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This remains one of my pet bugaboos. Yglesias on the dumping of little-read classics from libraries:
In a world where classic works enter the public domain, people will get them one way or another. They'll be available for free download on the internet. E-book technology will improve. Print copies will cheaply available to people who want to buy them. Whether or not these things are in local libraries sort of won't be a huge deal one way or another. Now, traditionally, copyrights have had limited durations and "classic" books, being old by definition, tend to be in the public domain and hence widely available. In a digital era, they'll be super-available. But the emerging trend of the digital era is for retroactive extensions of copyright terms meaning that nothing new will ever enter the public domain. Ever.
Endless copyright extensions, lobbied for by and granted to Disney and other big intellectual property rights holders, prevent information from falling into the public domain and becoming widely disseminated, as well as grist for art, derivative works and general cultural digestion. Documentary filmmakers are particularly hard hit by these laws, and it's the thing that keeps documentaries like Eyes on the Prize — an important series about the civil rights movement with certain segments on Martin Luther King available no where else — from being shown publicly.
Anybody who remembers the travesty of Path to 9/11 should remember that attacking Disney's endless quest for endless copyright would certainly get their attention. I have faint hope that the Democrats will consider this their top priority in the new legislative session (nor am I suggesting that it should be), but I think that long-term it is something to keep in mind. Copyright law is complex and confusing, but it is fair to say that our cultural history is being held hostage by big media conglomerates, and as such they largely determine how it is shaped and disseminated. This is a problem.
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FIrst?
JANE!
jane!
What is sensible copyright policy to protect an artist… and not an explotive corporation?
COuld copyrights only be held by the creator of the work and not be owned or licensed to a coporation?
What say you copy crats?
DefJef @
4
There’s nothing to prevent any artist from signing a valid contract with a funding agency assigning all or part of the artist’s copyright to the agency, which might also be a corporation.
sadly, canada’s amazing national film board has been pulling documentaries out of circulation because maintaing the rights clearances has become economically impossible. this link is to a very learned report that lays out the implications (sorry, pdf and i hope the length of the link doesn’t cripple it) canadian copyright clearance
I regard the availability of classics to be essential to child learning. More books the better. We should be increasing the inventory in our libraries.
I wanted to draw your attention to two books used today, both of which are in the public domain.
It seems not to reduce their power.
The first is the Koran, in this case the one given by Thomas Jefferson to th Library of Congress and used by Keith Ellison in his swearing in. It has been well blogged. A beautiful event and a wonderful book.
The second is the Christian Bible given to John Quincy Adams by the victorious Africans aboard the Amistad in grateful thanks for his defence of their rights against the government of Spain and the president of the US, Van Buren. Today Deval Patrick used that Bible when he was sworn in as governor of Massachusetts.
Here’s a link to his inaugural address.
A day to be proud. A great day for good books.
Greed, greed and more greed. Disney is already richer than God. If it was up to them, EVERYTHING in the public domain would automatically belong to them. Did you see the link over at Kos about them going after Spocko?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/3/202110/2838
Between this and the “Path to 911″ it seems like Disney has been taken over by the facists or something…
Well, looks like La MalKKKin is having crow for dinner every night until she leaves for Iraq.
The copyright on Eyes on the Prize has been renewed. PBS, WNET in NYC, just broadcast several episodes.
FYI.
There’s a simple solution for retroactive digital copyright in relation to libraries: buy hard copies of the books. All those new books that you see in the library are covered by copyright. The idea that “super available” digital editions will save us and that this is being hindered by digital copyrights is a misguided argument. The way to save the classics and to prevent future classics from falling into the hole is, you guessed it, to buy actual copies of them, decide that these books shouldn’t be sacrificed if no one has checked them out in two years, and go forward from there.
Education is power. And reading can be the turnpike to that power.
