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25
Jan

The Movie Industry Threatens Canada … Foolishly

By Cynapse 2 Comments
Categories: American Politics, Politics, Technology and World Politics

(Via Jack’s NewsWatch) Canada.com is reporting that movie distributor Twentieth Century Fox –apparently on behalf of the entire American film industry- is threatening to delay releases in Canada due to rampant piracy:

As much as 50 per cent of the world’s pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country.
…
Changes to laws in the United States have seen movie piracy in that country plummet … one man caught with a camcorder in a theatre was jailed eight years and fined $250,000.
…
Because of movie piracy, a U.S. congressional committee has added Canada to a “country watch list” that includes such well-known piracy havens as China, Russia, India and Malaysia.

As a member of the The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Fox is attempting to scare Canadian authorities into ignoring such trivialities as terrorism and serial murder in order to recover Hollywood film profits.

Could 20th Century Fox and other film studio truly be contemplating delaying movie releases throughout Canada to pre-empt the release of pirate movies overseas by a few days? Unless the lot of them has gone completely mad, the answer is almost certainly “no”. Retarding a prosperous market to stem the proliferation of inferior products to and from an unstable market is economically dubious. Furthermore, the suggested course of prevention and punishment would only irritate legal movie goers while presenting little or no deterrent to pirates familiar with modern data transfer technologies.

Camcorder Movies are Poor Quality

It is important to understand the nature of these Canadian bootlegs before assessing the validity of Fox’s threats. First, consider the source - As the article states, movie pirates are literally recording movies using camcorder in the theatre. In the hacking world, these bootleg movies are known as “Cams” and are known for having extremely bad quality: Camera angles are usually not perfect since the camera has to be obscured by the bootlegger in order to avoid arrest. This means plenty of shaky pictures, cutoff images (most camcorders record video in 4:3 aspect ratio – the same as television – whereas theatres show movies in 16:9 widescreen), and silhouettes of moviegoers getting up to go to the washroom. The sound is typically recorded using the camcorder’s internal microphone, making the sound unclear and easily drowned out by cell phones or audience chatter.

To be fair and balanced, there are bootleggers who make deals with theatre owners to record movies in an empty theatre; however, even under perfect shooting conditions (the camera is placed on a tripod with a direct connection to an external audio source), the picture quality of a bootleg –in this case called a Telesync bootleg- would still be poor because video cameras simply can’t photograph television or movie screens with any degree of accuracy (for a live demonstration, try videotaping your own television!). Thus, any camcorder videos produce a quality slightly worse than home-taped VHS cassettes – definitely unacceptable in most first-world nations and increasingly unacceptable for even third world nations.

Now consider the destination format of the bootlegs. Originally these videos were sold on VideoCD discs, a low-resolution CD-based format popular in Asia but generally ignored in North America. Until a few years ago, VCD’s were dominant in the Far East and sold for between $0.75US and $2.50US. However DVD’s have since taken over and tend to retail for around $7.00US.

While Cams and Telesyncs were good enough for VideoCD discs, their low quality is quite visible on bootleg DVD’s and are avoided by people even slightly concerned about quality or who would otherwise be willing to pay for the “movie experience”. In other words, camcorder bootlegs threaten the movie industry the way home cassette taping threatens CD sales – not greatly.

Asia is an Unstable Market; Canada is Not

Quality is only part of the story, however. Fox news knows as well as anyone that Asia is very much a market dominated by individual merchants who survive on offering basement bargains (which inevitably includes piracy of films, music, video games and computer software). There is little chance that the entertainment market will be dominated by Blockbuster-style chains that can be easily influenced by MPAA threats or demands. Moreover, there is little incentive for Asian authorities to comply with American demands – any job or economic losses caused by piracy of American films will not affect local Asian economies but the sales of those discs could stimulate economic growth. Furthermore, India and Hong Kong both have prosperous film industries (the former being the largest film industry in the world) far more likely to successfully lobby for legal favor against pirate activities.

Asian piracy is also inadvertently perpetuated by protectionist government policy. China in particular limits the number of foreign films released on Chinese screens in order to favour the local film industry. Chinese consumers respond by seeking illegal copies of the movies online or through the underground market, contributing to the staggering 93% of Chinese film sales purchased illegally.

By comparison, Canada is very prosperous market upon which the MPAA has great influence. Last weekend alone, the top 10 box-office films in Canada grossed $5,440,837, with Fox’s own “Night at the Museum” taking first place [source: Tribute.ca Top 10 Movies in Canada, January 19-21, 2007]. As the article states, there are also guards at many Canadian cinemas actively looking for camcorder pirates, since Hollywood IS the local film industry (at least indirectly).

