A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.

Now the IFPI should go after Google for doing the same thing (hint, type the name of a copyrighted bit of media and the word 'torrent' into Google's search box).

Once Google has been found guilty they should go after the ISP's, after all, it is their service that lets people download illegal content.

After the ISPs, they should sue Apple and Microsoft because they make the software that runs on your computer that lets you connect to the internet to download copyrighted content.

After Apple and Microsoft they should sue the power companies because they provide the power that computers use to download illegal content.

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My question would be - how much of those damages payments are actually going to go to the artists? I know that if I were an artist being handled by one of the big companies I'd ask for that amount to be pointed out in my royalty payment. I think it'd be a rather small amount.

The Government has introduced new legislation forcing people who write letters to one another to provide a photocopied duplicate to the Post Office. The Home Office has stated that this will help protect the UK against terrorism, organised crime, illegal immigration and child pornography.

The new legislation has been squeezed through the EU government due to it being classified as 'commercial' rather than 'legal' thus needing only a majority vote rather than a unanimous decision.

Those in favour of the law waved around pictures taken during the 7/7 bombings suggesting that this 'commercial' undertaking will prevent a repeat attack.

The duplicated versions will be stored digitally and not, like medical notes, in unsecured corridors.

Access to the data collected will be regulated under the RIP Act which means that only people who have a genuine need will be able to check on the content of your post. A government spokesman said, "unlike previous, perhaps overzealous, applications of the RIP Act this time will be different, honest, I promise it will be. Just like this new law will also protect us against terrorists who use the post to spread their hate.".

Rumours that Amazon.com will have to provide another copy to the government of every book and DVD they send out by post is unconfirmed.

Also unconfirmed is the thought that several terrorist groups have drunk cups of tea while planning their crimes, thereby needing emergency powers to stop the spread of this foul liquid*.

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Really - go join the Open Rights Group. Even if you don't want to give them money, consider volunteering for them (I do when I can) They are fighting against stuff like this and our new head Jim Killock is mentioned in the original story that I'm (poorly) parodying.

*Joke ruthlessly stolen from the genius Douglas Adams.

A paramedic has been attacked after he disturbed thieves trying to steal drugs from an ambulance station.

The paramedic was hit over the head with a fire extinguisher, punched and kicked during the burglary at Pinner Ambulance Station, Harrow.

Police are now searching for four men in connection with the assault which happened at approximately 1:30am on Saturday (14 March).

The staff member, who is a team leader at the station, does not wish to be named. He said: “I was on my break at the station and as I walked into the garage four men sprung up from behind one of the cars and just came at me.

“They ran straight at me, throwing punches and kicking me as I tried to fend them off. Then I felt an almighty thump on the back of my head from a fire extinguisher. I was dazed and was stumbling around which gave the men the chance to run away.

“The whole thing lasted not more than two minutes, it was all over before I knew it.

“Afterwards, I was fuming. Then I found a slash on my forearm and saw the slit through my shirt with a wound on my stomach – it transpired later that a knife with blood on it was found outside the station – I realised then how lucky I had been.

“When you are at your ambulance station you just don’t expect anything like this to happen. I’ve been doing this job for 19 years and have never been assaulted like this.”

Following the attack the paramedic was taken to Northwick Park hospital for a check-up.

Ambulance Operations Manager for Pinner Sean Brinicombe said: “We are doing everything we can to support him through this and to aid the police in pursuing a prosecution.

“I am shocked that people would sink so low as to steal from an ambulance station and attack a paramedic in the process.

“Thankfully he is okay, but this incident could have been a lot worse. Our staff shouldn’t have to work in fear of attack, especially from the very community they are trying to serve.”

No comment needed beyond hoping that he gets well soon.

Sometimes I wish I believed that prayer worked.

Five members of the Belgian branch of Medecins sans Frontieres have been kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region.
An MSF official told AFP news agency three international staff and two local employees were kidnapped on Wednesday in north Darfur.
The kidnappings come after Sudan ordered the expulsion of 13 aid groups, including MSF, earlier this month.
They were told to leave after President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court.

I've an interview with a MSF worker sitting on my computer waiting to be turned into text, they are good people with pure motives and I hope that these five are released safely.

The government is compiling a database to track and store the domestic travel records of millions of Britons.

Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals within the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years.

The government says the database is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism.

But opposition MPs and privacy campaigners fear it is a significant step towards a surveillance society.

The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, car licence plate numbers, train tickets, hitchhiking signs and credit card details of travellers.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The government seems to be building databases to track more and more of our lives.

"The justification is always about security or personal protection. But the truth is that we have a government that just can't be trusted over these highly sensitive issues. We must not allow ourselves to become a Big Brother society."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "This is another example of an intrusive database without any public debate about safeguards on its use.

"We are sleepwalking into a surveillance state and should remember that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not a blueprint."

A spokesman for campaign group NO2ID said: "When your travel plans, who you are travelling with, where you are going to and when are being recorded you have to ask yourself just how free is this country?"

