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You don't have to love South Park -- in fact, you can hate it -- but if you live in the free world, you should be willing to defend its right to exist. You should be willing to defend its right to offend, as it does with every episode. That's what free speech is all about. Of course, that free speech also protects those that espouse hate, which South Park does not. (In fact, while it offends, the one thing you can't pin on South Park , is hate. It hates not one. It loves everyone equally, cause it can poke fun at them.) So recently, when South Park aired an episode featuring the Super Best Friends -- namely Buddha, Moses, Joseph Smith, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Muhammad, Jesus and Sea Man (actually, Semen) -- and censored Muhammad's appearance -- he appears in a U-haul truck, then a bear costume, since it might offend Muslims -- they got some hate directed at them. Specifically, revolutionislam.com got their shorts in a knot, and posted quite the diatribe on their ...

The fact that the IDF goes around killing indiscriminately when operating in Palestine, is no new news. It happens -- not necessarily widespread -- but it happens. That top Israeli commanders would order their soldiers to shoot certain people on-site, is not new -- heck, Mossad went to great lengths to assassinate a Hamas official in Dubai. This shit happens. Of course, having it happen, and pretending that it's all rumour, is quite different than having proof that it has happened, and that it was premeditated. That's the case right now with an Israeli journalist, Anat Kamm, under house arrest, for reporting on state secrets that would reveal Israeli commanders to have ordered shooting on-site of top Palestinian fighters in the West Bank. There are those that would argue that the publishing of state secrets is a crime -- should be punished, and should be prevented. But, in a practising democracy, where is the line drawn between what the citizens are allowed to know -- and ...

Google continues to generate news. This time, it's European publishers and regulators looking to corral its business practices. Some of the accusations are ... well ... to put it politely, stupid. The Germans are upset because Google generates more ad revenue than them -- and suggest that Google is manipulating its search results to make more money. Italians are upset that they want to opt out of Google News, but still want high ranking in Google Search. Belgians want Google News to stop linking to them, as they see no value. As I see it, Google is making a lot of money by directing people to what it thinks are relevant search results, news and placing ads to entice people to click. Other than search, how is that different from any other website that provides external links? Am I missing something? in reference to: Google Encounters Antitrust Complaint From German Publishers - NYTimes.com ( view on Google Sidewiki )

The coppers may have gotten to the pirates, but Google plans on freeing your torrents . Take that MPAA and RIAA! Now if only there was something worth pirating from Hollywood. On a related note, I read that some bad souls have launched Operation Public Pirate. It's UK-based, as the culprits have decided to target the music industry by pirating all the number one UK singles from 1952-2007. They've prepared a torrent with all of the songs, and are asking public pirates to download the music, buy a big spindle of DVDs, then burn the music on all the DVDs, and leave them in public places for people to take -- for free.

Another nail in the coffin comes from Vector -- if the MPAA and RIAA want to take a look at Christmas-future, this is a site they should drop by. Vector -- verified torrents -- gives you the straight goods by filtering out fake torrents -- mostly uploaded by the MPAA and RIAA to mess with your pilfering the content of their sponsors. Anyway, enjoy the site. It will be brought down shortly.

Before I read the book, I had seen the documentary based on it -- twice -- and it was every bit as effective -- disturbing, really -- on second viewing. The book, being read a couple of years after seeing the documentary, was chilling. I'm writing about the Corporation by Joel Bakan -- a book that many will regard as being anti-business, anti-globalization -- but I don't see it that way. The book is hardly anti-business. It's hardly anti-anything. It's actually a book that calls on us to exercise the epitomizes of our civil society: democracy, and social responsibility. Both of these however, run directly against the interests of a monster of our own creation: the corporation. Take some of these corporate misdeeds and ask yourself why it happened. Enron 's collapse. Monsanto 's terminator seeds. Blackwater 's creation of a mercenary army. Halliburton 's bilking of the US public funds. How did it come to be that people, working for a business...

Yar har, fiddle di dee, Being a pirate is alright with me! Do what you want '‘cause a pirate is free, You are a pirate! Arr yarr, ahoy and avast, dinky-dink-dink-a-dinkadefast! Hang the black flag At the end of the mast! You are a pirate!

Check out Radiohead's House of Cards video ... fully interactive, on Google.

There's something sinister afoot in Canada . The federal government is working secretly to sign on with the Europeans to protect the interests of the RIAA and MPAA. If an agreement is reached, copyright protection enforcement would fall to border protection authorities -- you know -- the same people who screen you at airports and stop the shipments of gay & lesbian literature at the border. Border guards would have the authority to inspect laptops, mp3 players, cellphones and other digital devices, to look for copyrighted material. Even if you bought the material legally, or own original discs, the border guards could take your device away and destroy it. Instead of ensuring our nation is protected, the government is working to ensure that the outdated business model of RIAA and MPAA members are protected -- at the detriment to you. Whoever came up with this dumbass idea must have spent one hour too many listening to really loud Metallica music.

