My father, Allan Geske, is a master printmaker.
Please explore his new website allangeske.ca:
Previous on Stungeye: Show + Tell - a group exhibition at the University of Winnipeg.
My father, Allan Geske, is a master printmaker.
Please explore his new website allangeske.ca:
Previous on Stungeye: Show + Tell - a group exhibition at the University of Winnipeg.
Farm Fresh Farmers’ Markets in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
| Location | Contact | Phone | Day of Week | Time | Start Date | End Date | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange District | Lisa Holowchuk | 942-6716 | Saturday | 9 am - 2 pm | July 5 | Sept 27 | Parking lot on corner of Main & McDermott Avenue |
| FortWhyte Alive | Debbie Thiessen | 895-2373 | Tuesday | noon - 6 pm | July 8 | Sept 23 | FortWhyte Alive Centre (Winnipeg) |
| Thursday | noon - 6 pm | July 3 | Sept 25 | ||||
| Lower Fort Garry | Sharon Menheer | 785-8577 | Friday | 3 pm - 8 pm | Sept 5, one day only | n/a | Lower Fort Garry National Historical Site parking lot |
| Osborne Village | Kaeley Wiseman | 290-3349 | Thursday | 4 pm - 8 pm | June 26 | Sept 25 | Gas Station Theatre on River Avenue & Osborne Street |
| Pineridge Hollow | Pat Herman | 444-3280 | Saturday | 9 am - 1 pm | July 5 | Sept 20 | Off Garven Rd on Heatherdale Rd - Bird’s Hill |
| Le Marche St. Norbert | Ed Deen | 275-8349 | Saturday | 8 am - 3 pm | June 7 | Oct 11 | 3514 Pembina Hwy - 1 km south of Perimeter on Hwy 75 |
| Wednesday | 1 pm - 7 pm | July 2 | Aug 27 | ||||
| Transcona BIZ | Laura Harke | 222-8566 | Thursday | 11 am - 4 pm | July 24 | Sept 4 | 139 Regent Avenue West |
| West Broadway | Jennifer Neufeld or Tammy Klos | 774-7201 ext 6 | Thursday | 4 pm - 6 pm | June 26 | Sept 25 | Klinic Community Health Centre - 545 Broadway Avenue |
| Winnipeg (Red River) | Darryl Ruston | 888-6990 | Saturday | 9 am - 2 pm | July 26 | Sept 20 | Red River Exhibition Park - 3977 Portage Avenue & Perimeter Hwy |
“A ferocious debate between NDP Member of Parliament Charlie Angus and Tory Minister of Industry Jim Prentice. At issue was Canada’s new copyright law, Bill C61, the Canadian DMCA.”
In my last post on Canadian copyright I discussed the digital lock (DRM) provisions of this proposed copyright bill. The bill appears to give Canadians certain personal copying rights, but all of these rights are revoked if the media you wish to copy includes a digital lock. (For example, all DVDs include digital locks.)
In the video clip, “Angus asks the Minister why he is granting legal protection to DRM (Digital Locks), even when that DRM overrules the copyright freedoms being guaranteed under the bill. The Minister refused to answer the question — he just kept shouting that his law allows for backups and format-shifting, refusing to say anything about how the DRM rules make all those rights moot.”
The “Minister of 8-tracks” barb stems from the fact that the personal copying provisions in the bill would have been very welcome in the 70s and 80s, before digital locks were invented.
(Quotes via BoingBoing)
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Canadian law professor Michael Geist has been blogging a series of possible scenarios where Bill 61 would make criminals of average Canadian citizens:
]]>On the surface it appears to contain a number of provisions for personal use and fair dealing. It seems to allow for “time shifting” (recording a tv show to watch later), “format shifting” (copying media from analogue to digital format), and private copying of music (copying from a cd to a mp3 player). However, all of these rights disappear if the media in question contains digital locks.
Digital locks (often referred to as DRM) are already in place on all DVDs and are in wide-spread use on digital music files, Ebooks, CDs and digital television broadcasts. Not only would these digital lock provisions allow corporations to revoke our personal-use rights, they would also revoke our right to copy for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, and news reporting.
