Friday, February 27, 2004

Flying under the radar
Some genius at the NZ Herald decided to give local comedian Radar a weekly column in that esteemed paper - Hoo - bloody - rah! His first effort involves the invasion of his lounge by the compost raiders, and is highly entertaining. I suggest you to investigate this talented chaps fine wit. He spent last Xmas in Jerusalem, looking for the Intifada (Israeli/Palestinian conflict) - he didn't find it, but he did meet Yasser Arafat. Look out for the documentary film of his travels sometime later this year.
The pic in the paper has him smiling and looking all user friendly (scrubs up well, he does), however the pic on the Heralds website is Radar's 'serious young man' face. Scary.


The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put up a legal analysis of the Grey Tuesday protest, which strongly supports the protesters fair use rights, noting that EMI do not have federal copyright protection as the White Album came out prior to 1972 ....

"Are the Grey Tuesday protesters protected by fair use?
... There are a number of characteristics of the Grey Tuesday protest that would likely weigh in favor of those who post the Grey Album:

1 the posting of the Grey Album is for a noncommercial purpose;
2 downloads of the Grey Album do not substitute for purchases of the White Album;
3 the Grey Album is a transformative use of the White Album, not a wholesale copy; and
4 the posting of the Grey Album is intended as part of a commentary on the use of copyright law to stymie new kinds of musical creativity."

From Creative Commons site...
"For some people, the future of copyright law is here, and it looks a lot like Gilberto Gil. The Brazilian singer-songwriter plans to release a groundbreaking CD this winter, which will include three of his biggest hits from the 1970s. It isn't the content of the disc that makes it so novel, though -- it's the copyright notice that will accompany it." Read more here.

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