"we'll be doing what most other places of work are doing, and taking Monday off as well."
It's just too bad that you're not a Canadian and get the day after Christmas off too. Well, unless you're in retail knocking down prices that would make even the biggest red marker tag on "Black Friday" down south look sane in comparison.
Oh, and the same concentration of crowds. We don't often have Boxing Day sale riots, probably because we've been practicing cross checking into the boards all week to get ready and studying just how it was that Gordie Howe managed to toss those elbows around without actually decapitating someone which means a few of us will try it out at the sales. You see, in store dry land hockey training and practicing isn't defined as rioting in Canada.
Enjoy your extra day off, I'm sure my dry land training and practicing will come in hand with some of our better known ACs, darryl, Average Joe's and more of that ilk. I'm worried though. I'm not sure a major concussion would affect them enough so that they or we would notice. Probably worth a try though!
Re: Merry Xmas, lets hope santa sent you a blank CD and a downloaded song for crissy.
Angry much, darryl? And on Christmas Eve, no less. A nice big lump of coal in both socks for you, laddie.
As for where ever you DO like, I pray it isn't Canada. Well, outside of Toronto, anyway. You'd fit in perfectly there. Total ignorance of the rest of the world and a perfectly smug attitude about living in the place the universe rotates around. You'd be perfect there.
Most Americans I know ARE perfectly aware that a misstep by their country can take the rest of the planet down with them. If not 2008 proved that to them.
"Two other Monday articles caught my eye: the first was about how ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was adopted by the EU Council, however, it was really by a collection of ministers in a meeting discussing agriculture and fisheries?"
I guess you missed the part of the story that pointed out that that committee is a place where Eurocrats do things they'd rather not let anyone know they're doing. You know, unpopular stuff like ACTA. It's not gone anywhere important yet as the EU parliament hasn't voted on it yet and, politicians being what they are and wanting to hold onto their seats have no doubt noted it's unpopularity and will vote accordingly. Hopefully enough of them to drop the smelly thing into the trash where it belongs. As for whatever else they talk about it's things like giving Spanish and Portugese fishermen the "right" to mine the Grand Banks and Georges Banks off Newfoundland, the Maritimes and Maine which means Canada wastes time and money chasing them out and busting a few boats and tossing their captian's sorry asses into jail. Nice lot that committee that it can't bother with International law while the EU bleats on endlessly that everyone else has to.
Which leads to a nice seg into your screed on, I assume, copyright. Tucked nicely into driving laws.
The thing about driving laws is that high speed collisions tend to KILL people, running down pedestrians tends the have the same result (some seem to be begging for it by stepping into traffic without looking or wearing dark clothing on dark, stormy nights but that's another story) and a vehicle at high speed landing in one's living room is a major shock to the system.
In the case of copyright it's become so corrupted by "special interest groups" and two in particular that it no longer serves any purpose of rewarding creative folk and serves only the interests of the MPAA and RIAA.
That, and to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been killed by infringing on a copyright. PERHAPS denied a small bit of income, at worst. But their life has never been taken as a result as it can, and too often is, taken in a motor vehicle accident.
And no, it's not as simple as you state it. Civil law, such as copyright, is intended to solve a problem as much or more than make something illegal. And it's solution always has been in a civil process of making the infringed party "whole" as a result of the infringement. (Not whole as you would think of it but whole in legal terms that a settlement has been made and an award given.)
Law also requires respect by the monopoly holder towards their market and even you in your wildest nightmares can't possibly believe that Hollywood has shown that recently. Say the last half century or so. As is the case with most disputes "it takes two to tango" so respect needs to flow both ways or respect for the law which makes the monopoly possible in the first place is lost. It's at that point that the citizenry, market if you prefer, removes the consent that made the law possible to begin with.
That's the point you miss and always miss.
And no, I don't share files that belong to others without their consent or outside of their license or outside of much of anything else. And I don't STEAL files by breaking into someone's machine and removing it from a drive so stop with the steal bit already. It's infringement, not theft.
SOPA/PIPA isn't my fault or the fault of anyone here. It's a result of greed, need to control and a total lack of respect by the holders of some copyrights to abuse that privilege that society has allowed them. If ANYONE has abused the law it's the MPAA and RIAA with the help of legislators and not only American legislators.
I'm quite comfortable in my bed.
Your obvious anger and blaming tells me you're not very comfortable in yours.
The King James version was paid for by all of his subjects, in one form or another, who would have included the ancestors of the American colonists as well as the earliest colonists who relied on one or more English translation before the King James or Authorized Version came out and became standard in the Church of England and, as it happened, dissenting churches of the time an later in England and around the Empire including what would become the Unites States after 1776 and Canada after 1867, In short the American colonists DID pay for the Authorized Version because it was authorized before the revolution and in use in British North America for over a century and a half when the American Revolution took place.
And yes. the Americans borrowed from the ancient Greeks and Romans as they worked on their new republic just as they took on Magna Charta and other documents laws, precedents and practices from England.
