Today my broadband was down from 13:27 until 22:13. I work from home mainly, so I had to take a day off as I had no internet. Now I’m really going to stab someone! I haven’t been this seriously pissed off in a very long time. How is it even possible to hate a company so much? The good thing is that today I only had to wait for half an hour to reach Sonera’s crappy customer service – and they were very helpful! They were able to confirm that they are currently experiencing technical difficulties in my area, yesterday they didn’t know that much. Perhaps tomorrow they will care to send someone to fix it.
Monthly Archive for October, 2006
I lost my internet connection yesterday at 18:06. No work, no play – nothing. Life sucks when you have no internet. So I called Sonera’s technical customer service and waited in queue for 1 hour and 29 minutes before I hung up, frustrated. Meanwhile my Linux box was sending DHCPDISCOVER messages but received no DHCPOFFERs. I got my first DHCPACK at 20:48. That’s 2 hours and 42 minutes without internet and without any customer service. This morning I had the same problem, it took me one hour before I got an IP-address from Sonera’s fucked up DHCP-server. So Sonera can go to hell. This isn’t the first time I’m having problems like this. What’s even worse, when I moved in it took Sonera two months to get the friggin broadband working. I’m going to stab someone from Sonera. Die Sonera, die. 
Found this clip via Digg. Yep, we can be very proud of our rally heroes. Just don’t learn English from them. 
Oh and Kimi Räikkönen announces to live ITV-viewers that he was “having a shit” during Michael Schumacher’s trophy presentation. Don’t let these guys teach you manners either 
![[Heikki Silvennoinen as Mauno Ahonen]](http://wstryder.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/heikki_silvennoinen.png "Heikki Silvennoinen as Mauno Ahonen")
Ilta-Sanomat reports that the Tampere police has initiated an investigation into alleged illegal sharing of Kummeli movies over the Internet. The Kummeli actors are pissed off at their latest movie “Kummeli Jackpot” hitting the P2P networks. The DVD is officially released today, but the torrent has apparently been available for quite some time already. “This is so wrong!” cries Kummeli funny-guy Heikki Silvennoinen, “You do all the work, but don’t get the salary you’re supposed to get. That’s like stealing money from someone’s bank account.”
In other news, Universal Pictures releases a special “Imperial edition” DVD of Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, a movie that was released for anyone to download for free over the internet.
If you don’t know what Kummeli is all about, check out this classic “Meanwhile in Sweden” sketch, on YouTube.
Mediaviikko’s executive editor Paavo Vasala was kind enough to send me Mediaviikko’s article on YLE&MTV3 vs. YouTube (subscribers only) and even gave me permission to quote it. Awesome! This might be interesting for Finnish readers, so here’s the entire comment from Mediaviikko:
Yleisradion ja MTV3:n tiukka kanta Googlea vastaan on täysin oikea. Ohjelmat ovat televisioyhtiöiden teettämiä ja rahoittamia sekä omistamia. Niitä ei saa kukaan näyttää luvatta. Kun sen tekee taloudellista voittoa tavoitteleva yhtiö, kuten nyt Google, teko on erityisen tuomittavaa laittomana.
TV-yhtiöt ovat maksaneet työntekijöille sovitun palkan ja palkkion ohjelmien tekemisestä. Myös muita kustannuksia on syntynyt. Kun Google käyttää nyt hyväkseen toisen tekemää työtä, sitä voidaan pitää varastamisena. Tällaista ei saa kannattaa. Herättääkin suurta hämmästystä, kuinka varsin moni nettikeskustelija luulee, että kyse on televisioyhtiöiden tahallisesta kiusanteosta, kun kielletään ohjelmien luvaton levitys netissä. Kustannuksien jaosta on kyse lopulta.
Nettimaailma on väärällään erilaisia virityksiä toisten tuotteiden anastamiseksi, mistä Suomessakin esillä olleet tekijänoikeuslain valmistelun aikaiset riidat ovat osoituksena. Luulen, että oikeustaju on kuitenkin tallella suurimmalla osalla kansasta. Eräillä vain oma ahneus iskee niin pahasti päälle, että ohjelmien ja muiden esitettävien tuotteiden tekijänoikeuksista ei paljoa piitata. Onneksi yhä enemmän netissä tapahtuva tuotevälitys on laillista myyntiä ja pelisäännöt ovat tulleet tutuiksi.
I’m sorry I don’t have time to translate the whole comment, but in brief, Vasala agrees with YLE and MTV3. He thinks that now that Google is benefiting financially from the illegal use of copyrighted material on YouTube, it can be called theft and should not be tolerated. He mentions that “The Internet is full of devices whose purpose is to steal the work of others, the row over the new Finnish copyright law demonstrates this well. Some are so greedy, that they don’t care about the copyrights of software or other products.”
To be continued. Vasala does it again – he calls copyright law critics criminals whenever he gets the opportunity. Opponents of the copyright law don’t support piracy, they want more rights for consumers. The Finnish copyright law has various points that need to be corrected. According to the 2006 copyright bill (edited from Afterdawn.com):
- Circumventing copy protections is illegal, even for personal use.
- Distributing tools that allow circumventing copy protection mechanisms is illegal.
- Advertising tools that allow circumventing copy protection mechanisms is illegal.
- Possession of tools that allow circumventing copy protection mechanisms is illegal, even for personal use.
- Guides on how to circumvent copy protection mechanisms can be considered as “tools” and thus are also illegal.
