Cory Doctorow @ PSU
Posted by: dalas
I almost missed Cory Doctorow's lecture Thursday night at Portland State University due to highly unusual Max Train delays. Doctorow is a co-editor of Boing Boing, writer of fascinating science fiction, and a copyright activist. I had been looking forward to seeing him in person for a few weeks. As I stood on the platform checking the time and watching the number of waiting passengers grow, I felt like I was back in Brooklyn again, dealing with the A Train. Luckily, the Max was merciful and I got to the campus just in time.
The introduction was a little rocky. The professor who was doing the introducing got many of his "facts" about Doctorow wrong. For example, he said that Doctorow was visiting from UCLA, when in fact he is currently based out of USC, "Where we don't taser our students," he quipped.
However, as soon as the lecture proper was underway, Doctorow was in his element, and delivered a thought-provoking talk on the purpose of copyright. It's quite pointless for me to go into too much detail, since you can just listen to the lecture yourself, but I thought I would highlight a few points that I found particularly interesting.
To start with, Doctorow brought up an issue currently facing documentary filmmakers. I am a filmmaker myself, and prefer to work on documentary projects, so I was appalled to hear that we have now entered an age where it can be very difficult to get distribution for a film unless you have cleared everything that might possibly have a copyright attached to it that appears in even the smallest area of the screen. Just look around you as you move through the modern world and you'll see that it's pretty much an impossible task to turn on a camera and not capture a corporate logo, a piece of music drifting through the air, or an artist-created image on the shirt of a passerby. Mind you, you might not actually need the permission, but the very real threat of legal action is enough to dissuade many from doing business with you if you don't have permission.
On the subject of mashups, Doctorow pointed out that it's almost impossible to release a commercial mashup album unless you are on a major label that can "play ball" with all of the rightsholders involved. This would seem to have the effect of limiting the diversity of our culture. If there is a compulsory license for covering a song someone else wrote, why is there no similar compulsory license for sampling?
Also of interest to the particular choir that is reading this post were Doctorow's thoughts on blogging and copyright. He spoke about the No Electronic Theft Act, or NETA. Under NETA, each act of "copy and paste" that a blogger commits could be penalized by up to $150,000 in damages. There are currently no prosecutions, but wherever the money goes, the lawyers are sure to follow.
Finally, I want to touch on what Doctorow seems to view as one possible solution to the financial impact that unauthorized copying has on media creators, that being the concept of subscriptions. "Pay me for what I'll make tomorrow," he says. A very good idea in theory, and certainly one that should appeal to our Yankee ingenuity. However, the flaws immediately become apparent when you think of something like TV shows. You subscribe to cable in order to watch the next episode of that TV show you like, but these days it's just as easy to download that show on a torrent site.
I think we are instead facing a future in which it will become more important than ever for media creators to impress upon their audience a need to be supported. "Pay me so that I am able to make something tomorrow." Admittedly, this is not the ideal situation for media creators, but the "pirates" will most likely never be defeated, so the system has no choice but to adapt.
In closing, I leave you with a special message from Mr. Cory Doctorow himself:
A message from Cory Doctorow on Vimeo
Liveblogging Wii arrival
Posted by: kmikeym
It's 12:53 a.m. Mike and J.John are detangling the nest of cables to hook up the Wii. It came in a box with a lot of information booklets, which were summarily set aside (except for the one which talks about the sensor that goes near the TV. Pictures are in progress and more updates coming soon.
1:07 a.m.: Power on. Looks like controller calibration time. Front has port for SD card.
1:09 a.m.: Setting date and language prefs... The Lord's name has been used in vain twice in response to seeing control in action.
Time to enter console nickname... J.John chooses: Wii Denn.
Parental controls? No.
Time to set up John's Mii (personal profile).
1:20 a.m.: Now setting up weather channel. Connecting to internet via Wi-Fi (or Wii-Fi).
| www.flickr.com |
1:30 a.m.: Uh oh... Wii crashed. Rebooting.
1:35 a.m.: Perusing settings... SD card is 2 GB (compared to 8 MB for a standard PS2 memory card!)
1:38 a.m.: No weather or news channels. Apparently Nintendo doesn't have the service available yet :(
1:39 a.m.: Trying the Wii Shop. It links to your MyNintendo profile. Wii Shop Channel is OPEN! Buying points is required to get games and stuff. $10 for 1000 points. $5 for NES games, SNES games are $8, N64 games are $10, Sega Genesis games are $8 (altered beast is available, but John says it's shitty) -- no games worth buying as of now, says John.
1:45 a.m.: The Wii is watching. It's keeping track of play time stats and allows you to send messages to other people's Wiis.
1:47 a.m.: time for Wii Sports! ... or not... Game disc cannot be read. "this is XBox 360 all over again."
1:50 a.m.: Wii Sports is ON! Tennis, bowling, The whole set up feels like a Sports Channel. There is a FITNESS GAME!
1:54 a.m. John is playing Tennis. We have to make room. They warn you to make room. HE IS PLAYING. It's doubles tennis... John is losing 15-40. MATCH POINT... He's hitting it harder... HE MISSED, and lost.
1:57 a.m.: Curt has the other controller. Some serious sports action is about to take place... Hsving trouble with new controller. Also, the Wii isn't glowing blue yet... that seems bad to me. There are some issues here, but nothing to bad. CURT IS CONNECTED!
2:02 - Curt has an avatar now. Used one of the pre-set faces to set it up quick. Launching Wii Sports with TWO PEOPLE. Damn... Disc is crapping out again. This is bad news. Another reload, another disc problem. WTF?
2:07 - Curt found out that when you twist the controller ithe cursor hand also twists! AMAZING! There are a total of 48 channel spaces. Only six are used so far.
2:09 - Giving up on Sports disc... moving on to trauma center.
2:11 - using the wand is pretty cool. It's a lot easier than I feared it might be. As long as the Wiimote has a clear view of the sensor, the pointing is smooth.
2:13 - Opening the Trauma center... theme music is intense... The game recommends attaching the wrist strap and uses the nunchuck attachment. Opening is very similar to DS opening
2:21 - figuring out the controls was a little tough, but mike reports that once learned, they're really good for controlling the scalpel and forceps and other tools.
2:23 - Mike was ranked C for the first operation. John's entering the operating room to see if he can do better. Starting the operation... A patient has entered the OR with glass shards embedded in his body. Sutures complete... had a little trouble pulling out the glass shards. Now operating on the arm -- really crooked scalpel manuever. Glass is out, time to sew him up. Ranking: C.
Final Thoughts: It's 4:11 a.m. and I sort of want to keep playing. This thing is amazing. Everyone should go buy Nintendo stock right now (it's at 27.95 right now) because everyone who plays this thing is going to want one. Or more than one. John owns one, and I *STILL* want one. It's crazy amounts of fun multiplied by how many people are playing. I really need to go to sleep, but the Wii is going to be huge.
The E Lunch
Posted by: kmikeym
This game's (Enchanted Arms) claim to fame is an over-the-top gay character. It's also a perfect example of why I don't play RPGs.
Who wants to listen to all that just to get though lunch? It's like an anime version of a terrible family Thanksgiving.