Keep in mind that the American Revolution as in many ways a civil war. English vs English one group in North America demanding no more than an Englishman of similar standing would have demanded and received in England. Also that they had considerable support in the Commons at the time while facing yet more opposition to their cause in the Lords and among supporters of George III. Among the supporters in the Commons were both Pitt the Elder and Pitt the Younger who are remembered now as great reformers of Parliament and the rights of the Commons over the Lords and the monarch.
In some respects that Christianity took with it huge aspects of Hebrew/Jewish beliefs and customs which exist into today as their Messiah intended to reform Judaism not break from it as is evident within the Gospels. In some respects the nacient Christians were drive off, out of the synagogue after 67 CE by Jews/Hebrews who disagreed with their view of Jesus as Messiah.
The American Revolution entrenched basic beliefs of English common and civil law and the concept of Free Speech which the Pitts and their successors would take back in England and reenforce and reestablish there. One fed the other in spite of some mutual hostility that continued until The Great War.
Dickens and others from England and outside the United States would continue to complain about Americans stealing their work in one form or another until the United States finally signed onto the Berne Convention in the mid 1960s. But complain as Dickens did he didn't turn down what were enormous fees in those days to tour and speak and complain in the United States making more that way than he would on his books in his lifetime from the copyrights either he or his publishers back in blight would.
The problem isn't that the U.S borrowed or plagiarized from Europe and the UK but it's that the SHORT terms of things like copyright and patents have been extended beyond all recognition of the purposes they were to serve on both sides of the pond. Nor did it stop England from plagiarizing, in their turn, constitutional and political ideas from the United States and adapting them for their own uses.
The extension and corruption of copyright and patent law are hardly American ideas alone nor are the Americans soley responsible for them. Europeans can take their fair share of the blame as can the British.
The problem here isn't necessarily anything the United States government has done in and of itself it's the unquestioning acceptance of legislators in the United States, Canada, Europe, the UK and elsewhere that what Hollywood says is happening with 'piracy' mostly greased by monstrous campaign contributions no matter where this issue has come up.
The problem here is a seriously flawed and unworkable pair of bills that simply will not stop or even dent the problem they claim to be fighting but will cost more in liberty and freedom that is really worth losing over this so called problem. And England isn't exactly a font of innocence and wisdom on that score either In fact, in terms of even what's currently proposed in the United States the England is probably worse. Nor, for that matter, is Canada.
As a Canadian getting to live "between" the UK and the US I'm not sure which I dislike more. Self-congratulatory and self-serving Americans or self-congratulatory and self-serving Brits. There is so little that differentiates the attitudes from either country.
Where I think most of us agree is that culture cannot and ought not be locked into walled gardens for the entertainment industry whether the particular aspect of said industry is located in Hollywood, New York, London, Toronto or Vancouver.
Culture, like so much else, wants to and demands to be free. A short, preferably non-renewable copyright grant (monopoly) of, say, the original 14 years is acceptable. Seven years would be better, IMHO. Lifetime + 70 years is totally and completely unacceptable as it becomes welfare for the entertainment industry and the artist be damned.
And bills to prob up an industry than will not adapt to market changes is abhorrent particularly when it violates the US Bill of Rights and breaks the internet as it tries to do that. The latter kinda like the UK already does. Not that these industries cannot. Just that they will not. They're either too lazy or too frightened to do that so off they run to their bought and paid for legislators in Washington and London to protect them.
Re: Maybe they can criminalize making fun of their "education"
They used Reefer Madness as "drug eduction" in the 60s and 70s, I remember seeing if after lunch which ended sharing joint with some friends and I can't recall seeing much of anything funnier in my life.
A close second was the sex ed film we got a few weeks later. Toked up for that one too after we started to hear about it. Right, you can get clap from holding hands.
Poor guidance teachers never did figure out why the classes dragged in to watch these things were roaring with laughter.
Probably the same ignorance which allowed the high school librarian to water and tend a pot plant in a sunny window all the way from October to June when it suddenly disappered. All 7' of it. Probably one of if not the first of Vancouver's grow-ops :)
On the other hand you've entirely missed the point. First off, I said I couldn't find information on if the copyright for the film is still in effect. If it wasn't renewed it would have run out in 1965 which is about the time it really began to show up all over tv stations outside of prime time and on PBS who will grab onto these things the moment the copyright expires.
And I do recall that the makers of the original movie were horrified at the colourization of it and, if I remember correctly tried to stop it and failed, another indication that the copyright MAY have expired.
And yes, they did "think enough" about their work to copyright it but that doesn't change it's status as a cultural touchstone NOW.
Remember, both movies tanked at the box office and neither was really worth a lot for tv syndication before It's A Wonderful Life became free of copyright AND began to get major air time and it appears that Scrooge/A Christmas Carol may have as well. As I said, I couldn't find information about that.
And believe me I have all the respect in the world for the creators of these films. You have no idea how much.
But downloading aside, it doesn't stop both these films from becoming best sellers on sites like Amazon and imDB this time of year either.
