Category: Media

Friends Don’t Let Friends Link to the AP

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__AP Photo__________“Hope” Poster

For a while now, I have been boycotting the Associated Press, because they established a policy to threaten legal action over copyright for people who link to them and quote a sentence or two.

With one notable exception,* I have avoided their stories, and used Google News to find an alternate when I found a story of theirs.

Well, the Associated Press moron brigade is at it again, with their suing Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the Obama “Hope” poster, because he based the poster on an AP Photo.

As you can see, it’s not a tracing, it’s based on a photo, and clearly fair use. The author took the expression, and you can find dozens of pictures with a similar expression, and little else from the photograph, and what’s more, it appears that the AP may not even have right to the photograph, as the photographer, a stringer named Mannie Garcia, never signed a contract with the AP:

2) Where you either an employee, or a freelance photographer, as defined by their contract, for the AP when you took this image?

I was a temporary hire, filling in for a staffer at the AP. It is my understanding that I was neither a freelancer nor a staffer, but rather a temporary hire. I have never been an AP staff employee, and no, I have never signed an AP contract.

3) So, you own the copyright to the image?

The ownership of the copyright is in dispute, as per the AP. It is my understanding that since I was not a staffer, and was not a freelancer, and did not sign any contract, that I am the owner of the copyright, but I am in discussions with the AP over this issue.

Needless to say, I will continue not linking to Associated Press stories, and using a Google® News search to find alternates.

*When via typo, they referred to Joe Lieberman as the 2000 Vice Presidential pRick.

Broken News and Accusations of Witchcraft

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So I’m surfing the net and come across PZ Myers on his blog Pharyngula talking about an ACLU press release about a student in Oklahoma who was suspended for allegedly placing a hex on a teacher which resulted in a “mystery illness”.

So I set fingers to keyboard, and write a ferociously critical piece, invoking knowledge, Texas, and, of course Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and while I’m Googling to see the outcome of the case I notice something in the ACLU press release:

ACLU of Oklahoma Files Federal Lawsuit on Behalf of Student Accused of “Hexing” a Teacher (10/26/2000)

(emphasis mine)

It’s from almost 9 years ago, and the events in question occurred 10 years ago, and Lifetime made a TV Movie about it, but that still does not mean that you can’t have a minor Blogasm over this. (Google Search Link)

I’m just glad that I noticed the dateline before I made a complete ass of myself.

For those of you wondering, the judge dismissed the case, and assessed legal fees against the parents, who then dropped the case in exchange for the fees being waived.

I still need an excuse to invoke Monty Python though….I’m Jonesing for it right now.

My Driveway Will Be Much Cleaner

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The Baltimore Examiner will cease publication on February 15.

It’s a free, and right wing, rag, that has continued to leave papers on my driveway whether I want them or not.

I’m not surprised. They set up shop in an expensive area, basically across the street from the Camden Yards ball park, and for a freebie paper, particularly one that sucked on the journalism side, they spent too much money on stuff like that.

Here is the memo to staff from management.

Why Media Consolidation is a Bad Thing

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You know that when you go to a new city, you find a different alternative weekly.

What you may not know is that most of them are owned by one company, Village Voice Medis, and VVM has decided to drop all the comics that it is currently running from these publications.

So consolidation gets us a stupid and self-destructive decision, because the conglomerate has to hit “the numbers” for Wall Street, and then it immediately propagates throughout most of the media markets in the US.

Mad Magazine Still Has it Now and Again

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You know, I just got the news that Mad Magazine is going quarterly from monthly, which unfortunately means that it’s circulating the drain.

Still, it appears that they still have comedic chops:

This is just as funny, in a Mad Magazine kind of way, as when the Onion says, “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job“.

It’s also a reason why I shouldn’t be President. I’d be mainlining bat guano right now.

Click pic to go to Mad.

The Best William Kristol New York Times OP/ED Ever

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Or at least the best 6 words in one of his columns, “This is William Kristol’s last column.”

The Times did not renew his contract.

Unsurprising, as his columns, hell, his first column, generated a fairly large number of corrections for misstatements of basic fact.

He will be moving to the Washington Poat, where he will be doing a monthly column, as opposed to his weekly column at the Times.

