Posts by Russell Brown
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We're borrowing $40 billion, cycleways or no. Had Labour been re-elected, they would have had to do much the same. The alternative being massive cuts in govt spending and/or reversing tax cuts/working for families.
Quite -- and that seems to be a fair summary of the IMF's view: "it's a bit of a bugger to have to borrow that much, but you guys are sweet compared to some other countries, so rock on with your bad selves" (I paraphrase).
But the previous government's nous on job creation is hard to knock -- especially considering the half-baked plans on offer from the new one.
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I urge all readers to download all the music they can, especially crap like this, so as to deprive the criminals that create this kind of poop any form of livelihood in order that they starve to an excruciatingly painful death.
I'm not sure that was quite the result they were after ...
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Sorry, I realise though that he was talking about the nested link. I'm more partian to the one I linked to myself, it's the broad point I was trying to make a few pages ago and on another thread.
For sure, Hatherley's style is vastly better than the cluttered, posturing prose of the Bomb Party post he links to.
But the latter falls over somewhat when you read the actual YouTube communication being referred to. It contains virtually none of the claims attributed to it.
I do prefer to see it in terms of what's actually being negotiated than casting it as a culture war from either viewpoint. Neither the PRS or YouTube is evil, they merely have competing interests.
And the issue is not that Google thinks everything should be free -- it's paying considerable sums to PRS already -- it's about what number goes before the percentage sign.
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This may be the wrong time to point out that traditional haiku should have some reference to the seasons.
Not at all. The span from the first game to the final is, I believe, known as "the NRL season".
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Hotties! <ducks>
Dude, ask yourself why chicks watch Grey's Anatomy .
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Ah, but for the voices of dissent.
The literary style of that Bomb Party post has brought me out in hives.
But, really, it's more straightforward, and much more commercial, than all that.
In 2007, PRS won its side of a Copyright Tribunal dispute on internet performance royalty rates with a group of internet companies (iTunes, Yahoo, etc). The principle is the same as that by which PRS and other societies derive rights revenue from commercial radio stations -- as a percentage of those stations' gross revenues.
YouTube was not part of that action, and says the rate confirmed by the tribunal, 6.5% of gross revenues, isn't viable and would see it lose money on every stream.
It may be right -- YouTube isn't exactly a profit centre for Google, and 6.5% may well be more than its margin -- or not.
But the proposed rate is about twice what APRA derives from commercial radio here.
PRS is one of the first collecting societies to do this kind of deal -- and by last year, YouTube rights fees were accounting for about 40% of its transactions -- hence the importance for all sides of this negotiation. It'll be easier once this is done.
I'm not really seeing good and bad guys. It's a hard-nosed commercial negotiation that is very like those that have taken place in the past with traditional broadcasters. As I noted earlier, a similar dispute took music videos off New Zealand TV for a couple of years in the 1980s. I'm guessing this one will be settled sooner.
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Some correctives to the Vanity Fair piece.
I did wonder ...
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You Dunedin people are pervs.
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This morning's take on the cycleway -- now a network!
Mr Key, who is also Minister of Tourism, yesterday remained loyal to the idea of some form of national cycleway to boost jobs and regional development while promoting New Zealand to international visitors.
He said officials were working on options, and he expected reports by the end of the week.
But he acknowledged that paved routes could be expensive and that the cycleway might take another shape than the 3000km of concrete pathway he envisaged after last month's Job Summit.
"I suspect there will be bits of it that are paved and bits of it that won't," he said.
Mr Key denied that an initial cost estimate of $50 million for a national cycleway could be ruled out, saying, "It depends on how you do it, and what you do."
Sweet Jesus.
Also, Geithner plan to get banks lending again is unveiled.
And it appears the policies of recent years haven't been sending New Zealand to the poorhouse after all. Quite the reverse:
New Zealand's economy is tipped by the International Monetary Fund to shrink by 2 per cent this year in the global crisis it has dubbed the Great Recession.
However, fund mission chief for Australia and New Zealand Ray Brooks told The Dominion Post yesterday that New Zealand was relatively better placed than other advanced countries, thanks to its low public debt, sound banks, flexible policies and mix of exports.
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A question: would you be okay with ISPs blocking transactions with allofmp3.com?
I hate that site. It purports to be a legitimate music retailer and takes money in good faith -- but never passes it on. It's a front for Russian organised crime.
TDC, the Danish ISP noted above, was actually forced to block the site by owners.
Or how about every time someone tried to access it, they first had to see an interstitial page saying DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THESE CROOKS. Would that be okay?
Also, I'm on TVNZ 7 news some time after 8m tonight, talking about guess what ...
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