Copyright Police Want Belgian Truck Drivers To Have Licensed Cab Music

Another 'Only in Belgium' story....

The Belgian music royalty collecting agency SABAM has once again stepped up to enforce their strict copyright regime. After collecting money for fake artists and forgetting to pay out to real ones, they are now targeting truck drivers who listen to music in their cabs without an appropriate license.

This week SABAM made the headlines once again, this time claiming money from truck drivers who listen to music in their cabs. Since a truck’s cab is a place of work the drivers are obliged to pay royalty fees, they argue. Those are simply the rules according to the copyright police, but not everyone agrees.

“It’s utter nonsense,” said Maggie De Block, member of the Belgian Parliament in a response to the claim. “The truck drivers don’t need the radio so much for playing music, but for their safety. So it is illogical that they should pay for it.”

Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne is not backing the theory of the copyright police either. He said that listening to radio is essential for truckers and noted that above all, a truck’s cab is an intimate space.

Angered by the responses from these politicians, SABAM said that they have the right to claim money from anyone who listens to music while working. The copyright collectors refer to an agreement they have with Minister Van Quickenborne which allows them to charge anyone, anytime. Whether they are in an office or a truck cab makes no difference, they say.

The safety argument doesn’t impress SABAM either, as they claim truck drivers still profit from listening to ‘free’ music when the radio is on.

Although SABAM might be right while following the letter of the law, the above example and numerous others where small businesses or non-profits have been hunted down in the past do not help them to maintain a good public image. We also wonder if the artists are very happy with such a strict copyright regime.

But then again, someone has to pay for the luxurious furniture at the SABAM offices, and the generous salaries these copyright crusaders enjoy. Piggybacking on the creations of musicians is big business after all.

Mother kills 5 children...innocent father gets billed for costs...only in Belgium

Life is more than a little strange in this country, so although this story doesn't surprise me a bit, it does make for a daily dose of humour.

A Belgian man has protested at being asked to pay for the prosecution of his ex-wife who killed their five children, a local newspaper reports.

"I am disgusted and revolted," Bouchaib Moqadem told Le Soir newspaper.

Genvieve Lhermitte was sentenced to life in prison in December 2009 for murdering their son and four daughters while Mr Moqadem was on holiday.

Belgium tries to recover the cost of its prosecutions from those convicted but Lhermitte is insolvent.

So the state has instead sent the 72,743 euros ($97,000; £65,000) bill to Mr Moqadem.

It says the money should come from Lhermitte's share of the sale of their house.

Mr Moqadem's lawyer has reportedly asked for the bill to be written off.

Lance Armstrong On Kornheiser: ‘Punkass Chump’

Fresh off his ESPN double secret probation for mocking Hannah Storm's 1960s-inspired go-go outfits, Tony Kornheiser is at it again; letting his mouth lead him where he probably shouldn't go.

"When three or four of these people start riding abreast, I swear to you, it's all you can do to not run them down! Like Wile E. Coyote! Run 'em over! Get the hell out of my way!", some people took it the wrong way.

Like, for one, Lance Armstrong. From his Twitter account:
Listening to Tony Kornheiser's comments/rant on ESPN radio re: cyclists. Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete f-ing idiot.

And this all happens the same day we have four cyclists killed by a frikn tractor here in Belgium. It happened in Flanders in Bochholt, which is near Tongeren, so what I can gather with my limited Dutch from this news story is he was transporting those bales of hay you see in the picture and had limited visibility. He drove right over a pack of ten cyclists, killing four of them. There is video in French below the pictures.

Train crash kills at least 20 during morning rush hour

Two packed commuter trains crashed head-on outside of Brussels in the morning rush hour, killing at least 25 people, according to Belgian media reports. The local trains collided near Halle, some 15 kilometres southwest of Brussels at 8:30 a.m.

National broadcaster VRT said 25 people were killed, but officials from the train line operator were unable to immediately confirm that figure. Train services, including the high-speed line between Brussels and Paris, were blocked. The operator Thalys says three trains are involved and advises passengers to change their travel plans.