- Worryingly, even “organized discussion” on how to circumvent copy protection mechanisms, is illegal.
So, if you have a portable MP3 player and a copy-protected CD, you can’t legally copy the CD to your MP3 player anymore. Got Linux? Forget about installing libdvdcss to watch DVDs – you’d be breaking the law.
If I want to copy a CD to my MP3 player, does that make me a criminal? Talk about greed. Some are so greedy that they infest their products with copy-protection, just to make sure you won’t be able to use the product. Some are so greedy that they install rootkits on their CDs. Some are so greedy that they sell you DRM products online that could break at anytime. And yes, some hard-bitten evil pirates are so greedy that they download a 2min clip of Kummeli from YouTube for free, instead of bying the 6h DVD-set.
I used to read Mediaviikko magazine online regularly. My interest was hightened a year ago, when they published a controversal and provocative editorial praising the new copyright law (see also Butt Ugly Weblog’s analysis in English). In brief, the editorial contained numerous mistakes, factual errors and outright lies. The editorial gained many comments in a short time, most just pointing out errors. Mediaviikko abruptly removed all the comments, claiming they were “too profane” and started to moderate all further comments on all their articles and editorials. If that wasn’t bad enough, they revised the original editorial in silence.
Mediaviikko continued to attack proponents of the new copyright law, labelling all critics as “pirates, criminals and propagandists” in their January 2006 editorial. In May 2006 Mediaviikko decided it was time for another PR-stunt. With the help of columnist Tuulikki Ukkola they defended the tabloid magazine Seiska’s decision to publish pictures of Lordi’s band members. That would have been acceptable, had they not likened Lordi fans with the SS-jugend and islamic terrorists.
Today I was eager to read Mediaviikko’s twist on the YouTube copyright infringement story. Their excerpt read “theft must end!” – so I was guessing they were up to no good once again. I wasn’t able to read their article however, because it turned out that only subscribed readers can now view their content. I could subscribe for “only” 99€. Well forget it.
I find it hard to believe that Mediaviikko will benefit from this. I don’t think that anyone will want to pay 99€ for their service, because:
- Their news coverage is nothing out of the ordinary.
- All the comments are moderated, so they have no real dialogue with the readers.
- Their website just isn’t cool enough. There are no features that you would want to pay 99€ per year for.
- Their reporters don’t blog.
- Their website is way too dull and just way too ugly.
So, auf wieder sehen und bis bald, Mediaviikko.
According to Taloussanomat the Finnish broadcasting companies YLE and MTV3 now condemn the display of their tv-shows on YouTube. Jussi Tunturi from YLE says that YouTube is clearly breaking the law, because one may not use another’s material on an internet site without permission, and he is certain that no such permission has been given from YLE. The broadcasters say they will not tolerate any copyright infringements and see no option but to start talks with Google. Tunturi also wonders where on earth YouTube got their material from.
My first thought – What a frigging dumbass! I think Tunturi is confused as to the nature of YouTube, perhaps he’s never heard of Web 2.0. You know, It’s not very difficult to upload a video to YouTube, so it’s no wonder YouTube’s full of Kummeli and Studio julmahuvi clips. I find it interesting that it took YLE and MTV3 so long to figure out that their shows “air” also on YouTube. So what’s their next move? I think they should do the obvious thing and sue Google. I bet that would be fun. Or better yet, sue their viewers. Sue everyone who has uploaded YLE’s shows to YouTube. Start a massive anti copyright infringement campaign and sue all Kummeli and Studio Julmahuvi fans. It’s clear that they are losing revenue every second due to YouTube. I mean, who would buy a 4h Kummeli DVD when you can view a 2min clip on YouTube for free?
The television licence fee in Finland is 200.7€ per year. For that much money you get utter crap. Desperate Housewives and Lost are now on their third seasons in the US, in Finland they just started the second season. Any good movies on TV tonight? Let me check… definately no.
In my opinion the best way to enjoy TV-series is by buying the DVD-set. You get hours and hours of your favourite tv-show, with no commercials and zero interruptions. Now I have never had a TV, and I never will. I have better things to do with my time and my money. Who the hell needs television? That’s ancient shit, especially now that we have YouTube (slight pun intended).
P.S. If you’ve never heard of Touko Pouko or Studio Julmahuvi, check out this clip (in Finnish).
Update: The Inquirer now has this story.
I sent Sony some feedback a very long time ago. Yesterday I received sort of a reply from them (in Finnish, with spelling mistakes):
Hyvä asiakas, Tehdessämme rutiini tarkastusta ohjelmaan joka käsittelee sähköpostimme, huomasimme teknisen vian joka valitettavasti on tuhonnut viestinne sisällön. Onglenma on nyt korjattu ja pyytäisimmekin teitä lähettämään viestinne uudelleen, jos vielä tarvitsette apua Sonyn asiakaspalvelusta. Pahoittelemme tapahtunutta ja siitä koitunutta vaivaa. Ystävällisesti Sony Support support@sony.fi
My loose translation:
Dear customer, While running a routine check on our e-mail software, we found a technical error which had unfortunately destroyed the contents of your message. The problem is now solved and we ask that you send your message again if you still need help from our customer service. We apologize for the inconvenience.
No need to apologize, I’ll take the quality of your customer service into account next time I’m considering to buy a product from Sony. Just wondering, perhaps it was a Sony rootkit that deleted my message? Mybe somebody had popped a DRM infested Sony CD in their mail server. Just a thought.
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