The right to ideas

National Film Board of Canada

In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

The film discusses the changes that have taken place with major music companies suing people who download music online. It raises important questions about the ownership of ideas and whether intellectual property laws should be less propietary and more like those of Brazil.

About Brett Gaylor: Brett Gaylor is the creator of opensourcecinema.org, a video remix community which supports the production of his feature documentary RiP: A remix manifesto.

South Africa is first country to appoint openly gay man or woman to a nation's highest court

In a genuinely pathbreaking act, South African President Mothlanthe has appointed Edwin Cameron, a justice on the Supreme Court of Appeal, as a judge of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Judge Cameron becomes the first openly gay man or woman ever appointed to a nation's highest court. HT to Robert Wintemute, who noted in an e/mail that Justice Michael Kirby of Australia has served as an openly gay member of that country's highest court, but was not out when he was appointed.

Smoking fish in prison

It is well-known that the cigarette pack has been the standard currency for inmates in U.S. Federal prisons. But in 2004, when legislation prohibited smoking in prison, another currency soon took its place - the "mack" - that is a can of mackerel.

"It's the coin of the realm," says Mark Bailey, who was serving a two-year tax-fraud sentence in connection with a chain of strip clubs he owned. His 'in-house' lawyer, Mr. Levine, who was serving a nine-year term for drug dealing, says he used his macks to get his beard trimmed, his clothes pressed and his shoes shined by other prisoners. "A haircut is two macks," he says, as an expected tip for inmates who work in the prison barber shop.

Prisoners need a proxy for the dollar because they're not allowed to possess cash. Money they get from prison jobs (which pay a maximum of 40 cents an hour, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons) or family members goes into commissary accounts that let them buy things such as food and toiletries. After the smokes disappeared, inmates turned to other items on the commissary menu to use as currency.

A virtual lawyer for small business owners

An online legal service is targeting small business owners who are flustered with filing paperwork but are reluctant to shell out the big bucks for legal help.
Corporation Centre offers a host of services for small businesses in all provinces. Their business model is to try to undercut regular law firms for incorporating businesses, getting GST and provincial tax numbers, applying for trademarks, doing corporate filings and preparing documents to issue shares. The growth of services like this might be useful to small business owners without stockpiles of cash for legal help.
[ NOTE : I don't endorse this agency, I just think it is a great idea. Let me know if it works for you. D ]