Another installment in the never-ending battle between religious nutters and Harry Potter, this time brought to you courtesy of the Iranian News Channel:

The Harry Potter film series reached the cinema following the success of the Zionist propaganda machine which made this little known author and her book famous……It can be viewed as a compilation of secrets and of theories used by the Zionist media…The Zionists support Harry Potter because he is the promised Messiah.

Good lord.

And over here, Al Nickerson inquires of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, whateverthehell happened to that autographed Danish flag. Alas, all his links to my old blog are all gone. Sorry about that.

Oh, one more to add: Iran demands group of actors in Tehran for a nice cultural visit apologize for films such as 300 and the Wrestler for being “insulting to Iranians”. Neither film was shown in Iran.

I sigh.

Personally, I loved all those firm naked abs.

c

I really don’t know that much about Scans Daily. Apparently, it was an online community where people posted reviews, comments, and scans of comic books. I have seen it maybe two or three times (Or five, dunno.)

I’m told it was against the rules to post entire stories, but the couple of times I visited was because someone had posted entire stories of mine and a concerned fan wrote me to inform me of the copyright violation. I chose not to do anything about it because I didn’t want to draw attention to it. As I recall, you could find many of my short stories published in their entirety on that website.

I saw reviews of my works posted there with a few pages scanned to accompany the comments. Fair Use, in my humble opinion. And in at least one case, the poster was conscientious enough to park a link back to my own site. Cool. Others simply do not grant creators even that small courtesy.

I get the impression most of the fans at Scans Daily really didn’t want to do any creators any harm, they just wanted to have a good time. But as always, some people were abusive and didn’t follow the rules or spirit of the rules within the community.

In any case, the community was shut down by Live Journal this weekend and I got a couple of letters from folks asking what I knew about it.

Absolutely nothing.

I haven’t even looked at Scans Daily in I don’t know how long, and didn’t even know about the shut down until folks wrote me about it. And since we haven’t had power or satellite access much of the weekend, I’m a little slow on the news.

Anyway, the most interesting discussion of the matter is over here at Peter David’s website. Some fans have gotten the impression Peter David is personally responsible for shutting down the site, and some have sent threats while others have promised to boycott his work.

Interesting reading for all the wrong reasons.

The comments thread is about as diverse a discussion of the attitudes for and against copyright protections – and the attitudes of the general public toward creators – as I’ve ever seen. (EDIT) I’ve had a chance to do a more thorough read of the comments thread and some of it is downright scary. “It’s just the internet! That’s the way people are!” is not a suitable reaction to threats.

c

OVERKILL: HOW THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY

IMPROVEMENT ACT IS DAMAGING AMERICAN BUSINESSES

FLY-IN, RALLY AND CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING
TO FIX FLAWS IN NEW PRODUCT SAFETY LAW

Washington, DC – April 1, 2009

Implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) is following a worst-case scenario for manufacturers, retailers and charities. Thanks to the flaws in this law, millions of perfectly safe products are in the process of being destroyed, costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history. Charitable organizations and thrift stores are being forced to pull inventory from their shelves at a time when American families need them more than ever. The supply of science supplies to schools is being curtailed. Youth model ATV and dirt bikes are no longer available creating a safety issue because more than 90% of injuries to kids on ATVs occur on large adult size models. Even libraries are at risk of legal liability for lending children’s books. All of these violations of common sense are being done in the name of “safety”.

From unrealistic compliance deadlines that made it impossible for industry or the Consumer Product Safety Commission to adequately prepare before the law went into effect, to the unprecedented decision to retroactively apply the new lead standards and phthalates ban to inventory already sitting in stores and warehouses, CPSIA is causing massive disruptions to industries across the board, particularly small and medium-sized businesses.

So far, Congress has ignored the calls of thousands of small businesses, charities, parents and teachers to fix the flaws in this legislation, refusing even to hold public hearings on the problem. That’s why business and charitable groups are organizing a fly in, rally and Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to meet with Members of Congress, provide information and bring attention to the CPSIA crisis. Wide participation is anticipated in this unique event to call upon Congress to urgently fix the CPSIA.

Date and Location: April 1, 2009, Capitol Hill [Room TBD]

Speakers will include Members of Congress and representatives from:

· Charitable Organizations
· National Association of Manufacturers
· Small Business owners from various industries affected by CPSIA
· Motorcycle and ATV dealerships
· Publishers and Library Associations
· Product safety and lead experts (to discuss science-based risk assessment)

Confirmed Participating Organizations (as of March 16, 2009):

· Alliance for Children’s Product Safety
· American Apparel and Footwear Association
· American Motorcycle Association
· Fashion Jewelry Trade Association;
· Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association
· Handmade Toy Alliance
· International Sleep Products Association
· Motorcycle Industry Council
· National Association of Manufacturers
· National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops
· National Bulk Vendors Association
· Specialty Vehicle Institute of America
· Toy Industry Association

For additional information, please contact the Alliance for Children’s Product Safety at 202-828-7637

UPDATE: Latest news at Publishers Weekly

Some wacky kids at the Stamford Fair Use Project use “snippets” of Disney films to explain copyright and fair use. Obviously, the kids are not big fans of copyright law, but does their scorn for extended copyright terms mean they really want US law to go back to the original 14 year term?

