Hey everyone, look who’s hooooome ~
I’ve got a number of things to say about next month.
Those of you who read my Twitter updates would know that I have two trips coming up next month: one to Woldingham School in Surrey (not London, but Surrey) for the Faith Summer Conference, and one to Madrid for World Youth Day.
A kind soul paid in full for my trip to Surrey when I was out of funds. And all he asked was that I pray for his intentions. My chaplain e-mailed this to me a few Saturdays ago, and that very evening, I got down on my knees in church and thanked the good Lord. A number of others will be turning up for the Faith Conference, though I do wonder how many people are coming from Hatfield (and St Albans).
As for World Youth Day…
I kinda understand that I might be repeating myself to some, but this is gonna be my first ever World Youth Day. I wanted to go for the 2008 one in Sydney when it was announced in 2007, but I had exams, A-Levels and other things just piling up, and circumstances prevented me from going (including my mother’s death). This is only but one opportunity for me to spread my wings. One of my cherished dreams, which I scrawled on paper in National Service, was to meet the sucessor of Peter — the Pope — face to face. And not only shall I be doing this in World Youth Day… I get to join the papal vigil on the 20th of August, and then (it seems that) I’ve got a VIP seat for the next day… ^_^ Really, I am glad. Today I knelt down and thanked the Lord.
And yes, it’s a few days after I hear the news that I am breaking it for all to read. I am glad and grateful that all this is taking place. Not only is the Lord providing for me, He’s giving me nooks and crannies to explore — nooks and crannies which would be disregarded by about 80% of people in Hatfield, if not Britain. I know I’ll have a lot to write home about, and a lot of photo-taking and video-taking to do, considering I shall be spending five days in Surrey, and a week in Madrid. I’ll have to bring a multitap at this rate to charge my PC, camera batteries and whatnot!
I trust those two weeks shall be filled with surprises and goodness. Already this month has had its own surprises. I really can’t wait!
On a side note, I have now changed my channel on YT.
And therefore, the new Mario Paint OC Contest Round 17 video is up.
In case you’re wondering what’s going on, it’s that blasted Senate Bill in the US. Earlier there was a loophole which allowed already produced songs to be performed. There were many who found great use for this loophole, not claiming profit for the used songs, but allowing unseen artists to be recognised through covers. In most cases, whenever someone listened to a cover, he’d know about the original song and research the artist.
But soon, it’ll all end. The corporate giants will be controlling every produced song and every bit of content put up on YT. Every single cover will be slapped with a “Matched third party content” note, and people doing Let’s Plays (game walkthroughs with commentaries), fandubs (especially for games and animé not dubbed in a certain language), remixes and song covers will be deeply affected.
And for this very reason, two videos of mine (under TroisNyxEtienne) were struck out. One more, and that account will be closed by YT. At least I’ve only had two vids struck out so far, but I do know the third strike is imminent. It can happen anytime now. Some of my fellow fandubbers have had their channels removed by YT because of this, and as far as we reasonably know, they had done nothing to warrant that apart from make a never-before-released French version of a game we all know and love. They were banned for putting their skills to good use.
YouTube will no longer be a place for us.
YouTube will be, rather, a place controlled by corporations.
And worse, anyone who does whatsoever he is still doing in the US if the Senate Bill is passed would face a fine, or even a jail term of five years.
How admirably stupid. People are going to be thrown into jail just for singing songs. (And on a related note, how did a mother who killed her child get out of prison after only spending two years, and not much, much longer?)
Now I can understand the rationale behind copyrights and wanting to protect intellectual property. The whole spirit behind the law was to enable people to perform without profit, and if profit was taken, then it’d be with permission from the records or from the original artist. And right-thinking artists would not want their work used for anything which is distasteful, hateful or otherwise derogatory. But if that Senate Bill is passed, the entire uploading system around the world will go haywire. And that, seriously, is going too far. This is copyright law gone loopy.
I now have an added reason to study Intellectual Property for Year 3 Law: to find out the reason behind the mess the Senate is creating.
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