Posts by David Hamilton
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
This
The role was played by actor Keanu Reeves
and this
whiff of reaching for spurious "contemporary relevance"
amongst other things really killed The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'm really looking forward to Watchmen but I'm sad about the lack of large squid, I'm sure we could even supply one from our southern waters. Also an animated 'Tales of the Black Freighter' was apparently originally going to be in the movie but cut due to length considerations. According to Wikipedia they may release a DVD extended version with it spliced in again as per Zack Snyder's original vision. Hope so.
-
My favourite Manatee related youtube video:
-
Random holiday request: the ideal summer beer. I have tried the Monteith's Summer Ale many a time but am tiring of the honey-spiciness and require a suitable light refreshing alternative (preferably not at highway-robbery boutique prices, but if it's good enough...). Thoughts?
I second Robyn's yeuch on the Radler. I've been drinking a bit of Mac's Sun Dance, it's crisp and refreshing, a good summer beer. If you see it, TaaKawa is also very nice, light with a hint of peppery kawakawa.
-
When I first arrived in Auckland, tired, poor, and as part of a huddled mass yearning to breathe free, a customs dog took exception to my handluggage, which was a small day pack.
I had the same thing happen, a very excited beagle jumping up at my backpack. It made me a little nervous but the handler just asked me if I'd had fruit in it in the last day or so.
-
nothing in Hamilton to mark it? that's just wrong
Actually in an odd confluence of topics I was in Norway over winter so I would have missed it even if there was something going on. Google says there was. I reckon a huge bonfire down by the lake would be sweet.
-
re. Matariki..ABSOLUTELY I'll be signing that petition.
One of my problem with winters in NZ has always been the lack a real heartwarming celebration in the middle of winter that cuts the cold/ rainy season in half.+1
Had to look it up to be honest but we should definitely give queens birthday the boot in favour of Matariki. Or just add it.
Could you make lanterns out of kumara? (You can make a really cool one out of a mandarin.)
I think a large, bulbous, growth hormoned kumara would look scarier than any pumpkin even before carving. I bet pungas would make a great scary face carving medium too.
-
That's why the idea of renewable copyright terms appeal to me. For example, perhaps 15 years from initial publication, and then you can renew for a small fee (basically enough to make it not worthwhile if you're not doing anything with the work) for another 15 years.
This means abandoned stuff is available to the public reasonably quickly, but for stuff still in use by the copyright holder, they can hold the rights for a longer time. I consider that kind of thing a decent trade-off between the social good and providing incentives for creation.
I like this idea.
Something that seems relevant is Abandonware, computer games that you can no longer buy where the copyright status is unclear. It's come about because of the young and volatile nature of the software industry where companies go bust or merge into others that might not support the game. While copyright presumably legally rests somewhere, since it is unavailable for sale and unsupported it is considered ok to download and play.
-
Independant documentary makers have to be careful that they don't accidentally include a clip of The Simpsons showing on a TV somewhere, or they have to pay Fox ludicrous amounts for it. They have to be careful of incidental music playing, too.
Copyright law allows some people to be dicks about it, but that doesn't mean creators don't deserve protection.
Not everything has to be about the creator.
But we should allow creators some confidence that
a) someone else wont make bajillions of dollars with their creation
b) they should be able to have some (all?) say in what happens to itIt seems a lot of the bad examples are from the owners of the "rights" - often large, profit motivated companies - enforcing those rights in some overzealous way. What if rights couldn't be bought and sold like that?
With the brilliant graphic novel Watchmen, the author Alan Moore doesn't want it made into a movie. But it is. And maybe that's ok. Hollywood originally wanted to "update" it though to be about the war on terror. If you haven't read it, take my word for it that it's a terrible idea, completely undermines the central theme and clearly demonstrates a lack of respect and understanding for the source material. Luckily Zack Snyder has a bit more vision than that and has chosen to follow the book. But we aren't often that lucky.
Copyrights entering public domain might be a good thing for innovation and access, but there will be people in there bastardising the source material and reaping the rewards while the creator looks on.
-
...because, "Intellectual Property" is simply and expression of ideas. We have ideas all the time, probably hundreds a day. Writing those ideas down is a pretty trivial task (whether in book or computer code form). The idea that the action of writing out an idea should somehow exclude everyone else having a similar thought and acting upon it is not only repugnant, it is stupid.
This is true, but as robbery said earlier about songs, a creative work is not just an idea, it's a long hard slog that involves many specialist skills. Anyone can write a story, but very few can write a good story and it usually involves a hell of a lot more than just putting the words on paper. For me at least my indignation about having something stolen is proportional to the amount of time and effort I've put in. And also as I alluded to before and Islander has said, how much of me ends up in there.
Creative works can be a representation of deep things about a person in a way that other types of IP aren't. Perhaps part of the problem is that the same copyright law is used in both cases.
-
How would you ever progress a theme, then?
This already happens all the time without circumventing copyright. Exploring similar themes, ideas, places and stories to someone else in whatever creative media is allowed right? Golden age sci fi authors didn't have to steal from each other to progress the overall themes.
It's how it works. Without reinvigorating the public domain, the whole thing goes rancid and we enter a dark age whre no one can create anything because everyone is holding onto whatever copyrights they hold (or can grab).
Or, you know, you can create something. Even something quite similar. So you can't write a book set in Narnia or Middle Earth. Is that really stopping you?
Copyright is not a property right. It's a licence to gain primary benefit from the creation of some content, whether artistic, scientific or whatever.
Benefit is one side of it. An equally important side is control, where you get to decide what happens to the ideas, people, places, sounds, objects, stories you've created that come directly out of who you are. You don't have to go far to see someone - even when authorised - making a hash of continuing or expanding on some genius piece of creative work.
I don't think what you're suggesting is without merit, people can do cool things with existing IP, but it's hardly the whole picture.