This spot is reserved for announcements or general queries for the Russwurm Family.
Funeral
2pm Monday, May 17th
at the F.M. Garrett Funeral Chapel
21 Elora Rd
Clifford, Ontario N0G 1M0 519-327-8160
Interment Clifford Cemetery.
The Funeral Home has the obituary online.
If anyone is interested in getting copies of any of the photographs in the book contact me at laurel.l@russwurm.org
The Free Software Foundation has designated Tuesday May 4th, 2010 at the official Day Against DRM.
Every day should be a day against DRM, but this is a good start.
If you don't know what DRM is, you could read my article or go directly to the Day Against DRM post at Defective By Design.
You may print the No DRM for me 4x6 300dpi Mini poster under
This re:mix work by Laurel L. Russwurm is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.
"No DRM for Me!" is a remix of part of this image from Nina Paley's wonderful animated film “Sita Sings the Blues”.
Since 2007 Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Switzerland have been participating in secret negotiations initiated by the United States for a supposed “Trade Treaty” called A.C.T.A., an acronym for the misleading “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement”
The American copyright lobby, made up of media corporations, trade associations and copyright collectives representing the Movie and Music recording industries have somehow convinced the American government that this would be a good thing for the United States. On the American side, the treaty is being pursued under an executive order, which means that the American president has the authority to ratify it on behalf of the United States without first subjecting it to congressional scrutiny or vote. A.C.T.A. negotiations are continuing at break neck speed under heavy non-disclosure agreements which mean that most of the elected representatives of the countries involved in the negotiations are not privy to the terms under negotiation.
President Obama has denied Freedom Of Information inquiries on the basis of National Security. This type of treaty negotiation is not only wholly unprecedented, but possibly illegal as well under 19 U.S.C. 2902(b)(2). Although it purports to be primarily about counterfeiting, the ACTA secret treaty negotiation seeks to regulate the Internet on a global scale.
I have spent a great deal of time attempting to make sense of this, since it will have serious consequences not only on Internet users but also huge impacts will be made on culture and economies around the world. The intent appears to be to legislating anti-progress by imposing strict control over the Internet.
“stands to fatally wound all user-generated content sites from mailing lists to YouTube; which stands to criminalize kids for noncommercial file-sharing; which stands to put your internet connection in jeopardy if anyone in your house is accused of infringement, and much, much more.”
--- Cory Doctorow on boingboing: Everything you want to know about the scary, secret copyright treaty
The media isn't talking about A.C.T.A. which is possibly the most important and under-reported news story in the world so it is left to us to spread the word. Contact your elected reprentatives and tell them that A.C.T.A. is bad.
I have been blogging about A.C.T.A. in an effort to help other non-technical people understand what the issues are.
As well as some of the underlying issues: Nutshell Net Neutrality
Personal Use Copying vs. Bootlegging
Free Culture, Copyright and Open Video
I've blogged a great deal more about copyright in the wind
This might explain why my novel “Inconstant Moon” is not finished yet.
Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Law Professor and Copyright Reform Proponent has laid it out in detail.
The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date
ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and Leaked)
ACTA Guide, Part Three: Transparency and ACTA Secrecy
ACTA Guide: Part Four: What Will ACTA Mean To My Domestic Law?
The quantity of leaked material seems to be increasing, so the latest info can usually be found in Michael Geist's blog
Cory Doctrorow recently wrote a summary which can be found at
Copyright Undercover: ACTA and the Web
for Internet Evolution and he has been reporting steadily on A.C.T.A. developments in his 
blog
Other excellent sources of information about A.C.T.A. include the digital liberty proponents
Public Knowledge: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and Electronic Frontier Foundation, La Quadrature Du Net and Knowledge Ecology International
To connect with other people or groups you can join the A.C.T.A. group on Identi.ca, or the Facebook: ACTA site, search for #ACTA on Twitter or start your own. Another good source of information is the Pirate Party of Canada. There seems to be a Pirate Party in nearly every country in the world. The primary motivation for each Pirate Party is to keep the internet free and reform copyright for the good of society.
You don't have to read all the links at once. Understanding is important.
Tell someone. The only way to ratify treaties or laws that are against the public interest is to keep them dark.
“PublicACTA has been organized by InternetNZ so that the public can critique the known and likely content of A.C.T.A. proposals ahead of the next Round in Wellington.” PublicACTA
All citizens of the world are encouraged to sign the The Wellington Delaration which was created at April's PublicACTA Conference in New Zealand.
Mom and Dad try to interest baby Willem in the concept of birthday cake sixteen years ago.
Anyone interested in acquiring a free russwurm.org email address contact:
info@russwurm.org
NOTE: This would not replace your usual email address, it is a courtesy email forwarding service.
Email sent to you at
yournamehere@russwurm.org
would be forwarded to your usual email address.
(Should you wish to keep your regular email address dark, you'd need to set up your mailbox accordingly).
This is a great email address if your surname is Russwurm. But it can also be very useful if you've had a name change. Although I use my married name in day-to-day life, my professional name will always be Laurel L. Russwurm. The name may have been difficult to wear as a kid, but for name recognition it's unbeatable-- once anyone learns the name "Russwurm" they remember it forever.
By the same token, using a Russwurm email address makes life simpler when reconnecting with people who knew me before I married. So I'm thrilled to have my laurel.l@russwurm.org email address.
As you can imagine, the "L" names are going fast, so if you're interested don't leave it too late.
This hCard created with hCard creator.
This hCard created with hCard creator.
This hCard created with hCard creator.
