Posts tagged europe

Convictions For File-Sharing Violate Human Rights

falkvinge, copyfight, free culture, culture, europe, ECHR, copyright

It is, in other words, no longer sufficient to justify a sanction or any other judicial order restricting one’s artistic or journalistic freedom of expression on the basis that a copyright law provision has been infringed. Neither is it sufficient to consider that the unauthorised use, reproduction or public communication of a work cannot rely on one of the narrowly interpreted exceptions in the copyright law itself, including the application of the so-called three-step test […]

http://falkvinge.net/2013/02/07/court-of-human-rights-convictions-for-file-sharing-violates-human-rights/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Falkvinge-on-Infopolicy+%28Falkvinge+on+Infopolicy%29

They Cracked This 250-Year-Old Code, and Found a Secret Society Inside | Danger Room | Wired.com

history, europe, secret society, sight, enlightenment, cipher, code, cryptanalysis

It was actually an accident that brought to light the symbolic “sight-restoring” ritual. The decoding effort started as a sort of game between two friends that eventually engulfed a team of experts in disciplines ranging from machine translation to intellectual history. Its significance goes far beyond the contents of a single cipher. Hidden within coded manuscripts like these is a secret history of how esoteric, often radical notions of science, politics, and religion spread underground. At least that’s what experts believe. The only way to know for sure is to break the codes.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/ff-the-manuscript/all/

The Great German Energy Experiment

transition, climate change, europe, Energiewende, energy policy, nuclear, green, germany, solar, ene

If Germany succeeds in making the transition, it could provide a workable blueprint for other industrial nations, many of which are also likely to face pressures to transform their energy consumption. “This Energiewende is being watched very closely. If it works in Germany, it will be a template for other countries,” says Graham Weale, chief economist at RWE, which is grappling with how to shut its nuclear power plants while keeping the lights on. “If it doesn’t, it will be very damaging to the German economy and that of Europe.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/featured-story/428145/the-great-german-energy-experiment/?ref=rss

The Net vs. The Power of Narratives

Vatican, church, france, gutenberg, death penalty, 1535, copyfight, printing press, control, europe

In this, the Church saw themselves as the good guys and wanted to set the record straight, to prevent the spread of disinformation. They had learned that they were the carriers of truth and could not unlearn having this position. Thus, the penalties for using the printing press gradually increased all over Europe, until it hit the death penalty: France, January 13, 1535.

https://torrentfreak.com/the-net-vs-the-power-of-narratives–120429/