The bill’s “anti-circumvention provisions” would criminalize any attempt to circumvent digital locks. Although exceptions have been made for privacy, people with sight and hearing disabilities, and security, these exceptions are worthless since the tools needs to pick the digital locks would be banned. Creation of new tools to pick digital locks would also be against the law.
Digital locks are also used to cripple the functionality of cellphones and other electronic devices. For me, this hits close to home. I teach a mobile programming course at Red River College. Because of the locks in place on the majority of cellphones, my students are unable to test their programming creations on real phones. Some students have figured out how to circumvent the locks on their phones in order to run their programs. This bill would make them criminals.
The bill’s exceptions for libraries and educational use are laughable.
All educational exceptions are revoked for digitally locked media. Copying and pasting from a locked Ebook for a book report would therefore be a criminal act. Also, any internet or video-based lectures that contained copyrighted material (covered under the educational exceptions) would have to be destroyed at the end of the school year. The forced re-development of course material will put unnecessary strains on an education system that is increasingly reliant on internet and video course delivery.
The exceptions for libraries are equally restrictive. Any digital media lent out by a library would have to ‘self-destruct/erase’ within 5 days. Librarians would also have to police the use and further distribution of this media. Not only are these requirement a technical and financial burden on libraries, they also stand in opposition to a library’s function as a hub for the sharing and distribution of knowledge.
What is even more ridiculous is that the conservative government has now gone on the record saying they likely won’t enforce much of the copyright legislation. Instead they would encourage corporations to enforce the regulations through litigation. For example, parents of children who share music online could be sued for up to $20,000 per song. This type of copyright litigation is already widely practiced in the U.S.
Speaking of which, Canada is also facing U.S. pressure to sign on to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at the G8 submit this fall. Under this agreement the policing of the new copyright act would include border guards searching iPods and laptops for infringing media, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) spying on the internet activities of their customers.
The act of copying copyrighted media in Canada is already illegal, there is little sense in making it more illegal. There is little sense in promoting widespread American-style copyright enforcement through litigation. There is little sense in making provisions for personal use and fair-dealings, only to have corporations decide if Canadians can make use of these rights. And there is little sense in tabling copyright amendments that go against several Supreme Court decisions on the role of copyright in Canada (see below).
For information on how to stop these proposed amendments read Michael Geist’s The Canadian DMCA: A Betrayal.
The Supreme Court declared in Theberge v. Galerie d’Art du Petit Champlain (2002):
“Excessive control by holders of copyrights and other forms of intellectual property may unduly limit the ability of the public domain to incorporate and embellish creative innovation in the long-term interests of society as a whole, or create practical obstacles to proper utilization.”
The court also noted:
“Once an authorized copy of a work is sold to a member of the public, it is generally for the purchaser, not the author, to determine what happens to it.”
In 2004, in CCH v. Law Society of Upper Canada, the Supreme Court was even more explicit about the importance of users’ rights.
]]>The National Post has reported that the act may include the following provisions:
When used in the context of copyright “time shift” is a fancy way of saying “record a show in order to watch it later”. So it may soon be illegal to record your favourite TV show.
There may also be a $500 fine for each illegal file shared online.
These amendments are a direct result of US political pressure led by the lobbyists for the major US media corporations. In bowing to this pressure our conservative government shows once again that they neither understand nor care about our culture or our rights.
All works of art and technology build on previous works. Locking down our culture along with our digital tools is a grievous error. Each and every year it gets easier to copy information. It is what humans do, we propagate information, we copy, we share, we appropriate, we imitate, we innovate, we remix, we collaborate.
More information:
Previously on StungEye:
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.” —Pablo Picasso ;)
]]>We started with Cafe Americanos and some tasty treats at the Pastry Castle. A group of ladies from out of town asked us where they could find souvenirs. We sent then across the street to the Keepsake Gallery.
After our coffee we walked over to Mayberry Fine Art and then on to Ragpickers Anti-Fashion Emporium. The second floor of Ragpickers houses a wonderful collection of (mainly non-fiction) used books. (I gravitate to their philosophy section). I picked up the Manticore (Robertson Davies); Godel, Escher, Bach (Douglas R. Hofstadter) and two books from Issac Asimov’s Foundation series.
Antiques and Funk is just around the block, and there I bought a lovely old Gillette razor.
