Emily Davidow » freedom

This Website Was Blacked Out

Emily — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:42:54 +0000

If you tried to visit this site earlier today, you would have found it blacked out with the message below. Delighted to return it before the day is out, due to success of the blackout campaign for raising awareness. Kudos to Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and the Creative Freedom Foundation for their swift and effective blackout campaign and public demonstration at Parliament.

I’m glad to see the government’s chosen to delay Section 92A of the Copyright Act until March 27 and suspend it entirely if no agreement can be reached. It needs to be repealed. Here are reports from Computerworld, InternetNZ and The NZ Herald.

This Saturday, February 28th, Section 92A of the Copyright Act is due to come into force.

This website has voluntarily been taken down in protest against this law, which will be used to disconnect New Zealanders from the internet based on accusations of copyright infringement, without a trial and without evidence held up to court scrutiny.

May we be very clear: we do not support or condone copyright infringement or illegal downloads.

But this blatant disregard towards the basic human right to a fair trial is completely unjust and unworkable and it has the potential to punish New Zealand businesses and individuals where in fact no laws have been broken.

Similar laws have been rejected in the EU as being against “a fair balance between various fundamental rights“, rejected in the UK due to “impracticalities“, and rejected in Germany as being ‘Unfit for Germany, Unfit For Europe‘.

We don’t care who voted for the law in the first place. We just want it stopped. We call on the Minister responsible, National’s Simon Power, to do the right thing and repeal Section 92A immediately. Visit CreativeFreedom.org.nz to learn more

links for 2008-04-16: Tastes of Freedom

Emily — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:39:37 +0000

Mmm… Basil growing in my NYC rooftop garden, certified safe by Umbra. Who knew Seeds of Change (my organic seed source) was owned by M&M/Mars? Anna did.

Take a Bite out of Climate Change

Anna Lappe’s new Bite Blog explores climate change through the lens of food with up-to-date info, analysis, interviews with experts in the field, tips on diet choices and actions you can take.

(tags: climatechange food farming agriculture biotech biofuels hunger meat organic foodindustry)
Detailed Nomadic Taxonomy

Paul Saffo’s post on Cyber-Nomads, a functional taxonomy of mobile users, dives more deeply into the metaphors quoted in my New Nomads post (Thanks, Paul!).

(tags: nomads digitalnomads globalnomads urbannomads taxonomy metaphor astronauts hermitcrabs cybertrekkers)
Ask Umbra: On Rooftop Gardening

Are plants grown on NYC rooftop gardens safe to eat? For ye urban container gardeners, the concern is not long-term soil buildup but airborne toxics landing on your plants. Wash the fruits of your rooftop labors and enjoy!

(tags: gardening urban containergardening ediblegardens gardens pollution food)
Fring brings VOIP to the iPhone

I just received my first VOIP call from an iPhone using Fring. It’s f’ing awesome! Now those with opened iPhones can make free calls over wifi using skype and use aim, google talk, twitter, icq, msn messenger, etc…

(tags: voip iphone)

happiness

First Day of Spring: Iris Reticulata Harmony and Tibet

Emily — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:04:18 +0000

Iris Reticulata “Harmony” is the first bloom in the garden this year, blossoming on this first day of Spring, 2008 (with wind gusting to 36mph). Photo by Emily Davidow

In Greek mythology, Iris is a goddess who unites sky and sea as a rainbow and unites heaven and earth as a messenger of the Olympian gods. In Tibet, Iris Reticulata is the most glorious flower growing wild on the plateau. At over 14,000 ft above sea level, Iris wastes no energy shooting up stems. Instead, it spreads out its violet and gold treasures as soon as it emerges through the ground.

But Tibet has not seen much “Harmony” in almost sixty years of Chinese occupation. In the words of The Dalai Lama, “genuine harmony must come from the heart, it cannot come from the barrel of a gun.” With six million Tibetans and 1.3 billion Chinese, it’s easy to feel hopeless about the Tibetan plight. But the Tibetan right to automony is a winning cause, and with the whole world watching, Tibet and friends outnumber China 5 to 1.

If you’d like to count with Tibet and the whole world, sign the petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao, requesting restraint and respect for human rights and to open meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. In the words of Mohandas Gandhi, another wise leader through nonviolence,”Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.” Or in other words… better to be an Iris than a Cassandra.