EU rejects anti-piracy pact
A controversial global anti-piracy trade agreement has been thrown out by the European Parliament following fears it would restrict internet freedom and fundamental civil rights.
The lawmakers' vote finally kills off the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which took four years to negotiate and had already been approved by all the EU's 27 member states.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement’s (ACTA, a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement) defeat is the latest blow for global media companies seeking to combat online piracy, after the US shelved earlier this year two proposed laws designed to strengthen copyright enforcement.
Publishers and film production companies have requested strict global laws to protect their content from being illegally downloaded on the internet.
But technology companies such as Google and Facebook remain wary of evasive online copyright rules, which they fear could make them liable for links and content that they cannot easily control.
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said the vote against ACTA was not one against the protection of intellectual property.
"The majority in the European Parliament is of the opinion that ACTA is too vague, leaving the room for abuses and raising concern about its impact on consumers' privacy and civil liberties, on innovation and the free flow of information."
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, which had referred ACTA to the European Court of Justice in February to seek its assessment on whether the treaty violated fundamental right and freedoms, said it would wait for the court's ruling before taking any action to revive the treaty.
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This article explains that postmodernity comes in many forms. What I took from this article is that coins are like art on a smaller canvas and even they are being constantly reinvented in to similar products over time. It is trying to emphasise that postmodernity takes place in many different forms and that the society we live in at present has been manipulated from one that previously existed. This has helped broaden my understanding of the many different ways that postmodernity has effected the world we live in and how everything is due to come back in fashion at some point.
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Postmodern Motifs and Ambience in Cyberpunk Films
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_films_postmodern_motifs_and_ambience.html
This post uses the example of The Matrix and explains how it is Postmodern as well as the techniques used that make it so. This is helpful for broadening my understanding of how films can be Postmodern, as well as providing me with another valid and key example.
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Postmodernism and the difference between Art and Garbage
http://www.vice.com/read/postmodernism-and-the-difference-between-art-and-garbage-at-torontos-nuit-blanche
This article takes us to Toronto's Nuit Blanche Festival and here, the author's are identifying different pieces of artwork that they saw during there stay. There are explaining that the various pieces would appear, in an everyday light, to be 'garbage'. However everything is displayed as 'art' at the festival and in a very postmodern way. Essentially, this post is trying to differentiate art from what is literally, nothing more that garbage.
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Writers examine the uncertainty of the truth
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/1737-writers-examine-uncertainty-of-truth.html
This article is written to by a writer who is trying to distinguish postmodernism from modernism in terms of the genres of his stories. He says that often people can be unaware of the boundaries between them and end up writing a semi-postmodern tale. He says that he writes many postmodern stories and that he tends to focus on postmodernism because the general characteristics of postmodernism include the absence of a centre and the uncertainty of truth, because what might be the truth for today might be untruth for tomorrow. He says that these ideas are what attracts him to postmodernism.
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#PostModernPoblems
http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/163555/postmodernproblems/
This article is designed to emphasise the journey that post modernity is constantly taking as we have now come to a stage where we are constantly having to make decisions of all aspects of our lives. Before, choices were limited and one’s life was generally pre-determined from history, tradition and custom. Now, when it comes to questions of self-identity, we increasingly rely upon our own construction of reality to dictate who we are. These choices range from big life decisions about relationships, religion and careers to the most trivial questions — what should I tweet? What should my profile picture be?
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Blade Runner - A Postmodern Insight
http://br-insight.com/2001/04/11/blade-runner-a-postmodernist-view/
This is a reading that I found online, explaining how Blade Runner is postmodern. I think that it'll be good to have notes from other sources to reference in my essay as it will demonstrate my wider knowledge and understanding of how, and why, the film is postmodern.
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Postmodernism: Moulin Rouge (2001)
http://jordanbuckner.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/postmodernism-moulin-rouge-2001.html
Having recently been assigned a group, in-class project to research this film and discuss why it is postmodern, I decided to look online at the reasons other people have given to support the postmodern aesthetic of the film. I came across this blog post and found the information useful and simple to understand. It gives a broad overview as to why the film in postmodern.
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Postmodern Motifs and Ambience in Cyberpunk Films
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_films_postmodern_motifs_and_ambience.html
This post uses the example of The Matrix and explains how it is Postmodern as well as the techniques used that make it so. This is helpful for broadening my understanding of how films can be Postmodern, as well as providing me with another valid and key example.
****
Postmodernism and the difference between Art and Garbage
http://www.vice.com/read/postmodernism-and-the-difference-between-art-and-garbage-at-torontos-nuit-blanche
This article takes us to Toronto's Nuit Blanche Festival and here, the author's are identifying different pieces of artwork that they saw during there stay. There are explaining that the various pieces would appear, in an everyday light, to be 'garbage'. However everything is displayed as 'art' at the festival and in a very postmodern way. Essentially, this post is trying to differentiate art from what is literally, nothing more that garbage.
****
Writers examine the uncertainty of the truth
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/1737-writers-examine-uncertainty-of-truth.html
This article is written to by a writer who is trying to distinguish postmodernism from modernism in terms of the genres of his stories. He says that often people can be unaware of the boundaries between them and end up writing a semi-postmodern tale. He says that he writes many postmodern stories and that he tends to focus on postmodernism because the general characteristics of postmodernism include the absence of a centre and the uncertainty of truth, because what might be the truth for today might be untruth for tomorrow. He says that these ideas are what attracts him to postmodernism.
****
#PostModernPoblems
http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/163555/postmodernproblems/
This article is designed to emphasise the journey that post modernity is constantly taking as we have now come to a stage where we are constantly having to make decisions of all aspects of our lives. Before, choices were limited and one’s life was generally pre-determined from history, tradition and custom. Now, when it comes to questions of self-identity, we increasingly rely upon our own construction of reality to dictate who we are. These choices range from big life decisions about relationships, religion and careers to the most trivial questions — what should I tweet? What should my profile picture be?
****
Blade Runner - A Postmodern Insight
http://br-insight.com/2001/04/11/blade-runner-a-postmodernist-view/
This is a reading that I found online, explaining how Blade Runner is postmodern. I think that it'll be good to have notes from other sources to reference in my essay as it will demonstrate my wider knowledge and understanding of how, and why, the film is postmodern.
****
Postmodernism: Moulin Rouge (2001)
http://jordanbuckner.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/postmodernism-moulin-rouge-2001.html
Having recently been assigned a group, in-class project to research this film and discuss why it is postmodern, I decided to look online at the reasons other people have given to support the postmodern aesthetic of the film. I came across this blog post and found the information useful and simple to understand. It gives a broad overview as to why the film in postmodern.
