“I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later. And we’re going to hurt some people.”
July 27, 2011 No Comment
Republicans think the debt ceiling negotiations are totally like a Ben Affleck heist movie, or something: At a closed-door House GOP meeting about the debt ceiling yesterday, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy reportedly played the following clip from The Town for his fellow Republicans: That got ‘em psyched! HuffPo reports that Florida GOP Rep. Allen West responded afterwards by telling the gathered… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Reason Magazine – Hit & Run Discovery Date : 27/07/2011 03:46 Number of articles : 3
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UK supreme court rules British prop designer, Andrew Ainsworth, may sell replicas of stormtrooper outfits he made for original Star Wars film A British prop designer has won his battle with Star Wars creator George Lucas over the right to sell replica stormtrooper outfits following a supreme court ruling. Twickenham-based Andrew Ainsworth, 62, built the original costumes used in Star Wars and has been selling the outfits, based on his moulds for the 1977 blockbuster, online for a number of years. He successfully argued the costumes were functional works rather than artistic ones, and therefore not subject to full UK copyright laws. “The judges concluded that the helmet could not be regarded as an artistic work because it was a mass produced item – remember how many stormtroopers there were? – and has an utilitarian role,” said leading intellectual property lawyer Simon Bennett of Fox Williams LLP. Lucas had taken the case before a succession of judges in an effort to halt Ainsworth’s work. He has now been forced to admit defeat – in the UK at least – following the ruling by the UK’s highest court for civil cases, which upheld a decision taken at the court of appeal in 2009. “This is a massive victory, a total victory, we’ve already got the champagne out,” Ainsworth told the BBC, adding that he had gone to court on a principle and was not going to allow the director to “buy his soul”. He told the Daily Telegraph: “I am proud to report that in the English legal system David can prevail against Goliath if his cause is right. If there is a force, then it has been with me these past five years.” However, the supreme court also ruled that Lucas’s copyright had been violated in the US, meaning Ainsworth will no longer be able to sell his costumes there. The film-maker successfully sued Ainsworth for $20m in the US when he began selling replicas of the models in 2004 , but a succession of UK courts overturned that ruling, culminating in today’s decision. “He lost on the US issue and as a result claims for infringement of foreign copyright can now be brought in the UK,” said Bennett. Ainsworth’s suits cost up to £1,500 and are highly sought after by Star Wars devotees, who wear them to fan conventions, as well as collectors. A spokesman for Lucasfilm told Sky News the court had “maintained an anomaly of British copyright law under which the creative and highly artistic works made for use in films … may not be entitled to copyright protection in the UK”. The BBC has posted a video in which Ainsworth shows how he makes the outfits. George Lucas Star Wars Science fiction and fantasy Intellectual property UK supreme court Design Fashion Ben Child guardian.co.uk
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UK supreme court rules British prop designer, Andrew Ainsworth, may sell replicas of stormtrooper outfits he made for original Star Wars film A British prop designer has won his battle with Star Wars creator George Lucas over the right to sell replica stormtrooper outfits following a supreme court ruling. Twickenham-based Andrew Ainsworth, 62, built the original costumes used in Star Wars and has been selling the outfits, based on his moulds for the 1977 blockbuster, online for a number of years. He successfully argued the costumes were functional works rather than artistic ones, and therefore not subject to full UK copyright laws. “The judges concluded that the helmet could not be regarded as an artistic work because it was a mass produced item – remember how many stormtroopers there were? – and has an utilitarian role,” said leading intellectual property lawyer Simon Bennett of Fox Williams LLP. Lucas had taken the case before a succession of judges in an effort to halt Ainsworth’s work. He has now been forced to admit defeat – in the UK at least – following the ruling by the UK’s highest court for civil cases, which upheld a decision taken at the court of appeal in 2009. “This is a massive victory, a total victory, we’ve already got the champagne out,” Ainsworth told the BBC, adding that he had gone to court on a principle and was not going to allow the director to “buy his soul”. He told the Daily Telegraph: “I am proud to report that in the English legal system David can prevail against Goliath if his cause is right. If there is a force, then it has been with me these past five years.” However, the supreme court also ruled that Lucas’s copyright had been violated in the US, meaning Ainsworth will no longer be able to sell his costumes there. The film-maker successfully sued Ainsworth for $20m in the US when he began selling replicas of the models in 2004 , but a succession of UK courts overturned that ruling, culminating in today’s decision. “He lost on the US issue and as a result claims for infringement of foreign copyright can now be brought in the UK,” said Bennett. Ainsworth’s suits cost up to £1,500 and are highly sought after by Star Wars devotees, who wear them to fan conventions, as well as collectors. A spokesman for Lucasfilm told Sky News the court had “maintained an anomaly of British copyright law under which the creative and highly artistic works made for use in films … may not be entitled to copyright protection in the UK”. The BBC has posted a video in which Ainsworth shows how he makes the outfits. George Lucas Star Wars Science fiction and fantasy Intellectual property UK supreme court Design Fashion Ben Child guardian.co.uk
