Counterfeiting as corporate externality: intellectual property crime and global insecurity

Corporate negative externalities occur when corporations place some of the costs of their profit-seeking activity onto society. This paper suggests that the current global problem of intellectual property crime is such an externality, and that it has not been recognised as such because corporations present product counterfeiting and piracy as crimes which reduce their revenue, rather than as predictable side effects of corporate production and merchandising, including branding activity, which have considerable socially deleterious consequences. It is argued that corporate actors are responsible for the socially harmful effects of the global counterfeiting problem in the following respects. Branding, advertising, and other corporate activities drive the market for goods which have a fashion value over and above their use value. While corporations ‘create’ this desire, they cannot prevent it being applied to the desire for fake or replica goods. Outsourcing of corporate production activities to developing countries to take advantage of cheap manufacturing and labour costs presents considerable opportunities to producers in those countries to copy and distribute the goods in an unauthorised way. Serious measures are not taken against product counterfeiters by rights-holding corporations, since market expediency dictates that the costs of counterfeiting are not so adverse to corporations to incentivise them to change their business methods. Counterfeit and pirated goods cause a range of social harms above and beyond the spuriously-costed financial damage corporate rights-holders suggest they suffer - these include the health and safety issues created by some fake goods, and the creation and maintenance of highly profitable organised crime activity in international markets for fake goods.     

You're not going to stop my work, mate

This case highlights potential problems associated with theenforceability of restrictive covenants, and highlights theneed for well-crafted and realistic covenants.     

A calculation of the theoretical significance of matched bullets

Abstract:  The comparison and identification of bullets from the striations that appear on their surfaces, after they have been fired from a gun, have been practiced since the 1920s. Although the significance of the correspondences of these impression marks has been empirically justified, there is a conspicuous absence of any theoretical foundation for the likelihood. What is presented here is the derivation of the formulae for calculating the probability for the correspondence of the impression marks on a subject bullet to a random distribution of a similar number of impression marks on a suspect bullet of the same type. The approach to the calculation entails subdividing the impression marks into a series of individual lines having widths equal to the separation distance at which a misalignment of striations between the two bullets cannot be distinguished. This distance depends upon the resolution limit imposed by the microscope as well as by the visual acuity of the examiner. A calculation of the probabilities for finding pairs and triplets of consecutively matching lines on nonmatching bullets, by an examiner with normal perception using a microscope at 40× magnification, produces values that agree well with the empirical probabilities determined by Biasotti in the 1950s and when determined for larger consecutive sequences suggest that they are extremely unlikely to occur. The formulae can be used to determine the probabilities for the random occurrence of any sequence of striae and provide a straightforward way to quantitatively justify the significance of a specific match between any two bullets.     

Identity and learning in international volunteerism: ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ internships

Young sportspersons now serve abroad within the ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ (SDP) movement. Drawing on interviews with former interns from Commonwealth Games Canada's Canadian Sports Leadership Corps programme, this study explored what interns brought to, and learnt from, international SDP service. Interns confronted notions of expertise and privilege and, in some cases, considered the limits of Northern development stewardship. Interns also experienced a sense of ‘First World guilt’ that secured their sense of self at the expense of deeper engagements with inequality and struggles for development justice. Based on these findings, recommendations for supporting future volunteers are considered.

Identité et apprentissage dans le volontariat international : stages « Sport for Development and Peace »

De jeunes sportifs sont désormais actifs à l'étranger dans le cadre du mouvement « Sport for Development and Peace » (SDP - Sport pour le développement et la paix ). Sur la base d'entretiens avec d'anciens stagiaires du programme du Groupe canadien de leadership dans le sport des Jeux du Commonwealth Canada, cette étude a examiné ce que les stagiaires ont apporté au service SDP et ont appris de ce dernier. Les stagiaires se sont confrontés aux notions de connaissances spécialisées et de privilège et, dans certains cas, ont réfléchi aux limites de la gestion du développement émanant du Nord. Les stagiaires ont aussi ressenti une mesure de « culpabilité du Premier Monde » qui a renforcé leur sentiment de soi aux dépens d'engagements plus approfondis contre l'inégalité et de luttes pour la justice en matière de développement. Sur la base de ces conclusions, des recommandations pour soutenir les volontaires futurs sont considérées.

Identidade e Aprendizado no Voluntariado Internacional: Estágios do Esporte para Desenvolvimento e Paz

Jovens esportistas agora atuam no exterior dentro do movimento “Esporte para Desenvolvimento e Paz” (SDP). Baseando-se em entrevistas com antigos internos do programa “Canadian Sports Leadership Corps” do Commonwealth Games Canada, este estudo examinou a contribuição dos internos ao serviço do SDP internacional e o que eles aprenderam com este serviço. Os internos confrontaram noções de conhecimento e privilégio e, em alguns casos, consideraram os limites da liderança do desenvolvimento do hemisfério norte. Os internos também vivenciaram uma sensação de “culpa do Primeiro Mundo” que assegurou a consciência do seu eu às custas de engajamentos mais profundos com desigualdade e lutas por justiça de desenvolvimento. Com base nestes resultados, as recomendações para apoiar voluntários futuros são consideradas.

