meta-roj

the camera eye

this article just needs to be experienced.

you can come back here and comment, or leave your thoughts there.

“Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” – flannery o’conner

the machines tell me there are now more than 1000 direct-hits on the story of alex scott. i just wanted to say thanks to everyone who dropped in…

i sent my thoughts to my senators, and one actually took the time to reply (well, stick my name on the form letter, anyway). i thought the response was worthy of your review:

senator paul sarbanes, july 16, 2004, personal correspondence

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to S. 2560, the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004. I appreciate having the benefit of your views on this important matter.

I must frankly tell you that I am a cosponsor of S. 2560, which would expand the existing laws on liability for copyright infringement to cover those who intentionally induce others to violate copyrights. The bill specifically does not affect the common law doctrines of secondary liability and preserves the “fair use” rights of consumers. The term “fair use” refers to a limitation upon a copyright holder’s exclusive rights, which permits the public to use a copyrighted work for limited purposes, such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research. On June 22, 2004, S. 2560 was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it awaits further action.

While our views may differ on this issue, I certainly appreciate hearing your concerns. I hope you will not hestitate to contact me again about matters of importance to you.

with that statement, i’d like to solicit the greater blogosphere’s thoughts on some way to get the message in under the lobbyists. can you think of/suggest any particular cluesticks that might wake the good senator up?

i was thinking of organizing a group of people to mail free culture one postcard at a time. maybe a lawyer-type reader would be willing to cook up a mock lawsuit (like the eff’s fake apple complaint) that implicates the senator as an induce-infringer?

attica

a while ago we got the news that doonesbury was being dropped by a group of newspapers. i was curious about that, and eventually found this:

Continental: Complaints Led to Drop-‘Doonesbury’ Poll [editor & publisher, july 21, 2004]

[Continental Features President Van] Wilkerson said he conducted the survey because Garry Trudeau’s comic “created more controversy than other strips.” In the poll e-mail he sent Continental’s newspaper clients this spring, Wilkerson wrote: “(I)t is my feeling that a change in one of the features is required. I have fielded numerous complaints about ‘Doonesbury’ in the past and feel it is time to drop this feature and add another in its place. … If the majority of the group favors a replacement, you will be expected to accept that change.”

Of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section, 21 wanted to drop “Doonesbury,” 15 wanted to keep it, and two had no opinion or preference. “I wouldn’t call the vote [to drop ‘Doonesbury’] overwhelming, but it was a majority opinion,” Wilkerson said.

there we have a good statement to hang this comment on: you will be expected to accept that change.

i like the democratic process, but here we have one of the threats exposed, and it is a huge threat as we work competition out of the media industry: the tyranny of the majority.

wrapping this decision in a poll gives wilkerson political cover (he didn’t decide to axe doonesbury – in fact, he has doesn’t “have an opinion about ‘Doonesbury’ one way or another.”) no personal responsibility or accountabilit required. the papers voted. we’re just doing what they asked us to do.

Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge Regarding Recent Threat Reports [dhs web, august 1, 2004]

President Bush has told you, and I have reiterated the promise, that when we have specific credible information, that we will share it. Now this afternoon, we do have new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack.

new. specific. credible.

it’s entirely possible, and i don’t mean to suggest otherwise, that there is new, specific and credible information. but then there’s this…

Reports That Led to Terror Alert Were Years Old, Officials Say [ny times, august 3, 2004, registration]

Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said on Monday in an interview on PBS that surveillance reports, apparently collected by Qaeda operatives had been “gathered in 2000 and 2001.” But she added that information may have been updated as recently as January.

this does not inspire confidence in my intelligence apparatus… which, i guess, could be the point, as we’re talking about restructuring our intelligence apparatus this week. we did spend a couple days talking about the threat, the surveillance, and the operatives on the ground in america, though.

i suppose there are a couple scenarios here: either it took years to get this information through the intelligence pipeline, or the department of homeland security works on a longer timescale than most of us. to be a little snarky for a moment, if the intelligence agencies are now discovering the al qaeda target lists from 2000, we may be just about to discover a plan to attack financial institutions in new york and military institutions in washington dc.

i really do hope there’s more to this, and it’s not just another election surprise, but the credibitily gap is widening.

congratulations on a safe launch, nasa.

a crack in the walmart empire?

Wal-Mart employees in Quebec win union approval [the globe and mail, august 3, 2004]

A Wal-Mart outlet in Quebec has moved closer to becoming the retailing giant’s only unionized store in North America after the provincial labour board granted employees a union certification yesterday.

there’s still at least one more layer of appeals, and you can bet walmart will take advantage of every hook they can find to keep a union out of their store. those crazy canadians tried this once before in 1997, but the union certification didn’t stick long enough to actually turn into a bargaining unit.

Wal-Mart employees in Quebec win union approval [the globe and mail, august 3, 2004]

Some Wal-Mart employees in Saguenay have previously suggested the retail giant would shut down the local store rather than allow it to operate with unionized employees. Mr. Pelletier dismissed the notion.

“We would not close the store because of a union,” he said. “The only reason we would close a store would be due to economic reasons.”

when there is a strange, localized economic downturn in the immediate vicinity, you heard it here…

in may of 2000, terra bought lycos for $12.5 billion. yesterday, i saw that lycos was being sold to a south korean company for $105 million. tonight, it looks like it might be more like $95 million.

don’t expect the meta-roj blog to morph into a portal anytime soon 🙂