My library card, when scanned allows me access to many libraries in the US. It also allows me to use inter-library loans, which I often do. Many of the books I use have been out of print for a long time and aren’t in any but the largest libraries, but I can get them in a week to ten days, and as a prof, can keep them long enough to read and use them.
I can never remember a library that had every book I might want or need. Living in real small towns for the past 33 years, I’ve watched trends develop, but culling of shelves is nothing new in smaller libraries. They all do it. What is more important is keeping track of what is being culled and why.
Ed*ard Teller, I left you a comment regarding the drug Rehnquist was taking towards the end of the last thread. Then punaise made a pun I am SO jealous of…. I don’t necessarily want to drag that issue upstairs…
It’s a question of priorities. Intellectual property rights are considered to be the benchmark of trade agreements. Is China, for instance, moving against pirated DVDs or not? The mirror issues to intellectual property rights are workers’ rights and environmental concerns. How often do you hear these as make or break on trade issues? Me either.
Then, of course, there is fair use. Apparently it’s OK for Disney to have endless copyright on its creations. For the rest of us, not so much.
Ed*ard Teller @ 14
That’s right. For example you cannot find “The Grapes of Wrath” in the library in the high school in which I teach. And I believe it to be ideology which is keeping this and many other master works out of our library.
Corporations are the root of all evil… more or less. They rule everything.
owning the rights is where the money is. sadly, too many creators don’t understand what they sign. much of the reasoning behind the anti-consumer activism of big media corporations is in response to the reality that the “traditional” monolithic media companies no longer control the distribution path. the more digital the media becomes, the less relevent they become. and they will fight tooth and nail for every possible dollar they don’t deserve. artists need to keep and own the rights to their works and forge new distribution paths for their own benefit. hence, the increasing move to the creative commons, net community word of mouth and non-manufactured product via download only.
if i post a new song, you can hear it in tokyo, des moines, toronto or down by the many shores of the firedoglake. my promotional materials are available and i am accessible to the business and to the consumer. what do i need sony/bmg for? if what i do is really good and i work really hard, it will find a home.
the future of media is with places just like this. i mean really, where the hell else does a savvy punter get to not only read but interact with the likes of jane freakin’ hamsher and donita sparks. i don’t post a lot but i lurk here daily, places are like this are where i get turned on to new things, new ideas and artists. this is the sort of place where the cool factor also happens to be very smart and empowering. when’s the last time you could say that about mass market entertainment and media providers?
Marion in Savannah @
15
Placidyl, eh? No wonder Rehnquist was looking and talking so strange. Placidyl does sound like something one would prescribe to a dinosaur, though. Maybe TRex knows about the long-term (like 40 million years, for instance) effects.
TRex @
10
It’s really quite tasty — rather like chicken. Needs LOOOOOOONG, SLOOOOOW cooking, however, otherwise it’s very tough….
TRex @
10
wonder if she will now cancel her trip to Iraq?
Marion in Savannah @ 21
it may be a dead
tissue, but that doesn’t make it right to mention neck crow feel, yeah?punaise, if you don’t start issuing spew alerts at the beginning of every post I may get cross…. (Actually, the crow necks are bony… not much meat on them… but they do add something to the stock.)
I have no idea what series of synapses you use to come up with the puns, but oh, lordy, I wish I had it!
Spew Alert!
Actually more like a hurl alert.
After backstabbing America and Americans for a generation by being THE major tool facilitating, proping-up, and running with cult of republicanism lies, distortions, smears, and unreality, there are few things more important for the 110th congress to address ASAP than breaking up the US corporate media empires and the disarming the robber barons that run them.
.
So what if Hussein is real or not? The fact is, we need the Truth, and MsMalKKKin has promised to Deliver. So puleeese Let Her Go!! I mean, all the way to the Green Zone and especially beyond. Just for starters, have a nice ride on that airport highway Michelle baby!!
I thought that dangerous airport ride cost like $10,000. Some kind of private security.
bg @
26
Oh, I’m sure she’ll go. And dig out all the truthiness that there is to be dug… Because if she stays home at this point then she’ll lose her standing as the “Bravest 101st Fighting Keyboarder of Them All.”
