Copyright Watch & Making the Secret Treaty Public

One of my favorite advocacy groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new website called Copyright Watch. The site allows users to see the latest news in copyright law. The effort is to inform the general public about the threat that looming copyright laws poses to individual freedom, and maintaining an open Internet.

In other related news, here’s a quote from BoingBoing for you… I can’t improve upon their words:

“Two US Senators, Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), have written to the US Trade Representative demanding that the text of the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement be made public. This is the treaty that allows for criminal sanctions against noncommercial file-sharers, demands border-searches of laptop hard-drives and personal media players and phones for pirated material, requires ISPs to spy on their users, and gives movie and record companies the right to take whole households off the Internet with unsubstantiated allegations of piracy.”*

This secret copyright treaty is pretty black and white to me; we must crush it. The consequences of this treaty are unimaginably dreadful.

For more information you can visit the following links:

The Geek Whisperer: Scary Secret Copyright Treaty: From Music to Purses, This is Bad News

Copyright Watch

The Electronic Frontier Foundation

* BoingBoing: Two US senators demand publication of secret copyright treaty

Dollhouse Sent to the Attic

Apparently Fox announced the cancellation of Dollhouse five days ago and I missed it.

Boobs increase readership... sometimes you've got to pander to your audience

I’m annoyed. Not because Dollhouse was canceled; I expected this.

What really bothers me is that this show never had a chance, and they kept it instead of giving Terminator The Sarah Conner Chronicles an opportunity to shine. Terminator had a devoted and growing fan-base, much like that of Firefly. Dollhouse, while it has devoted fans, they don’t have the same passion, simply because it isn’t as good as Firefly or Terminator ever were.

Making this even sadder, is the fact that Dollhouse finally started hitting its stride in the last three or four episodes; it was starting to shine. Too little too late.

Fox should have canceled Dollhouse last season and let Terminator live for a little while longer.

Dollhouse will eventually air its remaining episodes, then it will be sent to the attic.

Scary Secret Copyright Treaty: From Music to Purses, This is Bad News

To followup yesterday’s post, Copyright, teh Internets & the Future, here’s a bit on the secret international copyright treaty known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

ACTA is an international copyright treaty that is being negotiated in secret; although a lot of details have been leaked. The sections regarding the Internet are obscenely draconian; three strikes and you lose your right to connect to the Internet for a year. If this passes, I want that applied to major media conglomerates as well. Three misuses of intellectual property and the whole company loses it’s connection.

This video explains the treaty as it exists today, it’s origins, and it’s potential impact. This isn’t the best video, but it does the job. You are on the Internet, and you are reading a blog, so this treaty will harm you. You should watch the video, don’t be ignorant on this issue.

Make no mistake about it, ACTA will impact everyone. We all handle intellectual property on a daily basis, and current copyright law just doesn’t make sense in a post-Internet world (see yesterday’s post for more on that).

How can the US Government participate in secret negotiations for a treaty that will directly impact so many American’s? This isn’t some right wing thing pro business thing, this is the Obama Administration (not that I care for either side, but some of you do).

Current copyright law turns everyone into a criminal.

Kill ACTA. Reform copyright law.

Copyright, teh Internets & the Future

Copyright law has fascinated me since high school. I read a lot about it, I understand it (fairly well), I have a lot of informed opinions on it, but I have never been able to articulate my ideas on the subject in the way that I am confident.

Fortunately, law professor and Creative Commons founder Larry Lessig does it for me. His presentation perfectly explains Copyright law, then he breaks it down in ways that make so much sense. So much more sense then I could ever make. Not only that, the presentation uses PowerPoint in fun ways.

This isn’t short, but if you have any curiosity or interest in Copyright law and how it impacts you, watch this video. If you don’t have a lot of time, watch the first twelve minutes, and the last five; you won’t regret it.

Rupert Murdoch Threatens Seppuku

Seppuku – a ritualized disemboweling that originated among the Japanese Samauri.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul chairman and majority shareholder of News Corp (The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and pile of other news outlets) wants to force his business model back into relevance. According to this recent interview, he wants to put pay-walls up around most of his content, sue fair-use into oblivion, and make his sites invisible to search engines like Google (mUmBRELLA).

I was going to write a full response to Mr. Murdoch’s ideas, but Perry de Havilland of Samizdata really hit the nail on the head:

“Not only will people not be motivated to pay Rupert Murdoch for content if they cannot find it via google, they will not even be aware of the content Murdoch is hiding from them. In short, Murdoch will become completely irreverent irrelevant on-line almost overnight and I am not sure why he thinks all too many people will care one way or the other. This is a bit like threatening someone that if they do not give him their money, Murdoch will cut his own throat. Er, sure Rupert, whatever. I suspect folks at the Guardian (who may not be my favourites ideologically but they certainly ‘get’ the internet better than most) and elsewhere can hardly believe their good luck (From Samizdata Murdoch’s suicide threat).”

Rupert, Rupert, Rupert, Rupert… your plan will fall to pieces if a single online news outlet keeps their content free. No one with half a brain will pay for it. Your best years are behind you. Long behind you.

Ruperts words made me think of a line from last night’s Mad Men Season Finale when Don snapped at his fellow partner Bert Cooper saying, ”And you old men love building golden tombs and sealing the rest of us in with you.” Mr. Murdoch is an old, rich, proud man, the people who will suffer from his decisions are his employees, and their families.