What you don't seem to get is that people still watch, say, Star Trek in droves even though most episodes are leaked and downloaded before they show. Star Trek fans still go to the movies in droves. Me among them. (I don't download the tv shows, btw cause I don't have the time to watch them, I'm sorry to say.)
Doctor Who is among the most "pirated" shows on television globally and yet it still gets very high viewership. Doesn't seem to hurt it any.
Rocky Horror Picture Show is also likely one of the most pirated movies on the internet. It tanked at the box office too. Quoting Roger Evert:
"When the film was first released in 1975 it was ignored by pretty much everyone, including the future fanatics who would eventually count the hundreds of times they'd seen it. "Rocky Horror" opened, closed, and would have been forgotten had it not been for the inspiration of a low-level 20th Century-Fox executive who talked his superiors into testing it as a midnight cult movie.
The rest is history."
The cult has died down some, but there are still places where the film does it's midnight thing and properly promoted the theatres sell out. So not only is it downloaded but just as often those downloading head off to be in the theatre when it plays. Can't be a cult of one, can we?
You also ignored or are deliberately downplaying the remark I made about the priceless PR the studios would get voluntarily placing films like these into the public domain. Might make the public at large feel better about them.
To return to A Christmas Carol, the story itself is now a cultural touchstone and became one very shortly after Dickens' published it as a short serial in a newspaper which was common at the time. Didn't hurt that one either.
Still sold like gangbusters when it came out in the UK and in the US, though because the US didn't recognize other countries copyrights at the time Dickens never saw a penny out of those sales. Didn't stop him touring in America, though. Like a lot of authors, even now, he made far more money on the tours than he did on his books, at least for long time on his books and none at all in the USA.
The reality is that you can't educate out of "cultural touchstone" because the culture has claimed the work.
If you were the least bit creative at all you'd realize what incredible respect and honour that is for creators. That's their ticket into better contracts with publishers, film studios, tv networks and what have we than a best seller or blockbuster ever could be. The name recognition is incredible and requires no promotion at all.
I make no excuse for ignoring copyright. What I am saying is that it's sometimes better to back off on the alleged money making part of a copyright to acknowledge that a move from flop movies to cultural touchstone(s) means more and it worth more to a creative person than any of the money they'd have made off the copyright.
Dickens certainly understood that when he toured America at a time when every publisher in the United States was a pirate by the definition that you and SOPA want to apply to that word and the panic you falsely cause around it.
Or even your lame, false claim that "it's about the artist". Bullshit.
Of course, you'd rather troll than examine your position, right?
Not entirely in line with the whole piracy thing but tangetal to it. Two of the "must see's" on television share something in common. They both were box office bombs.
"It's A Wonderful Life" flopped miserably, so badly that when the time came to renew the copyright the studio forgot to. Some TV station got ahold of it, ran it and the rest is history.
Similarly "Scrooge" (UK) or "A Christmas Carol" (US & Canada) flopped. It's still in copyright but that doesn't mean that it's not in many collections and on many hard disks to be brought out on the holiday season.
Alistair Sim gave what is often thought of as the definitive portrayal of Scrooge in film that largely held to the darkness and gloom that was present in Dickens' short story rather than Hollywood's too often bright and, often comic, attempts which completely miss the point of Dickens' story while trying to make a movie "for the whole family". The first time I saw Sim's version it scared the hell of of me, all of 8 at the time, but held me till the closing scenes where things became sorta happy. (For God's sake avoid the colourized version which screws with the brilliant lighting and shadows of the B&W that it looks rather like a neon sign in a red light district.)
Now what's the point of all of this? We can download It's A Wonderful Life all we want because it's in the public domain now but, if SOPA came into effect, we'd be criminals if we downloaded Alistair Sim.
Both, though, have moved from mere movies to a deep part of English speaking culture this time of year globally and people are attracted to both. Perhaps to get away from the constant manufactured "joy" leading up to the day itself.
My sister, hardly a pirate, would be horrified to know she's possibly a crook cause she has Sim's Scrooge on her hard drive and plays it every Christmas Eve along with It's a Wonderful Life. When I told her about SOPA she looked at me and went "I don't care, it's part of our culture now so to hell with them." Along with the standard Canadian fallback line of damned stupid Americans in moments like this.
The point being, how do you or CAN YOU educate someone out of sharing what they are certain has become a cultural touchstone? And some moves have become that. As have some songs. Whether Hollywood likes it or not. I'll wager that A Christmas Carol is being downloaded or torrented at this moment by a few thousand people all over the world who neither know or care that it may still be covered by a copyright.
You'd think they'd like it. It strikes me that, if nothing else, these otherwise master marketers could turn the copyright expiry to a great PR move crowing about what they'd just donated to the public domain.
Or maybe it's because the movies tanked at the box office. One they ignored when they copyright expired, the other I can't quickly find that information on one way or another.