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Northern League member says Norwegian killer’s ideas are in defence of western civilisation One of Silvio Berlusconi’s former ministers has defended the thinking of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Interviewed on a popular radio show, Francesco Speroni, a leading member of the Northern League, the junior partner in Berlusconi’s conservative coalition, said: “Breivik’s ideas are in defence of western civilisation.” Speroni spoke as other right-wingers around Europe, including leading officials of his own party, distanced themselves from the massacre on Utøya and the ideology that inspired it . The Italian politician was endorsing the comments of another high-profile member of the league who had drawn fierce criticism for arguing that the killings might have been part of a plot to discredit hardline conservative thinkers. Like many in his party, Mario Borghezio, who sits in the European parliament, is an admirer of the writings of the late Italian journalist and author Oriana Fallaci, who popularised the term Eurabia to describe a future, supposedly Islamised Europe. Borghezio, a member of the European parliament’s committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, suggested that there was something suspicious about the fact that Breivik had been able to move around freely until last Friday. He said he disagreed with the way “this massacre is being used to condemn positions like that of Oriana Fallaci”. While describing the Norwegian killer as “unbalanced”, Borghezio said: “Christians ought not to be animals to be sacrificed. We have to defend them.” His comments brought outraged demands for his expulsion from opposition politicians and at least one member of the Berlusconi government. The party’s chief organiser, Roberto Calderoli, who also sits in the cabinet, responded with a public apology to Norway “and above all to the relatives of the victims for the terrible, unspeakable remarks made in a personal capacity by [Mario] Borghezio”. His gesture was almost immediately undermined, however, when Speroni spoke up in defence of his party colleague, using even franker language than Borghezio. Unlike his fellow MP, who is notorious for headline-grabbing, extremist comments, Speroni is a Northern League heavyweight. He was the minister for institutional reform in Berlusconi’s first government between 1994 and 1995 and has since been the league’s chief whip in the senate, the upper house of the Italian legislature, and the European parliament. “I’m with Borghezio. I don’t think he should resign”, Speroni said. “If [Breivik's] ideas are that we are going towards Eurabia and those sorts of things, that western Christian civilisation needs to be defended, yes, I’m in agreement,” he told Radio 24. In France, the National Front announced on Tuesday it had suspended a former local election candidate who made remarks on his blog that were interpreted as supportive of Breivik. Italy Europe Anders Behring Breivik Norway John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Northern League member says Norwegian killer’s ideas are in defence of western civilisation One of Silvio Berlusconi’s former ministers has defended the thinking of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Interviewed on a popular radio show, Francesco Speroni, a leading member of the Northern League, the junior partner in Berlusconi’s conservative coalition, said: “Breivik’s ideas are in defence of western civilisation.” Speroni spoke as other right-wingers around Europe, including leading officials of his own party, distanced themselves from the massacre on Utøya and the ideology that inspired it . The Italian politician was endorsing the comments of another high-profile member of the league who had drawn fierce criticism for arguing that the killings might have been part of a plot to discredit hardline conservative thinkers. Like many in his party, Mario Borghezio, who sits in the European parliament, is an admirer of the writings of the late Italian journalist and author Oriana Fallaci, who popularised the term Eurabia to describe a future, supposedly Islamised Europe. Borghezio, a member of the European parliament’s committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, suggested that there was something suspicious about the fact that Breivik had been able to move around freely until last Friday. He said he disagreed with the way “this massacre is being used to condemn positions like that of Oriana Fallaci”. While describing the Norwegian killer as “unbalanced”, Borghezio said: “Christians ought not to be animals to be sacrificed. We have to defend them.” His comments brought outraged demands for his expulsion from opposition politicians and at least one member of the Berlusconi government. The party’s chief organiser, Roberto Calderoli, who also sits in the cabinet, responded with a public apology to Norway “and above all to the relatives of the victims for the terrible, unspeakable remarks made in a personal capacity by [Mario] Borghezio”. His gesture was almost immediately undermined, however, when Speroni spoke up in defence of his party colleague, using even franker language than Borghezio. Unlike his fellow MP, who is notorious for headline-grabbing, extremist comments, Speroni is a Northern League heavyweight. He was the minister for institutional reform in Berlusconi’s first government between 1994 and 1995 and has since been the league’s chief whip in the senate, the upper house of the Italian legislature, and the European parliament. “I’m with Borghezio. I don’t think he should resign”, Speroni said. “If [Breivik's] ideas are that we are going towards Eurabia and those sorts of things, that western Christian civilisation needs to be defended, yes, I’m in agreement,” he told Radio 24. In France, the National Front announced on Tuesday it had suspended a former local election candidate who made remarks on his blog that were interpreted as supportive of Breivik. Italy Europe Anders Behring Breivik Norway John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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With one year to go until the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, London organizers unveiled the Olympic pool in the massive $442 million aquatic center built for the games. (July 27)
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With one year to go until the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, London organizers unveiled the Olympic pool in the massive $442 million aquatic center built for the games. (July 27)
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A suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar Wednesday. It was the third assassination of a key figure in southern Afghanistan in two weeks. (July 27)
Continue reading …A suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar Wednesday. It was the third assassination of a key figure in southern Afghanistan in two weeks. (July 27)
Continue reading …Nothing illustrates Republican priorities more starkly than this little piece of video, where Fox News host Martha MacCallum opines that we’d have more of a solid fiscal position to pay for wars if we didn’t have Medicare and Social Security. Media Matters: MACCALLUM: But I want to ask you one more question, because when I watched the president last night he talked about the things that have driven us to this situation, and he said two wars that we couldn’t pay for, a prescription drug plan that, you know, was way too expensive to pay for, and the financial crisis that followed and that was, you know, toward the beginning of his watch and overlapping the Bush administration. But I couldn’t help thinking, well, if we weren’t in such a precarious situation and hadn’t overextended ourselves to such an incredible extent where we are sending out 80 million checks a month – the U.S. government – wouldn’t we have been able to handle those things like the two wars in a much better, stronger fiscal position , and isn’t that where we really want to be as a country, where a war doesn’t bust us because we’ve got good fundamentals? Wow. To her, a social safety net isn’t a “good fundamental”?
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