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7951

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 02:32 PM »

OK...time to resurrect this thread. IMHO, it's one of the most interesting topics that ever showed up on this forum.

Here's a hugely talented lady that brings back memories of the great female rock/blues singers of the late 60s and very early 70s. Her name is Dana Fuchs who (despite a very loyal following) deserves to be much better known than she is.

This video is from her live performance at B.B. King's in NYC. The song is called Almost Home, and you can watch it here. No fancy choreography, half-naked dancers, tattoo pose-downs, special effects, or staging in this vid. Just five and a half minutes of solid music by a woman who knows how to do it - and does. Those who remember Janis Joplin before her tragic last few years may feel a twinge of recognition in the musicality and passion behind this performance.





Check out her other videos on YouTube. Then go buy her albums. Highly recommended.

7952

Living Room / Re: My Movie Fantasy

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 11:54 AM »

 

@Edvard - Serves ya right for opening a fish & chips takeaway right across the street from The Esoteric Order of Dagon's meeting hall.  

Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!  

7953

Living Room / Re: My Movie Fantasy

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 07:58 AM »

I would love to see a horror film that takes place during a sunny warm day with cute, cuddly critters that everyone in the audience loves, but the critters are out to do bad things.

-Renegade (March 22, 2011, 04:02 AM)

You could always volunteer to chaperon a third grade class trip and bring your camcorder along.  

7954

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Creators Create Their Own Problems (Vimeo)

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 03:53 AM »

wraith808, you are right of course

Also there are different kind of documentation used or demanded in software development; some of those are useless IMHO, so I applaud "the agile method" for trying to dispose of them.

-housetier (March 21, 2011, 05:22 AM)

Assuming they can get away with it. 

One of the biggest criticisms of FOSS development is its general lack of comprehensive documentation. 

-40hz (March 21, 2011, 06:08 PM)

There's FOSS with documentation?!?! 

-Renegade (March 22, 2011, 03:34 AM)

Yeah. But it's usually considered a glitch when that happens. 

7955

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 03:51 AM »

FOUND IT~!

I knew I had a copy of PADkit around. (Sifting through 17 old drives...) If any from here wants a copy, let me know. (PM me or email me or FB or whatever with your email address.)

-Renegade (March 22, 2011, 12:40 AM)

Some additional resources for PAD can be found at the Association of Software Professionals website. Link to ASP authored resources here. Third-party tools and links can be found here.

 

7956

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 03:43 AM »

Didn't the traditional way to prove copyright used to be to send it to yourself in a registered letter that could be read into evidence in a court?

-Renegade (March 22, 2011, 03:33 AM)

Yes. It was called the "poor man's copyright."

Unfortunately, it seldom held up in court. Largely because a registered letter sent to yourself is far too easy to tamper with for it to be automatically accepted as untainted evidence.

I don't know how it works elsewhere. But in the US, most courts won't recognize it as proof of anything. If you're going to go that route, it would be far more effective to provide your attorney with a copy of your work for filing, and get a receipt from him/her as to the date it was received. But that will cost you far more than obtaining a registration would.

 

7957

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2011, 03:17 AM »

The "Copyright Office"? As soon as you publish any work publicly, in any format that the public has access to, it is automatically copyrighted. No registration is required unless you want to sue someone for copyright infringement. Otherwise you don’t need to do anything.

-J-Mac (March 21, 2011, 10:13 PM)

Yup, I'm aware of that.  

It's one of those pieces of advice that is legally correct but still not very smart. Put it right up there with the advisability of making a "citizen's arrest"  - or walking down a city street while holding a loaded firearm in plain sight. Both acts are technically legal in most places too.

So while it's true you don't need to register a copyright to be technically protected by it, you do need to register in order to obtain statutory remedies. That pretty much means if you want to assert your legal rights in any meaningful way, you'll need to register. If that's not something you care about, then from my perspective, the entire issue of copyright shouldn't matter to you either.

Unfortunately, it's not just a case of whether or not you think you may ever sue somebody else. Lawsuits are double-edged swords. In this litigious world you're equally likely to be sued. So you may find yourself wishing you had registered should somebody decide to go after you claiming that your work is infringing on their copyright. In a showdown between two parties in an infringement case, the person who first registered is given the benefit of the doubt for having claim to the work.

Not having a registration may also create problems when you go to license or sell your work. Some clients will ask to see a copy of your registration in order to verify that what you're selling them is, in fact, yours to sell. Movie producers, national advertising campaigns, many book publishers (and anybody else who routinely gets sued) will often ask for this.

However, it isn't necessary to register each individual piece of work in most cases. You are allowed to group similar things (music, stories, art, etc.) into collections and copyright those, thereby gaining the same statutory protections you'd get by registering each individual piece.