A spokesman for Eurostar, the high-speed passenger rail service connecting London with Brussels warned that "it is possible that services will remain suspended all day." Two carriages have been completely destroyed in the crash according to early reports. Infrabel, the train operator, has confirmed that there are tens of people seriously injured.

The accident occurred during the rush hour as people were travelling to work. One train was travelling from the direction of Louvain and was on its way to Braine-le-Comte the other was coming from Quiévrain and was going to Liège.

The overhead cables have been severely damaged by the accident and train travel on the lines between Brussels and Doornik and Brussels and Bergen has ground to a halt.

A crisis centre has been set up and the emergency services have arrived en masse at the scene. The cause of the accident is not known.

Scores of reactions are pouring in to Belgian websites reporting the crash. People are reacting with a mixture of disbelief and anger that this has happened.

"How is it that two trains can collide head-on, this means that one was on the wrong track. Are there no safety systems that prevent this type of blunder from happening?” said one reaction to the online edition of newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

“Lucky it is a holiday today, otherwise they would have been even more people on the trains,” said another reaction to the site.

Facebook attempt to remember Allied soldiers killed in Belgium

A drive is underway here in Belgium to attempt to create Facebook pages for each of the 27,594 Allied soldiers who were killed in Belgium during WWII and are buried in Belgian cemeteries, men from countries including the U.S., Britain, France and Australia.

High school students are each being asked to research the lives and battles of a chosen soldier and with the help of archives kept by the Institute for Veterans, produce a Facebook page for each one with photos, audio and video. It is hoped relatives of the dead soldiers will submit whatever documents and other evidence they have.

The first Facebook page created as part of that project honors Lance Cpl. Thomas Leslie Cartwright of High Wycombe, England. Cartwright was killed in fighting in 1944and is buried in the Kasterlee War Cemetery in northern Belgium along with 99 comrades of the British Army's Royal Scots.

The plan is to have each soldier documented on Facebook by 2014, when the country will mark the 70th anniversary of Belgium's liberation.

"You are only dead if no one talks about you anymore," said Pol Van Den Driessche, a Belgian senator who launched the project, known as "Live and Remember."

Explosion in Liège collapses apartment building (video)

Video from Liège, Belgium. The collapse occurred about five hours after the intial explosion gutted much of the building. At this point nine bodies have been pulled from the rubble with others missing.

A five-story apartment building caught fire and collapsed Wednesday after an apparent gas explosion, injuring at least 21 people, including a teenager who was pulled from the rubble, officials said.

The blast occurred at about 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) and as darkness fell Wednesday night firefighters were still digging through the rubble looking for other survivors since two separate voices had been heard from within the wreckage, officials said.

Smoke and small fires were making the search difficult, especially for the sniffer dogs being used. Bricks and twisted metal remained piled piled yards (meters) high.

Belgian King Albert II visited the site to show his support for the rescue workers and his sympathy for the victims, including the teenage girl who had been rescued from the wreckage.

“It is likely there was a gas explosion,” Liege Mayor Willy Demeyer said. There had been a gas alert in the building over the weekend, but no leak was discovered, he said.

Immediately after the blast, a fire raged through the building and thick smoke billowed into the air. The blast shattered windows in nearby City Hall and spread debris and dust throughout the adjacent streets in downtown Liege.

“It was such a noise that we thought the explosion happened inside City Hall, even though the actual explosion was more than one hundred meters (yards) away, so the whole neighborhood was woken up and devastated,” said Demeyer. Most of the historic center of the city was closed because of the explosion.

The 21 people reported injured were more than the dozen residents who officially lived in the building. But the apartments often house university students who may have had guests sleeping over when the blast occurred.

Miss Belgium causing controversy again

Some say politics and beauty go hand-in-hand, but it appears no-one told 18-year-old Miss Belgium winner Cilou Annys

Annys sparked controversy when she posed in a magazine with nationalist politician Bart de Wever, who wants independence for the Dutch-speaking region of northern Belgium from the francophone south of Wallonia.

