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No downloading, no Spotify, no innovation
Music revenue is on the rise exactly because of the internet Record labels are abandoning legal music downloading service Spotify. The Dutch government wants to make it a punishable offence to download from anywhere else. This works counter-productively. The previous weekend, 234 record labels announced they would no longer be offering their artists’ music on…
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Crisis at national emergency site Crisis.nl
Shut your doors and windows, switch off mechanical ventilation systems and turn on your radio or TV to the designated emergency channel. In the event of an emergency, our government has the important responsibility of informing and protecting its citizens. When a fire releases toxic substances into the atmosphere or the actions of malicious people…
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Final exams: one failed class should be enough
A proper grasp of the Dutch and English languages as well as arithmetic is essential for educated people to be able to fully participate in our society. For example, on the job market as well as during higher education, you’ll be judged on the outward presentation of what you deliver. To many of the pupils…
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Learning by doing
Young graduates and the job market. That’s the subject of this magazine. What do the young expect? What do they have to offer to the entrepreneur, and vice versa? Does education adequately match the job market in the 21st century? To get to the point right away: I think the answer is simply NO. No,…
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The internet is a wonderful gift. To a controlling government.
“The internet is the only place left where people can live in freedom. Not bothered by any limitations: no body scans, pre-emptive searching or security cameras (with or without audio). There’s none of that pre-emptive DNA fingerprinting chip-in-your-thumb personalised-chip-cards-for-everything road-pricing-by-the-kilometre I-don’t-have-anything-to-hide business we used to have around the beginning of this century. Information exchange on…
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Downloading is not theft: the record player doesn’t work any more
Last week, Sony announced they were going to stop manufacturing walkmans — you know, those things with the audio cassettes — while Arnoud Engelfriet and I wrote an opinion piece on online innovation in the music and film industry: are they succeeding at making money off distributing copyrighted material? Downloading is not theft, because copyrights…