Daily Review 08/04/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, April 8th, 2016 - 18 comments
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Time travel

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

18 comments on “Daily Review 08/04/2016 ”

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  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    8 April 2016 at 6:54 pm


    Linking to Pirated Content Is Not Copyright Infringement, Says EU Court Adviser

    In his advice today the Advocate General acknowledges that the hyperlinks facilitate the discovery of the copyrighted works, and make them more easily available. However, this isn’t copyright infringement.

    “…hyperlinks which lead, even directly, to protected works are not ‘making them available’ to the public when they are already freely accessible on another website, and only serve to facilitate their discovery,” the EU Court of Justice’s writes, commenting on the advice.

    The Advocate General argues that “linking” is not the same as making the content available, which would apply to the original uploader. This means that GeenStijl’s actions can not be characterized as copyright infringement.

    “The actual act of ‘making available’ is the action of the person who effected the initial communication. Consequently, hyperlinks which are placed on a website and which link to protected works that are freely accessible on another site cannot be classified as an ‘act of communication’ within the meaning of the Directive.”

    And interesting finding and one, IMO, that will have a significant influence over the years on IP law.

    • ianmac 1.1
      8 April 2016 at 8:06 pm

      Same argument used by Kim Dotcom. He was not the one loading “pirated” works. Wouldn’t the EU Court Advisers advice be the opposite to the USA plan?

  2. Paul 2
    8 April 2016 at 6:57 pm

    Sir Henry van der Heyden.
    Further proof that knighthood is a reward for crime.

  3. pat 3
    8 April 2016 at 9:09 pm

    “Models have been systematically underestimating the amount of liquid in clouds, meaning that we aren’t fully appreciating the feedback,” she said. “It could mean our higher limit of warming is now even higher, depending on the model, which means serious consequences for us in terms of climate change.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/07/clouds-climate-change-analysis-liquid-ice-global-warming

  4. te reo putake 4
    8 April 2016 at 9:31 pm

    URL of the week from Stuff:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/78648257/Fomer-Northland-MP-Mike-Sabin-to-take-stand

    Sadly, the link is dead, so I guess we’ll never know why Mike Sabin has to take the stand and I suppose we shouldn’t speculate. But well done, Stuff. Getting rid of all your sub editors has really paid off 😉

  5. Draco T Bastard 5
    8 April 2016 at 10:18 pm

    Britain’s to blame for the tax haven monster

    The story starts with George Bolton, a Bank of England official who, 70 years ago, was sent out to New Hampshire with John Maynard Keynes to rebuild the postwar world economy. The system devised at Bretton Woods involved fixed exchange rates and controls on movement of capital between countries. This was a disaster for the City, and by extension the Bank, since financiers benefited from free flows of money, but far better news for the wider economy. In the following years economic growth was strong and stable, but gradually the bankers prised open cracks in the system of capital controls.

    The biggest crack of all was chipped open by Bolton who, having left the Bank, pushed in the 1960s for the creation of a new international financial market, free from those restrictions. Gradually, informally, the eurodollar market came into being: commercial banks could trade in London in a foreign currency (mostly dollars) without being subject to British regulations. Transactions could be classified as “offshore” without leaving the City.

    It marked the beginning of the modern City of London and the beginning of the end for Bretton Woods, whose capital controls soon became ineffective, rendering the rest of the system vulnerable to its eventual collapse in the early 1970s.

    We’re not only talking about rich folks’ money, but the very foundations of the international financial system. These days most big international companies, not just Google and Starbucks, sit atop a complex pyramid of financial structures designed to reduce tax bills and circumvent regulations. Some 55 per cent of US companies’ international profits are booked in tax havens, compared with about 15 per cent in the early 1980s, according to economist Gabriel Zucman.

    In other words, tax havens are a symptom of a far deeper issue, a global financial system that encourages those who can afford it to shift money overseas. Given the incentives built into the international tax infrastructure, the question is not why big companies take advantage of financial engineering, but why wouldn’t they? Given that this business is Britain’s most lucrative, is it any surprise that David Cameron and his Labour predecessors have quietly sought to defend it?

    bold mine

    Definitely time to deal to the tax havens – starting with us.