IPod Observer reports that the RIAA believe people who buy music shouldn't be allowed to listen to that music how, when and where they choose. During the forumulation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the RIAA argued that copying music from a CD to an MP3 player was not fair use. (In the UK, as far as I know, the law agrees with them; you're not permitted to make copies of material, even for your own use so technically you could be prosecuted.) Outrageous, no?

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Strikers return to work, but how much has the strike contributed to the decline of the postal service?

The illegal strike by Royal Mail workers in Belfast is due to end as the company promises to allow a third party to look at relations between management and employees.

As pointed out by Parnell in response to Mr Levee's Sister-In-Law, the postal workers have really shot themselves in the foot over this one. The 2 week strike will have forced businesses, hospitals etc to rethink how they communicate with their customers (or patients) in the future.

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The cost of implementing wheelchair access to the QUB buildings was obviously underestimated

Well we can't say we weren't warned. It seems that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has hit Ulster's academic instituions quite hard.

Last week was the first time I'd had to locate the ELTC on Elmwood Avenue for one of my classes and noticed what appeared to be a makeshift ramp. I've no idea how long it's been there for, but it was still there this week, so it must be a semi-permanent fixture.

It would appear that the cost of providing wheelchair access to the various buildings at Queen's University has been so hard that the University have been forced to cut a few corners in order to comply with the act, which includes a responsibiliy to "make reasonable adjustments to the physical features of their premises to overcome physical barriers to access."

Or maybe it was just bored skater kids.

Local politicos argue over Ulster's links, but would either Scotland or the Republic be that worried about co-operation with Northern Ireland?

Not for the first time, our local politicians (of both hues) have today failed miserably to see the big picture. As noted at Slugger, the SDLP have released a document entitled "North-South makes sense" calling for closer co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic in many areas, including notably an all-island sex-offenders register and an all-island intellignce body.

Meanwhile the DUP have, novelly, if not unpredictably, called for closer co-operation with... Scotland. Citing "well-documented and irrefutable historical links" as well as common problems such as "poor transportation infrastructure, the decline of heavy industry and textiles and an underdeveloped tourism potential," MEP Jim Allister claimed such co-operation was more natural "than the unnatural and politically-motivated north-southery."

While what they both say may be true, both parties seem to fail miserably to grasp the concept that it will take a common British-Isles solution to really get to grips with some of these problems. The sex offenders register is an obvious example of where this would make sense. Why limit it to this island, when there is such free and frequent travel and relocation between it and it's closest neighbour?

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A man was bundled into a van near Ballymena Rugby Club, taken to a layby and sexually assaulted. It seems the man was held down by one man while 2 other men raped him. The sexual assault lasted 10 minutes and left the man needing hospital treatment. Police are appealing for information.

This is obviously a shocking and disgusting act and I can only imagine the terror the victim went through not to mention the pain, both physical and emotional, that he must still be enduring.

There is one man raped, on average, roughly every 2 weeks in Northern Ireland alone.

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I attended the comedy night in the empire to find myself wondering (before alcohol severely reduced my ability to reason) why there always seem to be so many more catholics/culchies in there than regular normal run-of-the-mill prods? I understand that students from the predominantly protestant and unionist east of the province are much more likely to travel to the mainland for university, but is there more to it than that?

Week in week out the question is asked "How many prods in the house?" quickly followed by "How many taigs in the house?" Without exception the second cheer is louder, and without exception the standup will say something like "I bet you two wish you'd kept quiet now."

There could be any number of reasons for this, the first of which I mentioned above about there simply being more catholic students in Northern Ireland due to the increased willingness of protestant students to travel elsewhere in the British Isles for university - but can that explain it all?

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A Cambridge academic has told MPs that they need to legislate to prevent large corporations abusing DRM technology to place excessive restrictions on what users can do with digital content once they've purchased it. Ross Anderson was speaking to the All-Party Parliamentary Internet Group.

The call follows the outcry over Sony's 'rootkit' technology, incorporated on music CDs to prevent copying, was found to contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by viruses, for example.

Libraries are also expressing fears about inflexible DRM implementations which could prevent them from exercising their 'fair-use' exemption from copyright laws, and even from archiving old works where the copyright has expired.

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Europe has become the latest target of radical islamic protest. People are boycotting Danish produce and have closed what is effectively an EU embassy in Gaza. Why? Because of a cartoon. No, it's not 1st April.

I'll ignore my own confusion over fundamental Muslims boycotting the produce of a country who's chief exports are Carlsberg and bacon and skip to the protests.

As the protests and boycott made news, newspapers in 3 other European countries reprinted the original cartoons for reference, attracting further wrath, including protests on the streets of London. I posted this link to pictures of the London protestors earlier by accident. I had meant simply to save it in draft so I could edit it later. There are many banners on show at the protest but to sum up, they're all roughly along the lines of "Death to the infidels". There's one warning Europe that its 9/11 is on the way! Nice.

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One of many Socialist Youth posters plastered on public property in the University area of Belfast

On my way to Belfast city-centre today I couldn't help but notice posters proclaiming "Why you should be socialist" in big red letters. Why could I not help noticing? Well it seems that Socialist Youth are operating under the misapprehension that they own all public property in Belfast. Almost every lamp post and public bin on the way down the Lisburn Road was adorned with a Socialist Youth poster, put up by career litterers who target student areas like the Lisburn Road and the area around Queen's University.

Socialist Youth aren't the only offenders, many nightclubs also use this tactic, although usually preferring abandoned buildings to public property. They're also not usually as unrelenting, being focused on one wall or building and not following you all along your journey. Sinn Fein activists have done it in the past, as I noticed a poster for a some protest rally stuck to the wall belonging to Queen's University itself.

It's a menace and needs to be stopped. That's before I've even considered the specifics of this campaign and its misleading message:
Anti-War? Anti-Poverty? Anti-Racist? Anti-Capitalist?
Why you should be a Socialist

Quite what anti-racism has to do with socialism I don't know, and I'm not quite sure the communist revolutionaries in Russia were anti-war, but try telling them they're not socialists.

At the end of the day what we have is just a bunch of young people with nothing constructive to do, so they revert into stereotypical Rik Mayall-esque student form: the rebel without a cause clue.

No I'm not getting commission for this, but they're so good I have to pass it on. Consider it a thank you for reading my wee blog.

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