Lessig’s arguments are familiar to me by now (as they will be to many readers) – what is striking and important about his work is that he buttresses these arguments about the rather dry topic of copyright law with well-chosen and interesting examples.

He suggests that copyright owners are no more entitled to use digital right management to hold back file sharing than “the Causbys had to hold back flight”:http://blogspace.com/freeculture/Introduction because property rights extend to the sky.

He points out that in the battle between the capabilities of new technology and law that would mis-regulate it, the common sense does not always win (citing the sad case of Edwin Howard Armstrong whose invention of FM radio was stifled by RCA in America).

And he slyly uses the example of “Disney’s own work”:http://blogspace.com/freeculture/Creators which was very often derived from or inspired by the work of others to suggest that it is wrong for corporations (like Disney) to prevent others from producing derivative works based on their own characters.

And that’s just what I’ve come across in the introduction and first chapter. Hopefully the accessibility and clear logic of this work will ensure it gets read more widely than just among us Internet policy wonks.

See my “earlier post”:https://blog.org/archives/cat_copyright.html#001080 for information about how to download or listen to the book – you may also wish to simply “buy it from Amazon”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594200068/lessigorg-20?creative=125581&camp=2321&link_code=as1 or “read it online”:http://blogspace.com/freeculture/Main_Page in an annotatable wiki form.

Apparently they intend to sue if there are any public readings of Joyce’s work (which is still in copyright) during the festival commemorating the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday this June – more details “here”:http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2004/0209/2893527271HM3JOYCE.html (registration required). “Cory Doctorow”:http://craphound.com/ is rightly outraged.
thanks to Boing Boing and Lawrence Lessig for the link.

It’s so outrageous that you might almost think it was part of a conspiracy to make the EU’s current copyright stance look foolish.

The concept – man falls in love with virtual woman – is not that original any more – but Flicka – a 12 minute Dutch film from “AtomFilms”:http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/, is genuinely touching. It is one of the films currently showing through their new free “Hi-Def”:http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/spotlight/collections/hidef/ service which downloads films in the background so you can see them at close to full-screen resolution (why don’t more sites offer this instead of streaming?). Most of the films have been frankly pretty poor (you don’t get to choose what you are sent) but Flicka was for me a genuine discovery.

The way HiDef works the films are recycled every two weeks so if you want to see it, download now. (note: the download and movie playing software is PC-only).

I recently heard this lot in the Royal Festival Hall and you’ve never heard “Kate Bush”:http://gaffa.org/’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ until you’ve heard it played by The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – take my word for it!

Visual Poetry is an entertaining use of Google’s image search engine. Enter a phrase and it will return pictures based on what Google associates with each word. Try it for yourself, and when you’re done why not try “a musical equivalent”:https://blog.org/archives/cat_humour_entertainment.html#000939 I found earlier?

I was watching Alexander Nevsky the other day and I noticed something very odd. I distinctly remember from somewhere that there was a famous scene where… (spoiler ahead!)

the attacking Teutonic knights fall through the ice on a frozen lake. The odd thing is that when I watched the film the scene wasn’t there! Where did I get the idea that there was such a scene I wonder? Is there an unexpurgated version of the film that contains the scene?99 loans approved paydayloan paycheck quick advance fixadvisor loan a jcar loan 1.99loans sc columbia title west absoluteadaire loans homebanker payday loans americanindian loan interest free 7-11ltv loans 125437 loan credit scorecredit act fair americanscredit $5000 check loans withoutsales car credit agreedsaving union american creditpersonal return tax credits 2008group 2007 consulting llc griffin credittherapy massage equine courses accreditedaccredited bs in degree electronics online Map

Bathtime in Clerkenwell is an entertaining short animated video for all ages wherein a man tries to stop a relentless assault of cuckoos from his cuckoo clock in time to an infectious jazz melody.

Thanks to the Guardian’s cybercinema roundup for the link.

I just got around to seeing ”
Catch Me If You Can” – the somewhat Hollywood-ised but still fascinating story of Frank Abagnale, who stole $2m over five years starting at age 16 and impersonated a doctor, a lawyer and a pilot among other professions. I reviewed it for Epinions (I have earned $24 so far from them and need to earn another $76 before they cut me a cheque so go take a look!)

Frank – who now runs a successful anti-fraud business – gives his impressions of the movie on his own site. He was also interviewed at length in Australia well before the movie’s release and tells a number of the movie’s best stories there.

Here’s a tip of his you won’t get from the movie: “if I’m going to mail a letter and I don’t have a stamp, you know, I can take that letter and address the person’s name in the left-hand corner I’m sending it to, and put my name in the middle of the envelope and the mail will return back to that person, and I’ve sent it without a stamp”number card credit american expressgift card certificate credit $100accreditation united in the statesmedical record requirements accreditationdiploma school high home at accreditedschools online high accreditedaccredited acr facilitiesassurance and quality accreditation Map

I really enjoyed the original film and am just about to go see the sequel. Here’s:

• The official site (which includes several downloadable episodes of the Animatrix animated series that runs alongside the films
• Killer Movies’ overview with spoilers and
• a study guide that explores Plato’s cave using the (first) film.

LaterI just saw it and didn’t think much of it I have to say. It’s hard to get excited about fight scenes no matter how virtuosic if the hero is never in any real danger and you can only get a frisson of excitement from having your head messed like The Matrix did once – now that the pattern is established it has become dull.

Jesse Walker wrote a review on his weblog that hit the nail on the head, ending with this amusing riff:

My fantasy for how the trilogy should conclude: After learning that absolutely every level of reality is just another matrix, The One shrugs his shoulders and walks off the film set. A digital camera follows him across the street to a lecture hall, where a professor is denouncing metafiction and declaring postmodernism a literary dead end. Keanu’s cell phone rings: It’s his agent. We hear them chatting about how much they’re making from all that Matrix tie-in merchandising. Then the wall collapses and the cast of Blazing Saddles falls into the lecture room, throwing pies.

About Schmidt

Alexander Payne

I am pre-disposed to like anything with Jack Nicholson and I enjoy edgy, downbeat alternative movies, so I was hoping About Schmidt would turn out to be quite a treat for me, but I ended up somewhat disappointed. I found it oddly uneven in tone – seemingly about to veer into conventional Hollywood sentimentality in places then retreating into embarassment or gloom.

Perhaps I’ve been too conditioned to look for something to ”take away” from a film? I never felt I really knew Schmidt and by the end of the film I didn’t feel I understood human nature any better. I just felt a little more depressed than I was when I started watching.

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