Lisa Westveld 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: European Politicians Discuss 'The Blogger Problem'

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2008 @ 04:15am

    This could be related to the problems the Dutch justice system has with several Dutch bloggers. Their biggest pain in the is a site called geenstijl.nl (geen stijl = no style) which tends to report on many different issues that are mostly ignored by the regular media. For a few years, the Dutch justice system and Dutch politicians tend to be favorite targets on this site, yet the site just kicks everyone on an equal level. Recently there were some articles about Gregorius Nekschot, a cartoonist who was accused om publishing racist cartoons on the Internet. GeenStijl just suggested that there was a more political motive behind this arrest. Nekschot had made some cartoons that the current political powers didn't like, especially the CDA.
    Also, recently one of the bloggers at GeenStijl also had to report to the police since they concluded that the site contained racist remarks. Normally, someone would report such remarks to the moderator and the moderator would then remove them. However, in this case some organisation that investigates racist remarks on the Internet (MDI) had filed several complaints to the local police instead of warning the moderators. That was in 2006. For two years nothing happened until recently. And again, this was reported as a form of intimidation on GeenStijl. As an attempt by the current political powers to shut down all negative comments about their work. A kind of censorshop.
    Yesterday, a new article appeared on GeenStijl which accuses the CDA (One of the major political powers here) of taking Geert Wilders (politician and creator of the movie Fitna) hostage in his own country. How? Well, Jordan (the country) has instructed their judges to prosecute Wilders for publishing this Fitna movie. As a result, Wilders cannot leave the Netherlands anymore or risk being arrested. Our government is supposed to question Jordan and make it clear that this is unacceptable but no... Maxime Verhagen who is responsible for foreign affairs just isn't going to take any actions about this, thus by doing nothing he supports a possible arrest of Wilders.

    If you can understand the Dutch language, reading GeenStijl almost gives you the idea that the Dutch government is trying to become a dictatorship... Almost. :-)

  • On the post: Louis Vuitton Sues Darfur Fundraiser; Seems Unclear On The Concept Of Trademark

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2008 @ 04:47am

    I could be wrong...

    I could be wrong but Louis Vuittin bags have a monogram on their bags with the letters "LV". Nadia Plesner created something similar with a monogram of the letters "LS". Also, the texture of Nadia's bag does look a bit like the louis bag but such a thing is common for designer bags, isn't it?

    Of course, the "LS" actually stands for "Simple Living" and I don't think it's even possible to copyright a monogram. (Lots of prior art anyways...) But the original letter mentions this monogram as a trademark violation.

    Then again, maybe LV is actually trying to help this girl by using the Streisand Effect! Maybe they're so stupid on purpose because I can't imagine any qualified Lawyet to be this dumb, even if they're french...
    Fact is, this publicity makes their name better-known again, even though it's bad publicity. People tend to remember the name only, anyways. But people will now also start supporting this woman a lot more, with a lot of extra publicity for her case. So, they might have blemished their own reputation a bit, this is helping thos good cause quite a lot. :-)

  • On the post: Jill Sobule The Latest Musician To Embrace New Music Business Models

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2008 @ 08:00am

    Ehm...

    Who is Jill Sobule? Never heard of her... Am totally clueless about her. (Fortunately there's Wikipedia.)

  • On the post: Will Online Harassment Law Be Used Against Those Harassing Lori Drew?

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2007 @ 01:54am

    About that harassment case...

    I do wonder if Lori Drew didn't break another law in this case. It seems that the fake Josh and Megan had some very intimate chats. Would these chats include some sexual suggestions? Chats about lovemaking and similar stuff? Because if that is the case, Lori might be arrested for the sexual grooming of an underage person. She would then become a registered sex offender and end up in jail for a time, I assume.
    Am just suggesting this in case no one else thought of this. Don't want to encourage people to keep harassing Lori either. It's just that for those who do demand some kind of additional justice, this could be one possible -legal- solution. But bullying a bully? Bad idea...

  • On the post: Real Police Cross Over Into Virtual World Again; Arrest Teen For Theft Of Virtual Furniture

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2007 @ 01:57am

    While everyone mentions that someone was arrested for theft, the actual charge is actually computer fraud in this case. Computer fraud in attempt to get access to cash. The hacker gained access to accounts of other Habbo members through whatever tricks they use and just moved everything from those other accounts to their own. While you can call this theft, they will be charged for computer fraud, which is a punishable offense in the Netherlands. Basically, these hackers bypassed the security measures of this game to gain illegal access to other people's accounts.
    They are ALSO charged for theft because that's just part of the computer fraud they've committed. And that will indeed be interesting to follow. But the main charge is computer fraud.

    But hey, "virtual theft" sounds a lot better in public media, right?

  • On the post: Videoconferencing Is A Nice-To-Have, Not A Need-To-Have

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2007 @ 04:34am

    Well, when I'm at home, I tend to be either naked or severely underdressed so having video conferences while at home would make my Boss very happy but would also send him a wrong signal... :-)

  • On the post: Is Technology Making Everyone Shy?

    Lisa Westveld ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2007 @ 06:40am

    I think it's the other way around...

    I think people are less shy nowadays because they can share their feelings more easily without looking someone else in the face. As I understood it, topics like sex were barely part of your daily discussions about 30 years ago. Nowadays people talk about nothing else, apparently, on the Internet. :-)
    I think we're just more interested in having anonymous talks with strangers. We meet many more people today than ever before. And the fun thing is that when you do meet in real life, your friend will have had a chance to know everything about you before they meet with you. They know all about your fantasies and you know all about theirs.