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Keep Your Hands Off Those Nipples!
Imagine, if you can, that you are a decent, God-fearing person. You don't like all the cursing and nudity in this so-called "entertainment" they're showing these days. Well, tough t*ttie, Grandma. Hollywood directors won't let you alter their movies. They can't really come up with a good reason why, but if you want to stay out of court, you'd better keep your hands off those nipples. 
Copyright Extremism
TK 
"The Phantom Edit"A fan of Star Wars: Episode One made a "Phantom Edit" of the movie and started showing it around. At first director George Lucas was publicly supportive, even bubbly about this use of digital tools. But when people actually started watching the Phantom Edit (which was considerably shorter and largely excised the unpopular Jar-Jar Binks character), Lucas revealed his dark side. Article by Daniel Kraus on Salon.com. 
Right and WrongIf you think critics of copyright extremism are all left-wing types, think again. Here's an article by John Bloom from the conservative National Review. "The big media companies, holding the copyrights of dead authors, have said, in effect, that Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton were wrong and that we should go back to the aristocratic system of hereditary ownership, granting copyrights in perpetuity. To effect this result, they've liberally greased the palms of Congressmen in the form of campaign contributions--and it's worked." (Those crazy radicals at The Economist have also weighed in on the issue.) 
Piracy is Progressive TaxationTim O'Reilly owns a large computer book publishing house. The foundation of his business is "intellectual property," a lot of it in digital form, vulnerable to copying on the Internet. Yet he couldn't be less worried about "piracy." He's making money hand over fist by adapting to new technologies rather than fighting them. This article, written by O'Reilly, is astounding in its common sense. A preview for those indie filmmakers who consider copyright extremism to be their friend: "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy." |
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