I really hate the anti-piracy trailer at the beginning of DVD’s, such as those that I rent from Lovefilm in Sweden. The last person you want to irritate with a nasty accusation of stealing is the person who has lawfully obtained your DVD.
This excellent op-ed by Rutgers Law Professor Stuart Green in today’s “International Herald Tribune” (from the “New York Times”) references that annoying trailer and explains why the whole concept of calling the copying of digital material theft is wrong and defies the zero-sum origin of the term. What’s particularly disturbing about the entertainment industry’s wackoo demands for damages from file-sharers is the idiotic idea that every download represents a lost sale (usually at an inflated price).
They are not, as it is very likely that many downloaders would never buy the material in question (certainly not at the prices demanded). And according to reports, in many cases downloaders later actually go and buy the material they have sampled:
Opinion
When Stealing Isn’t Stealing
By STUART P. GREEN
Published: March 28, 2012
What we choose to call a given type of crime ultimately determines how it’s formulated and classified and, perhaps most important, how it will be punished.
I was a bit concerned about filing my Swedish income tax return this year. I’m going to be in France until around May 1, and the filing deadline is May 2. (You can ask for an extension but apparently it is typically only for a week.)
But it took me less than a minute to log onto the Tax Agency’s website, take a look at the information filed by my employer and banks, and click “File”.
I could have done this with my iPhone or iPad (as pictured in the Tax Agency press photo) but to do that you need a special number that is one the filing form mailed to you, which in my case is still in Sweden.
The nice thing about filing electronically is that you get refunds in June, rather than in August, which is the case if you send in a paper return. (If I understand correctly, this is still way later than in the US, but since you used to get your Swedish refund in December, it’s still a great improvement. Just means you no longer have some extra money just in time to buy Christmas presents.)
The concept of heresy arose early in the Christian Church, as alternative approaches to dogma and worship were persecuted by the dominant orthodoxy. Ironically ths first apeared as the Church itself emerged from persecution. Intolerance of “heresy” continued through the Middle Ages, with Protestantism perhaps as the ultimate heresy.
Then, of course, established Protestant rulers sought to crush divergent faiths.
Today the concept of persecuting heresy seems very old-fashioned, with Freedom of Religion enshrined in the American Bill of Rights and by international conventions. It seems restricted to al-Qaeda/Taliban extremists intent on persecuting women and followers of other strands of Islam. The official stance is that in much of the world you may follow your own faith as long as you respect the laws and the faiths of others. Forcing your beliefs on others is officially wrong.
Yet, the American primary election season has revealed that the persecution of heresy lives on among Evangelicals and Tea Party supporters. Moving beyond their decades-old opposition to abortion, they now label women who seek birth control as “sluts”. All-male congressional panels seek to restrict women’s health rights. Instead of following their own faiths, they seek to defy international law and force their beliefs on those who believe otherwise.
Rick Santorum’s recent denounciation of a brilliant speech by John F Kennedy supporting the division between Church and State graphically illustrates how the Evangelicals have turned their backs on the modern world. Ironically they praise the Founding Fathers, yet Washington, Jefferson and the others were invariably Deists who did not force religion on citizens.
Since I first arrived in Europe I’ve been a big fan of William Morris, the 19th Century co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in art. I first discovered Morris after the breakthrough of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. Fantasy fiction became the rage in the early 60’s, and Willam Morris was a pioneer in the genre, with novels like The Well at the World’s End. But he was also an early Socialist, and some ofhis work, like the utopian News from Nowhere and A Dream of John Ball, had a strong social message.
And then there were the lovely medieval inspired fabrics, still sold at Liberty in London. Morris was a bit of a Socialist contradiction, because he believed in workman crafting instead of machine mass production, but his work in this field, such as his furniture and fabrics, was far too expensive for working people to buy.
Today I visited the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, devoted to the late 19th Century local artist, best known for her paintings of the local Pomo Indians. I’d seen the museum before, but for the first time I saw her home, the Sun House, guided my by sister, who is a volunteer docent at the museum
She told me the house was in a turn of the century style known as Craftsman, and as soon as I saw it, I realized that Craftsman was the American counterpart to the somewhat older British Arts and Crafts movement, pioneered by William Morris. Here, on the other side of the planet, was a house, built in local redwood, terribly reminiscent of Morris. It was an interesting revelation.