The provocative photo shows de Wever slicing through the word Belgium, embroided on Ms Annys winner’s sash.

Actu24 - Ambiance de chat avec Miss Belgique 2010
par actu24

Beer supplies threatened!! Hostages taken!!

When's the last time you heard of beer strikers taking hostages? We take our beer seriously here in Belgium. The London Times reports that supplies of Stella Artois (affectionately know as the "wife beater" in the UK) are running seriously low.









A labor dispute in the Flemish region of Belgium is affecting the world’s largest brewery. Union workers in the city of Leuven where InBev's brewery is are upset by a plan by Anheuser-Busch – InBev to cut 263 jobs.

The international mega-brewer makes Bud and Bud Light. In Belgium, it produces Stella Artois among other brands. But a blockade of the company’s headquarters in Belgium is disrupting supplies.

About 10 managers at an Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery in Jupille in eastern Belgium were taken hostage by worker union officials after the company announced it was firing about 10 percent of its Belgium workers.

“We are demanding that the (company’s) senior managers come here and call off the lay-offs,” Marc Devenne, a union representative was quoted as saying by the Belga news agency.
See one story here.

One of Leuven's landmarks is a statue called the Fountain of Wisdom. It’s of a student reading a book while pouring liquid (wisdom) into his head. Maybe it’s Stella.....

A little video of Minister of Pensions, Michel Daerden, just another drunken idiot in the Belgian government elaborating on the progress he's made. (I don't think he's referring to AA)

You don't even have to understand Flemish to see what a douchbag this guy is. Evidently one of the reasons taxes are so high in Belgium is to pay for the wine budget for this guy and his fellow clowns.

All Europeans beware of killer wine corks!

The Belgian daily 'Het Nieuwsblad' reports that Dutch MEP Wim Van de Camp has pleaded for a warning notice on champagne corks, claiming that flying corks cause "a scary amount" of accidents.

I guess if Belgians are too uncoordinated to open a Champagne bottle without injuring themselves this might explain why they have such an embarrassment for a National Football team. If you are injuring yourself by drinking Champagne.....it might be time to put the bottle away people.

As far as Mr. Van de Camp goes.....just when I think European politicians can't get any dumber......another one comes along.

Former Miss Belgium Vernonique De Kock

As if the name Veronique De Kock isn’t awesome enough.....look at these pictures. There is alot more than waffles and beer here in Belgium.

More Global Warming in Paris and Brussels

Early winter snows forced French authorities to close the Eiffel Tower on Thursday and disrupted transport as northwest Europe shuddered under a pre-Christmas cold snap. Much of the north of the country awoke to find a seven-centimetre (three inch) blanket of snow, which delayed flights from Charles de Gaulle airport by up to two hours.

The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors, and train and bus services were delayed in many areas, as daytime temperatures dropped below zero for the first time in the year and black ice coated northern roads.

Snow also fell in Britain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and weather experts forecast worse to come, with disruption especially in Scotland and northern England.

The northern Netherlands experienced the worst falls in four years, with snow up to 25 centimetres deep in places, the national weather service said, while all bus services in the region were cancelled.

In Belgium black ice turned roads into skating rinks, particularly the Brussels ring road and the motorway from the capital to Lille in northern France.
Numerous flights were cancelled and delayed at Brussels airport. Traffic Centre had registered 500 kilometres of traffic standing idle on the roads, with train, tram and bus delays making the chaos complete.

The Belgians are coming.....

Stella,.......at the corner of 1st and Washington, downtown Minneapolis. (click to enlarge)

Miss Nude Belgium.....drives a bus!

If you have been staying awake at night lately wondering what on earth ever happened to Miss Nude Belgium 2009,.....She has been found. Audrey, who doesn't want her last name used is a tour bus driver. It turns out she gave up her life of porn and nude beauty contests in order to provide a better life for her 3 and 4 year old kids.