It’s a better fit for Kristol. Any paper that publishes Charles Krauthammer doesn’t worry about whether facts stated by their columnists has a basis in reality or truth.

Reports that Gaza Death Toll May Be Lower Than Reported

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While my original source, Ynetnews, should be viewed with a jaundiced eye, their report that death figures were inflated is from the respected Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, which as best as I can tell is a well respected center to center-left paper based in Milan.

They quote a doctor as saying that deaths are likely in the 500-600 range (Google translation, original Italian version) , along with indications that a much higher number of the casualties were combatants than has been previously reported.

This is not uncommon following such a conflict, when people presumed dead start heading home.

Additionally, the dynamics in terms of public relations battle would tend create a situation where the Palestinians would be inclined to over report deaths in the first few days.

There is a historical precedent, the battle of Jenin, where the initial reports of casualties were as high as 500 , and eventually were determined to be 52 to 56.

I do not expect to see a 9.6:1 differential between initial and final numbers here, though.

Pay Per View Review

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It was movie night, and Sharon* chose the 2008 remake of Get Smart.

Steve Carell … Maxwell Smart / Agent 86
Anne Hathaway … Agent 99
Dwayne Johnson … Agent 23
Alan Arkin … The Chief
Terence Stamp … Siegfried
Terry Crews … Agent 91
David Koechner … Larabee
James Caan … The President
Bill Murray … Agent 13
Patrick Warburton … Hymie
Masi Oka … Bruce
Nate Torrence … Lloyd
Ken Davitian … Shtarker
David S. Lee … Ladislas Krstic
Dalip Singh … Dalip

Of all the returns to this series, I think that this was the best, and that includes the 1970s “The Nude Bomb”, which was really pretty lame.

The character is definitely not the late Don Adams’, but Steve Carell of Smart as an overeager crackerjack analyst who has a knack for screwing up generally works.

I think that the weakest of the performances were by Alan Arkin as the Chief, and Terence Stamp as Sigfried.

Arkin’s Chief is a hot-head, as opposed to the reserved, and aggrieved Chief of the late Ed Platt, and I think that had he been played closer to the original, it would have worked better.

Stamp, who makes a marvelous heavy, was simply wrong as Sigfried. He was too evil. The original Sigfried, played by Bernie Kopell, who had a cameo, was more of a sort of mirror image of Adams’ Smart.

I also miss the German accent.

For both of these, I blame the script writer more than anything else.

Anne Hathaway, as 99, did a very good job capturing the extreme competence of the character, as well as the playful sexiness of Barbera Feldon, from the original series.

Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock”, was surprisingly good, but more details would be spoilers.

It does touch on all the bits from the original, the cone of silence, “Missed it that by that much”, “Would you believe….”, “In KAOS, we don’t…”, he drives both the sunbeam and the Karmann Ghia, the shoe phone, “The old $$$$ trick”.

The core of the movie, as it was in the series, is the relationship between Max and 99.

There is real comic chemistry there, though the development of the romantic aspects of the relationship were too compressed.

This is not a surprise, as the development of the relationship in the original went from toleration, to amusement, to affection, to love over about 4 seasons, and 110 minutes is just not enough time.

Recommended

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Submitted to Marketplace

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They allows people to submit short (>400 word) commentaries for broadcast, so I sent them the following missive.

It’s highly unlikely that they would publish it, I have no professional background in the field, and I’m just not that good a writer, but what the hell.

Amputating the Financial Industry

It is clear that the economy is sick, and it is also clear that the two things that are most directly responsible for this are the finance industry, and real estate.

For real estate and construction, we have a classic bubble, where prices outstripped values, and the only real solution is for time and no small amount of inflation to put borrowers back above water.

The finance industry is a different matter. Between the Treasury Department and the Federal reserve, trillions have been spent to recapitalize this industry without a real thaw in credit.

If the economy is a body, it is clear that there is a serious illness in the financial industry, and the question is whether this is simply a bad infection, illiquidity, or whether this is gangrene, insolvency.

I would argue for the latter, and with advanced gangrene the only option is to amputate.

So, how can you amputate, when the finance industry is essential to the functioning of the rest of the economy?

The answer is that it’s not essential. Reasonable access to credit that is essential.

The question is not how to preserve Wall Street, it is how to make sure that businesses on Main Street can continue to operate.

