Author: Grievous

Odex’s appeal rejected

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The following news came on the net yesterday and I suspect few would have notice amidst all the noise from the matter of Edison Chan EdiPORN Chantik.

Court rejects Odex’s appeal to reveal downloaders’ names
By Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 January 2008 2145 hrs

SINGAPORE: Anime distributor Odex Tuesday lost its appeal to the Singapore High Court to force internet service provider Pacific Internet (PacNet) to reveal the names of its subscribers suspected of downloading anime clips illegally.

The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that Odex is just a sub-licensee but not the copyright owner or the exclusive licensee.

Instead, the courts ordered PacNet to hand over the information to the six Japanese companies, Sunrise Inc., Kadokawa Pictures Inc., GDH K.K., TV Tokyo Medianet Inc., Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and Showgate Inc., which actually own the copyrights.

The ruling has paved way for further enforcement actions by other copyright owners.

Odex said it will work closely with other copyright owners, which are expected to make similar applications to court soon.

The Odex case has seen much interest from the public, especially in online chatrooms and blogs. Many were unhappy last year when Odex forced StarHub and Singtel to reveal the names of those suspected of illegally downloading anime clips. – CNA/ac

I had told my friends that it is unlikely that Odex will win the appeal. No matter how solid their case is regarding how they get those IP addresses, the hard fact remains that Odex is just a sub-licensee and it simply has no legal rights to press the case.

But it certainly makes one ask if the previous two judges presiding over the SingNet and StarHub cases even examined the case in detail before their judgement. * sigh *

More reports here:

 – Internet service provider to turn in anime downloaders to studios
 – ISP Ordered to Reveal Identities of BitTorrent Anime Sharers
 – Pacnet ordered to turn over customer records

公民运动：中国 vs 新加坡

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二零零七年六月一日、二日: 上万名厦门市民自发上街 『散步』，要求停建 PX 专案。迫于民间压力，十二月底，厦门政府最终宣布将 PX 项目迁址到远离人口密集区的漳州。

二零零八年一月十二日: 上海市民也走上街头，以 『散步』、 『购物』 方式游行，反对磁浮列车的扩建。游行队伍最多时达六、七千人。一日后，上海市委书记俞正声提到 『公共交通应考虑公益性』 对上海市民作出回应。

中国共产党政府并没有对以上两项公民运动使用了犹如镇压 1989 天安门学生运动的高压手段。以上的群众运动最后都是和平结束的。

二零零六年九月十六日： 新加坡民主党秘书长徐顺全计划在芳林公园的 『演说者角落』 举行集会，然后游行到国会和国际货币基金组织的会议所。抗议游行内容是新加坡政府限制言论自由和不断增加贫富差距，但是 30 几名警察组成了人墙阻止他和他的支持者离开公园直到徐顺全在九月十九日中午结束绝食离开芳林公园为止。

二零零七年十一月二十日: 新加坡民主党党员徐淑贞 (秘书长徐顺全的妹妹) 与友人陈先生企图进入香格里拉酒店亚细安峰会会场，遭到警方一擅闯 『禁区』 为由被强行压上一辆货车驱离现场。但是其他出现在 『禁区』 的人并没有受到警告或者警方的特别注意。

一个枪杆子出的政权，想不到比一个所谓民选的还要民主… 本爷的老爹说得没错，世间的事无奇不有，真的到一百岁都有新闻听。我个人是希望中国政府不是因为 2008 北京奥运会才企图改善其国际形象，而是会持续如此开明的对待人民的意见。不过就算这只是中国政府做秀而已，目前中国的人民的确是比在新加坡的人民还拥有更多的人权哦！呵呵…

Movies Watched Recently…

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I watched these movies over the last month… and I have sort of gotten some kind of block when I wanted to write about them. And the block exists in spite of the fact that I could write other blog posts. Damn…

Lawyer Michael Clayton (George Clooney), is a ‘fixer’ who clears up complex or dirty cases on behalf of corporate clients. He was called in after the behaviour of an old friend and colleague, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), who has been working on an important case on behalf of a large client for eight years, is causing concern among the partners of the law firm and the client.

While Michael was dealing with his own personal problems, Arthur died under suspcious circumstances and as Michael investigated more into the case, he discovered facts about the case which would put his life in danger. In the process Michael has to make a choice between defending corporate interests of his client, or to face down the dark forces which will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from seeing the day of light.

