Sweden is at centre of the technology world this week, with a major court case happening in Stockholm between some of the world’s largest media companies (Warner Bros, MGM, EMI, Colombia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG and Universal), and the world’s largest bit torrent site, The Pirate Bay.

What’s At Issue?
According to torrentfreak.com the charges being put forward can be best summarized as “commercial copyright infringement”. Serving bit torrent files on their site since 2003, The Pirate Bay have gathered some 22 million users, however they never host any media on their servers, only torrent links to those sharing files. Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Peter Sunde Carl Lundstroem, are thus pleading not guilty – but if this doesn’t work out for them, face up to two years in prison and 10 million euros worth of fines.

The Pirate Bay describe the trial as being ‘against the largest cultural distribution ever present in history’, and naturally are approaching the event with their their typical flair for public relations. Dubbing the trial a ‘Spectrial’, they’ve parked their touring Pirate Bay bus outside the court, have organised parties ( chip tune guru Goto80 who lived in Melbourne for a year is playing at one of them ), and are sending live twitter feeds from the court house ( and are successfully encouraging big use of the #spectrial tag to create attention ). According to The Swedish Pirate Party, The Pirate Bay “scares” the establishment:

“They are fighting tooth-and-nail to bring back the good old days, where there was a hard division into approved senders and passive consumer receivers, where the approved senders would compete for the wallet of the consumers. Essentially, they are trying to turn the internet into a cable TV network”.

Over @ Wired magazine, Ira Rothken, a California lawyer argued that because The Pirate Bay doesn’t host any infringing material, the case against them is going to be difficult:
“If you’re going to indict a torrent search engine, in essence, what you are doing is indicting Google. And everybody agrees with the social utility of Google,” he said.

Steal This Film 2.5
‘The League of Noble Peers’ earlier released a pair of films exploring the contemporary tensions within file sharing ( stealthisfilm.com ), and although they are currently making a third, based around the current Pirate Bay trial, they’ve just released a trial version 2.5 of their film-in-progress, to help give background for the case, which features the lead-up to the trial and re-enactments of police interviews with The Pirate Bay.

Elsewhere on the Swedish Web
http://swededfilms.com/films.html hosts a range of ‘Sweded films’, a phrase made popular during Michel Gondry’s ‘Be Kind Rewind’, referring to homemade versions of famous films ( or in the film plot – in the VHS store the remade tapes are described as having come from Sweden as an excuse for higher rental fees and longer wait times). Sample Sweded films? Karate Kid, Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Case Finishes in Three Weeks Time
Although the prison sentence is a serious outcome the defendants face, the case is unlikely to alter file sharing habits online. As Fred von Lohmann puts it (himself an Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney who specializes in copyright law) :

“During Prohibition, you could bust people for running a still, but you were not going to take the alcohol away from the people,” said . “If Pirate Bay goes down, it will be replaced in popularity tomorrow by somebody else.”

Recent tragic events may cast a light on another, related, Australian problem : our water crisis.

First Up
An utterly tragic chapter, the bushfires speed, scale and ferocity left a trail of unfathomable horrors. Many people have endured incomprensible suffering and the burden of these fires will be felt for a long time to come. Everyone effected deserves the utmost support, and thankfully the offers of help have been pouring generously. Donate money, blood or time.

Where To From Here?
Even as fires still burn, and the threat of further scorching weather looms, many are asking what can be done to prevent this in the future? Others are asking whether we could’ve prevented these fires in the first place? Over at New Matilda, Ben Eltham, cites bushfire experts warning in advance of dangerous fuel load build-up in areas effected, and discusses the complexities of being prepared on the world’s most fire prone continent. The Royal Commission will shed further light on what could’ve been done better, but the trajectories of temperature records, and the projected conditions for the next 20 years suggest preparations for the future need to be considered now.