Marion in Savannah @ 24
I think if you see the name punaise at the top of the post, that alone is a spew alert.
Takes a special brain to put all them words together.
A long-time friend of mine (my best friend, really) was the film archivist and rights clearer for Blackside Productions, which made “Eyes on the Prize.” I think I remember him saying that the toughest rights to clear, and one of the most expensive to clear, was for the song, “Happy Birthday” which we’ve all sung a thousand times at least. The royalties from that song are supposedly astounding.
linky
How tonight’s press conference with Angela Merkel ended. I kid you not.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news…..104-2.html
YESSS!!!! St. John McCain gets Worst Person in the World today.
Marion in Savannah @ 24
sorry, my bad :~)
I’d share my affliction if I could…
John McCain. Worst Person in the World today. Talking about how the war was going to be “easy.” Historically speaking, of course.
Hurricane Carter
Henry Siegman
Former President Jimmy Carter’s new book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, provoked an uproar even before its publication.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070122/siegman
speaking of which, I got a chuckle out of ET’s ASCII Spewmante the other day.
Kathryn in MA @
32
I got a serious busted linky there…
To Kill a Mockingbird? The Aeneid? Aristotle?
(all on the list eligible for culling)
Great. Maybe we are heading into a new Dark Age -Aristotle, etc. were kept alive by Arab scholars for those centuries, when they were “lost” in Europe.
I don’t really agree with Yglesias’s take on digital availablity. At least not now, when digital copies/downloads are still too cumbersome. Is a student needing a book, or books, to do research, going to download and print the whole thing? Even for kids who’ve grown up wtih computers, they can’t prefer reading a whole work online.
24 months of no checking out is way too little. I’ve checked out books that hadn’t been taken out for 7 or 8 years. Interlibrary loan is fine, but not if you need something today or tomorrow. That IS what libraries are for. This “ruthless” culling attitude has taken hold way too deeply.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 36
I’m starting this one tonight. When I can pull away from here.
The idea of intellectual property law is that society benefits from having those who create new works benefit from those works. Otherwise, why go through the time and expense of developing something that someone else can then copy or re-invent and sell it at a lower price. On the other hand, society also is hurt by these works being sequestered by copyright/patent owners who choose not to market them in place of some other, more profitable product. The compromise has been that the originator may have the exclusive right to control and sell his work, but that after a time ownership of the copyright or patent expires, and that society in general can then benefit from it in new ways.
This debate has been going on since the nineteenth century, at least, and has reached fever pitch recently, thanks to our having exported so much manufacturing overseas. Disney is one of the worst offenders. As Jane writes, they were one of the big proponents of lengthening the copyright period. The law was refered to as “The Mickey Mouse Protection Act” or some such.
I doubt that the Democrats will be much help here, at least not without a lot of persuasion. There seems to be little difference between the parties on this issue. It seems to come down to who needs money from intellectual property holders and how much they’re willing to do to get that money.
And another brilliant moment from tonight’s presser:
or follow international treaties like the Geneva Conventions either.
Hugh @ 33
How in the world could any woman have voted for Bush?
punaise @
38
great drink for when you have to spew bits and bytes….
punaise @ 38
Who knows ASCII anyway? That is just sooo pre-computer literate.
punaise dear – left you a note in EPU land on the last thread.
Scarborough laughing at O’Billow.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 44
Ya got me. and I am a woman, btw.
I skimmed the transcript at the link….also noticed how he referred to the Chancellor of Germany several times by her FIRST name: “Angela has a lot of wisdom,”, etc. It seems to me (no time to do the research) that in most press conferences with heads of state, he refers to them by title, such as “the Chancellor,” “the Prime Minister,”, or by Mr.XXX. Am I wrong?
Dis-gusting.
