Digital Disaster Looming (by sarah)

Last week saw Digital Economy Bill passed, meaning it will become law. This particular bill is badly written and could have far-reaching consequencies for everyone. My first issue with this was that they were trying to whip it through parliament without proper discussion; the MPs don't understand the potential issues that could result from this.

One such issue is the possibility of having your internet access cut off to your house if copyright infringment is suspected. This means that houses with teenagers in would be in danger of suddenly loosing their internet and if Mum or Dad works from home it could cripple the household. Plus the fact that this cutting off can happen just on suspicion means an environment of vigilante rule and sabotage. You're cut off and then have to prove you're not guilty - this is contradictory to how our legal system is supposed to work, isn't it?

Saying the parents should have control over the teenagers is stupid to anyone who remembers being a teenager and, worse, some teenagers happen to be past the age of majority and therefore legal entities in their own right but are likely to still be living at home.

Or... student halls or shared accommodation. What happens when one student gets the internet cut off from an entire Halls with like 150 students desperatly trying to do their course work and trying to access the library archives? This would be done via the internet, funnily enough. The same would go for kids doing GCSEs and A levels - so it suddenly becomes ok to cut of a house, rendering those kids at a social disadvantage during their exams, which could lead to either/or more stress or lower grades - thinking about this you could kill the kids' prospects before they've even began. There are charities out there trying to get internet access into disadvantaged households for this very reason and the Government want to give big business the right to take it away on a suspicion?

Have I missed something here?

And when they say copyright infringement, they mean all the minor stuff that most people didn't even know was infringement (put it this way even the Politicians themselves have managed to infringe copyright during their campaigns without realising it!).

This is just one part of this bill - there are many more which, if taken as written, would be equally as scary if not more so. This will affect companies that rely on the web (which is an awful lot these days especially the small/medium business). Can you imagine being a shop whose main source of revenue is through your web orders and suddenly wham, bam, your premises are cut off? This would be enough to cripple you plus there are other things being mooted such as blocking of actual websites - oh how the commercial competitors could sabatage you with that one - think about it.

The thing is, this isn't over yet - and as I said before whilst I have a voice and its safe to use it I will. For more information on what can be done know look here.

Debill – A Protest Poem (by sarah)

Debasing
Electronic economy
Being blinded by
Illogical idosyncrasies
Leading literate
Lynchings

April’s Challenges :) (by sarah)

This month is mainly going to be dedicated to Script Frenzy which I am really looking forward too! I am working on a comic book of The Punk (the main protagonist from my NaNoWriMo story). I'll be covering the progress of this on Purple Monster as it is all part and parcel of the same thing 🙂

I am also going to be doing another month of Poem a Day - this is NaPoWriMo 🙂 and as I was told last night of somewhere looking for specific science poems I think I shall be rolling on that one soon 🙂 The poems will be going up on Turquoise Monster as always 🙂

Of Monsters and Writing (by sarah)

I have managed to do the 30 + hour challenge I set myself for this month - I have spent the equivalent of an hour a day working on my Monster Inspiration game and have produced some interesting pieces of writing from the testing 🙂

I still need to type up the rules - fine tune timings a bit and find enough money to order in some timers, build the website and get some more dice but basically I think I am there with at least this phase of the game!

I would like to get some more colours of monsters up and going but as they would constitute as add ons/other games they are not urgent!

I'm afraid I slightly side tracked myself with getting to grips with the concept of Script Frenzy which is Aprils main challenge! I am foing a Comic Book script for part of the Punks story. I have been story boarding this and have about 10 pages sorted so far. For Script Frenzy I need to produce a 100 page script which I am taking to mean I need a 100 pages of comic 🙂

(Oh and there is a board game designed to go with the cards for a more involved game type of game - rather than writing exercise type thing - but that is going to be quiet complicated to pull off!)

Graze Box – Yummy Goodness :) (by sarah)

Due to my immune system and general health it was recommended that I might benifit from this company called Graze - they deliver healthy snacks to your house! It arrives in the post and is just there and wow - vanillia seeds!!!!

There are different nutrition plans you can go on 🙂 I'm on the immune system boost and the energy - they are low GI snacks meaning they are brilliant for diabetics and stuff (from my understanding of things at least!). You can select what you do and don't want to receive 🙂

Anyway I am really really impressed with them and they've given me a code to give out so people can get like a free sample thingy it's:

http://www.graze.com/p/KTV38LQ