The bill passed in today’s parliament voting (96-56) and the result just another proof to the well known fact that Conservatives are idiots. With them having a majority in the Finnish Parliament, it was expected/feared that the law would pass. 47 MPs were busy knitting at home today and did not bother showing up.

Lex Nokia (as I have already ranted before) basically makes it legal to organisations that provide Internet services to search the metadata of any IP-based online activity, such as emails and web-surfing. How liberate and forward-looking indeed. Yawn!

The Centre Party and the National Coalition have been supportive of the bill all the way, while the opposition Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance have opposed the law.

^^ Respect ^^ to Jyrki J.J. Kasvi from Green Party, who held the speech against the law today before the voting.

During the preparation process of the law, there were threats made that Nokia would leave Finland if the law didn’t pass under-Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Markku Wallin, told the daily Helsingin Sanomat.

Guess they can stay in here now. Currently I feel like leaving the country myself.

However, it is not over yet. A final vote on the bill is expected next week. So there is still at least some hope left…

This positive and hopeful artwork was drawn by my niece (6yrs) to remind me that somewhere out there the good guys are protecting us:

Tarvos & friends

Translation: Once upon a time there was Tarvos (=Starwars), who was Joda (=Yoda) and he fought against the evil and he had friends. Colour this picture.

I coloured Tarvos and his jolly mates as requested

I was also told that my five-year-old nephew asks in his evening prayers God to protect all the aliens and Star Wars characters both in our galaxy AND in outer space. Sounds like he got it all covered, so Tarvos and his mates should be safe wherever they may roam. Amen.

Now how much FUN is this going to be!

I will participate in Valentine’s party Saturday evening, because of the tiny voice in my head reminding me that I have to socialise more to meet guys that are not made of polygons. Blah blah yawn, but at least I got the whole Saturday morning for the ultimate coolness of building a Lego house from the scratch.

Talking about other fun things to do during the dark Finnish nights, I bought me a copy of a computer game based on Sapkowski’s best-selling book The Witcher – Thanks Bohdan for introducing it to me last year in Sydney . The stories are far from the typical fantasy-for-kids genre and at least the following review hints that the style has been maintained in the game:

…a bit of gore and also some heavily implied sexual themes and nudity. Decapitations do happen, and people can get incinerated by flames; nude or semi-nude bodies are shown as well, with sexual hookups occurring throughout each chapter if so desired.

If so desired? Hmm. Who wouldn’t so desire?

The Last Wish book cover

Even more cool stuff: this morning it was published that Google bought an old paper mill in Hamina from Stora Enso and will turn the empty factory to a full blown data centre. I first thought that the story was an April fool leaked too early, but it all started to make more sense when the news revealed that the real reason behind the deal was Google’s interest in Russia. Previously the Russian data traffic has been managed from Sweden, but the new FRA law, a Swedish legislative package that was launched in January, angered the Russians. Can’t blame them, since the FRA law “authorizes the state to warrantlessly wiretap all telephone and Internet traffic that crosses Sweden’s borders” (Wikipedia). What an idiotic law is that, and furthermore, why would anyone ever vote for it… This is madness

Now that Sweden was mentioned, I actually did recently ordered me a Piratebay T-shirt for support: the court case against four TPB related people begins next Monday charges being ‘assisting copyright infringement’. Several copyright holders are claiming over $100 million in damages. Phew, that is a lot of money. TPB will stream the audio of the trial online from their übercool bus a.k.a. TPB Media Center.

Enough for slagging off Swedes, Finland currently has its own ongoing legislative issues with the proposed Lex Nokia:

The so-called ”Lex Nokia” – also known as the ”snooping law” – would allow employers to investigate the log data of employees’ e-mails, if the company has reason to suspect that corporate secrets are leaking out of the company or that the employer’s communication networks are being misused.

It is a dorky proposal indeed, because it doesn’t only allow employers, but also schools, universities, libraries, councils etc. a greater authority than the police currently have. To gain access to similar information, the police need to get a warrant from a court if it has reason to suspect that a crime has been committed. It has been hinted that Nokia has been putting pressure on the legislation. In a country this small, the company the size of Nokia has a huge influence. I will keep my fingers crossed that the politicians do not vote for it: I have joined Pysäyttäkää Lex Nokia (Stop Lex Nokia) Facebook group and signed the online petition Pysäytetään Lex Nokia. Please, do the same, it is for a good cause.