Piracy Logistics Have Advanced

The US watch list referred to in the article states that Canada has become a “dumping ground” for imported pirated goods from Russia and the Far East. This claim is rather dubious for the simple fact that these logistics are outdated for present-day movies. Aside from DVD and VCD, bootleg films can also be compressed into DivX files, which are MPEG-4 based computer files famous for allowing high quality video streaming over a low bandwidth. A 2 hour movie ripped directly from DVD can be compressed into a 700MB file that looks virtually identical to the original file. Transmitting such a file over a high speed internet connection from Russia to Canada can be done in a matter of hours. In fact, online pirates and casual internet users do so frequently using advanced file sharing technologies like BitTorrent. A transmitted DivX file can be converted back to a DVD for duplication and distribution in the local market. Transmitting pre-manufactured pirated movies from abroad is both expensive (in a market where black market movies will not sell well if priced for more than about $6) and unnecessarily risky. One has to assume the MPAA is aware of these technological advances.

Verdict: “Not … Very … Likely”

So to review Fox’s threat in terms of the information provided above and the original article –

  1. Fox would have us believe that the sale of sub-VHS quality movies in a market where over 90% of purchased films are pirated has a significant impact on their bottom line
  2. Fox and other movie studios are willing to stifle a prosperous, primary movie market over which it does have legal influence in hopes of indirectly forcing compliance on a struggling, secondary market where it has limited legal or political influence.
  3. Canadian police and customs officials should waste millions of dollars searching for bootlegged media entering/exiting via Canadian ports when a piracy operation of average aptitude realizes the cost saving and risk reduction of transmitting one copy and replicating locally.
  4. Fox is upset because Canadian authorities won’t jail camcorder pirates for as long as our nation jails murderers

One can only hope that Fox is merely saber-rattling to scare Canadian authorities into recouping some supposedly lost revenue (which is a dishonest argument, but that will be another post), because if this is an actual anti-piracy strategy then the mighty film studio is in bigger financial trouble than they think.

22
Jan

Barack Obama: Not a Muslim but Possibly a Martyr

By Cynapse 4 Comments
Categories: American Politics and Politics

The initial media love affair with Barack Obama was doomed to have a short shelf life, but even a cynic couldn’t have predicted he’d be savaged so quickly.

Fox News drew first blood with a TV segment accusing Obama of hiding his Muslim heritage and in particular the fact that he was educated in an Indonesian Madrassa for 4 years.

The clip suggests that supporters of rival Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s are primarily responsible for probing Obama’s Islamic past, a notion that many journalists and bloggers (present company included) initially accepted as fact; however, an “anonymous source” was the closest anyone ever got to pinning the attacks directly on Clinton.

Conservative strategists were undoubtedly hoping to catalyze this potential chasm within the Democrat party, not only because it would put the party at war with itself but because it could permanently weaken support from one of the Democrats’ strongest voting blocs – black voters. Blacks would be far more suspicious of the “good guys” if they attacked Barrack’s name (his middle name is Hussein and his last name rhymes with Osama - geddit?), religion and most importantly race. Combined with his overly progressive viewpoint -considerably to the left of any president elected since Carter- and lack of experience, Barack Obama (or more accurately his strife) could have been the best thing to happen to the Republicans for the 2008 election.

To that extent, the Republicans have wisely avoided any direct scrutiny of the half-black Muslim, hoping that faux-tolerant Democrats would draw first blood. Alas, the Republicans cannot control their conservative grassroots and ideological supporters, who jumped quickly on the Fox report and fiercely attacked Obama for WHAT he is (black, formerly Islamic, in possession of an Arabic name) rather than who he is (progressive, not particularly forthcoming with his platform). The attacks neatly conformed to every negative conservative stereotype:

And while Obama may not identify as a Muslim, that’s not how the Arab and Muslim Streets see it. In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. And once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot go back. In Islamic eyes, Obama is certainly a Muslim. He may think he’s a Christian, but they do not
…
So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father’s heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?
Is that even the man we’d want to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, if Hillary Clinton offers him the Vice Presidential candidacy on her ticket (which he certainly wouldn’t turn down)?
-Debbie Schlussel

Black, stupid or both: that’s your only excuse for getting excited about Barack Obama. And they’re pretty lame excuses. “He’s so well spoken!” “He’s so handsome.” You sound like my grandma. Why not toss in “He’s a credit to his race!” while you’re at it? (PS: white guilt counts as “stupid”)
…
I’ll be repeating this a lot during the next few years, so get used to it: there is nothing “compelling” about a black man impregnating a white woman. In more than one Toronto neighbourhood, that’s what they call “Saturday night.”
-Kathy Shaidle (Relapsed Catholic)

