Yunupingu

I was very sad to hear of the passing of Yunupingu today. He was the leader sing of the Indigenous Australian band Yothu Yindi. Their most famous song, Treaty, called on the Australian Government to formalise land ownership and rights in this country. Sadly that is still yet to be done. Here is the YouTube clip of Treaty - Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders are warned that this may contain images of the deceased. One love people.

Bono on Activism - Charlie Rose Interview

I havent had a chance to watch this yet but it looks absolutely fascinating:

Dizzee Rascal - Goin' Crazy ft. Robbie Williams

Dizzee Rascal and Robbie Williams openly support Mega Upload.

JBT Seed Grant

The John Butler Seed Grant is available for emerging musicians in Australia. There are a number of programs under which to apply including: Art on the Street, Professional Development, Money for Managers, and Publicise it. Skinny Fish, Bush Bands Business and Song Cycles Inbound Project. Take a look at the website for more information.

New TPP Petition

Open Media have a new petition against TPP. They state that TPP is the biggest threat to the Internet and threatens to criminalise the use of common websites including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and even blogs.

"Normal online activities “could lead you to be cut off from the Internet, have your computer seized, be fined up to $150,000, or even land you in prison.”³This agreement threatens to rewrite national laws around the world. This is happening fast – twelve countries are already on board. A man named Michael Froman has just been appointed the U.S.’s new TPP chief negotiator.Michael Froman now has the unique ability to either put this secretive, global Internet criminalization plan to an end – or cement it into place for generations. Sign the petition to send him a messagenow, and share this with everyone!"

You can find the petition here - please sign it!

Serious Comedy: Tripod

ANZAC Day in Australia. Remembering war. Like this band - check out their name. ;)

Off The Grid

I've started a new job working at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium of Music, and am having a little time off this space at the moment. Should be back into things in a few weeks perhaps around mid May - hopefully sooner.

Sal

The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook

Infojustice.org have released a free book called The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook. It extracts the fair dealing/fair use provisions of over 40 countries in one handy pdf! It is licensed under a Creative Commons license, check it out here:

http://infojustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Band-and-Gerafi-04032013.pdf

Defective by Design: W3C, DRM, HTML5

The 3rd May 2013 is the International Day against DRM. Defective by Design, a group from the Free Software Foundation, are asking people to mobilise and get involved in lobbying against the inclusion of DRM in HTML5. They state:

Hollywood is at it again. Its latest ploy to take over the Web? Use its influence at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to weave Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into HTML5 — in other words, into the very fabric of the Web. Millions of Internet users came together to defeat SOPA/PIPA, but now Big Media moguls are going through non-governmental channels to try to sneak digital restrictions into every interaction we have online. Giants like Netflix, Google, Microsoft, and the BBC are all rallying behind this disastrous proposal, which flies in the face of the W3C's mission to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential."

We're not going to let this slip through under the radar. More than 9,200 people have already signed this petition to stop DRM in HTML5. Join them and help us build momentum to reach 50,000 signers by May 3rd, 2013, the International Day Against DRM. We'll drive the message home by delivering your signatures to the W3C (they're right down the street from us!) to make your voices heard.

Sign the petition here. 

You can find out more about Defective by Design here and more about the issue from Electronic Frontiers Foundation here.