@ Alison Bezzina: I think you’re making too much of a big deal of it.

The libel case was about Joe Mifsud’s book and media release which may have given the impression that Louis Galea had connections with drug traffickers. Louis Galea felt libelled and originally won the case. Joe Mifsud appealed and won the appeal.

In neither ruling did the court suggest that Louis Galea was in any way connected to drug traffickers. The court of appeal’s ruling only said that it did not deem that Louis Galea was libelled.

The only noteworthy thing about all this is that the court of appeal took so long to make a ruling. And that’s no victory at all.

“which is essentially the enforcement of what is already blatantly illegal”

Says who? Were you invited to all the discussions? Have you studied each and every clause? On what basis are you better qualified to disagree with Kader Arif and with Helena Drnovšek Zorko? Or are you just doing a Simon Busuttil, just quoting from the EU handout?

A ruling against ex journalist (now lawyer) Joe Mifsud, who years back was ordered to pay Dr. Louis Galea (then PN Minister) €5000, was overturned by the Court of Appeal….THIS IS A BIG WIN FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN MALTA (whatever little is left of it)….. and yet no one knows…

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120204/blogs/a-victory-worth-talking-about.405266

Correction: It would cost 23% more, under US labour conditions. So my statement about equal salaries was wrong. (But the general argument is even more correct.) At equal salaries it would probably cost even less than the current price, when you factor in transportation costs.

Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2009/07/a_fair_labor_ipod_what_would_i.html

So there you go. Is that 23% worth giving up on our human rights standards? Or on our dreams of prosperity for the West?

“Quite simply, I did not clearly connect the agreement I HAD BEEN INSTRUCTED TO SIGN with the agreement that, according to my own civic conviction, limits and withholds the freedom of engagement on the largest and most significant network in human history, and thus limits particularly the future of our children.” – the Slovenian ambassador to Japan Helena Drnovsek Zorko on ACTA signing

Meanwhile, the Polish government has announced it is to suspend the ratification of the ACTA treaty, in light of public concern. “I consider that the arguments for a halt to the ratification process are justified,” said Polish prime minister Donald Tusk,

French EP member Kader Arif, who resigned in protest the day the treaty was signed, urged his fellow parliamentarians to reject ACTA. “I see a great risk concerning checks at borders, and the agreement foresees criminal sanctions against people using counterfeited products as a commercial activity,” he told The Guardian. “This is relevant for the trade of fake shoes or bags, but what about data downloaded from the internet? If a customs officer considers that you may set up a commercial activity just by having one movie or one song on your computer, which is true in theory, you could face criminal sanctions.”

“I don’t want people to have their laptops or MP3 players searched at borders,” Arif said. “There needs to be a clearer distinction between normal citizens and counterfeiters which trade fake products as a commercial activity. ACTA goes too far.”

Well…if Facebook are deemed to be broadcasting information that infringes on other people’s copyrights (e.g. music videos, comic strips from newspapers, football fixtures, league tables, “Happy birthday” song at a party), they may end up in trouble and may have to moderate content. An unlikely interpretation, but not impossible.

I’d like to remind you that a few years ago it was thought Youtube would need to shut down if it didn’t rein in all the copyrighted content on it – they had to install automatic filtering to stop it (you don’t hear any fuss about violating fair use).

Remember that you “pirate” stuff more often than you think, even though you might not think of it as such.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You

I agree. This is a case which perfectly illustrates what I’ve been saying all along, viz. that “every little counts” and “YOU can do something about it” is a load of bollocks.

I can’t very well build an iPad in my garden shed out of raw materials manufactured in Europe, as you point out.

And it’s not as if the manufacturing cost itself is significantly higher in the West. A recent study showed that at equal salaries, an iPod made in the USA would only cost 20 Dollars more. I’ll try to find the original article, because it’s a fascinating study.

Equal salaries. That is where the nub of the problem lies. European workers would have to be paid Chinese salaries. However, if you consider the huge profits that are made by companies like Apple, surely it wouldn’t be too much for the top management to forgo its blasphemous salaries, bring production back to the West, and screw China once and for all. Because make no mistake, we’re screwed if we don’t.