“His father is Kenyan, his mother was white - a charismatic fresh face breaks the race barrier as America’s first African-American presidential candidate”! Or so one would think, based on media coverage. Al Sharpton * must be so pleased.
-Small Dead Animals

Without the political martyrdom provided by crude and bigoted personal attacks, Barrack’s candidacy would have faded long before the final vote took place. Like Canadian Liberal Party hopeful Michael Ignatieff, Obama’s presentation is slick and his forward-looking image beneficial to modern-day liberals; however, like Ignatieff, Obama is inexperienced and similarly would have made a fatal faux pas when forced to stray from niceties to spell out his actual platform. Furthermore, his pockets and political links within the Democrat are not nearly as deep as Clinton’s and he would have at best been offered a shot at vice-president.

Instead, due to the negative focus on his demographic traits, Obama’s candidacy will turn into a referendum on how far America has progressed in terms of race relations and religious tolerance. American culture has been traditionally kind to its virtuous underdogs, and the sympathy vote could carry Barack Obama into a close heat with the comparatively unlikable Hillary Clinton - if not to a victory. All he has to do now is keep smilin’

H/T: Waking Up On Planet X

21
Nov

Why “KKKramer” is being Crucified

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: American Politics, Politics and Society

Warning: Potentially offensive material contained within!

Continue reading ‘Why “KKKramer” is being Crucified’

12
Sep

9/11 Also Showed Our Strength

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: American Politics, Noteworthy Events and Politics

Everyone remembers where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001

I was lying in bed, sick from one of the many illnesses that float about university dormitories. Ordinarily I would have been in class, but decided to turn on my “television” (which was actually a computer with a TV tuner card). CNN was on and showing one of the twin towers on fire. At the time the speculation was that a small plane had crashed into the building and that there might be a few deaths outside of the plane passenger list. The TV camera was still trained on the twin towers when, much to everyone’s shock, a second plane hit the other tower – and it was clearly a jetliner. Talk of accidents quickly turned into “America is under attack”

Quite honestly, “Looks like Osama Bin Laden” was the first words out of my mouth. The attack was consistent with his hit-and-dodge attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and the Persian Gulf. Each attack seemed to be progressively brutal and civilian-oriented. An attack on the enduring symbol of western commerce seemed like a logical next step for an organization like Al Qaeda. But the melee was hardly over – within the next hours, both towers would fall, the pentagon would be hit with an attack and another plane would go down before hitting any targets.

From my bedroom, Manhattan looked like hell on earth. As the first tower fell, I remembered the fact that one of my close schoolmates was doing his co-op term at the World Trade Center, and became even more anxious. 9/11 became very personal for me very quickly. It would be days before I heard from my schoolmate and his survival story was one of chance – he was actually supposed to be in the towers at the time but decided at the last minute to sleep in until 10:00am. He was prematurely awoken by a telephone call from a coworker that consisted of a single sentence: “Turn on the TV”.

After seeing the carnage, he, like hundreds of New Yorkers, rushed towards the towers to see how they could help. Some people were bringing food and towels for those that were injured in the two plane blasts. As the twin towers came in full view, his blood “ran cold” (in his words) as the first of two towers started to crumble to the ground. Most people around him stood frozen in shock until it was apparent that the growing outward wave of dust and debris was not going to subside, causing the most hardened New Yorkers to run for cover.

It didn’t even take a New York minute for American citizens to finger Middle Eastern terrorists for the attack, and the NYPD, already burdened with securing ground zero, rushed to form barriers between a minority of angry New Yorkers and the nearby Arab neighborhoods to which they were quickly advancing. In this detail lies a point about America’s response that often gets lost amid the debates on post 9/11 civil liberties: the US government and even some citizens initially worked furiously to protect middle-easterners from the angry mobs and discriminatory activity. For the most part, they were successful: in the coming weeks the world heard stories of police protecting middle eastern neighborhoods, Christian Church groups providing security at local mosques and citizens opening their homes to Muslim colleagues who were at risk for becoming victims of backlash.

Canada played a significant role in the early 9/11 response when Atlantic Canadians provided food and shelter to over 15,000 stranded Americans whose flights were immediately diverted (44 flights went to Nova Scotia alone). Police officers and firefighters from Canada also rushed to ground zero to help with the rescue and cleanup.