Neither directly deals with what the holiday celebrates but both deal with the theme of redemption that the feast day proclaims has arrived. That's something that seems to strike a deep chord in all of us, Christian or not. That we can be or are forgiven and that no matter what we can change.
Unless of course, you're a copyright purist or the MPAA or RIAA. Well, not yet, anyway. Though, as the stories say, this is always possible.
Enjoy our cultural touchstones and forget the propaganda that wants to pass for education. Enjoy what is best about our cultures whoever you are.
Now, if I was the politically aware and cynical type I just MIGHT say, not would but only MIGHT say that the USCofC was coutnerfieting support for SOPA/PIPA from companies who were doing no such thing or only restricting their interest to physical counterfeits such as guitars and, oh, say dangerous pharmaceuticals.
I still wonder why the Better Business Bureau is doing supporting these bills but I suspect it's not to break the internet or restrict free speech or anything like that. Could it be the same sort of reason? Maybe we should ask.
Hmmm, companies mostly worried about counterfeit copies of their products are suddenly copyright extremists and willing to cripple the Internet and the US Bill of Rights to do that?
Sounds a lot like counterfeiting to me. Counterfeit support. Faked. False. Untrue, Counterfeit and Lies.
I MIGHT say that.
But only because what I would say isn't repeatable in polite company like in a barroom full of longshoremen.
I'd describe Erick Erickson as a lot of uncomplimentary things but "grifter" has never been one of them.
Ahhhh, did you read who Mike is referring to or just hit some script button you have for autoposting on techdirt? (And reddit and slashdot and others, I'm sure.)
Then there's few large herds of D's and R's who oppose this stupidity.
Are you afraid your "sure deal", "done thing" and "mission accomplished" statements were just a teeny weeny bit premature so you're reaching into the bottom of the barrel to see if there's anything there?
I do think you're a troll. Sadly, I am sure you believe this utter tripe.
It's this sort of thing that happens when non-nerds get involved in nerdy things. Named Castro of not. Curious and interesting as that is.
Of course he got it wrong. Any nerd or hacker could have told him that. (Once again, baddies are crackers, not hackers!!!!!) Nor do we all wear horned rimmed glasses with adhesive bandages holding them together. Some of us even play guitar in rock and metal bands and have the tattoos and panties tossed on stage to prove it!!!
And it it really what he wants to be remembered for? Helping to craft a (now hoped for) failure of one of the largest attempts at censorship in United States history?
It's the death of Hollywood that would be tragic as guess who has filled 99.9999999999999999999% of the campaign funds of members of Congress? Who else would be SO generous!
Much as it doesn't seem that way at times to those who've grown up with it or the English common, civil and criminal law model it is far superior to most out there. Compared, say, to places like Russia.
The fact that court is open is radically different that almost any other legal system that deals with business disputes and the fact that both parties get "heard" in that open forum is important.
We may not like judgements, we may not like the idea of juries awarding kazillions to some "big entertainment" company after someone on a fixed pension if found liable and can never pay it off as distasteful but it DOES, mostly work.
Outside of England, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, the United States and others who have inherited this way of justice all of this is rare in the extreme. Perhaps only those areas using the Code Napoleon come close.
So be thankful for what we have, as imperfect as it is. And will be far worse if SOPA/PIPA passes passes.
And just what, exactly, leads you to that conclusion?
DNS hosts nothing, has control over nothing. It's the road map, if you like, that lets you type in techdirt.com so you can come here and spew drivel without having to type the IP address octect.
That being the case, then I guess you'd want to say the same thing about Rand-McNally for providing a road map you can use to find a crack house or the local Hell's Angels chapter house. Makes almost as much sense.
DNS is a directory, same as the phone book, something which may also enable you to call a crack dealer, or the pizza delivery guy or whatever else.
DNS is NOT content. It points to it, but it isn't the content itself. Without it, well, I'd suspect you wouldn't have found your way here because by complaining about "customers" you're saying the system is responsible for the domain name/IP address and not the myriad of registrars out there who, therefore, are responsible for what individual sites do, by your logic all of which means that they're responsible for whoever at the RIAA was pirating content and not the RIAA itself.
Grow up and learn what makes up the internet.
On second thought, just grow up. The rest can come later.
In organizations such as this one, generally speaking web memo's of this nature DO reflect the organization's view or the employee wouldn't have sent it. If it wasn't you can bet your bottom dollar there would have been a retraction as soon as it got out in the wild and the questions started coming into them about "sniffle, snuffle, cry, OH PLEASE SUPPORT SOPA, we were counting on YOU!, sniffle snuffle, cry" and so on.
As that doesn't seem to have happened I'd make the reasonable assumption that the memo fairly reflects their stance. And as it's on their web site I'd more than say it does. Nice try though.
I wouldn't count on SOPA/PIPA supporters trying again no matter how painfully this idiocy comes to an end. The RIAA and MPAA have been at this for over a century now and, over time, have chipped away at things so that copyright has gone from 14 years to, well, anywhere from say 60 years (say someone wrote a book at age 20, and died at 80 and assuming the copyright remains in effect for 70 years after the author's death) to 150 years FAR, FAR beyond anything ever dreamed of or of use to society or the culture at large.
