Author: Christopher (Page 20 of 29)

This is a quick essay and I’ll need to flesh it out and links but here is my take on the mess.

I’d never heard of Scribd until I heard about the big stink caused by some DCMA takedown notices issued by the SFWA VP Andrew Burt. Cory Doctorow and Jerry Pournelle have already weighed in on this. After looking at Scribd and doing a quick search I did find several copyright violations. So what happened? SFWA screwed up. Scribd screwed up. And neither side of the argument is completely right. Scribd’s Terms of service do say the right thing about protecting copyrighted work and the DCMA. DCMA is a flawed law but does have some useful provisions.

One side, Doctorow is saying Andrew Burt issued fraudulent takedown notices. Scribd’s lawyer who works for the EFF says that SFWA issued improper notices and that they need to be in a certain format for them to take action. Scribd did take down a lot of stuff that was not infringing. It is my understanding that SFWA is supposed to be acting on behalf of authors to protect their works. So I think Mr. Burt was trying to do the right thing but he screwed up. Big time. Did Mr. Burt consult SFWA’s lawyer before issuing the notices or have the lawyer issue them? I get the impression he did not. Where is SFWA’s lawyer in all of this and what does he or she have to say? Pournelle seems to think that SFWA has blinked and can no longer be trusted. As for suggestions that Doctorow sue SFWA is a very bad idea. SFWA does far more good than harm.

It is interesting to note that you can upload stuff anonymously to Scribd. This certainly defeats the spirit of of their TOS if not in practice. They should make uploaders affirm that to the best of their knowledge they are not infringing on copyrighted material. There should be some burden on the uploaders.

Technology makes it very easy to abuse and infringe copyright. I’m no fan of DRM (digital rights management) but there needs to be a way to track the source of infringement. Digital signatures perhaps? It’s going to take time to sort this out. Society and laws are playing catchup to the technology. At this point SFWA needs good legal counsel to get themselves on the right track.

Update (9/17/07) — The best discusion about this can be found at Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s Making Light blog: SFWA: DCMA abusers.

Update (1/11/08) — A lot has happened in the last few months. SFWA had an exploratory committee on how best to protect copyright. Jerry Pournelle seems more reasonable in his update and Scribd seems to have implemented real protections. A lot of the stuff I could find before are no longer there. So all in all things seem to be moving in the right direction. I’ve found a few more things about the situation and I may link those later.

I’m currently a big fan of the programming language Python. It has a great community. I’ve been to two PyCon’s and hope to attend many more. I use to think Perl was the bomb until I started web programming. PHP took care of that. I like PHP but Python definitely has the edge. The problem I’m running into is though I’d like to use a Python based blogging tool or CMS none of the webhosts that I’m willing to pay for support it. Python based web solutions require it to run as a process. Well, can’t do that with this host. Also, if I were to run Plone it’s not supported.

Now I’m learning Django. I was torn between learning Django and TurboGears and I’m still a little torn, but Django has the edge as far as I’m concerned. Neither are CMSes (content management systems). They are web frameworks like Zope which Plone sits on top of. Zope is the 800 pound gorilla of web frameworks. At least in Python anyway. I’m not getting up to speed on Django as quickly as I would like. I’m frustrated for two reasons. Zope has a steep learning curve, so I thought well I’ve already been through this before it should not take quite as long. I have a better graps of Python because of Zope, but the learning curve for Django is steeper than I expected. Also Django is advertised as something you can use to throw a robust website together in mere hours. It’s ready to rock and roll out of the box.

It’s probably just me. Once I figure out Django and get rocking with it I’ll be able to look at other web host providers. The one I’m using is decent but doesn’t support newer versions of Python or Python processes. Also, I’ll be able to get away from PHP. WordPress is awesome and keeps getting better. I think in the long run I’ll be better of with a Python solution but none of the Python based solutions are ready for prime time. At least not for me.

I still have high hopes for Django, but I can always fall back on Plone though Plone is a little heavier duty than I really need.

So you are watching some cheesy pseudo-medieval fantasy flick, the hero impales, beheads, or otherwise causes the villain to die with poetic justice in his/her/its massive stone castle. Suddenly the whole place begins to fall apart. The hero and his companions must make a mad dash for the exit and not two seconds after their miraculous and heroic escape the castle explodes. Huh?

