More on Sam Bulte and other Pernicious Politicians

Further to my last post, check out this huge steamer that Sam Bulte dropped. She's been caught lying and now she's threatening to sue Professor Michael Geist... Poor Sam.

I actually hope she does, because Geist appears to be speaking the truth, whereas Bulte is clearly a lying politician who takes money from entertainment industry as recompense for delivery of pro industry, anti user legislation. The resulting media circus would only serve to drag her through the mud and create public debate over both digital rights issues and special interest lobbying.

It's corruption like Bulte's that has brought the Liberal Party of Canada to its knees--you can't tell me that the Liberals would be in this mess without the sponsorship scandal. Frankly, it wouldn't be a bad thing for the Liberals to fall, but they're going to be replaced by the fiscally questionable, anti gay, anti abortionist, pro war, pro Bush Stephen Harper and his merry band of power hungry, right wingers. I'll say one thing: the Liberals are largely responsible for the strong Canadian economy we're currently experiencing, and I don't think that Harper and company have the experience or the wisdom to manage the economy, effectively lower taxes and increase services. Last time someone promised me this I got stuck with a drunk driver at the wheel of my province, Gordon Campbell. And yes, Campbell is responsible for a world of increased service fees, lower minimum wage (dubbed training wage), dramatically increasing the number of people living on the streets, and yes, tax cuts, but they mostly only help a the very rich and corporate interests.

Digital Freedom

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been doing good work for some time now protecting individuals from heavy-handed copyright legislation, questionable litigation and pernicious digital rights management (DRM) practices. Certainly, things look grim in the States where the EFF seems to focus the bulk of its resources, but rights are being eroded in Canada too, and for some time we've needed a user organization to provide a counterpoint to corporate special interests. This has become highly salient with the recent news (spread all over Boing Boing) about Liberal Sam Bulte (currently seeking re-election) who accepts large sums of money from the entertainment industry and then promotes legislation that subverts public interests in favor of her corporate pals.

As such, I'm pleased to see that an organization called Online Rights Canada (ORC) has formed to promote "the public's interest in technology and information policy." ORC is just getting started, and I hope that they turn out to be a strong, viable voice in opposition to the corporate special interest groups. If you can, why not help them out by signing their petition, which reads:

WE THE UNDERSIGNED DECLARE:

We believe that the politicians who craft copyright policy should not take money from a small, wealthy subset of the people whom copyright is intended to serve. In order to address this conflict of interest, we request that Canadian politicians sign the following Copyright Pledge:

"No Member of Parliament who has accepted financial contributions or other benefits from (i) a copyright lobby group, (ii) its corporate members, or (iii) senior executives as well as (iv) a copyright collective shall serve as Minister of Canadian Heritage or as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, nor sit on any legislative committee (parliamentary or standing committees) conducting hearings or deliberations on copyright matters."

For further reading on Sam Bulte and her "close connection between Canada' s Parliamentary Secretary for Canadian Heritage and the largely U.S.-backed copyright lobby ," check out Professor Michael Geist's article, originally published in the Toronto Star--one of the few papers in Canada not owned by the right leaning CanWest Global conglomerate.

Libraries: the original open source

A few days ago I attended a meeting at my library which went over procedures in our computer room. Mostly it was basic stuff like how to hook up the video projector, how to operate the computer reservation software, our policys regarding the use USB devices like flash drives, and that sort of thing. At some point the conversation came around to problems that some patrons experience trying to open nonstandard document file types--that's anything that's not a MSWord .doc file. Simply put, people with Word Perfect, Apple Works or even MS Works are unable to use our facilities to edit or even open their files. The reality is that MS Office is expensive, and not everyone can afford the software even if they can afford a computer.

I, of course, outlined some advantages of OpenOffice and suggested that we install it on all our machines; after all, it's freely available to everyone, and I do see people coming in occasionally with documents in the OpenOffice format wanting to access them. I was shocked at the response: it seems that because we are a public library and our information systems are administered by City Hall's IT department, we must conform to their policy that no "free" software be installed on our machines... I find it abhorrent that we, an institution mandated to fulfill the information needs of patrons, often those who do not have other readily available means to access information, are are unable to effect a minor change that would significantly increase the value of the services we provide for those who need it most.

I don't understand the reluctance to use free tools. No one benefits from this, except for perhaps malevolent corporate behemoths such as Microsoft. Libraries are the original open source. Heck, before Gutenberg invented the printing press, libraries facilitated the dissemination of information by providing repositories of information that could be copied. Although it was a slow and laborious process, libraries allowed for spread of precious information. I can guarantee installing a couple copies of OpenOffice and perhaps a FireFox or two is a lot easier than copying Plato by hand. As they say in the magical world of the "Internet," WTF man... and in any case you can't tell me the City does not use the odd Perl script or employ the add Linux server.

This move to block open source / free software goes against everything I believe as a professional librarian, and I'm damn well going to do something about it. Don't screw with librarians. We have pens and swords.

Hello to 2006...

so long to 2005. It was a good year for me, on a personal level, but in other respects I hope it's a year we will not see the likes of again.

In 2005 I graduated from library school and got my first professional job. Less importantly, I also got my black-belt; more importantly, my wife and I made the decision to start a family--the big event is scheduled to go down at the end of May. So, for me, 2005 was a year of positive change, and I expect the momentum to carry on into this New Year with the arrival of the Little Samurai, the progression of my career, and perhaps a major move.

It seems as if 2005 also generated a lot of momentum socially and politically, but unfortunately this momentum is heading in the wrong direction: copyright laws have taken a turn for the draconian, the war in Iraq (which was initiated under false premises) is leaving a bloody legacy, doublethink and newspeak issue forth from major media outlets and the President alike, surveillance of public and private spaces increases, the world has been largely unable to deal with a number of significant natural disasters, and governments continue to ignore the erosion of the environment.

Yet, I'm not pessimistic, at least not for the long run. It seems to me that people have had enough, and so long as we're in a democracy the people are sovereign. All around I see sings of resistance, whether i's a journalist with enough guts to tell the truth, an organization fighting intellectual tyranny, or some one who has just had enough and is willing to say so. Even if this isn't a real democracy, which it may or may not be, the power to catalyze positive change in the hands of the people, and as people wake up and acknowledge the truth of things, this will become apparent.