EPU’d
Why are the only suspects of the Guiliani Heist from the GOP. The Daily News article said the source sympathetic to a rival of Guiliani, not a GOP rival. Could Hillary be behind it?
newspaperbrat @ 47
backatcha…
Just on the off chance that people aren’t aware of this site, they keep adding stuff… If you have a computer you can read…
http://www.bartleby.com/authors/ for a listing by author, or
http://www.bartleby.com/titles/ for a listing by title, or
http://www.bartleby.com/ if you just want to visit the home of the site.
This is a wonderful site, and every school kid should know about it.
Pectopah @ 50
So Rudy has NO rivals on his side of the aisle? I guess this means that Hillary and Barack aren’t rivals, right? Please….
This whole issue is bigger and weirder than any post can address, but thanks for generating more discussion.
Traditional assumptions about property simply don’t synch with the NATURE of digital technologies. Property has traditionally been about OWNERSHIP. Digital technologies are fundamentally about USERSHIP.
Trying to control digitized content is in many respects foolish — you WANT to let people use, mix, play, and ‘mash up’ your stuff.
Traditionally, revenue was generated via OWNERSHIP. People are still figuring out the revenue stream for ‘USERSHIP’. That has led to an explosion in subscription-based business models. For instance, I do not ‘purchase’ hard copies of newer computer manuals; instead, I ’subscribe’ to a service that allows me “X” level online access each month. (http://safari.oreilly.com/) New York Times Select, and also the Economist, are also investing in this concept.
Probably the best resource on digital law is Lawrence Lessing, who grasps the nature of digital technologies: http://www.lessig.org/blog/
He is one of the minds behind the Creative Commons Digital Copyright movement, as well as the Open Source movement.
Lessing’s work has HUGE implications for Net Neutrality, as well as the US economy.
The bad news: he’s at Stanford, which despite the fact that it hosts the Hoover Institute (see: Condi Rice) is perilously close to that notorious Den of Iniquity, otherwise known as San Francisco.
Culture watch: Pelosi represents digital artists, programmers, and information-based industries. Bush/Cheney represent oil, gas, and believe in privatizing electrical grids.
This topic has HUGE implications for economic competitiveness. It’s not about owning stuff anymore; it’s about when, how, and under what conditions you will share.
The conversation we aren’t having but is most critical to any discussion on copyrights is business model.
How do artists get compensated for their work in such a way that they receive pay for work done and incentive to continue to create?
I frankly don’t give a rat’s tush about corporate interests; it’s the creator themselves that needs a better business model in order to continue to create and release their work to the public after they’ve been adequately compensated.
The most disruptive force challenging copyrights and proprietary interests is the open source software movement, where anyone with ability can participate and everyone/noone has a proprietary interest in the output. This has rattled the foundations of proprietary software, and is shaking up entertainment as well through vehicles like YouTube. Think about it: we can make our own entertainment, we don’t need no stinking Disney if we have our own video recorders and playback-on-demand infrastructure. Thank the stars that a supporter of open source technology like Google bought YouTube; what would have happened to the creativity we see exploding across YouTube if the f*cking Mouse House had bought it instead?
YouTube and other internet-mediated vehicles suggest a business model — advertisers pay for pageviews at the point of download. But is this enough to compensate artists?
Let’s look at Jane’s and Kos’ Vaster Books and Marcy Wheeler’s ‘Anatomy of Deceipt’ — would downloading a read-only version for the price of advertising exposure compensate them enough for the creative effort and their entrepreneurship? I don’t think so, off the top of my head…would it be enough over time to encourage Marcy et al to release the book to the public domain? Hmm.
So? what’s a successful new business model look like?
edit: readerOfTealLeaves and I cross-posted and are on the same wave length, apparently…
Kelven @
9
just want to second the recommendation to check out this Mike Stark diary. hit them where it hurts: the advertising dollars.
readerOfTeaLeaves @ 54
Great comment. Thanks! This clarified a bunch of stuff for me.