It's worse than crony capitalism, it's corporatism verging on mercantilism. Each worse than the last.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Boxing Day
It's just too bad that you're not a Canadian and get the day after Christmas off too. Well, unless you're in retail knocking down prices that would make even the biggest red marker tag on "Black Friday" down south look sane in comparison.
Oh, and the same concentration of crowds. We don't often have Boxing Day sale riots, probably because we've been practicing cross checking into the boards all week to get ready and studying just how it was that Gordie Howe managed to toss those elbows around without actually decapitating someone which means a few of us will try it out at the sales. You see, in store dry land hockey training and practicing isn't defined as rioting in Canada.
Enjoy your extra day off, I'm sure my dry land training and practicing will come in hand with some of our better known ACs, darryl, Average Joe's and more of that ilk. I'm worried though. I'm not sure a major concussion would affect them enough so that they or we would notice. Probably worth a try though!
Merry Christmas!!!
On the post: Rikuo's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Merry Xmas, lets hope santa sent you a blank CD and a downloaded song for crissy.
As for where ever you DO like, I pray it isn't Canada. Well, outside of Toronto, anyway. You'd fit in perfectly there. Total ignorance of the rest of the world and a perfectly smug attitude about living in the place the universe rotates around. You'd be perfect there.
Most Americans I know ARE perfectly aware that a misstep by their country can take the rest of the planet down with them. If not 2008 proved that to them.
"Two other Monday articles caught my eye: the first was about how ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was adopted by the EU Council, however, it was really by a collection of ministers in a meeting discussing agriculture and fisheries?"
I guess you missed the part of the story that pointed out that that committee is a place where Eurocrats do things they'd rather not let anyone know they're doing. You know, unpopular stuff like ACTA. It's not gone anywhere important yet as the EU parliament hasn't voted on it yet and, politicians being what they are and wanting to hold onto their seats have no doubt noted it's unpopularity and will vote accordingly. Hopefully enough of them to drop the smelly thing into the trash where it belongs. As for whatever else they talk about it's things like giving Spanish and Portugese fishermen the "right" to mine the Grand Banks and Georges Banks off Newfoundland, the Maritimes and Maine which means Canada wastes time and money chasing them out and busting a few boats and tossing their captian's sorry asses into jail. Nice lot that committee that it can't bother with International law while the EU bleats on endlessly that everyone else has to.
Which leads to a nice seg into your screed on, I assume, copyright. Tucked nicely into driving laws.
The thing about driving laws is that high speed collisions tend to KILL people, running down pedestrians tends the have the same result (some seem to be begging for it by stepping into traffic without looking or wearing dark clothing on dark, stormy nights but that's another story) and a vehicle at high speed landing in one's living room is a major shock to the system.
In the case of copyright it's become so corrupted by "special interest groups" and two in particular that it no longer serves any purpose of rewarding creative folk and serves only the interests of the MPAA and RIAA.
That, and to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been killed by infringing on a copyright. PERHAPS denied a small bit of income, at worst. But their life has never been taken as a result as it can, and too often is, taken in a motor vehicle accident.
And no, it's not as simple as you state it. Civil law, such as copyright, is intended to solve a problem as much or more than make something illegal. And it's solution always has been in a civil process of making the infringed party "whole" as a result of the infringement. (Not whole as you would think of it but whole in legal terms that a settlement has been made and an award given.)
Law also requires respect by the monopoly holder towards their market and even you in your wildest nightmares can't possibly believe that Hollywood has shown that recently. Say the last half century or so. As is the case with most disputes "it takes two to tango" so respect needs to flow both ways or respect for the law which makes the monopoly possible in the first place is lost. It's at that point that the citizenry, market if you prefer, removes the consent that made the law possible to begin with.
That's the point you miss and always miss.
And no, I don't share files that belong to others without their consent or outside of their license or outside of much of anything else. And I don't STEAL files by breaking into someone's machine and removing it from a drive so stop with the steal bit already. It's infringement, not theft.
SOPA/PIPA isn't my fault or the fault of anyone here. It's a result of greed, need to control and a total lack of respect by the holders of some copyrights to abuse that privilege that society has allowed them. If ANYONE has abused the law it's the MPAA and RIAA with the help of legislators and not only American legislators.
I'm quite comfortable in my bed.
Your obvious anger and blaming tells me you're not very comfortable in yours.
On the post: Thomas Jefferson: Original Remixer
Re:
And yes. the Americans borrowed from the ancient Greeks and Romans as they worked on their new republic just as they took on Magna Charta and other documents laws, precedents and practices from England.
Keep in mind that the American Revolution as in many ways a civil war. English vs English one group in North America demanding no more than an Englishman of similar standing would have demanded and received in England. Also that they had considerable support in the Commons at the time while facing yet more opposition to their cause in the Lords and among supporters of George III. Among the supporters in the Commons were both Pitt the Elder and Pitt the Younger who are remembered now as great reformers of Parliament and the rights of the Commons over the Lords and the monarch.
