Marcus here.. Now, we aren’t political but that doesn’t mean we can’t showcase the work of those who are - especially, when it is made available under a Creative Commons licence

Appropriation Art has published a comic book pitting Canadian copyright public interest champions against Harper’s Conservative government under the title 51st State. Featuring several notable faces from Canada’s left and right wings, including a personal hero of mine who stands alone in his long-running call for informed copyright policy: the indefatigable Russell McOrmond of Digital-Copyright.ca.

“This clickable-caption.. seven page comic book charts the murky and beleaguered progress of [Bill C-61] through an ever-changing cast of Industry and Heritage Ministers. 51st State gives a face to some of the brave individuals who fight to maintain Freedom of Expression and Balanced Copyright in Canada.”

If only my law professors had assigned readings from comic books…

Anne of Green Gables

By Lucy Maud Montgomery

CHAPTER I: Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

[…] Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt. She thought in exclamation points. A boy! Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy! From an orphan asylum! Well, the world was certainly turning upside down! She would be surprised at nothing after this! Nothing!

“What on earth put such a notion into your head?” she demanded disapprovingly.

This had been done without her advice being asked, and must perforce be disapproved. [To be continued…]

Read previous entry here.

Anne of Green Gables

By Lucy Maud Montgomery

CHAPTER I: Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

[…] If Marilla had said that Matthew had gone to Bright River to meet a kangaroo from Australia Mrs. Rachel could not have been more astonished. She was actually stricken dumb for five seconds. It was unsupposable that Marilla was making fun of her, but Mrs. Rachel was almost forced to suppose it.

“Are you in earnest, Marilla?” she demanded when voice returned to her.

“Yes, of course,” said Marilla, as if getting boys from orphan asylums in Nova Scotia were part of the usual spring work on any well-regulated Avonlea farm instead of being an unheard of innovation. [To be continued…]

Read previous entry here.

As part of their mandate to make their films accessible to all Canadians, the National Film Board of Canada has launched beta.NFB.ca.

70 years worth of groundbreaking documentaries and cutting-edge animated films are available free of charge for home viewing.

So far, you can watch over 300 films, trailers and clips; new releases and forgotten gems — available in three speeds (56k, 356k and 1000k, encoded in MPEG 4 H.264). They are still testing the site and need your feedback so please have a look around, watch some films and let them know what you think.

beta.NFB.ca was written in Python within the Django environment, PyAMF, Apache, Twisted and MySQL. The application is hosted on an Ubuntu Linux server under SPARK/ALPHA. The video player is based on the JW FLV Media Player.

Watch quality Canadian documentary, animation and fiction NOW!

Anne of Green Gables

By Lucy Maud Montgomery

CHAPTER I: Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised

[…] “We’re all pretty well,” said Mrs. Rachel. “I was kind of afraid YOU weren’t, though, when I saw Matthew starting off today. I thought maybe he was going to the doctor’s.”

Marilla’s lips twitched understandingly. She had expected Mrs. Rachel up; she had known that the sight of Matthew jaunting off so unaccountably would be too much for her neighbor’s curiosity.

“Oh, no, I’m quite well although I had a bad headache yesterday,” she said. “Matthew went to Bright River. We’re getting a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia and he’s coming on the train tonight.” [To be continued…]

Read previous entry here.