Monday Morning Silliness

Andrew WK’s music doesn’t do a thing for me, but he is clearly a funny dude.

The Legend of Neil

There is a growing number of quality web video series that are mostly target towards geekier audiences, in large part because geeks are the web pioneers, and geeks are also the early adopters of this kind of stuff.

With that in mind, I present to you, The Legend of Neil.

The Legend of Neil is a web series that is based on the classic videogame, The Legend of Zelda. Basically, a loser named Neil is sucked into the videogame where he is the game where he assumes the role of the hero.

The show is ridiculously funny, but it’s one of those things where you probably should have played at least one Zelda game to fully appreciate. For instance, if you don’t know that the hero of the Zelda games is a guy named Link, you most likely won’t have enough background knowledge to completely enjoy the show.

Actress and geek queen bee, Felicia Day shows up to costar in a few of the episodes as the Fairy. All I’ll say is that Ms. Day is usually typcast as the crazy cat girl or the geeky friend by Hollywood… her role here is absolutely not the crazy cat girl or the geeky friend.

Finally, The Legend of Neil is not safe for work. In terms of humor, it takes quite a bit to really shock me. The Legend of Neil made me blush on a number of occasions.

You can watch all 14 (4-9 minute) episodes on the show’s website: http://effinfunny.com/legend-of-neil

“Castle” Successfully Pandered to this Geek

I’m not ashamed to admit that I need to turn my brain off, and just take in some mindless television for an hour or two a week; I find it incredibly relaxing. Without fail, Castle always fulfills my compulsive need for something easy to watch. It’s not a cerebral show, it’s never hard to follow, and you don’t have to remember much of anything from week-to-week. However, the characters are amusing, and the murders stories never cease to hold my interest.

Anyway, this week Castle had a Halloween episode that seriously pandered to the sci-fi & comic geek crowds. The show opened with star Nathan Fillion, formerly of Joss Whedon’s sci-fi classics Firefly and Serenity, suit up in his Captain Malcolm Reynolds garb, bust into his living-room while drawing his pistol, and striking a one of his famous poses. I was amused.

They followed up with a generally geeky episode filled with Buffy references, comic book art, vampires, and the pretty female detective costar (Stana Katic) drawing a distinction between comic writer / artist Frank Miller’s work with publishers Dark Horse Comics & Epic Comics… It was a nice homage to Fillion’s past, and (what I’m assuming are) the Firefly fans that watch Castle simply because Fillion is in the show.

Bringing the Funny

It’s been a long day of air travel and unnecessary BS. Before I pass out I’d like to share an epic YouTube video of a candid camera gag going horribly wrong somewhere in Europe… incidentally, this video is a perfect metaphor for my day.

More Cowbell!

I’ve covered a number of pop culture references on this blog, but if there is one that I want everyone in the world to understand, it’s the phrase “more cowbell.”

If you already get it, you can just move on. If you don’t, please stick around and catch the “fever.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Christopher Walken on SNL circa 2000… before SNL sucked.

(Click here to view the video; I can’t find an embeddable one)

Want to find out more? There’s a rather extensive Wikipedia page on the subject of “More Cowbell…” no joke.

Who the Hell is Patti Ann Browne?

Geek news & entertainment show, Attack of the Show (AOTS as it is referred to by geeks on message boards) aired a series of clips of Fox News anchor Patti Ann Browne… she’s clearly nuts and awesome (this stuff is real).

Crazy right? Here’s some more…

Fox News seems like the wrong fit for her, CBS should get rid of that has-been Letterman and hire her.

All of Your Google are Belong to Us

Google had an unusual logo on their homepage yesterday.

Typically, their logo changes are associated with a self-explanatory day or event, but today was a bit of a mystery.

Clicking on today’s logo brought you to a search for “Unexplained phenomenon.”

Google also twittered the following code:

1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19

Subbing in letters A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. the code translates to:

“All you O belong to us,” a clear reference to the Internet meme, “All of your base are belong to us.”

Is that it? Is that the whole reason for the logo change?

Who knows, but one other theory is that yesterday was the anniversary of the debut episode of Star Trek. Makes sense to me.

Disney to Acquire Marvel Comics for $4,000,000,000

Over the coming year, I’m sure we will see a variety of good and bad changes as a consequence.

"Four billion dollars... Muwhahaha Muwhahaha!"

I wish I owned Marvel Stock today.

Highway Superman

Love it -

Thanks to G4’s Attack of the Show for sharing. It’s a geeky guilty pleasure on an evening when I am really out of it.

Mad Men is Back Baby!

As Mark pointed out on JerseyStyle Photography, Mad Men is back!

I’ve been apprehensive about the TV show’s return simply because the last two seasons have been so incredible. Every time a show I love begins anew, I have to wonder if this is the season it will “jump the shark…” cough, cough, Heroes, cough.

Excuse me, I must be under the weather.

After viewing the first episode of season three, I’m no longer worried. They have set up a lot of interesting points of conflict, that I’m sure will pay off.

If you are unfamiliar with Mad Men, shape up! Seriously, how do you look yourself in the mirror?

You can stream the entire series for free from SurfTheChannel, or you can get seasons one and two from your movie retailer/ renter of choice. How you choose to view this modern classic isn’t as important as the decision to watch it.

How awesome is this ad?