In some respects that Christianity took with it huge aspects of Hebrew/Jewish beliefs and customs which exist into today as their Messiah intended to reform Judaism not break from it as is evident within the Gospels. In some respects the nacient Christians were drive off, out of the synagogue after 67 CE by Jews/Hebrews who disagreed with their view of Jesus as Messiah.
The American Revolution entrenched basic beliefs of English common and civil law and the concept of Free Speech which the Pitts and their successors would take back in England and reenforce and reestablish there. One fed the other in spite of some mutual hostility that continued until The Great War.
Dickens and others from England and outside the United States would continue to complain about Americans stealing their work in one form or another until the United States finally signed onto the Berne Convention in the mid 1960s. But complain as Dickens did he didn't turn down what were enormous fees in those days to tour and speak and complain in the United States making more that way than he would on his books in his lifetime from the copyrights either he or his publishers back in blight would.
The problem isn't that the U.S borrowed or plagiarized from Europe and the UK but it's that the SHORT terms of things like copyright and patents have been extended beyond all recognition of the purposes they were to serve on both sides of the pond. Nor did it stop England from plagiarizing, in their turn, constitutional and political ideas from the United States and adapting them for their own uses.
The extension and corruption of copyright and patent law are hardly American ideas alone nor are the Americans soley responsible for them. Europeans can take their fair share of the blame as can the British.
The problem here isn't necessarily anything the United States government has done in and of itself it's the unquestioning acceptance of legislators in the United States, Canada, Europe, the UK and elsewhere that what Hollywood says is happening with 'piracy' mostly greased by monstrous campaign contributions no matter where this issue has come up.
The problem here is a seriously flawed and unworkable pair of bills that simply will not stop or even dent the problem they claim to be fighting but will cost more in liberty and freedom that is really worth losing over this so called problem. And England isn't exactly a font of innocence and wisdom on that score either In fact, in terms of even what's currently proposed in the United States the England is probably worse. Nor, for that matter, is Canada.
As a Canadian getting to live "between" the UK and the US I'm not sure which I dislike more. Self-congratulatory and self-serving Americans or self-congratulatory and self-serving Brits. There is so little that differentiates the attitudes from either country.
Where I think most of us agree is that culture cannot and ought not be locked into walled gardens for the entertainment industry whether the particular aspect of said industry is located in Hollywood, New York, London, Toronto or Vancouver.
Culture, like so much else, wants to and demands to be free. A short, preferably non-renewable copyright grant (monopoly) of, say, the original 14 years is acceptable. Seven years would be better, IMHO. Lifetime + 70 years is totally and completely unacceptable as it becomes welfare for the entertainment industry and the artist be damned.
And bills to prob up an industry than will not adapt to market changes is abhorrent particularly when it violates the US Bill of Rights and breaks the internet as it tries to do that. The latter kinda like the UK already does. Not that these industries cannot. Just that they will not. They're either too lazy or too frightened to do that so off they run to their bought and paid for legislators in Washington and London to protect them.
On the post: The Myth That SOPA & PIPA Will Stop Infringement By 'Educating' The Public
Re: Maybe they can criminalize making fun of their "education"
A close second was the sex ed film we got a few weeks later. Toked up for that one too after we started to hear about it. Right, you can get clap from holding hands.
Poor guidance teachers never did figure out why the classes dragged in to watch these things were roaring with laughter.
Probably the same ignorance which allowed the high school librarian to water and tend a pot plant in a sunny window all the way from October to June when it suddenly disappered. All 7' of it. Probably one of if not the first of Vancouver's grow-ops :)
On the post: The Myth That SOPA & PIPA Will Stop Infringement By 'Educating' The Public
Re:
On the post: The Myth That SOPA & PIPA Will Stop Infringement By 'Educating' The Public
Re: Re: Christmas Favourites
And I do recall that the makers of the original movie were horrified at the colourization of it and, if I remember correctly tried to stop it and failed, another indication that the copyright MAY have expired.
And yes, they did "think enough" about their work to copyright it but that doesn't change it's status as a cultural touchstone NOW.
Remember, both movies tanked at the box office and neither was really worth a lot for tv syndication before It's A Wonderful Life became free of copyright AND began to get major air time and it appears that Scrooge/A Christmas Carol may have as well. As I said, I couldn't find information about that.
And believe me I have all the respect in the world for the creators of these films. You have no idea how much.
But downloading aside, it doesn't stop both these films from becoming best sellers on sites like Amazon and imDB this time of year either.
What you don't seem to get is that people still watch, say, Star Trek in droves even though most episodes are leaked and downloaded before they show. Star Trek fans still go to the movies in droves. Me among them. (I don't download the tv shows, btw cause I don't have the time to watch them, I'm sorry to say.)
Doctor Who is among the most "pirated" shows on television globally and yet it still gets very high viewership. Doesn't seem to hurt it any.