Registering a copyright is inexpensive and very easy to do. In the USA, it can usually be done completely online.

It's a cheap form of insurance. If you think you may ever need it, don't wait until you actually do.  

7958

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2011, 06:49 PM »

The part about what you think is art or not is irrelevant,

-ak_ (March 21, 2011, 06:17 PM)

Actually, what we may think is 'art' is very relevant. Especially when you're looking to register a copyright.

The copyright office will not grant a copyright unless you can demonstrate there's sufficient creative effort and input for your submission to be accepted by the examiner as a true creative work. If they think what you submitted is either too simple or obvious, they won't grant your registration request. So it comes down to subjective judgment even though there are fairly clear guidelines the examiners are supposed to follow.

 

7959

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Creators Create Their Own Problems (Vimeo)

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2011, 06:08 PM »

wraith808, you are right of course

Also there are different kind of documentation used or demanded in software development; some of those are useless IMHO, so I applaud "the agile method" for trying to dispose of them.

-housetier (March 21, 2011, 05:22 AM)

Assuming they can get away with it. 

One of the biggest criticisms of FOSS development is its general lack of comprehensive documentation. 

7960

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2011, 05:12 PM »

And if they can make money in perpetuity off of the sale of that work

-wraith808 (March 21, 2011, 05:01 PM)

Pretty big if. Right now it looks like the so-called 'pirates' are winning.

Besides, it's not the artists who are benefiting all that much from any of this. As a musician, the only change I can see is who is going to rip me off this time around. It used to be the recording industry. Now it looks like it's the fans.

Either way, in my end of the pool, it's business as usual. The creators still only get a pittance, if that.

The real change is that the distributor's percentage of the take is now what's being threatened.  

But as long as people are willing to pay to hear a band play live (and I'm still able to do it) I can have some hope of making an income from music.

However, I think those golden days of getting popular enough to become a millionaire, and then retiring to your mansion and private studio to become a multi-millionaire purely from the sale of your recordings, is soon to be a thing of the past.

"Those were the days my friends..."  



.

7961

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2011, 04:25 PM »

And the fact that it is already been done is IMO just buying into the system and making easier to do the same in the future...

-wraith808 (March 21, 2011, 02:29 PM)

I think the point I was trying to make is that so much of what gets claimed as somebody's "personal" creative work is quite often exceedingly similar, if not exactly the same, as somebody else's.

It's not a question of playing into anything. It's more a question of deciding where "creativity" actually occurs and what's the limit of what we're going to call uniquely creative.

And no, I don't have the answer to that problem either.  

Please note too that the whole concept of "licensing" a creative work is a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to the mid-70's, virtually all creative work was done on a work-for-hire basis where the buyer bought exclusive and perpetual rights to the artistic work.

It's only recently that attorneys and artists (mostly acting on their attorney's advice) have attempted to extend patent and copyright laws in order to have art be seen more as a service than a product.

And the public, rightly or wrongly, is largely refusing to go along with it. People want to buy art or music - not license it. They don't want to have to bring the artist on board as some sort of landlord or perpetual business partner.

So much as it would personally benefit me (as a composer and musician) to be able to hang a taxi meter on my music and get a payment every time it gets listened to by somebody, I'm not holding my breath it's ever going to happen. The people don't want it. And I really can't blame them - even though I'll lose out because of it.

Going to be interesting to see how this all plays out in the end.

One thing I do know however. Art & music are not necessities. If the creators of such works make the cost of acquisition too expensive - or the terms of use too onerous - people will just stop buying. And once that happens (or more to the point: once that goose that lays the golden eggs finally starves to death) the artists will either have the choice of doing something else with their lives - or accepting the buyer's terms.

Just my 2¢.  

7962

Living Room / Re: Fascinating story about the consequences of sharing your art in the Internet age

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2011, 02:15 PM »

There's a big difference between commercial use in ads, shirts etc. and non commercial reuse for learning, sharing, sampling etc.

And the greater good is NOT criminalising the latter in order to prevent the former. Not matter how good a story you trot out.

I have had my images reused, my copy copied word for word to be used on a competitors brochure etc. but I will never consider that in order to protect me for this, people should be given the right to take children to court for "plagiarizing" Harry Potter on a home video, or make it ok to put limitations on my device that prevent totally legitimate use in order to protect from hypothetical non legitimate use.

-iphigenie (March 21, 2011, 11:08 AM)

I find myself in complete agreement despite having also had my own creative work borrowed either word for word (or note for note) on more than a few occasions.  

After all we can also never forget that everything we create, write, code is hugely inspired from things we have seen, read etc. that has someone else's copyright. We are all sharers, remixers and plagiarists - learn-by-by-copying-and-doing is how we are wired.