This is not lost on those at the frontline – the United Firefighters Union of Australia has written an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Victorian Premier John Brumby, on behalf of Australia’s 13,000 firefighters, arguing that ‘Australia is at risk of more tragedies such as the Victorian bushfires if the Federal Government does not reassess its approach to global warming’. Secretary Peter Marshall points out the Government’s own CSIRO report, which shows that under a high global warming scenario “catastrophic events are predicted to occur every year in Mildura and firefighters have been warned to expect up to a 230 per cent increase in extreme danger fire days in Bendigo” alone, and argues it is the current climate conditions which is allowing the fires to spread so far.
“What used to be a fire that could have been contained to a small area, we’re going to see evolve into a wildfire like we’ve seen in Victoria and that’s going to be a regular occurrence.”

( MilkWood Farm, bless their socks, have posted a range of links about using fire retardant trees to grow food around a bush property … )

The Water Context
Australia is the driest continent in the world, yet uses the highest amount of water per capita ( acf.org.au ). Most of the continent is desert or semi-arid land, and water restrictions are currently in place in many regions and cities of Australia in response to chronic shortages resulting from drought. Adelaide is building a huge ( very energy intensive ) desalination plant to meet it’s water supply demands by 2010. Perth, according to Tim Flannery ( Australian of the year in 2007 ), could become the world’s first ghost metropolis, an abandoned city with no more water to sustain its population, unless it made drastic changes. And Melbourne? With water supplies for the city currently 32% full, the recent bushfires add even more pressure, as forested water catchment areas that are regrowing from the fires will soak up much more water than previously.

Peak Water?
Peak water is reached when the rate at which water is demanded is higher than the rate at which the supply is replenished. Already cities such as Dubai have passed this point, and must import their water. Australia’s cities are at serious risk of following the same path, and intensity of the recent bushfires serve as a reminder of the dry continent’s conditions. There is a vast amount of water on the planet but sustainably managed water is becoming scarce. Although it seems counterintuitive, the world’s supply of fresh water is running out. Already one person in five has no access to safe drinking water. If present trends continue, 1.8 billion people will be living with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two thirds of the world population could be subject to water stress.

Your Water Footprint?
People need 2.5 litres of water a day to drink, but considering other needs such as cooking, bathing and laundry, accepted water consumption per person is 150 litres a day ( Australians use 285 litres per day, Turkish 111, Africans 67 ). Over at waterfootprint.org you can calculate the water required to produce the goods and services consumed by you, entering details about diet, transport, household habits, to come up with a rough guide for your water consumption. I got a total water footprint of 935 cubic metres per year – the bulk of which was contributed to by food it seemed, which surprised me. Vegetarians have a significantly lower water footprint than meat eaters ( growing 1kg of potatoes need 100 litres of water, 1 kg of beef requires 13 000 litres), but each of our food choices carry with them a range of water demands.

Whether the Government is listening to the Firefighters union at the moment remains to be seen, but minimising climate change and worsening drought conditions are hopefully something they are thinking more seriously about ( as well as more efficient water use strategies ).

Nobody showcases the diversity of character design better than Pictoplasma, so another DVD of 200+ minutes = double plus good.

Shuffling Pixels in Berlin
Yeah, another bunch of laptoppers in Berlin, who’d have thought? Aside from the DVDs though, Pictoplasma have maintained a character design archive since 1999, and organise annual conferences ( Berlin, NY, Argentina etc ), all dedicated to exploring contemporary character design, and ‘the importance of contemporary characters in today’s visual understanding’. Which’d maybe suggest an overdose of puffy vinyl toys, or cutesy cartoon creatures, but thankfully their approach is much wider than that.

Characters In Rhythm

Although the disc is organised into 3 sections, for the most part the clips could’ve fit easily everyone of the sections, generally being a music video of some sort, or short film, the character(s) displayed inevitably following some kind of narrative arc, exploiting the rhythms and unreal world motions that animation allows. Plenty of highlights in this section anyway. Daniel Garcia’s clip for TV on the Radio ( whose recent shows in oz sold out far too early ), featured gorgeous model set design, within which a meek bird-human of felt(?) feathers gets to unfold it’s personality, framed from a range of nicely composed angles, foregrounded tree branches often hiding part of the character. Imery Watson’s ‘Sloup’ presents a train-window view of a landscape passing by, complete with the ebb and flow of electrical power lines. Her visual punchline is satisfying though, as the tall electric power towers begin to run of their own accord. Nicely executed, and similarly well framed, nicely subdued animation. Others of merit include the well celebrated ‘War Photographer’ by Joel Trussell ( keywords : viking, flash ), and the ultra-minimal and macabre graphic stylings of Motomichi Nakamura for his Knife clip : ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’.