Not sure what the art historians think, but there might be a parallel between the Pre-Raphaelites’ use of medieval and Biblical motifs, and Grace Hudson’s Native American themes. Both certainly were realistic and spurned the coming tide of Impressionism.
A tree flowering in the parking lot at the Ukiah Walmart
I’ve spent more than half my life in Europe, and have gotten used to being being in places where English is not the language. Being in France has made me appreciate how good my Swedish is. But it is so fun and easy being in my native country!
It is just so effortless interacting with people who speak American English (and of course not sticking out as a foreigner, as is the case in Britain).
I played Star Wars Galaxies from its second month of existence until the very end, more than eight years later. The day after they pulled the plug I was playing its successor, Star Wars the Old Republic, a week before the official launch, because I had pre-ordered. The new game has a lot of strengths, including amazing graphics and and nice little cartoon video scenes, but I have to admit I miss SWG and would still rather be hanging out in that universe.
There was a community there that I haven’t found in SWTOR yet. Plus I much prefer the “sandlot” approach of that game, where you could pick your own activities. After the horrible NGE much ruined the game, a spent much of my time working on a variety of houses in the city where I was mayor.
SWTOR lacks player houses, let alone cities, and instead of a sandbox is more like a series of amusement park rides, where the path is predetermined.
This little video is an initial attempt to compare the two games, and their history. Sadly, it’s hard to include everything in four minutes. For my Social Software class I’ll be exploring the two as communities and social networkds. This video doesn’t take up those issues.
One immediate concern in this day of SOPA and ACTA, every single bit of media in the video is copyrighted, video from the first Star Wars movie, game video from the two games, and from the “Game On” podcast from the Twit network. There are images from “Wired” magazine, Blizzard Entertainment (makers of World of Warcraft), the BBC News website, and the online games site MMOGChart.com, and audio from the games and the Star Wars movies.
But, under American and Swedish law, this is Fair Use as many of that media are in fact press videos or images. I am using the material to comment on or review the works in question, and actually the “Game On” video is an example of how this is permissible. I’m using “Game On” in exactly the way “Game On” is using SWTOR video to discuss the game in its report. The fact that much of this video is on YouTube, freely available for embedding in other websites, reflects that the copyright holders do not object. Moreover, using audio, from the games or from the Star Wars movies, is permitted under Sweden’s “citationsrätt”.
I put together the video using Sony Vegas Studio (ironically since it was Sony Online Entertainment who operated and ruined Star Wars Galaxies). I’ve used Windows Movie Maker as well as Ulead Movie Factory in previous video projects. The Sony program is much more advanced (and consequently more expensive), and has a steeper learning curve (which I am still coming to terms with). But it allows much more editing flexiblity that the simpler programs. (One thing I have not found that it does easily, something that is a basic feature of the audio editing programs I have used at Swedish Radio, is the ability to fade out sound, keep it low under a narration, and then bring it up again. The only way I found to do this in Sony Vegas Studio was to cut the audio into three pieces.)
I used the free program Audacity to record the narration. Clips from the two games were recorded using the brilliant program Fraps. Images were edited in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Finally, a wonderful little program called YouTube Free Downloader made it possible to download both audio and video from YouTube clips.
The video is an example of “digital storytelling”, which is defined by Wikipedia as:
Digital storytelling refers to a short form of digital film-making that allows everyday people to share aspects of their life story.
“Digital storytelling” is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their ‘story’. Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, they are usually less than 8 minutes long and can be interactive.
The term “digital storytelling” can also cover a range of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games); It is sometimes used to refer to film-making in general, and as of late, it has been used to describe advertising and promotion efforts by commercial and non-profit enterprises.
One can define digital storytelling as the process by which diverse peoples share their life story and creative imaginings with others. This newer form of storytelling emerged with the advent of accessible media production techniques, hardware and software, including but not limited to digital cameras, digital voice recorders, iMovie, Movie Maker and Final Cut Express. These new technologies allow individuals to share their stories over the Internet on YouTube, Vimeo, compact discs, podcasts, and other electronic distribution systems.
