derivative work

The NYT has two interesting stories right now featuring, shall we say, different approaches to artists and IP. The first in a genre near and dear to my heart is a profile of Dark Horse Comics, which “built [their] publishing platform around creators’ rights … [Their] pitch was, ‘We’ll match the rights that you get [...]

on the oscars, just now, jon stewart on movie piracy (i paraphrase): Let’s face facts. It hasn’t been the best year for Hollywood. The box office was was a little bit down and piracy continues to be a problem. If there is anyone out there involved in illegal movie piracy, don’t do it. Take a [...]

David Byrne had a run-in with the RIAA over a playlist that included a bit too much of one artist. Truly artist-unfriendly. [link from boingboing]

Meghann Marco, a new author, would like to have her book indexed by Google, but her publisher says no, they’d rather sue. [link from kottke.org] As a person who spends a large part of her day trying to get people to read her book, I asked my publisher to include me in Google Print. They [...]

San Francisco’s counterPULSE Theater got a cease-and-desist from Fox TV demanding they cancel their sold-out live action performance of “Once More, With Feeling” (the Buffy musical). According to SFist, Buffy creator Joss Whedon said he had no objection to the staging of the show. [link from whedonesque]

Two great tastes that taste great together. Many “Daily Show” fans (well, okay, me) have been concerned about the future of “This Week in God” now that Stephen Colbert is leaving “The Daily Show” for his own spinoff. Today’s NYT (10/12) explains that the segment is going to stay, but with a new correspondent — [...]

ordinarily i’m interested in quotes from artists & creators that evidence awareness of or interest in non-copyright maximalism. but in today’s NYT article (“King Kong vs. Pirates of the Multiplex”) there was a quote from Peter Jackson: “Piracy has the very real potential of tipping movies into becoming an unprofitable industry, especially big-event films. If [...]

Okay, I’m sneaking a little break away from visiting family in Virginia to breathe the fresh air of the Internet. I wouldn’t exactly call Virginia a hellhole (at least not in front of the family who lives here), but the Internet cafe (Panera Bakery) I’m surfing at blocks arthur silber’s the light of reason and [...]

The NYT ran an article today (5/26) about rap/hiphop music in Bolivia. Young artists are using hiphop & rap to get their message of social justice, democracy, and peace. One young artist talks about copyright infringement: The one CD the rappers recorded, called “Wayna Rap,” sells robustly on the streets of El Alto, pirated by [...]

cory doctorow writes about SFWA’s ongoing campaign against copyright infringement (Why writers should stop worrying about “ebook piracy”– boingboing 5/14) cory also cited from & linked to john scalzi writing about the same thing (The Stupidity of Worrying About Piracy 5/13). personally, i much appreciated john’s description of how he feels about readers who can’t [...]

We already knew this, but Chuck D. is pretty cool: LL Cool J has come out in support of the US music industry’s legal threats music downloaders. LL was speaking to a Senate committee investigating whether the industry has been too heavy-handed . “My question is, if a contractor builds a building, should people be [...]

While protesting the airing of “The Tsunami Song”, Asian-American rapper Cobra took shots at the anti-bootlegging “whiners”: Though promoted as an antiracist event, the rally lamented the degraded state of the corporate music industry generally. One of the first performances at the demonstration came from Asian-American rapper Cobra. In front of an audience holding signs [...]

“I would call upon everyone who has access to ‘Eyes on the Prize’ to openly violate any and all laws regarding its showing,” says civil rights leader Lawrence Guyot, who led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and today is a program manager for the D.C. Department of Human Services. from