Rocky Horror Picture Show is also likely one of the most pirated movies on the internet. It tanked at the box office too. Quoting Roger Evert:
"When the film was first released in 1975 it was ignored by pretty much everyone, including the future fanatics who would eventually count the hundreds of times they'd seen it. "Rocky Horror" opened, closed, and would have been forgotten had it not been for the inspiration of a low-level 20th Century-Fox executive who talked his superiors into testing it as a midnight cult movie.
The rest is history."
The cult has died down some, but there are still places where the film does it's midnight thing and properly promoted the theatres sell out. So not only is it downloaded but just as often those downloading head off to be in the theatre when it plays. Can't be a cult of one, can we?
You also ignored or are deliberately downplaying the remark I made about the priceless PR the studios would get voluntarily placing films like these into the public domain. Might make the public at large feel better about them.
To return to A Christmas Carol, the story itself is now a cultural touchstone and became one very shortly after Dickens' published it as a short serial in a newspaper which was common at the time. Didn't hurt that one either.
Still sold like gangbusters when it came out in the UK and in the US, though because the US didn't recognize other countries copyrights at the time Dickens never saw a penny out of those sales. Didn't stop him touring in America, though. Like a lot of authors, even now, he made far more money on the tours than he did on his books, at least for long time on his books and none at all in the USA.
The reality is that you can't educate out of "cultural touchstone" because the culture has claimed the work.
If you were the least bit creative at all you'd realize what incredible respect and honour that is for creators. That's their ticket into better contracts with publishers, film studios, tv networks and what have we than a best seller or blockbuster ever could be. The name recognition is incredible and requires no promotion at all.
I make no excuse for ignoring copyright. What I am saying is that it's sometimes better to back off on the alleged money making part of a copyright to acknowledge that a move from flop movies to cultural touchstone(s) means more and it worth more to a creative person than any of the money they'd have made off the copyright.
Dickens certainly understood that when he toured America at a time when every publisher in the United States was a pirate by the definition that you and SOPA want to apply to that word and the panic you falsely cause around it.
Or even your lame, false claim that "it's about the artist". Bullshit.
Of course, you'd rather troll than examine your position, right?
Right.
On the post: The Myth That SOPA & PIPA Will Stop Infringement By 'Educating' The Public
Christmas Favourites
"It's A Wonderful Life" flopped miserably, so badly that when the time came to renew the copyright the studio forgot to. Some TV station got ahold of it, ran it and the rest is history.
Similarly "Scrooge" (UK) or "A Christmas Carol" (US & Canada) flopped. It's still in copyright but that doesn't mean that it's not in many collections and on many hard disks to be brought out on the holiday season.
Alistair Sim gave what is often thought of as the definitive portrayal of Scrooge in film that largely held to the darkness and gloom that was present in Dickens' short story rather than Hollywood's too often bright and, often comic, attempts which completely miss the point of Dickens' story while trying to make a movie "for the whole family". The first time I saw Sim's version it scared the hell of of me, all of 8 at the time, but held me till the closing scenes where things became sorta happy. (For God's sake avoid the colourized version which screws with the brilliant lighting and shadows of the B&W that it looks rather like a neon sign in a red light district.)
Now what's the point of all of this? We can download It's A Wonderful Life all we want because it's in the public domain now but, if SOPA came into effect, we'd be criminals if we downloaded Alistair Sim.
Both, though, have moved from mere movies to a deep part of English speaking culture this time of year globally and people are attracted to both. Perhaps to get away from the constant manufactured "joy" leading up to the day itself.
My sister, hardly a pirate, would be horrified to know she's possibly a crook cause she has Sim's Scrooge on her hard drive and plays it every Christmas Eve along with It's a Wonderful Life. When I told her about SOPA she looked at me and went "I don't care, it's part of our culture now so to hell with them." Along with the standard Canadian fallback line of damned stupid Americans in moments like this.
The point being, how do you or CAN YOU educate someone out of sharing what they are certain has become a cultural touchstone? And some moves have become that. As have some songs. Whether Hollywood likes it or not. I'll wager that A Christmas Carol is being downloaded or torrented at this moment by a few thousand people all over the world who neither know or care that it may still be covered by a copyright.
You'd think they'd like it. It strikes me that, if nothing else, these otherwise master marketers could turn the copyright expiry to a great PR move crowing about what they'd just donated to the public domain.
Or maybe it's because the movies tanked at the box office. One they ignored when they copyright expired, the other I can't quickly find that information on one way or another.
Neither directly deals with what the holiday celebrates but both deal with the theme of redemption that the feast day proclaims has arrived. That's something that seems to strike a deep chord in all of us, Christian or not. That we can be or are forgiven and that no matter what we can change.
Unless of course, you're a copyright purist or the MPAA or RIAA. Well, not yet, anyway. Though, as the stories say, this is always possible.
Enjoy our cultural touchstones and forget the propaganda that wants to pass for education. Enjoy what is best about our cultures whoever you are.