South Park fans, rejoice. MTV Networks now has every South Park episode available online , uncensored, and for free. This is how media should be available to the masses. And you know what? People will still fork out money for the DVDs.

Censorship of the internet is a growing problem worldwide, and is growing in favour in developed nations , where those charged with fighting terrorism, repeatedly bleat for the suppression of the internet -- for the filtering and monitoring of sites their citizens visit. For now, internet censorship may be far from our minds, but when does it move from the fighting terrorism to the prohibiting of free speech? Censorship around the world is orchestrated by a few -- those in power, usually authoritarian regimes -- who decide that citizens would be harmed if they were exposed to information about religion, sexuality, culture and worse, politics. The concern for these regimes is only for the preservation of their status quo. A servile populace can only remain obedient if they are ignorant and live in fear. The promise of the internet as a vehicle of social change is a frightening prospect for repressive regimes -- and those within our country, who fear change. The world shrinks with...

I've come across the garden variety video sites in my travels on the internet, and they are the usual fare. Only a few cater exclusively to original content from filmmakers that I would want to see. Today I came across a site that hosts films I definitely want to see. Isuma.tv is a Nunavut based video site for and by indigenous peoples from around the world, founded by the producers of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen . It's a site with a noble goal -- to try and get indigenous stories, told by indigenous peoples, to a wider audience -- even if you don't understand the language of the films. The site also restores old videos and digitize them for the internet age, ensuring their preservation for future generations. The site's content comes from filmmakers who wish to share their creation, free, to the world. In return for allowing Isuma.tv to hosts their films, the site links to sites where the films can be purchased. The site asks...

I've been aware of GlobalAware for sometime now and was reminded today that I wanted to give them a spot on the blog. GlobalAware is a Canadian collective pursuing the noble goal of environmental justice and social change. They provide media services to charities, non-profits and ethical businesses, as well as champion campaigns for change. Check them out. They do some great work, and you may have some skills they could use. Together, we can all make a difference.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Or when it falls apart really bad, and publicly for a scorned organization? In their battle against media pirates, movie studios and record companies have placed great store in MediaDefender -- a company that has been employing some nasty tactics to fight bittorrent traffic on the internet. MediaDefender however, just got a nasty surprise. It was outted on the internet by the very same protocol it sold itself as trouncing. It appears that a whole lot of internal MediaDefender emails have been made available via bittorrent. The leaked emails apparently came from an employee that forwarded most of his emails to his gmail account, which got hacked by a group called MediaDefender-Defender. The emails reveal some disturbing practices by MediaDefender -- including entrapment activities that posted torrent files to lure surfers. Bittorrent users are now having a good laugh.

LibriVox is a cool site for both the literati and the podcasters. The site's mission is the "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." For the podcast generation, this is one great community powered project aimed at introducing books in the public domain to those who would not otherwise indulge and engage their minds. In addition to providing free audio books, the project also looks for volunteers who would like to lend their voices to the cause. If you fancy yourself an orator, love books and have some free time to spare, check out the site and volunteer.

The latest on intellectual property protection south of the border, comes courtesy of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Administration. They are seeking to ensure that their friends of the old guard can continue to milk profits from content, regardless of fair use rights. Copyright infringement is already against the law, but Gonzales is now proposing that attempting to commit piracy should also be a crime, punishable by America law. Considering that close to 80% of internet traffic is from file sharing activities -- and just making a wild guess to say that at least half of those people are partaking in copyright infringement, exposes a whole lot of people to potential jail time. Is it just me, or is there a huge disconnect with reality on the part of the Bush Administration and their business supporters? Believe it or not, a whole lot of people aren't looking for jail time, but neither are looking for draconian measures on how they can consume content they'...

If you've been keeping tabs on democratic process south of the border, you'd rapidly be coming to the conclusion that democracy is in decline. In the country that holds itself up to the world as an example of rule by the people , the United States of America has done an awful job of living up to the basics, let alone the idealism it seeks to inspire. From the debacle of the last election, to the abuses of the Bush Administration and the wars the country has fought -- including the secret ones -- America has really been a terrible disappointment. Now the hoedown has started again, as candidates from the Republicans and Democrats, test the waters of presidential candidacy -- and what little hope there may have been for change, is slowly morphing into yet another disappointment. The impartial media has been weighing in on candidates, and with their subtle machinations, continuing the sacking of democracy. Candidates are who the media portray them to be. Case in point, Al Go...