For example the image in question is hugely reminiscent of art that others were doing before this guy did it - he inspired himself and copied the style, and it is very similar to many others - it doesnt make it right to pinch it, not when it would take the shirtmaker 10 minutes to do a good enough image to use... On the other hand most of the other "offenses" he mentions are people inspired by the t shirts to do a graffiti... and articles about the story.

+1!

One problem I've seen in music and graphic design is the desire of some people to take one photo, draw one picture, or compose one song that will allow them to get rich and retire thanks to. It's a variation on the old "brass ring" or "get rich quick" game where the goal is to get lucky and hit the jackpot rather than pursue one's art form as a career. This has much in common with the people who start companies solely with the intent of being quickly bought out rather than running an ongoing business.


My sister is a career artist. Her feeling is that the only people who are desperate to wring every possible penny out of everything they do are the ones who are afraid they're going to run out of talent or ideas. The ones who basically believe they will only generate one or two good pieces of work in their entire career. And once those are gone, they're done.

She's had her designs copied, her art used without attribution or permission, and things she's created claimed by others. There have been a (very)  few times when she's pursued legal remedies. But most times she doesn't bother. Her attitude is that she has plenty more art where that came from. So she's not going to waste her productive time agonizing over who is borrowing her stuff. But that's because she went into art to do art. And to make a living from it if possible. She did not go into art with the intent of getting rich and famous, even if she didn't rule out the possibility it might happen.

As she put it: "I'm an artist. This is what I do. I'd do it for free if that's what it took. I'd probably even pay to do it if I had to. Because it's not just the work. It's who I am."

I asked her if it bugged her when somebody used something of hers without her permission. She sort of shrugged and said it didn't really matter since "there's really nothing 'new' and it's all been done before." She said you've got: three primary colors; a dot, a line, a circle, a square, and a triangle; light and darkness; perspective and texture. Once you get beyond those, it's mostly playing with different combinations and interpretations.

I had her watch the video. She said she could sympathize up to a point, but she hoped he realizes that sort of thing happens all the time in the art world.

Then she hauled out an art book and showed me a half dozen similar looking pieces of art from the 60s and 70s.

Like she said - nothing new, and it's all been done before.

 

7963

Living Room / Re: FULL MOON tonight (March 19) is the LARGEST in 18 Years

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2011, 08:29 PM »

Looking out over Southport Harbor facing Long Island. Absolutely stunning. 

7964

Living Room / Re: Amazing LEGO Great Ball Contraption Breaks World Record

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2011, 01:11 PM »

I guess it does work, but in some locations it can take quite some time for the necessary amount of balls to arrive.

-Shades (March 18, 2011, 04:34 PM)

I think there's a very profound and universal truth lurking in that sentence.

(Pretty much sums up all you need to understand about government for one thing.   )

 

7965

Living Room / Re: KewlAid.net - My Deepening Hatred for Fanboys

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2011, 12:00 PM »

Kind of a "straw man" debate.

Somebody says something silly, and then gets lambasted at length by somebody else without getting the chance elaborate or respond.

Sheesh! I thought Ann Coulter had exclusive dibs on pulling that trick. 
 

7966

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2011, 07:32 AM »

if you ever find yourself out on the street with not a penny in your pocket, you may request a loan from any (non-captive) flying bird you see.  Just stick out your hand at arm's length, face up, and approach the bird slowly.

-mouser (March 19, 2011, 05:34 AM)

Ok...so I tried it...and he gave me...well...something anyway. Put it right in my hand he did. 

I don't know if it's a loan or not though.

If I gave something similar to somebody else, I don't think I'd want it back.

7967

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2011, 05:30 AM »

For everyone who donated during the fundraiser put this little badge on your shirt when you next go out to dinner:

-mouser (March 18, 2011, 07:47 PM)

I can't afford to go out to dinner after donating to DC.

-Deozaan (March 18, 2011, 09:27 PM)

Same here.

But I couldn't afford to before I donated either - so no worries! 

  It was totally worth it though!

Agree 100%.

------------

re: Little badge

I think we should name that badge the "Ka-ching!" badge.

7968

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Text Expander software for Windows

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2011, 05:21 AM »

Is it just me, or is some of this thread starting to read like an ad?

Seems to me that if there is a thread about "what's the best tool for.. ?" then the author of one of these tools should feel comfortable explaining why they think theirs is best    Something that might seem like an "advertisement" if posted out of context seems very appropriate on such a thread.

-mouser (March 18, 2011, 11:44 PM)

I did not mean to imply they were spamming. (Note the presence of the wink-bixie  at the end of my original comment.) 

I'll try to make my attempts at joking around a little more obvious next time.