On the post: Gibson Guitar & Others On SOPA Supporters List Say They Never Supported The Bill
Counterfeit Support????
I still wonder why the Better Business Bureau is doing supporting these bills but I suspect it's not to break the internet or restrict free speech or anything like that. Could it be the same sort of reason? Maybe we should ask.
Hmmm, companies mostly worried about counterfeit copies of their products are suddenly copyright extremists and willing to cripple the Internet and the US Bill of Rights to do that?
Sounds a lot like counterfeiting to me. Counterfeit support. Faked. False. Untrue, Counterfeit and Lies.
I MIGHT say that.
But only because what I would say isn't repeatable in polite company like in a barroom full of longshoremen.
On the post: Prominent Rightwing Blogger Promises To Work Hard To Defeat Any Rightwing SOPA Supporters In Congress
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Ahhhh, did you read who Mike is referring to or just hit some script button you have for autoposting on techdirt? (And reddit and slashdot and others, I'm sure.)
Then there's few large herds of D's and R's who oppose this stupidity.
Are you afraid your "sure deal", "done thing" and "mission accomplished" statements were just a teeny weeny bit premature so you're reaching into the bottom of the barrel to see if there's anything there?
I do think you're a troll. Sadly, I am sure you believe this utter tripe.
On the post: Harvard Researchers Explain That SOPA Supporters Are Misusing Their Research To Support SOPA
Of course he got it wrong. Any nerd or hacker could have told him that. (Once again, baddies are crackers, not hackers!!!!!) Nor do we all wear horned rimmed glasses with adhesive bandages holding them together. Some of us even play guitar in rock and metal bands and have the tattoos and panties tossed on stage to prove it!!!
And it it really what he wants to be remembered for? Helping to craft a (now hoped for) failure of one of the largest attempts at censorship in United States history?
On the post: More And More Internet Infrastructure Players Coming Out To Say How Bad SOPA/PIPA Are
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On the post: More And More Internet Infrastructure Players Coming Out To Say How Bad SOPA/PIPA Are
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Thanks!
On the post: More And More Internet Infrastructure Players Coming Out To Say How Bad SOPA/PIPA Are
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They're following the money, which, I suspect, is torrenting (as in river) out the door. Do I buy a bit of their sudden about face?
Not in this life or, if I'm fortunate [or cursed] enough , the next several lives.
On the post: More And More Internet Infrastructure Players Coming Out To Say How Bad SOPA/PIPA Are
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The fact that court is open is radically different that almost any other legal system that deals with business disputes and the fact that both parties get "heard" in that open forum is important.
We may not like judgements, we may not like the idea of juries awarding kazillions to some "big entertainment" company after someone on a fixed pension if found liable and can never pay it off as distasteful but it DOES, mostly work.
Outside of England, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, the United States and others who have inherited this way of justice all of this is rare in the extreme. Perhaps only those areas using the Code Napoleon come close.
So be thankful for what we have, as imperfect as it is. And will be far worse if SOPA/PIPA passes passes.
On the post: More And More Internet Infrastructure Players Coming Out To Say How Bad SOPA/PIPA Are
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DNS hosts nothing, has control over nothing. It's the road map, if you like, that lets you type in techdirt.com so you can come here and spew drivel without having to type the IP address octect.
That being the case, then I guess you'd want to say the same thing about Rand-McNally for providing a road map you can use to find a crack house or the local Hell's Angels chapter house. Makes almost as much sense.
DNS is a directory, same as the phone book, something which may also enable you to call a crack dealer, or the pizza delivery guy or whatever else.
DNS is NOT content. It points to it, but it isn't the content itself. Without it, well, I'd suspect you wouldn't have found your way here because by complaining about "customers" you're saying the system is responsible for the domain name/IP address and not the myriad of registrars out there who, therefore, are responsible for what individual sites do, by your logic all of which means that they're responsible for whoever at the RIAA was pirating content and not the RIAA itself.
Grow up and learn what makes up the internet.
On second thought, just grow up. The rest can come later.
On the post: Surprise: Heritage Foundation, Who Almost Always Supports MPAA, Comes Out Against SOPA
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As that doesn't seem to have happened I'd make the reasonable assumption that the memo fairly reflects their stance. And as it's on their web site I'd more than say it does. Nice try though.
The tissues are directly in front of you.
On the post: Surprise: Heritage Foundation, Who Almost Always Supports MPAA, Comes Out Against SOPA
Re: "Right" is just now seeing that SOPA is bad?
It's worse than crony capitalism, it's corporatism verging on mercantilism. Each worse than the last.
But it does speak the truth about Lord Acton's observation that power corrupts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton#Notable_quotes_by_Lord_A cton
More than a few of his observations apply to this mess.
On the post: SOPA Debate... Or High School?
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On the post: Daft Idea Of The Week: Giving People Copyright In Their Faces
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On the post: Pixar Trademark Lawyers Being Kept Busy: Fighting Pixar Petroleum, While Being Fought By The Atlanta Braves Over 'Brave'
Re: Brave?
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