In my personal opinion, this is a movie that would win awards but would never be a box office hit. I am more convinced by the fact that this is so because it wasn’t on the big screen for too long and when I went to watch it with a friend, it was screen in a hall that has at most 150 people. It is definitely a good movie (I believed is even better than I am Legend ) If you have missed it on the big screen, try and catch it on DVD.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the story about Queen Elizabeth I (Reprised by Cate Blanchett) facing familial betrayal and danger for her throne and country. In the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Queen Elizabeth finds her rule challenged by her cousin Mary Stuart, and the Spanish King Philip II (Jordi Molla), who is building a sea-dominating armada to ferry his powerful army to England and restore the country to Catholicism.

While I didn’t watch the first Elizabeth movie made by the same director, there is really nothing to complain about the cast. That’s not forgetting that the previous movie had seven Academy Award nominations and part of the cast were reprising their roles in this. I suspect that the movie wouldn’t be box office hit either and I find it a bit lengthly for a movie, even though it is definitely long enough to be more satisfying than National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Unfortunately, I was starting to fall sick on that day itself, I wasn’t really in the mood for a long movie nor to think more about what I have watched.

Anyway, like all Hollywood productions, this is not entirely correct historically. (For a more detailed, and possibly more accurate historical account of Queen Elizabeth I, this article, on Wikipedia maybe a better source.)

My friends and I went over to Eng Wah at Suntec to catch Dan In Real Life after having coffee at Marina on a Sunday, because we decided it was too early for dinner. I personally wasn’t expecting much, but it turns out to be quite an enjoyable movie since I hardly ever bothered about the supposed artistic value of a movie. (In which case, I just couldn’t figure how horror movies can be artistic, though I am not asking anyone to agree with me on that.)

The movie tells the story of Dan Burns (Steve Carell), a local newspaper advice columnist, and a widower with three daughters. He brought the family to his parent’s house for a family get-together and met a woman, Marie (Juliette Binoche) whom he fell in love with.

The movie revolves around how he deals with his feelings for Marie, and subsequently how he come to terms with the fact that two of two of his elder daughters are no longer little girls. It is a typical family-value themed moviies and there are lighter moments which brings out lots of laughter.

I would say it’s a good DVD to pick up for the weekend or the holidays but just don’t expect a breath taking blockbuster.

SMRT = Sardines MRT

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If you are getting the feeling that the trains are getting more packed, it’s not an issue of personal perception, it’s real! Just take a look at the chart below.

All you need to do is take a look at the figure ‘Growth in car kilometers operated (%)’ figure, and you will noticed that it has only increased 2%. But compared that to ‘Growth in passenger-trip numbers (%)’ and ‘Growth in weekday passengers (%)’ and you will notice that there’s an increase of 5.1% and 5.5% respectively.

The figures would suggest that SMRT has not adjusted their train frequencies according to the rise in demand. Apparently, the lessons of SARS have been forgotten and that means, if you get a flu, you can logically blame SMRT because they the chances of more sick people in the same cabin on the same train has increased.

Anyway, I would also suggest you buy some SMRT shares when the price is right. Then at least you can earn some money back from all that fare increments and misery you and your fellow commuters are suffering from SMRT’s lack of concern for the people they claimed to serve.

In simpler terms, if you can’t beat them, join them. Above which, you can also turn up at the AGM and ask some tough questions… make sure their CEO don’t laugh all the way to the bank thinking that her job is done because it doesn’t matter what the commuters think as long as ‘shareholders are happy’ .

Increase the Cab Fares even more!!

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According to an article on Asiaone, the Transport Mini$ter Raymond Lemon Lim said:

Based on figures provided by ComfortDelGro, Singapore’s biggest taxi operator, cabbies are pocketing about $11 more a day, earning about $318.

By the most conservative calculation based on metered fare alone, fares have gone up by 8.3%. (That figure is derived by the old metered fare of 20cts every 420m then compared to only 385m now. i.e. 35/420, which is approximately 8.3%.)

However, the cabbie has only earned $11 more, netting them $318 now which means they used to earn about $307 formerly. That translates into just 3.6% increase in income. Not even a 50% increase of the 8.3% fare increase!

And that isn’t the best part yet. The cabbie needs to make about 16 trips of $20 to make that amount a day. $11 over 16 trips means each cabbie is making about 69cts a trip.

Now compared that to our PM’s pay which increased 22.5% (from $3.1 million to $3.8 million) and clearly, the fare increments are * gasp * NOT enough!

They should do more to help cabbies… increase the fares even more! And along with that perhaps now we don’t even need to wait more than a minute for a cab compared to the impressive average of 6 minutes that Lemon Lim is boasting about.

Addendum

The last cabbie I chat with told me… a Toyota Crown’s rental is about $92 a day and I heard the new Sonatas are more than $100. For an income of $318, 1/3 of that goes to pay the company renting them the cab. Now, if I am not wrong, COE prices has come down quite a bit compared to several years ago… do we see a comparative drop in rental to assist the cabbies?

So much for having done all they could to help cabbies.

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