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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-06-23, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Cruise control, anyone? Jt is 20 stories high and the length of a 10 -car train. It consists of seven neighborhoods and nearly 6,000 residents. Those residents can recreate in four swimming pools, 10 hot tubs, a full-size basketball court or an ice rink. Did I mention the two rock- climbing walls, the zip line, the miniature golf course? There's a casino not far from a 1400 -seat amphitheatre For the less athletically inclined. And I should mention nearly 12,000 paintings, sculptures and sundry works of art on display. Anyone who's hungry can choose from 20 different restaurants. We are talking here about "Harmony of the Seas". We are talking about a freaking boat. Well, that's not fair. At 227,000 tons with a crew of 2,300 we are talking about a ship. The biggest cruise ship in the world, in fact. No, that's not fair either. We are really talking about a moderate-sized town. A town with propellers. No doubt "Harmony of The Seas" will be ferrying its crew and clientele of 8,300 souls to Venice this summer. Cruise ship operators love that port of call. They can sail right up to the ancient city and disgorge their human cargo practically downtown. And they do. Last year 4kArthur Black 30 million tourists, most of them cruise ship passengers, 'did' Venice. For a town of just 50,000 residents, that's a tad overwhelming. Andrea Carandini, head of the Italian Environment Fund says Venice is being crushed by the weight of mass tourism. "Venice now has a third of the inhabitants that it did in the 18th century" says Carandini, "If things continue like this, the city will die." I visited Venice some years ago on, mea culpa, a cruise ship — albeit it a tiny one by mega -cruise ship standards. I won't be going again — at least not until the Italian government exerts some measure of control over the mass arrival of visitors like me. On my visit the city's gorgeous buildings were awash with conga lines of bored and listless tourists led by guides with megaphones droning in English, German, French and Russian. The experience was awful. Venice was ruined — disfigured and smothered by hordes of strangers. In his novel The Names Don de Lillo nailed it: "Tourism is the march of stupidity. You're expected to be stupid. The entire mechanism of the host country is geared to travellers acting stupidly. You walk around dazed, squinting into fold -out maps. You don't know how to talk to people, how to get anywhere, what the money means, what time it is, what to eat or how to eat it. Being stupid is the pattern, the level and the norm...Together with thousands, you are granted immunities and broad freedoms. You are an army of fools, wearing bright polyesters, riding camels, taking pictures of each other, haggard, dysentric, thirsty. There is nothing to think about but the next shapeless event." I see that "The Explorer of the Seas" will be visiting my city of Victoria soon. It's not as big as "Harmony of the Seas" — only 15 decks and about 5,000 people on board. It'll be one of 227 cruise ship visits to Victoria over the summer. Hope they don't love the Old Girl to death. What's in a word? A copyright With the pending changes in my life (the ones that accompany becoming a parent) I've been looking differently at my expenses. It all started when a friend of mine asked me if I was going to be picking up this summer's newest, biggest video game and I said I had to start reviewing how I was spending my money as a soon -to -be -father. Because of that, I returned to a habit I had dropped some time ago: reading about video games and the video game industry. That may seem pretty boring to some people, but I will remind everyone that there are books and magazines out there focused on every possible niche so, before you say reading about a video game is boring, take a look at your own literary collections. Because of my re -introduction to video game news, I was made aware of a recent legal challenge in progress. Hello Games, which is producing a hugely anticipated title called No Man's Sky, a game focused around exploring the depths of space, recently announced they had emerged from "years of secret stupid legal nonsense" and were going to be allowed to release their game without changing the name. The antihero to Hello Games is Sky, a massive broadcasting company in Europe. Sky, apparently, owns the word sky. You may have never heard of Sky (I'll admit, if it weren't for my honeymoon in Scotland, I wouldn't've blinked twice at the name) but it is a big company. How big? Well it's big enough it recently forced Microsoft, one of the largest companies in the world, to make a name change to one of its products recently. Microsoft originally announced SkyDrive, a cloud storage service, several years ago. The service allowed users to save their files to a cloud data service they could then retrieve from any other device. I'm actually an avid user of the service because it allows me to transfer notes, files and photos between different computers even if they have different operating systems. (Though, to be fair, it's not the only cloud service I use.) In 2013, Microsoft, if not the, then one of the biggest technology companies around, changed the name of SkyDrive to OneDrive because the Sky broadcasting akDenny Scott ,�. Denny's Den corporation made Microsoft make the change. Microsoft, a company whose owner would be a billionaire dozens of times over if he weren't constantly giving money to charities, was brought to heel by Sky, so that should tell you how big it is. It should also tell you how scary it is. As a matter of fact, if you look up Sky on Google, you will have to scroll pretty far down to find any search results (outside of photos) that doesn't have to do with the company. I'm not the kind of person who thinks that copyrighting has no place in this world — the kind of people that believe that obviously don't get how important brand recognition is. I am, however, the kind of person who thinks that copyrighting should have its limit. Should someone be able to slap the Ford, Chevy or Dodge name on anything they want just to ride on the back of another company's success? No. Do I think Sky has a leg to stand on in similar