Characters In Motion

Gangpol Und Mit get a mention here, not because this piece showcased here is necessarily their best work, but because they are a relentlessly inventive pair of audiovisualists, deserving of more credit. Not that the piece showcased here is terrible, it’s just not the best example of their demented lateral excursions into flash geometry and alternative realities. 1st Ave Machine’s jaw dropping and photo realistic mutant plant 3d animations are included as well, their sublime combination of outdoor video footage blended with organic otherworldly mechanical plants losing none of it’s power despite the clip’s saturation online.

Characters In Narration

George Gendi’s ‘Middle Dog Gets Angry’ is a delightfully tender portrayal of a world where neurotic whippets and humans share the same bodies, all personality conveyed with simple emotive illustration styles. Ben Hibon’s ‘Codehunters’? Stunning work – think Manga meets Jim Jarmusch’s b+w characters in Dead Man. Guilherme Marcondes manages to bend 3d animation into a more transcendent place than most. And Wayne Horse ( would’ve been a fun name at school), gives us ‘Tell Tales’, the large cardboard heads of real people in an apartment, providing the perfect canvas for animating facial reactions in an unfolding drama.

Coming Up?
The third Pictoplasma conference in Berlin March 2009, presumably another DVD, and plenty of time exploring the gallery at their site.

(And thanks to wunderkid Jaana from betamag.ee for the disc! )

Flying, frying, trying in space.

Flying In Space
So it turns out the Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, or rather their cremated remains, will be rocket-launched into space next year, via Celestis Inc, a company that specialises in “memorial spaceflights”. Gene, was of course, the creator of Star Trek, and his complex and beautiful relationship with Majel was explored deeply in a book written during the final years of his life by Yvonne Fern, ‘Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation’. In this book, Yvonne, a former nun steeped in religious knowledge but not bound by it, and Gene explored the meaning of life during his last years, intensely discussing, debating and provoking, trying to push each other through to some new understanding. It’s an enchanting and at times enlightening read, even for non-Trekkies like myself, with quite a few weird provocations floating about near the end. And now, appropriately, Gene and Majel are floating in space, forever heading further away from earth.

Meanwhile…
Back on the watery blue ball, it’d seem we are frying in space. At the time of writing Melbourne is going through a heatwave, which means a week of temperatures above 40 degrees celsius. In that same week, blue ball studiers, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced the results of a study : whatever increases in CO2 that occur from 2000 to 2100 are set to “lock in” a sea level rise over the next 1,000 years. ( Going back a step : Before the industrial age CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere amounted to only 280 parts per million, and thanks to our use of fossil fuels in that last little mechanical flurry, we currently have 385 parts per million.) The scientists argued that even when we manage to stabilise the quantity of C02, whatever the rate, this will still mean that changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are “largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after CO2 emissions are completely stopped.” In other words, the longer we take to stabilise, the worse the effects that will be suffered over the next millenium.

And So…
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996 to develop the Millennium Clock & Library Projects and promote long term thinking, and yes that’s a 5 digit number to represent the year, because they’re already thinking about the next equivalent of the millenium bug ( Remember that monster?). They do actually have a few interesting projects up their sleeves though, most notably plans to build a monument scale, multi-millenial all mechanical clock, which would move and make a noise every year, every decade, every hundred years and every thousand years. Californian computer scientist Danny Hillis was behind that idea, and to date they’ve built a prototype which is now at the Science museum in London, and are investigating a Nevada desert property as the location for the public 10,000 year clock.

Despite belief in the permanence of digital storage, it is actually very difficult and complex to securely store information digitally for use in the distant future ( as so many truckloads of obsolete disks, hard drives and computers testify ). To counter this, the Long Now are pursuing the idea of a 10,000 year library:
“In a sense every library is part of the 10,000-year Library, so Long Now is developing tools (such as the Rosetta Disk, The Long Viewer the Long Server) that may provide inspiration and utility to the whole community of librarians and archivists.”