The numbers to do this are actually relatively small, GM and Chrysler got $18 billion to continue to operate, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the more than 8½* trillion that has been allocated to the finance industry.

Even just using the $350 billion remaining in the TARP to set up a lending facility for small and medium businesses would go a long way.

In fact, it would go much farther than throwing more money at the Wall Street.

You could recruit a workforce quickly from the hundreds of thousands of rank and file financial professionals who have been laid off in 2008.†

This would have the effect of providing the grease to ease the wheels of the economy, without enormous expense of supporting what are walking dead zombie institutions.

Obviously, you would not want this as a permanent solution, but our economy is more like an octopus than a person, and so lost limbs regenerate over time, so if one were to add a small surcharge, which would render this facility irrelevant and unnecessary once a new finance industry, springs from real market needs.

Footnotes:
* Economic rescue could cost $8.5 trillion
† Layoffs in U.S. up 59% from 2007

Thoughts?

Damn Him, for Making Me Feel Sorry for a Member of the Bush Administration

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By him, I mean Spocko of Spocko’s Brain, who has made a bit of a habit of reviewing the antics of right wing shock jocks in the Bay Area.

He has contacted sponsors with tapes of what these guys said, and this time, he comes across ABC radio jocks talking about employing Dana Perino on their show, and wondering if her employment would require, “full frontal nudity.”

I am so glad I don’t listen to AM radio.

Rumored At The Mountains Of Madness Film

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It appears that director Guillermo Del Toro is interested in directing a film based on the H.P. Lovecraft story, at least that’s what he is saying in this interview:

With regard to At the Mountains of Madness, I’d love to see you tackle H.P. Lovecraft in a way that hasn’t been done.

Del Toro: Me too. Me too. … Part of the arrangement with Universal–in being essentially there for now until 2017–part of the arrangement was they would finance research and development for Mountains of Madness. And we are doing it. There are many technical tools in creating the monsters that don’t exist, and we need to develop them. The creatures, Lovecraft’s creatures, the tools that exist for CG and the materials that exist for makeup effects, you need to push them to get there, and we’re going to push them.

I am unfamiliar with Del Toro’s oeuvre, but I would really like to see this made into a film.

It’s my favorite Lovecraft story, and I think that it would translate to film fairly nicely.

More at link about the technical challenges….Yeah….A Shoggoth is “challenging”.

Why the Hit Jobs on Darcy Burner

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One of the questions in the last election cycle was, “Why was the Seattle Times so aggressively hostile to Darcy Burner?” In her close loss to Dave Reichert.

They went so far as to misstate her degree in order to claim that she had lied about her education.

Well, now we know why they hated her, and sent their reporters out with orders to lie.

It appears that Ms. Burner ran the Committee for a Two Newspaper town, which prevented the Seattle Times from using its joint operating agreement with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to shut the publication down, and eventually forced the Times to make $24 millions in payments to keep the JOA going.

Losing the possibility of a monopoly in Seattle advertizing was probably even more expensive to the Times than was the payment, and so when she won the Democratic Primary for congress, it was payback time.

I know, it’s an almost 2 month old analysis that I’m linking to, but I just noticed it…My bad.

Juan Williams: Calling Swarthy People Uppity Since…..

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OK, he didn’t use the word “uppity”, but considering his behavior, where he seems to make a living out of condemning things like Rap music (and getting the lyrics wrong in the process), his screeds against the Iraqi people on Billo’s show should come as no surprise.

But’s let’s read what he said (vid below):

WILLIAMS: But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they’re not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it’s absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way. Just unbelievable to me.

Them, huh….They should shut up and sing spirituals eat their falafel.

Yes, they are ingrates because they object to being invaded and conquered, which has created this reality:

  • More than four million Iraqis forced to flee either to another part of Iraq or abroad.
  • Four million Iraqis regularly cannot buy enough food.
  • 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent in 2003.
  • 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.
  • 92 percent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

And those numbers ignore the somewhere north of ½ million dead that are a result of the mess we made.

They should be grateful, because even though we took them prisoner and sold them as slaves across the oceans, their life is much better on the plantation …. they get purple fingers.

Could someone explain to me why Juan Williams isn’t excluded from polite society like David Duke?