For the life of me i couldn't find a picture of the bus babe, so enjoy the video of Alizée Poulicek (Miss Belgium 2008) at the La Perla Lingerie Show in Liege.

In this tough job market, there may be no one with more job security than porn stars. Let’s face it, the porn industry is on the rise now that thousands upon thousands of men are out of work and sitting around bored at home. For those porn stars who are down on their luck (or sick of getting stuffed all day), it may be time to look elsewhere for work.

As long as “elsewhere” isn’t on a bus.

In the UK, a porn star has been threatened with the proverbial pink slip if she doesn’t quit her night job. The reigning ‘Miss Nude Belgium 2009′ recently passed all her exams to become a bus driver and had just started working when she was called to human resources to explain some racy photographs. Turns out, you can’t show your nips and drive people around town.

The Belgian Army starts it's "Bullets for Kids" promotion

Belgian soldiers on exercise in The Netherlands caused outrage after it emerged that they handed out live blank ammunition to children in the villages.

The soldiers were caught on camera happily handing out the bullets outside a snack bar in Den Helder.

The children were spotted walking around with pocketfuls of ammunition by staff at neighbouring schools. One 11-year-old proudly told a television crew “from the soldiers”.

The code name for the operation was 'crazy trip'.....enough said.

What happened to just giving away chocolate? SKY NEWS

Book clubs for men becoming more popular.....there's a caveat

Book clubs for men are becoming more popular: "We've been meeting for 6 months, and we haven't read a book yet"

I'm so impressed I'm starting up a local chapter.....

"We've been meeting for six months, and we haven't read a book yet," says Andrew Upton, 45, of Somerville, describing his own book group. "We have such a good time talking about life, kids, work, politics, everything. And everyone is so busy. We may read a book at some point, but right now it's just a social club." THE BOSTON GLOBE

Belgian Woman risked her life to save three American pilots in 1944

With three American pilots following her on bicycle, Paulette Childers, then 19, distracted a German officer patrolling a requisitioned hotel between Spy and Namur, Belgium.

Childers used her charm to flirt with the German officer, who confessed his love for her within minutes – while the pilots safely pedaled past the lone obstruction between them and safety.

Memorial Day was established to honor the men and women who risked their lives for America’s safety and freedom.
READ PAULETTE'S STORY

Did someone say steroids?

The Belgian bodybuilding championship was not held last week in Vlissingen in the Netherlands. The competition was supposed to start at 14.30 last Sunday but, thirty minutes beforehand, three inspectors from the Flemish Community took their places beside the scale at the event organised by the National Amateur Body Building Association Belgium (NABBA), which is where all participants must register and be weighed. To their amazement, not a single body builder pitched up.

The competition was eventually abandoned thanks to the very sudden and acute shortage of highly-developed muscles. Nobody was available to comment from the NABBA, but the conjecture is strong that every single participant is on steroids.

A former Belgian bodybuilding champion did have something to say after the abandoned event. 'I understand why those guys did it, they would all have tested positive - that is certain,' the man said on Radio 1. 'It's a world that is highly susceptible to doping,' Dr Hans Cooman, who is involved in controlling steroid abuse, confirmed.

The results of the doping tests in 2008 prove that, with anabolic steroids being the most popular. To avoid the checks, bodybuilding championships are often taken abroad to places just over the border, like Vlissingen. But it seems that the they are no longer safe for Flemish inspectors there either.

How to rob a bank......Belgian Style

A local bank manager was given a three year suspended sentence for taking money from rich customers and distributing it to the poor. The manager of a Centea branch in Ghent stole almost €1 million from customers’ accounts and used it to give loans to people with financial difficulties, sometimes even digging into his own savings.

“I was naive,” said the modern day Robin Hood. “They abused my trust.” He was also fined €500 and ordered to pay €250,000 in compensation.

It must be getting close to Easter

This little guy showed up in the garden this morning and was tame enough that I put some food nearby that he stayed around to eat. Maybe he'll come back for the weekend. Rabbit....it's whats for dinner.