Yes, it would be nice if somebody kept a record of what was being culled. But in fact, each library acts as if it were an island, getting rid of old stuff as if it were the cooties, with no real idea of who else has it. Worse yet, old news sources, such as the Wall Street Journal, are NOT available freely on the net. The holders of these charge huge amounts of money to make them available in electronic form. Or, you can buy them on microfilm, which is also expensive and a dying technology.
Libraries have always weeded, but now major systems are creating aesthetically cute libraries with LESS storage space than they had before. This, for instance, happened in the San Franciso Public Library. The truth is, we don’t know all that we are losing.
This is awful. Who was talking into his earpiece for him? This is embarrassing.
‘PRESIDENT BUSH: I have come to realize that — I don’t know if I’d call this “change of mind,” but one thing that my European friends have taught me is that the United Nations is an important body in order to be able to convince parliaments of hard work that needs to be done. For example, getting resolutions on Iraq at the United Nations is important for a country like Denmark or Holland, in order for them to go to their parliaments and say, we have U.N. approval.
As you probably are aware, I’ve really never felt like the United States needs to get United Nations approval to make decisions necessary for our security. But I have come to realize that other countries do rely upon the United Nations and I respect that a lot. So there’s an area, for example, where I have been taught a lesson by my allies and friends. ‘
——-
Right. We didn’t need the UN, but it’s a help for those other weakling countries so they can say “But the UN said so!” to their parliaments….
Marion in Savannah @ 53
The article said neither GOP, nor Democrat rival. But it left open the possibility of either. While it smells of a GOP dirty trick, don’t close the door to other possibilities.
New word I would like to spread – COPYRIGHTEOUSNESS (noun) claiming of moral superiority due to the completeness of one’s acceptance of corporate intellectual property claims
Actually the “nothing ever entering public domain” that Matt is talking about and the Eyes on the Prize issues are two different things.
When copyright law came about, there weren’t corporations with an eternal lifetime. Thus copyrights were based on a reasonable amount of time for the works to earn a profit. However, now that corporations can hold the copyrights to works, they want to be able to hold those rights in perpetuity. I actually am amenable to corporations being allowed to keep copyright protections for works they are still exploiting. The problem is that the VAST majority of works are not being exploited, and simply lengthening the terms of copyright to protect corporate copyrights means that many works are being lost to time.
Look at all the Victorian era fiction you can buy in inexpensive editions. Dover Publications has book after book of ghost stories, mysteries, poetry, etc. If all were well in the copyright world, they could now be reissuing the “Golden Age” mysteries and weird tales of the 1930s. But now, unless you have access to a research library’s collections or those of an avid collector, those works are lost to a new generation of readers and writers.
If Walt Disney had wanted to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarves under today’s copyright regime, Grimm’s Fairy Tales would not have been in the public domain for him to have used as source material.
The Eyes on the Prize issue is the fact that persons creating a new work must license any older work that appears within the new one. Thus photos, songs on the radio, glimpses of a TV screen, all require payments to the original rightsholders. Which is not in itself bad, but there is no limit on what they can demand. This same problem came up at when music began to be recorded. What if bands or singers wanted to cover a song? The solution Congress came up with was “mechanicals,” which is a flat rate someone can pay to record any song they want, with or without the consent of the songwriter. (This is why songwriters sign up with ASCAP or the other org. that keep track of music performance and collect the rights money on behalf of the songwriters.)
What needs to happen now is for it to be recognized that for documentaries to continue to be made, there needs to be some level of mechanical rights, so that copyright-holders of original materials cannot deny artists their right to make new works.
I am ever so mildly not a very large fan of Senator Clinton. But I don’t think the Senator had anything to do with the recent Rudy caper. ;)
Marion in Savannah @
39
sorry = fixed the link. and within that article is an interview with the shrink -
But I think the only way to deal with somebody who is this embattled and this delusional is to invoke the 25th Amendment. It’s so ironic that it was only used once, and that was when Gerald Ford became President and Nixon was forced out because he resigned.
