This week saw widespread blackouts on some prominent websites, including this one.

The blackouts were in protest to the now, possibly defunct Sopa and Pipa movements chaired in the US law system. The bill had now been dropped or at least put on the backburner for now, but the Internet is changing.

On Wednesday, the file sharing website MegaUpload was shut down by the FBI and it’s creators arrested and it’s content destroyed, the people behind the action was once again the MPA and the copyright Nazi’s.

Now I hate people stealing my work as much as the next person but the US administration is going after the wrong people. They’re fighting the site owners, data centre’s and hosting companies and accusing them of breaking the law, when they didn’t put the content there it was the users who did.

Yes, you can argue that they should be more proactive and stop users uploading copyrighted material but it’s not as easy as that.

Take this website, the servers are US based so therefore we fall under their jurisdiction and have to adhere to their laws, however its developed and ran in the UK so has to adhere to the UK’s laws too, so where does it stop?

Do we need to adhere to everything to keep everyone happy? In short, yes but that’s practically impossible.

Just expect more sites to disappear over the next few months as the governments fight a loosing battle, and a backlash is likely to rise.

It’s that time of year again when the silly season starts and we all get into the Christmas spirit.  Don’t get me wrong I don’t dislike Christmas, I like the lights, the music and I love the food.  The food is arguably the best part.  The only real problem that I have with Christmas is that it seems to be lasting longer and longer.  The Christmas season kicks off at the start of November and doesn’t end until well after the day itself.

Now, I should clarify that I do like getting into the Christmas spirit, I enjoy that I can look at the lights, and I enjoy that I have an excuse to eat a whole box of mince pies and get away with it, but where is that special feeling you get knowing that it’s just one day, it’s no longer the case.

If you wanted to, you could celebrate Christmas from September onwards.  Should we doing that?

I think not.  I don’t have an issue with celebrating Christmas during December, that’s expected, however, I don’t think we should be celebrating the season months in advance.  This year the adverts on tv and online started in September, it’s a bit previous if you get my drift.

I think it’s time we start celebrating later, and enjoying the special time that Christmas brings, it’s once a year for two weeks (if that) rather than three months of bunting and tinsel.

Last year here at Rant Towers, we didn’t change the blog for the christmas season but this year we will be, sometimes you’re just Christmassed out.

We’d like to say that we’re supporting Children in Need.

Give generously, and support this wonderful charity.

In the UK we all have a right to protest, these protests much be peaceful and not cause a disturbance to people going about their daily business.  You can do it anywhere, at anytime, it’s allowed.  It is now allowed on private ground, and is not supposed to disturb the wider public, now it’s an interesting topic of conversation at present; we must ask, do we agree?

Now I’m talking specifically about the Occupy the Stock Exchange protests in London.  I do not agree with them first and foremost, it’s pathetic that their causing a disturbance amongst honest law abiding public who may want to visit St Paul’s but are being stopped because the ‘protestors’ are too short sighted to see what they’re doing.

I do however, agree with why they’re protesting.  It’s totally wrong that some echelons of society can get away with making money at our expense, I think most people bar the stock brokers and traders themselves would agree with that at least.

Something needs to be done with these people who think they can disturb other people with their pathetic little protests just because, I fear they have nothing else to do.  I honestly believe that there are better ways to get your point across rather than pissing off masses of people and costing the country even more money by having to police these protests.

It’s a sad day for the world of Technology, the genius and visionary Steve Jobs has died at 56.

Steve’s skill, guidance, and incredible foresight made Apple what it is today and provided us all with products and gadgets that are his memory.

We’d like to pass our sympathies on to his families and all that knew this incredible man.

Rest In Peace.

Rupert Murdoch is an Australian media mogul most famed for running the News International Corporation, he has amassed an empire which runs newspapers, TV stations and networks and some new media networks.

We all know that Murdoch is a great business man, he is ruthless, cold and doesn’t think twice about stepping on other people to get what he wants.  It seems he taught his kids well.  James Murdoch has been actively running the News International business for many years and has inherited his father’s personality.

The Murdoch’s are well known for making a bad story into a business coup, they’ve been doing it since they started.  They have power, many think too much including me.  Murdoch get’s into bed with most politicians to cement his need for power.  It’s a worrying trend, it’s only recently that people are starting to recognise this and see Rupert for what he is.

In the UK we’re so frightened to piss him off that, we try actively not to – especially in Government.  We don’t have free speech, we have what Murdoch thinks we should be saying.  As an independent media outlet, we are not controlled by a company and we can say what we like – within reason.

As you may be aware we cannot actively defame a person’s character but we can provide our view on them.  Murdoch for me, is what’s wrong with everything in the UK media.  It’s frightening that he harbours so much power, it’s even scarier that the politicians that run our country are scared of him.

It’s time something changed.  Personally I’m hoping that the end of The News of The World shows Murdoch and his operating techniques for what they really are, evil, in a word.

Let’s stop pussyfooting around and grow some balls, mainly so we can smack them in Murdoch’s face for what he’s done to the UK media.