Geez, I hope not.

Anyway, this is a wonderfully fun parody, and there is no niftier irony than using Disney characters to comment on copyright use and the extended limits that many people blame on the Disney Corp. The 100 year term is described as “forever” in the film. I’d argue that 100 years isn’t “forever” by any reasonable definition, though I’d just as soon argue that I am not sure at all what a fair limit ought to be.

You’ll love this, and it’s educational, too.

If copyright was 14 years now, I would have lost copyright on the beginning of A Distant Soil before I finished it.

Our Founding Fathers had some pretty wonky ideas about property rights, which is why Thomas Jefferson liked the idea of a 14 year limited term on exclusive copyrights on the creations of one’s own hands, yet saw nothing wrong with owning human beings their entire life.

Thank you, Mr. Cognitive Disconnect.

I wish people would stop using this absurd logical fallacy of appeal to authority, especially in the case of our Founding Fathers who could not have forseen film, television, print on demand, or the internet.

But it is a great cartoon, isn’t it?

This item was posted at the old blog. Allan Harvey added the following:

I have a friend who argues that copyright should be for life only, and not extend beyond the death of the author. Children and future descendants should not, he contends, benefit from creativity that was not theirs. While I can see his point, I don’t necessarily agree.

Personally, I don’t have any problem with Disney owning their characters in perpetuity. Seems perfectly fair to me.

Iran believes they have their first female serial killer (how naive that statement is). The murderess is said to have been inspired by Agatha Christie murder mysteries.

Christie’s novels, some of which depict unsolved murders, are highly popular among Iranians. The writer, who died in 1976, visited Iran several times and used it as the setting for one of her stories, The House at Shiraz.

Is quality non-fiction print book publishing a thing of the past?

The range of titles stocked by British libraries has been falling for decades. The net book agreement, which in effect subsidised the British book business, has been dead for a decade and a half. In that time, book retailers have concentrated increasingly on the genres that are easiest to sell. Book prices have collapsed. Within many publishers, sales and marketing considerations have come to trump editorial ones, and most authors of serious non-fiction have had to accept smaller advances and smaller print runs.

More on the print publishing meltdown at Rus Wornom’s blog, where he is tasked to come up with the necessary changes newspapers need to make to survive.

But why bother to read? Over here at Tall Tale Radio, you can listen to Rus Wornom’s interview on the “State of Newspapers”. Technology is swell!

Rus brings his valuable insight to the table, having written for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and several published novels. He’s been right in the middle of the editorial/business end of things, and what he has to say is truly illuminating. We try to see what the future holds, and it’s not all doom and gloom!

The brutal murder of a prostitute inspired Charles Dickens’ Nancy, the hooker with a heart of gold from Oliver Twist. Dickens would act out the murder scene in his book with such energy that he collapsed with a stroke during a performance. He died two days later.

Known for his concern for the plight of prostitutes, as shown by his sympathetic portrayal of Nancy, he would have been outraged that Eliza’s murderer had escaped justice. The involvement of Nancy’s pimp in her death was perhaps Dickens’ way of finding William Hubbard guilty in a way that the justice system could not.

Dickens certainly seems to have remained obsessed with the murder of Nancy/Eliza for the rest of his life. By the early 1860s, he needed to raise money for repairs to the large country home he had bought in Kent. Long a frustrated actor, Dickens began giving readings of his works in theatres across the country – and the highlight of these shows was always the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes.

You’ll get a kick out of this. In order to save money, the Disney studio rotoscoped scenes from old cartoons and dropped them into new cartoons. Enjoy.

JJ Abrams director of the new Star Trek flick at Wired:

True understanding (or skill or effort) has become bothersome—an unnecessary headache that impedes our ability to get on with our lives (and most likely skip to something else). Earning the endgame seems so yesterday, especially when we can know whatever we need to know whenever we need to know it.

A CSI screenwriter is being sued by a couple of real estate agents whose names she used in an episode of the show.

The lawsuit references an episode that featured a real estate agent named Melinda, who dies under mysterious circumstances, and her husband Scott, a mortgage broker who watches pornography, drinks and is suspected of killing his wife.

For the two people out there who have not heard, Christopher Handley, the manga collector whose imported comics were intercepted by customs agents, has plead guilty to owning obscene material. Many links and analysis available here.

After talking to a few people in the know about this case, it is important to stress in all of this is that Handley does not have a history of being any kind of sexual predator; he does not collect erotica, pornography or anything like it. He is a manga collector. As the poster above, whoever it is, points out, he is not a threat to anyone anywhere. He could be any one of us. Hopefully this plea bargain will get him less than 15 years in jail, because that would be a travesty of justice of sickening proportions.

c