How in the hell does a castle explode? It’s made of stone. The simple answer is: Well, that’s Hollywood for ya. I say, pshaw. They are morons. Now, I love to watch things explode in movies. There is nothing more satisfying that watching the Death Star explode or the numerous things the Mythbusters blow up. What I don’t love is Hollywood expects me to drink their exploding castle kool-aid and enjoy their reality defying crap. Why is it that it’s always the death of the villain triggers a self-destruct that gives the heroes enough time to escape?

Let me start with the movie Krull. I wrote this as a comment on IMDB.

When I saw it in the theater with friends, the row behind us enjoyed our Mystery Science Theater 3000-style running commentary whilst the row in front of us did not.

I apologize for giving spoilers but I know of no other way to convey how bad this movie is. The only notable thing about this movie is the first use of Clydesdale horses for riding in a film. Other than that it has plot holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through. The movie couldn’t decide if it was fantasy or sci-fi. We have this castle that descends from outer space, but it can also teleport all over the surface of the planet. Then to catch up with the castle our heroes somehow manage to catch these flying horses in a box canyon. And when our heroes defeat the bad guys they all escape before the castle explodes.

We have a flying castle-spaceship. That teleports itself around the surface of the planet. It can only be caught up with if you use flying horses that can travel a thousand leagues in a day or some other such nonsense. First you have to catch the flying horses. Plot hole #1. They trap the horses in a box canyon. The horses are apparently too stupid to fly out of said box canyon. Plot hole #2. They ride these horses in scenes reminiscent of watching Santa Claus riding his sleigh through the sky and catch up with this castle-spaceship that can teleport. Apparently, the castle is too stupid to teleport away when the horses arrive. Maybe, they think Santa Claus is early.

You may think I’m reserving my ire for a bad movie, but I’ll go after the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. After Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger with the ring and falls into the lava, the rest of Frodo and Sam escape from the castle/volcano as it begins to erupt. Now, this is slightly more believable. I’m not sure why evil sorcerous villains have this thing about building castles on active volcanoes, but they do. However, what is not believable is that they can survive on a rocky outcrop in a lava flood without being vaporized from the intense heat.

I used to repair and install two-way radios. One time I did an on-site install at a steel mill. They had this huge electric vat with a telephone pole sized carbon rod to melt down the scrap steel. I had to pass by a spot where they had just extruded glowing hot steel bars about the size of railroad rails. I was standing about thirty feet away and the heat was intense. This metal was solid, but still glowing red. It was not a place you wanted to stand for very long. In the film, Sam and Frodo were much closer to the much hotter CGI lava. I have an appreciation of how hot big things can be and from how far away you can still feel the heat.

I use the term Exploding Castle Syndrome not just for fantasy flicks but sci-fi and thrillers as well. James Bond movies are notorious for ECS: You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, to name a few.

I’ve ranted enough on the topic. I may add more to this post or I may do a part 2 or I may not do anything at all.

Personality tests are rampant on the Internets. Which Star Wars character are you? Which Harry Potter character are you most like? Blah, blah, blah. I think everyone should take this test. It’s True False test and I scored a 9 out of 24. It says I’m borderline. I try to behave myself and comport as a civilized person, but it seems that sometimes people around me make that difficult. So I don’t find it hard to believe that I could be borderline. I also know that I’m not particularly clever. I used to think I was, but I discovered all I did was piss people off.

Is it my place to point out when others are behaving badly? Probably not. Further confirmation that perhaps my score is deserved. What do you do when someone writes “Everybody hates you, fuck off.” and it is not directed at you but at a close friend? I don’t know, yet I’m still deciding the best, most responsible course of action.

I hope the person who wrote it will realize that it could come back to haunt them and take action to rectify this grievous offense. The sin here isn’t just the offense. A gifted writer should never abuse their talents for petty insults. Words do have power. And a good writer knows what words can cut the deepest. A good writer also knows what words can heal, but they must be sincere.

The convergence of fuckheadishness continues. 2007 will be a banner year.