The 'Nightwatch' scheme covers cars, flights, ferries, bicycle, taxi, ambulance and rail journeys and the Home Office says similar schemes run in other countries including North and South Korea, China, Iraq, Cuba and the historical Nazi Germany.

Minister of State for borders and immigration Phil Woolas said the government was determined to ensure the UK's homeland remained one of the most watched in the world.

"Our hi-tech electronic travel system will allow us to count and record all movements of UK citizens and [it] targets everyone," he said.
Answering concerns about the security of the database he went on to say, "The government has learnt from previous mistakes and we can categorically state that there will be no new data losses. Nor will there be any abuse of the RIPA rules to allow local councils to spy on their citizens".

He concluded, "If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear citizen. Beware the terrorist and the illegal immigrant for they spread heresy".

The original, and just as scary, article is Here. If you look at the number of people that the actual scheme has caught it's 0.0036% of all travellers scanned. Is that cost effective when it comes to (a) money and (b) the damage to civil liberties?

So, apparently it snowed a bit in England, and in some places it is still snowing.

And so we find ourselves watching the TV with indignant sounding news presenters asking those in power 'Why wasn't something done!'. Sadly none of those being interviewed gave the answer I would have, "How much extra tax would you like to pay so that this one in twenty years event has no impact on your life?"
We aren't Russia, or Denmark or any of those cold countries, and the cost to fully prepare for aberrant weather conditions like this would be too high.

But.

It did seem that the London Ambulance Service was a bit unprepared. Did you know that we don't have anything to go on the wheels of an ambulance to stop it slipping in the snow? We have some covers for the officer's cars, but nothing for the vehicles that actually take you to hospital. To be fair, I'm not sure if this is economics, or down to a technical issue that they aren't able to be fitted by staff themselves.

The other problem that I heard over the radio was that some hospitals have ramps leading to their A&E department, and that the ambulances weren't able to climb them - so at least one 'blue call' had to bypass one hospital and head to one further away, one that had a ground floor entrance.

If you look closely at the ambulance on the right, you can see that it's a bit damaged. What you won't see is the damage caused to my ambulance by some idiot driving into it (and I'll tell you that story tomorrow).

Locally at least, we do have more blankets than we had this time last year, so it's not all bad.

The snow did seem to have taken LAS management by surprise though - there was only one Duty Station Officer covering the entire East side of London. Given that we were the third ambulance to have an accident, and that an officer should deal with each of those I would suggest that the next time severe weather is predicted the resourcing of officers might need to be improved a bit.

It was also about midnight when 'Gold Control', the people who normally worry about how much of our ORCON targets we are hitting decided to suspend the rest break policy. The message that was sent down the vehicle computer terminal seemed to suggest that forced overtime would be compulsory.

I doubt that that was the case, but it's definitely what it read like.

As NeeNaw says,

"I’m watching the TV before my nightshift tonight. They keep saying “the ambulance service is under severe pressure and will only respond to life threatening calls”. Surely we should only be responding to life threatening calls anyway?"

Which is sweet, but I suspect that, were I working tonight, I'd still be going to the usual twaddle of runny noses and one instance of vomiting.

I came across this heartening story while browsing the BBC News site.

A mother from Bristol resuscitated her baby boy four times when he stopped breathing - with the help of a 999 operator on the phone.
Driving instructor Cordelia Nolan, 25, said she was "petrified" when her 10-week premature baby, Emrys, lost his colour and turned blue.
Ms Nolan started resuscitation straight away and a cousin dialled 999 and relayed the operator's instructions.

I'm glad that the baby is doing well. If the baby had stopped breathing then the mother did exactly the right thing.

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I can usually count on a few 'Baby not breathing' calls each week the number of calls that I've actually been to when a child hasn't been breathing can, thankfully, be counted on the fingers of one hand*.

Often the 'child not breathing' is actually a child having a febrile fit, by the time we get there the fit has normally stopped and the child is either asleep or crying. It's scary but incredibly common, when an infection is spreading through my area it seems that the only calls I go to are for febrile children. I sometimes joke to parents that the only children that I see are either fitting or vomiting.

During a febrile fit a child can get blue lips, if a child holds their breath they can get blue lips - blue lips tend, on their own, to be 'not terribly worrying' on the scale of things us ambulance types worry about.

Rather obviously a child who has blue lips is a scary prospect for a parent and so they, quite rightly, call for an ambulance. Sometimes they say that the child has stopped breathing, after all that's why lips go blue.

When we arrive the child has normally made a full recovery from it's breath holding, but as we are not doctors we recommend that the child comes in to hospital with us.

What is less common, but a bit funnier is when you have a drunk who has seen his friend 'die' and managed to 'save' him with a bit of CPR. Or as we like to call it 'waking him up by pushing on his chest'. A tip - if he's pink and trying to push you off he's probably not dead**.

*After an accident with a threshing machine.

**Except when you are doing really good CPR on a dead person and they open their eyes and look at you - it's only happened twice with me and it freaked me out both times - especially as neither of them survived.