cases? No. Sky chose a very common word to attach to its brand. Imagine if other companies were so anal about their names. Playing euchre? Better be careful playing the suit that's in power because you might be facing a lawsuit if you use the term trump card. Looking to express happiness because you managed a long -sought achievement? Better not say yahoo or else you could have lawyers invading every second of your life. Heck, it doesn't stop with company names — did you know that Subway (the sandwich shop) started sending cease-and-desist letters regarding smaller restaurants who were using the term "footlong"? Subway doesn't own the trademark on the word, though they're trying to, and they sent out letters to a Coney Island hot dog shop and an Iowa -based general store despite the fact that they didn't own the word. The fact that the trademark application wasn't dismissed out of hand is a head -scratcher. Looking to start any kind of telecommunication company with the word "face" in the name? Well, you're out of luck. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook own the word "face" when it comes to any kind of telecommunication usage. Also, be careful with the word `tweet', though don't look for a letter from Twitter if you happen to get caught trying to commercialize what the birds outside your window are doing. Twitter actually lost when the company applied to trademark the term "tweet" because, in 2008, a Twitter -based advertising service called Twittad trademarked the phrase "Let your Ad Meet Tweets" in 2008. Ever watched professional wrestling? How about professional boxing? Then you're likely familiar with one of the most successful word copyrights in the world. Announcer Michael Buffer has reportedly made $400 million from his delivery of the iconic "Let's get ready to rumble." If, like Ashleigh and I, you once watched A&E's reality show Storage Wars, you're likely familiar with Dave Hester. Hester doesn't always come off as the most popular character, but you always know when he's involved because of the way he bids — with the single word "Yuup." Hester trademarked the word in the way he delivered it, though he is currently in a legal battle with a rapper, Trey Songz, who says he has been using the word for years. How about the words "Super" and "Bowl" I didn't put them together in case the National Football League (NFL) thinks I'm trying to piggyback on its success. Every year the NFL's legal team spends hours reminding businesses they can't use the term, even if they are referencing the event itself. The legal team will even crack down on phrases like `Super Sunday' (until heaven's legal team gets on that, but then again, maybe there is a lack of lawyers in heaven.) If this continues, some day, maybe not soon, but some day, humans will once again be grunting and pointing as communication because otherwise we will be facing lawsuits. Shawn 111 Loughlin Shawn's Sense This must be the place There are lots of exciting things happening in North Huron. I don't have to tell those of you who live in Blyth and the surrounding area — you already know. So why is this a problem? It isn't really a problem, it's just being perceived as one. It's certainly not a problem for those of us who live here, but it seems to be a problem for a handful of people who sit around the Huron County Council table. At last week's meeting, it was suggested that councillors should debate grant requests from both the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity (CCRC) and the Wingham Hospital on the same day (council's July 6 meeting) because both projects are in North Huron. You don't even have to read between the lines of that statement to know that a one -or - the -other situation is being created and that it's very, very unlikely that both of these grants will be approved by council. Despite both being worthy projects, one will likely lose out because it happens to be in the same municipality as another worthy project. North Huron Reeve Neil Vincent called council on this destructive and myopic thinking, saying that while the bricks and mortar of these projects may sit in North Huron, they will both serve the needs of a wider community that reaches even further than Huron County. What he didn't address, although I'm sure if given the time he would have been happy to, is the notion that North Huron, if one project gets the shaft, is missing out for being innovative and forward -thinking Here we have a centre that aims to connect rural communities across Canada with a focus on education and training and a hospital that's adapting and expanding its work, but because they happen to be neighbours, in the eyes of Huron County councillors, only one deserves the blessing of Huron County. The idea is utter nonsense, of course — especially if you listen to any Huron County councillor talk about their role at the Huron County Council table. While these men and women are elected as representatives of their lower -tier municipalities, at the Huron County table, all you hear are statements about thinking in terms of the county. When someone sits at the Huron County Council table, it's not about championing your area versus the area of another. It's about moving the whole of Huron County forward. As part of the county's recent Employment Lands Strategy project, a number of factors were considered in moving the county forward in terms of economic development. It was all about matching growing industries with areas in which there were available lands for those industries. I can't imagine that if a large corporation came to Huron County and wanted to build a plant and employ 150 people in North Huron, that county staff would say there's too much going on in North Huron already, and insist the company build elsewhere. It's all about matching opportunities with receptive communities, regardless of borders. Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company is executing this to perfection. Commonly accepted as a Blyth business, Cowbell is in Central Huron and is dedicating one of its beer taps to another Huron County beer. Because it's not about who climbs the mountain first, it's about reaching the summit together and building a community the right way. Let's hope that in July Huron County Council judges these projects on their merit, not on their location.