Now, a larger problem. Books in their digital format look vastly less ‘finished,’ less genuine. And we can vary their font and type size, making them resemble all the more our own word-processed manuscripts … . All the e-books I’ve read have been ugly — books by Chang-rae Lee, Alvin Kernan, Stieg Larsson — though the texts have been wonderful. But I didn’t grow up reading texts. I grew up reading books. The difference is important.
Tim O’Reilly once said that the problem for artists isn’t piracy – it’s obscurity. I think that’s true. A lot of people have commented: ‘You can’t eat page views, so how does being well-known help you earn a living as a writer?’ It’s true; however, it’s very hard to monetise fame, but impossible to monetise obscurity. It doesn’t really matter how great your work is; if no one’s ever heard of it, you’ll never make any money from it. That’s not to say that if everyone’s heard of it, you’ll make a fortune, but it is a necessary precursor that your work be well-known to earn you a living. As far as I can tell, these themes apply very widely, across all media.
Cory Doctorow in The Guardian explaining why he publishes his books online for free (via Largehearted Boy).
Facebook Users’ Bill of Rights
Facebook Users’ Bill of Rights
Seven sensible suggestions for social networking sites, from Jack Lerner, a clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and director of the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic, and Lisa Borodkin, an Internet and media attorney and online journalist. Their suggested principles include honesty, accountability, control, transparency, freedom of movement, simple settings and treat as a community, not as a data set. Read the whole thing.
The trailer for Jean Luc Godard’s new film “Film Socialisme” which allegedly shows the entire film in super-fast motion.
(Source: http://vimeo.com/)
[P]eople only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn’t make any money out of records because record companies wouldn’t pay you! They didn’t pay anyone! Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone. So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn’t.
— Mick Jagger —
David Weinberger imagines an alternative universe in which Mark Zuckerberg is born before Tim Berners-Lee, and invents the Web.
Weinberger: “The social platform is as important as the linked pages platform”
The ten best science fiction detective novels
The ten best science fiction detective novels
Culture Lab at Newscientist.com lists ten other great SF detective novels in addition to 2009’s “The City and the City” by China Mieville.
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/63890987001?isVid=1&isUI=1
Techcrunch interview with Robert Cailliau, a Belgian informatics engineer and computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, developed the World Wide Web.
(Source: http://c.brightcove.com/)
Out today, Daniel Okrent’s “Last Call – The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.”
Q&A with Daniel Okrent at Barnes & Noble’s Review and Barbara Spindel’s related review of the book.
An excerpt from the book in The Daily Beast: In the excerpt, Daniel Okrent writes that long-held beliefs about Joe Kennedy’s bootlegging business are wrong.
Other reviews:
Business Week: “It’s the most persuasive, witty, and best-documented explanation yet as to why Americans decided to endure a ban on alcohol, the federal government’s most intrusive regulation of all time.”
History News Network: “This may be a rare case where one can plausibly accept a book jacket description at face value: ‘Last Call is capacious, meticulous, and thrillingly told. It stands as the most complete history of Prohibition and confirms Daniel Okrent’s rank as a major American writer.’”
I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
— Mae West —
In a post entitled “Go Home, Mae West” in The American Interest Online, Walter Russell Mead argues that: “Power has been drifting toward Washington and the federal government in the American political system; it needs to start drifting back home to the states and to local communities or our democratic system will become increasingly strained.”
TV Economics 101: Why you can’t watch every show online for free
TV Economics 101: Why you can’t watch every show online for free
Craig Engler, general manager and senior vice president of Syfy digital, explains at BoingBoing why more U.S. television shows are not available for free online, either in the States or internationally.
In a related post at BoingBoing, Craig also notes 7 things people get wrong about the internet and tv.
Up There: a short, 13 minute, documentary about the dying business of hand painting advertisements on the sides of tall buildings – a business, now, with the advent of vinyl appliques, pretty much limited to New York City and Los Angeles.
(Source: http://vimeo.com/)
Two interesting posts by Thomas Baekdal: (1) The first rule of privacy, and (2) Facebook is dying; social is not.
More on Facebook’s recent privacy changes:
Wired: Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative.
100 Best Arabic Books (according to the Arab Writers Union)
100 Best Arabic Books (according to the Arab Writers Union)
And the best? According to the Arab Writers Union, “The Cairo Trilogy” by Egyptian (Nobel-prize winning) author Naguib Mahfouz. The blog post includes publication data and whether an English translation is available.
The Man who Foresaw Science Fiction
The Man who Foresaw Science Fiction
Matthew Lasar writing in Ars Technica’s “Law + Disorder” blog on Hugo Gernsback, “the man who popularized the term science fiction,’ and in whose name the Hugo Awards are given to writers to this day.”
Immigration March in downtown Los Angeles, May 1, 2010.
Photo © 2010 j.r.mchale. More photos at flickr.
Immigration March in downtown Los Angeles, May 1, 2010.
Photo © 2010 j.r.mchale. More photos at flickr.
Immigration March in downtown Los Angeles, May 1, 2010.
Photo © 2010 j.r.mchale. More photos at flickr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQTxZ_zxAv8
How To Challenge a Wrongful YouTube Takedown Through Fair Use
We’ve been tracking the Hitler Downfall meme and have become very concerned about the recent slate of YouTube takedowns by Constantin Films.
In talking to many of the creators of the Downfall meme videos, we discovered that many of them were unaware of their rights and protections under Fair Use.
To this end, we’ve created a short video that explains why we think that these videos are transformative works, why they should be protected under the Fair Use doctrine and what creators can do to challenge these unfair takedowns.
For additional information on Fair Use and your rights as content creator online, check out the following resources:
- eff.org: A Guide to YouTube Removals
- Center for Social Media: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video
- The Stanford Center for Internet and Society’s Fair Use Project
Big thanks to Pat Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media and Elizabeth Stark of the Open Video Alliance for their valuable assistance on this.
I can’t vouch for the legal conclusions (e.g., a particular video constitutes “fair use” – often a complicated assessment, ripe with uncertainty and risk), but the video does walk one through some of the mechanics of the youtube takedown dispute process.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)