A short stroll in the rain and we found ourselves at the Yellow Dog Tavern. Draft beer (especially Half Pints) seems to taste best when drank at the Yellow Dog.
After a delicious sushi dinner in the village Wasabi we were ushered off the street into Music Trader by Pete Samples and John Ward. They played whimsical music for us, blew bubbles from plastic ice-cream cone dispensers, and even performed a magic trick.
Oh, and I shaved the mustache. The “Chaplin” also paid us a visit.
]]>The first letter dealt with Canada’s involvement with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as reported on May 24th in the Winnipeg Free Press.
More on the ACTA:
In my second letter I ask Mrs. Neville to support the Net Neutrality private member’s bill (C-552) introduced by NDP MP Charlie Angus.
More on Net Neutrality in Canada:
Previously on StungEye:
]]>Some sobering stats:
The world’s population has nearly doubled since the first earth day in 1970 [Related].
“The richest 225 humans on earth have more wealth than the poorest 2.5 billion people combined, and the richest 20 percent of humans on earth account for 86 percent of consumption and on average make over $25,000/year. Meanwhile, 1.2 billion people make less than $1/day and over half the world makes less than $2/day. Humans produce more than enough food to feed everyone in the world, but at least 800 million people are starving.
In 2004, worldwide military expenditures were $950 billion. (StungEye Note: Canadian defence spending for 2008 is expected to reach $18.9 billion.) In that same year, Worldwatch estimated that it would cost just $12 billion for reproductive health care for all women, $19 billion for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition, $10 billion for clean drinking water for all, and $13 billion to immunize every child in the world from common major diseases.” — From Anti-Teaching an article by Michael Wesch on the crisis of significance in education.
It’s time to shut down the military-industrial complex and focus on education, sustainability, hunger, poverty and peaceful co-existence.
And to balance those stats, a feel-good commercial:
]]>Meme Madness:
A young Osama Bin Laden on a family vacation in Sweden?
The US Military-Industrial Complex continues to eye Iran as its next target. Visit the photoblog Life goes on in Tehran for a glimpse of Persian culture and daily life. “Mission Statement: To show that regardless of what any president would have you imagine, despite what any media outlet would have you believe, life goes on in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran.”
Have you heard about the battle for Net Neutrality? Props to the federal NDP for their progressive stance on this issue as the debate heats up in Canada.
RoBlocks are like robot-building Lego.
Buying the full version of The Graveyard adds only one feature, the possibility of death. “You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song. It’s more like an explorable painting than an actual game.”
When I was a young lad my dentist had an office in the Wosley neighbourhood. There was a bookstore a few doors down from his office. In this bookstore I saw a book of pictures, photos of painted hands. I’m not sure if we eventually brought this book home, but I have vivid memories of the hand creatures.
Assume the Position [video]: As American as gay battle anthems.
A few weeks ago I discovered James P. Carse’s book, Finite and Infinite Games [video] at the Fort Garry Library.
Two Views: Machu Picchu, Toulouse
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Quickies:
* * *
Use the “Download Original” link or stream it from the player (it’s the bottom track).
2007: Parental Mix
2006: Look Up! Get Down!
2005: Astro Mix
2004: Back and Forth
I’m not a pirate, I just grog a lot.
]]>“Well, if you don’t want to be bamboozled, led down the primrose path, conned or duped; if you don’t want to have the wool pulled over your eyes, hoodwinked, taken for a ride, or railroaded, then welcome to The Way of Yo. If for you, “seeing is believing,” then maybe you are one of us.”
The introduction page for the Ten Sacred Principles of The Way of Yo shows a scanned copy of the US declaration of independence while the Leonard Cohen song “Democracy is coming to the USA.” plays.
Building their religion with an The Open Source Truth Processan emerging that was developed by Yoans working with students and faculty at The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
“Grandfather, look at our brokenness. We know that in all creation only the human family has strayed from the Sacred Way. We know that we are the ones who are divided and we are the ones who must come back together to walk in the Sacred Way. Grandfather, Sacred One, teach us love, compassion, and honor that we may heal the earth and heal each other.” (The Ojibway people of Canada quoted as being Yoan Saints.)
They appear to be employing subtle hypnotism.
theglutton