BuzzFlash: But then we have Cheney.
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: The way the Republicans did it in ’73 was, they got rid of Agnew first, and they made sure that the person who would be the Vice President would be somebody who would be acceptable to both sides of the aisle. Maybe they should threaten to impeach Cheney first or something, and make Bush appoint somebody else. I’d rather have Cheney than Bush.
BuzzFlash: Why is that? Many people would disagree with you.
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: A lot of people would disagree with me. I really think that Bush is not competent to be President. He is unconsciously destructive. He is out of touch with his cruelty. He is unable to think clearly when presented with new information. He cannot do it. He cannot read. He cannot pay attention to the Baker-Hamilton Report. He never looked at that report. He looked at the opening title, about a new way forward or something, and that’s what he’s been using as his slogan now. He is not able to process information.
I think Cheney, as much as he is malevolent and destructive and greedy and self-interested as an oil executive and wants absolute power, he’s out front about it. I think that he would have to negotiate in a way that’s different because he can’t not think, whereas Bush doesn’t think.
BuzzFlash: It would certainly bring Cheney out of the shadows and make him accountable. Is that what you’re saying?
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: Yes.
ciocia @ 58
The funny thing is, those “weeded” books are generally bought by someone. Usually the only person who’s borrowed them in the last 10 years. This happened, or almost happened to us. We grow African violets. Our local library had 2 books from the 1950s that not a single soul had borrowed in over 10 years. We found them on a cart headed for the discard pile and offered to buy them. That was enough for the library to put them back into the stacks. (We did get the books via e-Bay.)
Malkkkin is eatin so much crow, she is starting to caw.
She is now searching for the truthiness of the story.
She is also saying that the Jamil Hussein story was not the only reason for going to Iraq. She wants to talk to the troops!?!
One might consider a “teaser” business plan. This worked like a charm for me over Elizabeth de la Vega’s book “US v. Bush,” which had bits put up on the http://www.TomDispatch.com site. Just enough to make me drool and slaver for more and buy the book. Give away a taste, and let them come to you. The toobz, if used well, can drive traffic to you. Just a thought…
(later edit) this ended up in front of a post it should have ended behind…. serendipity is weird!
Rayne @ 55
Brilliant post, Rayne. Absolutely nailed some key issues.
I’ve had similar thoughts regarding a biz model for an Open Source “Anatomy of Deceit,” but since I don’t yet have solutions (nor time to implement, even if the Great Epiphany hit me), I had to settle for placing a couple of preorders for hard copies ;-)))
On Happy Birthday – the rights are very expensive. And owned by a speculator who has NO connection to the original songwriter or their heirs.
Arianna on Larry King (live) panel with radiio hosts Martha Zoller, Ed Shultz and Lou Dobbs talking about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Joe Scarborough is pissed OFF! (at Bill O’Reilley)
Scarborough is ready to beat the s’t out of Bill O’.
readerOfTeaLeaves @ 54
As do many Democrats. Hollywood and other publishing outfits can bring as much pressure to bear on them as they can on Republicans.
I think the reality is that this has always been true to some extent. Copying a book and publishing it yourself, at least if you had a print shop, was always possible if there was sufficient motivation. The price has just become much lower. In some ways, it’s become more like the patent issue that I refered to before, where the cost of developing in the first place is a significant part of the cost of producing it.
That’s why there is IP. The whole idea was to allow the originator to benefit from his creation for a set amount of time, and then allow the society to benefit from it in other ways. I think the old copyright model is still a good one for the most part. The problem is that the new one just extends that model further, and also tries to regulate technology that can be used to copy materials.
Business models? I think Salon has a good one, at least from a consumer’s perspective. Whether it will pay or not, I’m not sure – but they haven’t raised the price and it’s very reasonable. By allowing non-subscribers access to their original content, they are actually making it more valuable, because other content producers can link to it.
