Vox Polis

The announcement this week that Vertigo Films (those responsible for The Business, Human Traffic, the Football factory) were going to finance their next film Outlaw via the Internet at first made me more excited than Archimedes on bath day. However even the discovery of displacement couldn’t really subdue my usual doubt and cynicism especially when I remembered the other unsuccessful internet money raising schemes that have been concocted in recent years.

Remember when Stephen King promised to revolutionise the way we bought books? He had a novel idea (apologies for the pun) and put the first chapter of The Plant on his site and promised only to write more if people paid him money. Of course the book industry went nuts fearing King would single handedly destroy their multi-million dollar business. (Un)fortunately King stopped writing half way through the novel through lack of interest (and money).

Recently Star Trek fans have attempted to raise money to fund another series of Enterprise (why..of why?!). Unfortunately they fell short of the $30 million demanded by the film networks (they managed 10% of that). Both failed because they forgot how greedy people are. People will only pay for exclusiveness, and not even those wishing to live in the utopian world of Star Trek can usurp their instinct to only pay for things that only they can receive. It’s what economists call the free rider problem. Why pay Stephen King for his book when I can read it for free? Why pay to get Enterprise back? (yeah why indeed?) If it’s back on TV I get to watch it for free, if not I can watch the thousands of hours of endless repeats on TV for free. This is why recent Star Trek fan films have been successful. They enable groups of fans to get together and write, direct and produce a film. The latest one even had Sulu in it. The freerider problem is an issue Vertigo have attempted to surpass by offering contributors an opportunity to appear in the movie and have a credit as a producer. Lets hope this is a big enough of an incentive.

However the real challenge Vertigo faces is that people do not know what they are buying. With King’s book, you can read the first chapter and if you think its good enough then you can help pay for the rest. Star Trek fans know what Enterprise is about and know what another series is going to be about (in fact some of the fans are so infatuated they would watch any crap with the Star Trek name on it). Vertigo’s new film carries greater risk than the other projects. Yes it has a reputation of producing quality films, but I don’t believe this is enough. Films are hugely risky because of the cost of producing them. You can not stop half way through and still have something to sell like with TV series; it’s either all or nothing. Films usually only have one opportunity to make a good impression and that’s at the cinema. If it fails then its tossed unceremoniously into the bin of cut priced DVDs at your local HMV.

These are some of the challenges Vertigo and others face. The internet promises so much but often delivers so little. Maybe Vertigo will get it right

The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group met today to hear oral evidence to help it prepare a report into Digital Rights Management.

I don’t have high hopes for this mainly because the government don’t have a very good record on understanding technical issues or standing up to big business. The report in April should be interesting reading at least.

More at The Register.

Vox Polis’ review of the issues surrounding Genetically Engineered crops, found on the GM Truths page, continues this week with a look at different policy procedures adopted in reposne to GE food.
Lesson 2 compares the use of the precuationary principle and substantial equivalence.

The BBC have put a selection of questions on the subject of digital rights management (DRM) and file sharing to a panel of “top executives” in the music industry. The full set of questions and responses can be found on the BBC website. A selection of the best/worst responses can be found on The Rock Show site.

Pick of the bunch for me is from Peter Jamieson of the BPI on DRM:

DRM is the technology which makes all kinds of exciting new ways of listening to music possible.

Sigh…the management side of the music industry haven’t had an exciting idea for 40 years, the idea of them becoming gate-keepers for ideas in the future is repellent. The solution to the problem is to boycott DRM encumbered music until they see the error of their ways. Good starting points for this are here and here.

Plans to construct windfarms in upstate New York have run into difficulties caused by local residents fearful of the effects that the turbines will have. The usual issues are present such as the aesthetic problem of having 40 windmills in the back garden but there were some more unusual complaints as well…

• The sound of the turbines being similar to those used for torture by the Nazis during WW2.
• Pulsating sunlight seen through the blades leading to strokes.
• Turbines linked to increased incidence of mange in cattle.
• Living near the windmills causing women to have up to 5 menstrual cycles in a month.

Thankfully it seems that democracy is prevailing and wealthy landowners (who will receive payments for windmills on their land) are pushing through planning permission.

More over at Wired.

From the creators of Agent Orange and those who brought you the “terminator gene” comes a new story of a heroic multinational’s campaign to save European farmers from the tyranny of growing traditional crops and using ancient farming methods. Monsanto stars as itself in this new battle to replace all maize with its “Genetically enhanced” and superior super seeds that will end hunger across Europe. It will take the fight to Europe to help the over worked and under paid farmers, and at last feed the impoverished masses of Europe by growing 24 million acres of its Roundup Ready maize.

This story also tells of one nation’s fight to defeat the evil protectionists who have tried to enslave market forces by harnessing the power of the precautionary principle to delay the growing of GE crops. This is the story of the last of the superpowers; using its World Trade powers, the US fights to force the evildoers to accept GE food and liberate the supermarket shelves. This summer we can expect an action packed adventure when the US harnesses the secret WTO powers to bring fair competition to the world.

Coming to fields near you soon.
Get ready to take Genetics to new levels!
Are you ready to be Modified?
This is based on real events.

Had enough of the shadowy military-industrial complex using fear of terrorism to win more contracts for minefields? Well the Mother Nature’s pitbulls at Greenpeace have decided to jump on the bandwagon as well with this slightly hysterical piece of fakery.

The Vox Polis team are fully behind microgeneration for future energy needs but we have to admit that a plane crashing into your roof mounted wind turbine could cause some problems so caveat emptor.

From The Register:

Passengers boarding London’s Heathrow Express at Paddington are advised to allow a little more time for their journey since they may find themselves on the receiving end of a four-week, £500k trial of a US-built body scanner.

A shiny, golden pound for the first person to fill their pockets with sex toys and hop on a train to Heathrow.

I fear that the late-capitalist technocratic society is becoming just like the iPod. The iPod allows you to carry many more tunes than you’ll ever need on one journey or even before the batteries fails.

The latest models allow you to carry 60 GB’s of music (that’s 15,000 songs or about 1000 CDs). This reminds me of our dear consumption driven society. (more…)

Recently there has been much discussion and speculation about how the New Labour government is going to address our short term power needs caused by the decommissioning of our nuclear power plants and increasing demand. I refer to the short term because it is widely believed that all our power requirements will soon be solved by the creation of fusion power. Or much more likely we will mange to annihilate ourselves through one of the many terrifying ways frequently discussed in the mass media (my money’s on Bird Flu), and therefore have no energy needs.

(more…)