In the coming weeks, North Americans and indeed the world would re-fracture into the usual political/social groupings. The sorrow from the 9//11 attack was used for every cause from promoting nuclear war to severing ties with Israel. Conspiracy theorists reacted almost immediately in gathering evidence they believed pointed to the Bush administration’s prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks (if not worse). Christian fundamentalists, busy promoting their own brand of Jihad, saw their ranks swell at least temporarily. Other Christian personalities, like Jerry Falwell, cast the attacks as punishment from God for sinful behavior. Socialists used the attack as evidence of danger of America’s “imperialism” (a sentiment soon echoed by much of Europe and the Third World), while sleeper cells derived encouragement from carnage that affected far more than just American citizens.

Nonetheless, Americans and Canadians were able to forget their social/political differences and pull together during an unmeasured crisis. In a moment of terror, we became humans first and foremost, and exhibited a potent courage that, if properly analyzed by Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants, should have been the first sign that the West would not so easily surrender its humanity even the in the face of savagery.

Update: Removed references to “how” the fourth plane went down. Dick Cheney originally stated something on CNN far from the commonly-accepted story, but it would be difficult to prove so without consulting the credibility-killing “conspiracy theorists”

02
Aug

The Disproportionate Palestinian Response to Condi

By Cynapse 1 Comment
Categories: American Politics, Politics and World Politics

The political left and those genuinely opposed to the oppression of indigenous peoples by so-called “civilized” nations were quick to adopt Palestinians as a client group. After all, who wouldn’t be moved by images of large Israeli tanks rolling menacingly towards little Palestinian children?

It’s a romantic story on paper, but it belies the hatred in the hearts of many Palestinians – hatred that is not all directed towards Israel. The Jerusalem post reports on the visceral Arab reaction to recent visits by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice

Calling on Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah to bomb Tel Aviv, many protesters also chanted slogans against Rice and the US. “O Condaleezza, you are a condara [shoe],” shouted a group of Fatah activists. An elderly woman yelled: “Shame on you, Condaleezza, your parents were slaves for the whites!”

Playing the fellow victim card is questionable, but at least one can always count on the Palestinians to blatantly spell out their position:

“The Palestinians hate her because of her arrogance and because of the policy she represents,” said a veteran Palestinian newspaper editor. “Moreover, many Palestinians are angry with her because they think that all black people should be on their side.”

And you thought the Democrat Party took black support for granted. People simply refuse to recognize is that assuming someone will take a specific political position just because of his/her ethnic background is just as prejudicial as any ethnic slur. Political philosophies are more so defined by upbringing, economic beginnings, indoctrination and of course personal convictions. Having worked with George H.W. Bush, former California Governor Pete Wilson and former secretary of state James Baker among others, it should be no major surprise that the right-leaning Rice would tend to favor the pro-western state of Israel over its anti-Western Islamacist foes.

Speaking of ethnic slurs, the Palestinian media’s portrayal of Condi would make Don Raye proud. Observe these two cartoons mocking Dr Rice’s public hope for the birth of a new middle east:


condi2.jpg
Editorial Cartoon: Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda (via Palestinian Media Watch)

condi1.jpg
Editorial Cartoon: Al-Quds

Keep these cartoons and quotes in mind the next time you see Pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “Zionism is Racism”.

Update: Booker Rising linked to this post and a lively discussion is taking place. I strongly encourage you to look at the discussion (and the site in general). Special thanks to Shay for the link.

23
Jun

Ann Coulter: Undisputed Media Master

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: American Politics, Politics and Uncategorized

Ann Coulter’s recently-released book Godless shot to the top of Amazon.com’s best seller list for Non-Fiction. Loved by many and hated by many more, Coulter’s black & white approach to morality and relentless skewering of the liberal establishment has made her an icon in the political commentary sphere. Many charge that Coulter’s work is short on content and that the slender blonde primarily sells her image as the “hot chick who hates everything you do”. It is very possible that Ann herself would not disagree, as she has proven masterful in manipulating the media and controversy for her financial gain.

anncoulter.jpg

Do keep in mind, however, that Ann Coulter is capable of good, biting analysis. One standout example is her column “Kwanzaa: A Holiday From the FBI”, where she dissects the nefarious origin of the pan-African holiday and its founder Maulana Karenga:

In what was probably ultimately a foolish gamble, during the madness of the ’60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Karenga’s United Slaves was perfect … Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the ’60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga’s United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented “African” names … In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the ’70s, Karenga was quick to criticize rumors that black radicals were government-supported. When Nigerian newspapers claimed that some American black radicals were CIA operatives, Karenga publicly denounced the idea, saying, “Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents.”