I think a viable business strategy must take into account that you really can’t stop people from copying product if they’re motivated to. The idea should be to make it as easy as possible to get direct access to it, both from a time, trouble, and cost perspective, while making them aware that they gain by paying for the service.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 71
Make it pay-per-view.
There’s a business model for ya.
OldCoastie @ 70
Who isn’t?
Arianna.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 70
I thought he might challenge him to a duel…
OldCoastie @ 70
He can take a number and wait in line.
RevDeb @ 77
well, Halleloufah!
Margot @ 73
I like it.
Rayne @
55
I used to give a lecture called “The social responsibility of composers.” Some colleges welcomed the model of socially responsible and responsive musician, but few conservatories did. When I talked about this at Juilliard eleven years ago, teachers and administrators freaked. At Cornish in Seattle, though, the idea was welcomed.
Similarly, few institutes and conservatories which produce fine artists have, until recently, sought to teach their students how to survive as business people. In music, Berkley (in Boston) and CalArts have been doing this for over a generation, but juilliard, Curtis, Oberlin and others still are resitant to teaching their kids how to make a living independent of agent slavery. They seem to say instead that if you practice eight or more hours a day, the rest will take care of itself.
Even the best arts schools don’t offer courses on the new frontiers of intellectual copyright such as Rayne addresses.
Jack Cafferty doesn’t like the McCain(/Lieberman) plan for Iraq, A.K.A. “Go Kinda Big”. Here’s the video:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..-doctrine/
“Eyes on the Prize” is one of the best. I was going to give it as a Christmas pres. until I saw the cost. It is back on TV. I saw part in a motel room on a road trip, took a detour to Montgomery AL and crossed the Edmond Pettis bridge. It seems like it all happened yesterday.
Ed*ard Teller @ 80
This strikes me as almost as absurd as telling engineers not to learn about business and regulatory environments, and just bone up on that fluid dynamics theory. Are these places run by talent agencies?
Kelven @ 9
I have to add my endorsement … very much worth the time to check out this link.
Oh, my goodness. Things are getting quite heated over at TBogg’s place tonight. It’s right wing troll night, apparently. You kids should stop by and show your support.
Lou Dobbs on Larry King Live: “Bush is struggling for credibility now……the Democrats have a responsibiity, it seems to me, to advance responsibility.”
Ed Shultz says the”President better move fast…”
Arianna simply dazzling in her focus, as always, despite a long exhausting day on capitol hill.
Cujo359 @ 83
Navier-Stokes for different folks?
Oklahoma kiddo @
71
Could you elucidate for someone who is without a cable connection tonight?
I wrote my idiot fundie congressman again today to insist he bring the troops home… I can tell I’m getting on his nerves (perhaps the line, “Jesus notices hypocrites” got his attention) as I got today what I think is an individually composed email in return… at any rate, he insisted again that we are fighting the war on terror in Iraq… I simply replied, “oh, Mr. Miller, you know that’s not true…”
he may be flipping out on the same schedule as the shrub…
I remember well the depression of reading the Eldred vrs. Ashcroft ruling.
It was all mechanics and no original intent. Ironic, eh? Political philosophies are just another marketing tool.
TRex @ 88
Scarborough appears ready to inflict physical punishment upon O’Really of such a nature as to cause said Bill to defecate.
Cujo359 @ 72
TRex @ 88
O’Really said that everyone at msnbc is a flaming lefty asshole… Joe took exception to that characterization and proceeed to call Bill a “suck up” and then challenged him to a debate “anywhere, anytime” (really, it sounded like he challenged him to a duel)
Joe was really super steamed by the end of his challenge and was looking directly into the camera and yelling…
punaise @
56
I read this diary yesterday and wanted to “share” a little: Tom Benner (who plays “Officer Vic” on KSFO-SF) used to be an AM jock where I worked in the 90s. To say that his wife was a bit, um, Overbearing would be an understatement. If one looked up “P-Whipped” in the dictionary, they’d see a photo of Tom staring back.
jane, check out cory doctorow’s coverage of intellectual property abuse over at boingboing.net . . . he’s very on top of this and it’s always a good read.
the abuses out there are insane, particularly companies using the DMCA to browbeat competitors and rival innovations.
oh, and don’t expect any big change on this front (IP) with the new congress – Disney Berman is in charge of the IP subcommittee and he’s as big a hollywood copyright extension whore as there is – except, maybe, valenti. (is he still alive?)
