copyright


Pooh and copyright

I’ve created a few original characters in my various works, and I hope to make money from them when they catch the public’s imagination. But I don’t see the point of them then being locked away from other authors for 70 years after I’m gone because of copyright. I’d like to see that come down, but for now, we should enjoy stuff like murderous Winnie the Pooh and other reimaginings of nineteenth and early twentieth century characters.

https://www.wired.com/story/winnie-the-pooh-blood-and-honey-copyright-fair-use/


Double theft- steal the art, then sue the original artist

This is a worrying tale for anyone who creates art (or any other “intellectual property”) and posts it on the internet. Graphic designer Jon Engle is being sued by a site that sells stock images for stealing from them. The problem is, the images he “stole” are his own works and the person or people who submitted them to the website stole them from him. He has time stamps for the creation and uploading of his originals that could be checked against the images he allegedly stole from. But the site and their lawyers won’t release that data. Which, to me, sounds like the actions of folks who know they’re in the wrong. To try and distract from their dubious behaviour they’ve started contacting his clients and repeated their ill-founded assertions to sour his working relationships.

There’s not a lot that other creatives can do for Engle apart from publicising his plight and maybe Google bombing the lying, dodgy site that is suing him.


A bundle of links

I’ve been sent a bunch of links this week that I just haven’t got round to blogging. So I’m going to catch up by putting them all in this post.

From Tim

CHDK. New firmware I could install on my Canon A620 to give t new and interesting features, including bracketing, which I wanted to do loads in the States.

Copycrime. We’re all criminals because we want to play our music on a variety of machines and in different formats.

PeerGuardian. Protect your privacy on p2p.

Project Dalek

We like Daleks, here at Project Dalek. We like them a lot. We want more Daleks in this world. We don’t really care what size they are – scale models or full-size Daleks. We don’t care if they are ‘real’ or CG renders. So long as they are Daleks we are happy.

Are you ready to take the plunge and create a Dalek of your very own? If so, Project Dalek is the place for you. Project Dalek is the home of the ‘Dalek Builder’s Workshop Manual’, the Dalek builder’s bible. It contains everything you need to know about how to construct a full size Dalek of your very own.

We also have Dalek plans for every major Dalek variant. These are free to download, once you have become part of the Project.

From Skippy

Stopped Clocks. A campaign to get public clocks around the country running again.

The Toy. A Bluetooth enabled vibrator.

Here’s how it works: Ladies, get your lover to send you a text message. Sync your Bluetooth-enabled phone with The Toy, then insert The Toy (not your phone, that could be a serious hospital bill) into your you-know-what. Grab your cell phone, and read the text message your lover sent you. The message is then transported automatically to The Toy, which turns those SMS messages into vibrations. Best of all, each letter of the alphabet has a different effect on your body. More specifically, there are 45 possible vibrating effects from any one letter, plus 7,200 variations from a single text message. So depending on the length of the message, you could feel some serious vibration.