Copyright,

[wynddancer]

Copyright in the Age of Youtube. HAH! Take that UMG! Go, Ms. Lenz! Take 'em down! What especially bugs me is that content providers want to make the hosts liable instead of the "pirate" because there is just so many, many "pirates!" The poor companies with their millions of dollars just can't afford to pursue the many, many pirates so let's make Youtube (or whatever host) liable instead and sue them instead. Yeah, no.

Ms. Lenz received a DCMA from the Universal Music Group because she posted a 20 second clip of her just learning to walk son dancing to Prince's Let's Go Crazy. She consulted an attorney who advised her of her rights. According to the article, "And one year later, on Aug. 20, 2008, Lenz won a precedent-setting battle against Universal. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of the Northern Dis­trict of California held that the DMCA requires copyright owners to consider fair use before sending a take­down notice. If a copyright owner sends a takedown notice without first making a good-faith evaluation of whether the allegedly infringing work is covered by fair use, the owner could be liable for damages, according to Fogel. The judge denied UMG’s motion to dismiss the suit, enabling Lenz to attempt to prove in an upcoming trial that UMG filed the takedown notice in bad faith."

OMG, yes!! Athetists and Anger. From the blog: "One of the most common criticisms lobbed at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so angry?" So I want to talk about: 1. Why atheists are angry; 

2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary; And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us.So let's start with why we're angry. Or rather -- because this is my blog and I don't presume to speak for all atheists -- why I'm angry." "I'm angry at the believers who put decals on their cars with a Faith fish eating a Darwin fish... and who think that's clever, who think that religious faith really should triumph over science and evidence. I'm angry at believers who have so little respect for the physical world their God supposedly created that they feel perfectly content to ignore the mountains of physical evidence piling up around them about that real world; perfectly content to see that world as somehow less real and true than their personal opinions about God."

OMG, yes. I'm a scientist by training and by heart--I especially despise religion b/c it discounts science so much. Marvelous article that explains why I'm also fed up with the Xtian religion even though I'm not quite an atheist.

Disclaimer: I'm not religious in any sense of the word. I'm more spiritual. I'm also not quite an atheist. I'm not sure what I am really. I think I believe in a higher power(s) but I also hold him, the Xtian god,  in contempt, disbelief, and anger. I can't related to HIM at all. I think I'm more pagan at heart from my admittedly limited (so far) reading on the subject. I especially need to look into the Goddess religions. I've been inside a Xtian church, barring weddings, probably 5 times in my life. I consider Xtian religion to be dangerous, nonsensical, harmful, and disruptive. People always say "But look at the good things they do! They feed the homeless!", etc., etc., etc. I don't care--to me the harm the Xtian religion plays outweighs it's positives. I want the church to stay out of the state and government at any level--take your God and keep it to yourself--out of the schools (creationism), the government, and my life. I'm tired of the Christian majority pretending it's a minority and that they are "OMG, so, so, so, oppressed! Why [cue wailing and hair/clothes ripping] can't we have a Xmas tree in government offices? Why cant we [sob] teach creationism in our schoolsssssssssssssss??????? We're so oppresssed..........." Yeah, right. 

I just found and really likeozarque 's (Ms. Elgin) blog on communication and it's various styles. She's written the books the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense and other books that I'm now going to have to check out. It's been making me think about I communicate/don't communicate. Search on: ask guess hint site:ozarque.livejournal.com and you'll find information about the "askers" vs. the "hinters", which has clarified a few things for me.

 If you're interested in ebooks, Calibre might be handy for you. It's some of ebook manager. I'm currently sorting, organizing, and discarding my (physical) books. I now see the appeal of ebooks. Gah--it's so time consuming--save this book? Don't save it? Wah, I'm out of room, these boxes are heavy, oh my god, is that more of them I need to sort in that there box over yonder?! Damn it, why did this book have to get yellow pages and a musty odor?! Why are these not ebooks and then all I have to do is move my laptop!!! .............Yeah, they'll have to pry my books from my cold, dead hands even with the hassle that they can be. I still can't believe people pay approx $350 for a Kindle to read ebooks. 

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

My religion doesn't discount science. The Dalai Lama quotes his friends who are Nobel physicists all the time.

There's also the four continents and Mt. Mehru debate, if you're interested in how that went.

[wynddancer.livejournal.com]

Gah, I'm so embarrassed. :-( For some reason, I didn't get your comment via email and I just noticed it. I'm sorry. Very, very, sorry that this is so late. :-( I think even the Catholic church has acknowledged evolution (not the Protestants/Methodists, etc.) but it feels like I'm surrounded by well, idiots, at lot of the time. It doesn't help when a friend tells me that his pastor had a freaking PowerPoint presentation on the "evils" of scientists at a sermon of his!!!!!! OMG!! Hope the pastor and his congregation don't need the "evil scientists" like medical doctors, etc.

I'm really not quite as anti-religion as I sounded. I was in the middle of John Scalzi's Creation Visit museum photos. If you want a laugh, go look at them. It's best to view a few at a time or you'll go nuts from being mad as I was when I posted that. I just can't believe that some people really think humans and dinosaurs existed peacefully together on the planet. Argh! http://www.flickr.com/photos/scalzi/1969151713/in/set-72157603091357751/ Be sure to read the comments. Some of them are so funny at mocking the visitors/museum.

I really need to look into Buddhism. I think I could really "get into" it as what little I do know of it I agree with. I've read articles about the Dalia Lama and interviews with him. I'm interested in learning about it. Have any reputable, good websites or book recs about it? What's the four continents and the Mt. Mehru debate? I'll have to look at that.