Coulter’s assassination of Karenga was thorough and informative. However, Ann’s haphazard and nonsensical outbursts tended to raise more eyebrows. In 2001, Coulter’s regular column was dropped from National Review Online after suggesting (possibly in jest) that America should invade and Christianize the Middle East:

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.

When asked to reconsider her work, Coulter proceeded to publicly bad-mouth NRO and its staff. In response NRO editor Jonah Goldberg issued an explanation for Coulter’s termination along with a frank character assessment that would be soon echoed by many other conservative and liberal pundits:

We did not “fire” Ann for what she wrote, even though it was poorly written and sloppy. We ended the relationship because she behaved with a total lack of professionalism, friendship, and loyalty … What’s Ann’s take on all this? Well, she told the Washington Post yesterday that she loves it, because she’s gotten lots of great publicity. That pretty much sums Ann up.

After parting with NRO, Ann Coulter became even more extreme and more visible, penning the hyperbole-laden books Treason, Slander, How to Talk to a Liberal, and most recently Godless. While the accuracy of her work was relentlessly dissected by political commentators of all stripes, her cult following of “ordinary citizens” –fed up with liberalism, multiculturalism, multilateralism and other cultural threats to their 1950’s era social ideals- continued to grow. The more infamous Coulter became, the more she became a symbol of intellectual populist rebellion against a government thought to be running out of control via taxation and social policy.

However much observers thumb their noses at Ann Coulter’s ad hominem attacks and crass commercialism, an army of copycats hope to achieve the same media success. Countless “right-wing” bloggers launch endless attacks on “liberal policy”, with the fortunate ones attracting small followings of angry citizens who openly dream of acting on their hatreds. Other bloggers take the Al Franken route by employing Ann Coulter-esque tactics against Ann Coulter-esque commentators. They too attract small followings of angry liberals who want to beat back the “fundamentalist” hordes. Most of these individuals distance themselves from Coulter’s controversial statements but at the same time monitor her movements.

Why? Because they want to be where she is – effortlessly outselling more substantive writers and making a fine living doing what most people do for free. This is what makes Ann Coulter a master of the media.

11
Jun

Is Terrorism the Issue or Not?

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: American Politics, Politics and The Art of Blogging

A violent plot was recently foiled in Maryland. A bomb was set to detonate in a civilian building, followed by a mass shooting of the building’s inhabitants. The motivation was political in nature, as the attacker disagreed with the policies and activities of individuals located in the building. The accused, a 25 year old man, will be in court Monday to face federal weapons charges.

Sounds like terrorism so far, right?

Read the MSNBC report:

GREENBELT, Md. - The father of a man accused of plotting to bomb an abortion clinic said he felt he had no choice but to contact police about his son’s activities. Robert Weiler Sr. told The Washington Post for an article published Saturday that the decision was agonizing, but that “our concern was just to make sure nobody got hurt.

Weiler planned to use the bomb and a gun to “shoot doctors who provided abortions,” according to an affidavit filed Thursday in federal court by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He called the ATF from the rest stop where he was arrested and later confessed to the plot, authorities said.

Of course, in today’s selectively paranoid e-world, the MSM (mainstream media) cannot be trusted because they are agents of special interests; the real story can only come from individuals who type on home computers. So where is the outrage? Where the outrage is NOT is more the story. Very little commentary on this foiled terrorist plot has appeared in the more vocal anti-terrorist blogs (and I say “many” because obviously I could not check every single anti-terrorist blog, but the ones I did check had nothing on Maryland). Yet physical confrontations at a native blockade apparently warrant comparison to the widespread Islamacist campaign against the West. Failing to blindly support the aggression du jour can also find one labeled a terrorist “sympathizer”.

This small exercise simply enforces the notion that the terrorism label is simply a function of perceived legality and the palatability of the cause. With such double-standards, it’s difficult for any fair-minded person to get too excited about the enduring non-MSM hysteria concerning terrorism.

Other Views on the Maryland Bomb Plot:

  • Shakespeare’s Sister sees the scant attention paid to the Maryland plot as a symptom of a fatalistic cultural shift to the right: “This is what happens when we, as a culture, tolerate eliminationist rhetoric and treat it as legitimate discourse. I wish liberals would get half as exercised about the steady stream of eliminationist speech directed at us as the wingnuts do about the phrase ‘Happy Holidays.’ “
  • Peregrin Wood of Irregular Times cited partisanship in the apparent double standard applying the terrorist label: “In the view of the Bush Administration, nonviolent progressive activists who disagree with George W. Bush are more of a threat than right wingers who plan to kill Americans with bombs.”
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