling Pakistan as a true dictator.

Normally, I would be against these kinds of tactics, but I think President Musharraf deserves some wide leeway here. First and foremost, his government is armed with thermonuclear weaponry. For that fact alone, it's absolutely critical that it remain under the control of a stable group. In a series of actions which have threatened the stability of the Pakistani state, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has continued to prove a threat to the rest of the world, by repeatedly siding with anti-Western Islamist extremists, freeing known terrorists, and otherwise behaving in a manner similar to that of the insane anti-War left here in the United States.

It goes without saying that, were the Pakistani government to pass into the hands of the Islamists who are currently trying to take it over (remember Osama's big speech declaring war on Musharraf?), the consequences that the rest of the world would face—India, most particularly—would be horrific, indeed.

My ancestral homeland seems to be catching a bit of France Fever (h/t FR). Quoth Greg Hughes, "Who saw that coming?"

There is absolutely no way we will win the war against militant Islam if we continue to believe in nothing. Take Vlaams Belang's latest outburst in Brussels, for instance:—A political party in Belgium wished to express their deep dissatisfaction with the European Union's coddling policy towards militant Muslims, in the form of an organised protest in the streets of Belgium, the capital of Brussels.

Following the laws of the West, the jurisdiction of which have been relentlessly extended as a result of our continuing and foolish reliance on "Progressivism," they applied for a permit to exercise their right to assemble.

Their permit was denied by the mayor, who felt it would be too "inflammatory" to allow them to speak. And, when a handful of Belang supporters tried to do so anyway, they were summarily rounded up and arrested.

So there you have it:—in the heart of the European Union, which is in theory a group of federated nations that believe in the "freedoms" of the West (heck, Christian Europe is the very origination of these freedoms), we are denying our own freedoms—wantonly stifling the debate of our own native citizens, whilst formally resisting any attempt to suppress murderous speech which is spoken against us.

A nation that believes in nothing will always lose to an enemy that believes in something.

Always.

It may not happen right away, but it is as inevitable as the tides. Take a peek at the downfall of any civilisation if you doubt that—Rome, Greece, it always ends the same.

So, with that in mind, what do you believe in? And does your government reflect that? Or suppress it?

I'd love to hear what you think. My own thoughts on the matter are rather bleak on this morbid anniversary.

Update: The situation is far more dire than I have just expressed. Europe is dead, if these allegations are true. Continue reading »

We're starting to see protests in Pakistan over Sweden's recent entry into the world of controversial cartooning. It could only be a matter of time before we see our old friend again.



For the record, the cartoons were only published in an online newspaper. It's nice to see the Associated Press ratcheting up the ol' Angst a touch with their creative editing. As always, more yummy effigy goodness follows the break.

See-Also:

LGF, Michelle Malkin, Pirate's Cove

Continue reading »

This juicy little nugget (pun intended) comes to us from our "allies" in the Saudi Kingdom:

that have been spreading via SMS about the entry of millions of HIV-infected yellow melons into Saudi Arabia through its northern border.

A Saudi Health Ministry source said that the message was totally false, and added, "HIV cannot be transmitted in food or drinks."

I think I've found a new nominee for my little award:

Nothing says "Happy International Women's Day" like a bunch of women whose husbands don't allow them to leave the house without head-to-toe coverings. And nothing says "celebration" like RIOTING in front of DA JOOS, apparently.


More "International Woman's Day" silliness following the break. Continue reading »