Posts by Martijn ter Haar

Belgian newspapers demand Google cash

Nothing Flemish about this blemish

Copiepresse represents French and German-language Belgian newspapers.

Thom Yorke dismisses net-only album paradigm

Yorke is right.

Yorke is right. Buy a cd and you've got yourself a solid backup you can rip to any format you like, often in nice packaging. And that for just two or three euros extra compared to DRM crippled audiofiles. Just like the LP which demise has been predicted countless times, the cd will be around for years.

'Effete' Europe useless in GWOT, says bin Laden man

Scheuer makes no sense

Political asylum is *not* easily obtainable (in fact, here in the Netherlands 'asylum procedure' is a synonym for 'Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare') and if the crimes are serious for the death penalty, they can always be prosecuted within Europe.

Endemol in 'win a kidney' TV show rumpus

It's not about money or ratings

BNN is public television, so it's not about money or ratings (well, they want as many people as possible to watch, but just to put attention to the issue.) These people really believe that this is a good way to address the issue. Also Endemol is not really involved in the idea this time, BNN just hired them as an external production company.

All this doesn't make it a necesarrily good idea (road to hell/good intentions), but I still think these are important points.