LIME » Norway

Finnishmen arrested for attempt to smuggle 22 320 eggs to Norway

Rainer — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:32:04 +0000

(NUORGAM) Two Finnish men were caught by the Norwegian customs officials when they were trying to smuggle 22 320 eggs into Norway.
The customs found the hidden eggs on a routine checkup. The Finns told they were heading to Oslo where they were supposed to sell the eggs with a profit.
The customs officials confiscated the cargo and the Finnish men are suspected of illegal import.

Grassroots triumph

Jakob — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:12:39 +0000

Wow. In Norway, the congress of Arbeiderpartiet (Labour, or Social Democrats) voted against all their own ministers to force them to introduce a law illegalizing purchases of sex. I can’t really say whether the law is a good one or not (I’m simply not read up on the topic at all and have no idea of which arguments pull the most weight), but I think the way this has been pushed is wonderful.

It’s something to admire when you see that the grass roots of a party (actually, three parties – Sosialistisk venstre and Senterpartiet forced their respective congresses earlier this spring, as well) can, and do, go against the leaders to force a legislation that the ministers now have promised to deliver, even thought they were themselves opposed to the idea.

The people, through democratic organizations, order something from their representatives, and their representatives bow to their command, despite disagreeing with the decision. Textbook stuff. How democracy should work.

It would be nice if other countries’ politicians had a look. Well done Norway!

Link (Swedish)

Norway trying to ban cluster bombs

Rainer — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 21:31:36 +0000

Norway is proclaiming a drive to ban cluster bombs. Cluster bombs, as is explained in then BBC’s news article, often do not explode on impact but the “grapes” are left in the ground to serve as land mines and tend to explode when intervened by people or animals. isn’t this the point of cluster bombs?
string detonateOnImpact, end if if detonateOnImpact failed delay = X loop detonateOnImpact
Gradually banning mass destruction weapons and eventually all weapons is good and healthy direction, but I’m still bit sceptical if this will ever actually happen. I’m 100% sure that these weapons won’t cease to exist but will just be excluded from the weapons coung and not used in “minor conflicts” by countries actually abiding on these rules. When an actual “major” conflict comparable to 1st or 2nd world war happens none of these treaties will be remembered and hell brakes loose. I’m sure that “suddenly” all countries (even France, Britain, Germany, USA, Canada, Russia and “even” Finland, Sweden and Norway) will possess nuclear weapons as we already have sufficient production of uranium, each of the countries posses nuclear plants (Finland is planning a 6th plant although the 5th hasn’t been built yet) and have know-how+technology to build such weapons. It’s not like there would be a better use for the nuclear waste we now bury in our on our foundation. Same with anti-person land mines; they will be spread like small bunnies over and on the country borders via avionics and artillery if needed.
The international rules won’t apply to “minor” conflicts as the western wold patronises these “undeveloped” countries who actually have em and as long as they do stick with mostly troop operated projectile weapons no-one who can make a difference actually cares enough.

DRM vs. Consumers in Nordic countries

Rainer — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 01:32:08 +0000

The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman has decided that the terms and conditions of iTMS are “questionable” and should be changed. The Consumer Council filed it’s complaint to the Consumer Ombudsman on the 25th of January which the Consumer Ombudsman is now supporting.

Among other things, the decision clearly states that the terms of agreement demanded by iTunes are unreasonable with respect to Section 9a of the Norwegian Marketing Control Act. Moreover, it is unreasonable that the agreement the consumer must give consent to is regulated by English law. That iTunes disclaims all liability for possible damage the software may cause and that it may alter the rights to the music, are also considered unreasonable. iTunes must now alter their terms and conditions to comply with Norwegian law by the 21.of June.

Norway isn’t the only country who woke up to the quite sparce usage “rights” of iTMS, also Swedish and Danish Consumer Ombudsmans have sent their inquiries to iTMS [fin, I'll try to fing eng one]. Finland hasn’t done anything but just the opposite: “we” just ratified an EU directive about the consumer law, aka medieval shame punishment, which requires the convicted consumer to publish the outcome of the court to a newspaper. Also bypassing DRM became illegal.
Sweden has chosen completely different path than Finland. Swedish Minister of Justice suggested that if the music downloading would be legalized there should be a “DSL tax” that would then provide the money to the artists, in a similar way as there is one with CDs.