Well, this has certainly been an interesting past 48 hours.There's been lots of activity happening on this end about the deal with Viacom and me: how they claimed I infringed on their copyright after posting a video on YouTube that Viacom made by infringing on my copyright.It's evoked quite a bit more controversy than I had expected.May be able to talk about this more in the next few da...
Friday, August 31, 2007
This is decisiveness? Fred Thompson announces an announcement
Fred Thompson has said he'll announce his presidential candidacy on September 6th.Ummmm... isn't the announcement of an announcement the logical equivalent of the announcement itself?This is part of the reason why I'm so disgusted with modern politics: it's become too much about pomp and pageantry and public bravura, and so very little about substance.It's like this: the President of the United States is a position of service. Those who fully comprehend...
Thursday, August 30, 2007
More Viacom "infringement" insanity: Now lip-syncing to Prince is out
The story about my issue with Viacom and how they made YouTube take down a clip that I'd posted of a VH1 show which was already made with my own material is starting to get around. Now comes word of another crazy clip takedown on Viacom's orders...Kenya Allmond received notification from YouTube yesterday that one of her videos had been pulled for "copyright infringement". The offending material? A clip of her boyfriend lip-syncing to "Kiss" by...
This blog has been Slashdotted! (And guess why?)
So I just got online for the day and guess what I saw at the top of the page on Slashdot:It's the story about how Viacom claims I'm infringing on their copyright after they infringed on MY copyright! I just took a look at the original post that I made about this and in the last little while it's gone from 4 comments when I went to bed last night, to 20. I haven't read those...
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Cover for TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE album
The irony didn't sink in until a short while ago: all summer I've been championing the release of Steve Jablonsky's orchestral soundtrack from the movie Transformers. And Transformers was a Paramount production. Well, Paramount is owned by Viacom......and now Viacom is claiming that I infringed on its copyright because I uploaded onto YouTube a video that Viacom made by...
Viacom hits me with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a video that Viacom made by infringing on my own copyright!
UPDATE 09-12-2007 12:29 am EST: YouTube has restored the clip"Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "unbelievable gall or audacity". An example of it would be the story of the kid who murders both of his parents, then throws himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he’s an orphan.That's chutzpah. So is this: multimedia giant Viacom is claiming that I have violated...
This is why school uniforms are a horrible idea
Over 300 students - more than a third of the entire student body - at Eastern Guilford Middle School were detained part of the day on the first day of school yesterday because of dress code violations.These included wearing even the wrong kinds of belts.How much real education went on yesterday because the teachers and faculty were spending so much time looking for dress code violations?This is one of the reasons why P.O.T.S.M.O.D. fought and beat...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
First details about the TRANSFORMERS score CD (including possibility of a 2-disc set)!
Since news broke here on Sunday night that the soundtrack CD of Steve Jablonsky's score for Transformers would be coming out on October 9th from Warner Bros. Records, I've watched the album's product page on Amazon reflect considerable demand for this CD. When it first listed on Sunday night it was somewhere in the 40,000-ish area so far as sales ranks go. Yesterday morning around 10:30 EST it was #1,618. Currently it's at #217 and some are saying...
Sunday, August 26, 2007
TRANSFORMERS score album set for October 9th release!
Well folks, it's now looking like we have a release date for the album containing Steve Jablonsky's awesome score from the movie Transformers: it's apparently rolling out on October 9th, 2007!It must have just listed in the last little while 'cuz I checked Amazon at around 8 p.m. on Sunday night and it wasn't there. But sharp-eyed Transformers fan Chris Barry in the past hour found it here on Amazon and then spotted it here at Barnes & Noble...
Friday, August 24, 2007
She's DOCTOR Knight now!
Bigtime props to my sister Anita, who this weekend will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical Therapy. That makes Anita the first member of our family (that I know of) with a doctorate level of education!Can't say that Anita hasn't worked long and hard for this. Why, I remember the night Lisa and I got engaged, and we met Anita for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Asheville and while we were eating Anita was telling us all about this dead...
Mother Teresa and the long dark night of the Christian soul
It is far too easy a thing to believe in Christ.When I say that, there are two meanings that I have in mind: both radically different yet not mutually exclusive from each other at all.The first meaning is the one that I discovered a long time ago: that to believe in Christ is something that the least among us can do. Even the smallest child can have faith and know the fullness...
World War II sub found 65 years after disappearance
The U.S.S. Grunion, a submarine that was last heard from on July 30th, 1942, has been discovered on the floor of the Bering Sea.From the story...The mangled remains of a World War II submarine were found in the Bering Sea on Wednesday night, more than six decades after the U.S. Navy vessel disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska.The discovery of the...
Review of Marco van Bergen's ZERO HOUR!
Something I've been saying for awhile: the next revolution in film-making won't be in Hollywood. It'll be coming from out of the hinterlands. There is something really wonderful happening across the world, my friends: a new breed of filmmaker, and I'm seeing them as young as 12 all the way up to their 50s and 60s. People armed with the new technology of cheap digital filmmaking...
Stephen Sommers directing G.I. Joe movie (plus who might be writing the script)
No not a remake of The Story of G.I. Joe, the 1945 movie about Ernie Pyle, and it's not a movie about the foot-tall action figure that your daddy might have played with. Sommers is directing G.I. Joe, a big-screen flick of the extremely popular toy line from the 1980s.From the story...While G.I. Joe toys have been around for decades, the movie will be based on the toy line launched in the 1980s, which also was tied to a Saturday morning cartoon...
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Software pirate sentenced by government to use Windows
Scott McCausland pled guilty to uploading Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith onto the Internet a day before the movie's release in May of 2005. He received 5 months in jail and then 5 months home confinement. As part of that part of his sentence, McCausland agreed to have some tracking software installed on his computer.There's just one problem: McCausland is a Linux user, and the government doesn't have any tracking software that runs...
Bush: Another who fiddles while the town burns down
Here is a rendering based on various busts and statues of the mad Roman emperor Nero...And here is George W. Bush during his speech yesterday..."In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will...
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS trailer is online
Actually it's been online for about 2 weeks now but it somehow didn't show up on my radar until this morning...Mash down here for the trailer for National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I absolutely loved the first movie: it was like historical pornography. This new film is said to have Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) wound up in a plot involving the Lincoln assassination,...