TRex @ 88
Basically Bill O’ is saying everyone at NBC, including Scarborough hates the prez and everybody at MSNBC is a bunch of liberals and that Scarborough is a Communist.
OldCoastie @ 89
Tell the truth now: when you were in school, did you ever think democracy would be so much fun? (Is this what is meant by the term “gas-lighting?”)
readerOfTeaLeaves @ 92
Yes, that’s true, I think, although I wonder sometimes if there might not be a way to send some copies of the “unwanted” volumes to a central facility that can inter-library-loan them out to libraries that need them.
I think it must be tough for librarians. Other than ten year old computer books, there aren’t a lot of no-brainers in the process of reducing inventory.
Thank god you were here to explain that to me.
I think getting attacked (both him and his network) by a raving insane right winger the likes of O’Reilly is helping Joe along in his drift toward the center of the political spectrum.
AirportCat @ 98
the other line I liked and hoped would piss him off was I said, “next time you are weeping for teeny tiny stem cells” and then I asked him to save some real tears for the dead and wounded from Iraq…
he’s a jackass and must go in 2008…
TRex @ 85
Done. I offered him the name of my exterminator. I haven’t had trolls since he started coming by…
Joke Line alert on CNN
Larry Johnson has a new post up about the Negroponte move and the resulting fill-ins in the World of Spooks… and what it may mean for the Dem confirmation process and Iran…
TRex @ 85
you made me miss the start of jeopardy~!
Movie Gaslight (1944) … Gaslighting = deliberately undermining someone’s sanity.
OldCoastie, lines like “Jesus notices hypocrites” are brilliant, sounds like they play directly to his fears … keep up the good work!
AirportCat @
107
thanks! I was proud of myself! ;-)
shiny new filament up top
Cujo359 @ 99
That’s one reason the Internet is so wonderful… there needs to be some way for things to pass OUT of copyright, be scanned, and then at least storage can happen online.
NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) is the least-well-funded agency in US government — and that’s saying something these days! In southern states, they have to figure out how to keep those delicate maps and archived stuff de-humidified. NARA and many archives have been at the forefront of storage media decisions, in large part because they are charged with preserving fragile materials across a very wide range of temperature and humidity . http://www.archives.gov/index.html
Storage is a hugely expensive proposition, and retrieval is another whole huge problem — you can’t let JUST ANYONE go get Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Quran out of the old archives… ;-)
The Internet is our best hope.
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With respect to 10-year-old computer books… I had to listen to a very distressed banker a couple years back (after 2000, actually). He needed COBAL programmers, b/c his core, most valuable stuff was written in COBAL.
Now, I myself do not haunt the COBAL shelves, but I would think that language hasn’t altered too much in ten years…? So the lifecycle of a book may be more or less than 10 years. I’d venture a guess that any Ruby On Rails pubs go out of date in under 24 months, although it’s not something I spend any time on myself ;-)
But even with Open Source codes, authors deserve to be compensated if they create a manual.
1) I think 14 years was a very good time frame for copyrights. Those guys got an amazing amount of stuff right.
2) WTO and trade agreements are imposing even more draconian IP laws than we have domestically.
3) While we’re on IP, patent law needs reform maybe even more desparately than copyright. Used to be a way to reward people for risky R&D; now it’s just a way for lawyers and corps to get rich while stifling progress and doing no work. Software? Genomes? Give me an effin break.