Identidad y aprendizaje en el voluntariado internacional: pasantías del programa Deportes para el Desarrollo y la Paz

Actualmente varios deportistas jóvenes cooperan en el extranjero en el marco del movimiento “Deportes para el Desarrollo y la Paz” (DDP). Basándose en entrevistas a excooperantes del programa Cuerpo de Líderes Deportivos Canadienses de los Juegos de la Mancomunidad en Canadá, este ensayo analiza lo que los cooperantes aportaron a y aprendieron de su experiencia internacional en el DDP. Los cooperantes afrontaron juicios de experiencia y privilegio y, en algunos casos, reflexionaron sobre los límites de la gestión basada en el desarrollo del Norte. Los cooperantes experimentaron la “culpabilidad del Primer Mundo”, que si bien provocó la autoreflexión, se hizo a costa de un compromiso más profundo contra la desigualdad y por la lucha a favor de la justicia en el desarrollo. En función de estos resultados, el ensayo formula recomendaciones para el apoyo a futuros voluntarios.     

Systematic differences in electropherogram peak heights reported by different versions of the GeneScan software

DNA profiling using STRs on the 310 and 3100 Genetic Analyzers routinely generates electropherograms that are analyzed with the GeneScan software available from the instrument's manufacturer, Applied Biosystems. Users have been able to choose from three different smoothing options that have been known to result in significant differences in the peak heights that are reported. Improvements in the underlying algorithm of the most recent version of the software also result in significant and somewhat predictable differences in peak height values. Laboratories that have performed validation studies using older versions of GeneScan should either reanalyze the data generated in those validation studies with the newest version of the software or otherwise take into consideration the systematically higher peak height values obtained as they begin following the recommendation of the manufacturer and use the new algorithm.     

Orthodox Identity as Traditionalism: Construction of Political Meaning in the Current Public Discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church

This article reviews the articulation of traditional political values in the contemporary discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). As an empirical basis, the article takes the ROC’s official documents reflecting its position on social and political issues, the statements of various Synodal departments and Church hierarchs, as well as the statements of those representatives of the Orthodox intelligentsia, who promote an alternative agenda for Church-state dialogue. The author analyses the discursive forms deployed for the use of two key concepts, related to two markers of traditionalist worldview (opinions about liberalism, and positions taken with regard to the rights of sexual minorities), and studies the context in which these confessional ethical norms are politicized. This allows the author to move from interpreting Orthodox identity as merely a confessional/religious affiliation, expressing itself in a range of practices (attending services, etc), to an interpretation of Orthodox identity as traditionalist in the political sense of that word, involving the formation of a distinctive political theology and the politicization of confessional ideas of morality.     

Sanction de la croyance dans le procès de sorcellerie

Conclusion De cette brève étude, trois problèmes d'ordre méthodologique et theorique se dégagent.Tout d'abord, la question de l'inhérence de la sanction au processus syntagmatique de la croyance. Le croire, pourrait-on dire, est un effet de sens éminemment volatile et qui demande à être fixé. En tant que configuration modale, il présuppose donc le croisement des parcours cognitifs sous-jacents de deux sujets, dont l'un reconnaît (sanctionne) l'autre, et inversement, dans l'alternance réversible de la position destinatrice. Il y a alors surmodalisation épistémique (en termes de certitude) d'un jugement aléthique implicite (de contingence): le Destinateur exige du sujet que celui-ci lui donne forme; c'est à ce stade qu'interviennent les relations entre les modalités du devoir et du pouvoir d'un côté, et celle du croire, de l'autre.La question, ensuite, de l'énonciation, car la croyance est un effet de discours et le procés de sorcellerie est un dialogue construit; le système actantiel qu'ils recouvrent ensemble s'inscrit nécessairement dans un discours à deux voix: l'autre (ici actualisé, mais qui peut être simplement virtuel dans d'autres configurations) est co-présent dans l'énoncé du sujet du croire en tant qu'instance énonciative. Et le discours dialogique où se forme la mouvance du croire est tout entier orienté vers l'établissement d'un monologue collectif: la conjonction des je dans le nous.Il nous semble, enfin, que la tripartition de la figure de la sanction — transitive, réflexive, translative —, qu'on vient de dégager à partir de sa manifestation occurrentielle dans le discours du procès de sorcellerie, peut être considérée comme un modèle méthodologique plus large, et étendue à l'ensemble des procés où la question porte essentiellement, à travers le rôle thématique ambigu de l'accusé, sur la validité d'un univers doxologique: le discours de l'auto-critique ne vise-t-il pas, avant tout, la sauvegarde et la confirmation d'un Destinateur menacé?