7969

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Text Expander software for Windows

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 10:35 PM »

Is it just me, or is some of this thread starting to read like an ad?  

7970

Living Room / Re: Leave me in the clouds

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 04:49 PM »

I offer my condolences, having gone through something similar about this time last year.

Back then, I posted a comment where I talked about my gradual and reluctant acceptance of the inevitability of me personally using cloud based technologies. I was speaking mainly of Google at the time. But there's nothing that's since happened that makes me feel it applies any less to iDrive, DropBox, ReadItLater, Wunderlist, and all the other cloud services I have accounts with.

I'm one of those people that doesn't really like the idea of doing all my important things up on the web. I could write an essay on why, but most people here are savvy enough to see the obvious risks (security, accessibility, service downtime, etc.) that there's little point in writing about what's already well understood.


One line in Lankton's article, however, triggered what amounted to an epiphany (of sorts) for me. In answer to why he finally embraced Google Apps he said:

Because my need for synchronization finally outweighed my need to be a software connoisseur.

And the truth found in that simple statement forced me to reevaluate my entire way of thinking about web-based technologies. Lankton chose to use the word "synchronization." But what I think he was really getting at was the need for something I prefer to call ubiquitous access.

Ubiquitous access is the unrestricted ability to get at "your stuff" without regard to access platform or the technology employed to store your data. Think of it as "Anything-Anytime-Anywhere" and you've got it down.

We used to be told that it wasn't necessary to know everything so long as you knew where to go to find the information you needed. Ubiquitous access has a lot in common with that philiosophy.

The Cloud...It's here. It's now. And despite any paranoia or misgivings, it's far too useful to ignore.

---------------------
Note: You can read the original post here if you're interested.

7971

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 04:06 PM »

+1 w/Josh.

Or at least make it $12K which would be double the original goal.

I'd love to see it hit that much, if for no other reason than as a response to some comments about how poorly DC is supposedly serving it's community.

 

7972

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 03:08 PM »

Americans and Brits my be speaking the same language, more or less, but England is part of Europe, and therefore must pay the price; more rather than less...
 (see attachment in previous post)

-Curt (March 30, 2010, 03:16 AM)

Just for the record, Corel Corp. is headquartered in Ottawa Canada.

So while it may technically be an "American" company, it's not a US american company.    

7973

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 10:05 AM »

Hi! I'm Victor Limbo from Philippines. I'm a SEO specialist.

Nice to have here.

Thank you very much

-vhick (March 10, 2011, 10:41 PM)

Welcome  and well met Victor!

SEO gets discussed here fairly regularly. Hope you'll be able to lend some of your expertise to the discussions.
 

7974

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Text Expander software for Windows

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 09:10 AM »

But users are already confused by our three editions (Easy, Standard, Pro) and we would like to avoid adding complexity in this area.

-BartelsMedia (March 18, 2011, 08:40 AM)

Suggest you talk to your sales department then. 

Offering different 'editions' (i.e. feature sets) is a "pay to play" price tier strategy. Different 'editions' exist for marketing reasons more than anything else. 

If they didn't you could just create one edition, and turn on various 'extended' feature sets using a basic/intermediate/advanced switch.

If your customers are confused, there's a simple solution - stop confusing them.

Just come out and say you have versions of your program that pack additional capabilities and which are available at additional purchase cost. Don't be coy with "more powerful" and "professional version" blather. Just spell it out: additional features are available (to those who may need them) at additional cost.

I think most customers (or at least the type you want) would appreciate the candor. 

7975

General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite ZIP/RAR application?

« Last post by 40hz on March 18, 2011, 08:43 AM »

For all the other WinRAR customers, who have purchased a regular license (even if the purchase has been made in 2005 or 2003 for example), we still offer free upgrades and updates. There are no indications that this policy will change in the near future.

-WinRAR

Clear enough!

-Darwin (March 14, 2011, 10:38 AM)

...let's just hope they stick with that for a long time

-f0dder (March 14, 2011, 01:53 PM)

One would hope.

I spoke with an attorney recently about all these 'policy' changes where software developers are backing out of their former 'lifetime' license agreements by either changing the product's name, or simply announcing (with a suitable amount of handwringing) that they've decided to no longer honor their previous terms.

He said if the software user was legally bound by the terms of the license at the time of installation, such an after the fact policy change to the license terms could be construed as a breach of contract and could also risk running afoul of antifraud statutes. At least in the USA.

He also said the business justifications that are offered for backing out of "lifetime free upgrades" agreement have no legal relevance. If you enter into a contract, you are bound by what both parties agreed to, even if your situation changes down the road.

The only way out of that is to either offer a new set of terms BOTH parties agree to - or refund the buyer's original purchase price.

Moral: stand by your word or have your checkbook ready. And think twice about what you offer.