Also inspired by the long term, they’ve started The Rosetta Project, a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers building a publicly accessible online archive of ALL documented human languages. Their site currently hosts the largest collection of linguistic data on the Net, featuring over 2,376 different languages.

Or : a shift from continuously bookmarking things about twitter, to actually writing about it.

Vat Ist Twitter?
It’s a microblogging service, with the same character limit as an SMS. You can send an SMS from your phone, or a message from a desktop app, or a browser exension, and this gets added to your public timeline eg twitter.com/your_name. By subscribing to various friends, artists and organisations, a continuous feed of their daily updates can be viewed, and messages can be sent directly between users. Think of it as the status updating feed from all your Facebook friends, without any of the other bits that come with Facebook.

Or as people who have studied it at university say :
“Twitter is a social messaging service that allows users to stay connected to other users, despite geographic differences, through instant updates of the everyday minutia and activities of their friend’s daily lives.

Twitter is a tool that allows users to have some sense of where and what their friends and family in their social network are up to. It’s a manner of establishing and maintaining a connection without geographic proximity to prevent isolation in an increasingly mediated world. The immediacy of response establishes a presence that may not have been otherwise acknowledged.”

How Crap Is It?
If Facebook friend updates annoy you, steer clear of twitter. On the other hand, if you like the idea of stepping out of the FB walled garden, and having a permalink connected to each of your updates, so you can refer to them, can refer to others, so conversations can develop, and like the idea of being able to receive key updates from important people via computer or SMS, then maybe it’s worth a look.

From this simple set-up, quite a range of behaviours and possibilities are emerging. Media hounds and news junkies are finding it fantastic for discovering breaking news. Friends are using it to get quick responses on whether a certain movie or band is worth catching. Twitter users have staged a mock Martian Invasion (ala ‘War of the Worlds’, the Orson Welles radio play that caused widespread panic when it was broadcast). Groups are using to it organise gatherings. Some are posting the Ulysses novel bit by bit, others are creating ‘nanofiction’ for the 140 character limit. Send URLs of interest straight from a Firefox browser, or send messages from Second Life. Got a question you just can’t find the answer for, but suspect one of your friends knows? Post a twitter message, and answers are usually pretty quick.

Popular twitter-folk : twitter.com/MarsPhoenix ( a regular series of updates written in the voice of the robot exploring mars recently ), /snoopdogg, /Brian_Eno, /StephenColbert, /algore, /MCHammer, /WilliamShatner, /stevewozniak etc etc

Twitter Tips?
1. Gather a big list of contacts, this makes a huge difference. Twitter isn’t about reading every single message, but having a stream of messages flowing that are continuously related to current time. When you feel curious, dip in, see what people are writing / doing / recommending / asking etc etc. Grab what you need, and dip out.
Find people : http://search.twitter.com/, http://www.twingly.com/microblogsearch, http://www.celebritytweet.com, http://www.Tweetag.com/, http://twitterusergroup.com ( has groups and meetups for sydney, melbourne, canberra, brisbane, etc etc )

2. Get a desktop Twitter app. This doesn’t mean you have to leave it turned on all the time and drown in the musings of the masses, but means you are much more likely to get benefits from it, instead of going to your twitter.com/username webpage. The desktop apps also allow you to group friends together, separate more personal messages, and generally organise the information flow better in a convenient interface.

Find apps here : www.twapps.com
Arranged in categories of desktop ( mac, pc, linux ), firefox plug-ins, and other web-apps.

3. Try Some Twitter Extensions :
mrtweet.net – looks at your account, and recommends people for you to connect with.
www.tweetdeck.com – aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.
ping.fm – updates your twitter account, facebook, myspace, etc etc dozens of places in one go..
friendfeed.com

4. Play with your settings so you can send and receive messages from your phone, maybe filtered so you are only receiving the important folk you need.

5. Play with # hashtags :
Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.
eg a post with #Obama takes u to a page http://www.hashtags.org/tag/obama that shows all the recent posts with that hashtag.
twitter.com/jean_poole