Having trouble sorting through competing claims in the intellectual property wars? The Electronic Frontier Foundation issues a report called “Unintended Consequences” that documents the harm to the public interest since passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998. Among the documentation are examples of the chilling of free speech and scientific research, jeopardization of fair use, and the choking of competition and innovation.”
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Some Public Interest In The Copyright Wars?
Is progress being made in the battle over making copyright as “public-friendly” as possible? Perhaps. “Technologically speaking, at any rate – tomorrow is not on the side of the copyright control freaks. Information doesn’t want to be free, but customers definitely want it to.” And “at long last, tech companies are speaking up against the threat not just to their customers’ rights but to their own ability to innovate and sell products. The entertainment people are hardly discouraged. They have far more clout than any other parties in this war, and they’ve used it.”
Maori Protest Tom Cruise Movie Filming
Maori elders have told the makers of a £70 million film starring Tom Cruise that they cannot film a New Zealand volcano crucial to the script because it is sacred. Spokesmen for several of the region’s Maori tribes have complained that ‘there has been no financial recognition of their interest in the mountain’.”
Korean Movie-Watching Soars
Following trends elsewhere, Korean movie attendance was up in 2002, and 47 percent of all tickets sold were to Korean-made movies. After 9/11 2001, “foreign films saw a rise of only 6.6 percent while Korean films saw an abrupt increase of 96.8 percent. A total of 78 films were produced domestically, and foreign sales came to approximately $15 million. The average Korean saw 2.27 films last year, the most since 1975.”
Remembering Nureyev
It’s been ten years since Rudolf Nueyev died. He has a long relationship with the city of Vienna, and the Staatsoper has staged a commemoration of his career. “The programme insisted upon Nureyev as apostle of the Russian classic repertory. It is only as you consider the list of his stagings, the revisions and re-workings that constantly occupied him, that you realise the ceaseless energy, the prodigious determination to ‘do better’, that marked Nureyev’s creative life.
Koreans Protest Bond Movie
Koreans – North and South – are objecting to how Koreans are portrayed in the latest James Bond movie. “The MGM hit proves that the US is the ‘headquarters that spreads abnormality, degeneration, violence and . . . corrupt sex culture,’ said North Korea’s Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.”
The Rap On Learning
“Teachers nationwide are using rap – the street-savvy, pop-locking, rhyming creations of Shakur, Geto Boys, Run-DMC and others – to teach history and English. Some colleges are even training future educators to weave rap into high school lessons. To some parents and teachers, the idea of mentioning Grandmaster Flash in the same breath as T.S. Eliot is wack. They reject the notion that rap, with its raw language and vivid depictions of violence, has anything in common with literature. But those who use it to teach say rap can be intellectually provocative, shedding light on the grand themes of love, war and oppression in much the same way as classic fiction.”
State Of The Book Biz – Circa 2002
What sold? Familiar names…”John Grisham, James Patterson, Danielle Steel, Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark had a total of 15 books on last year’s hardcover fiction charts; that’s 16.6% of all available slots in the course of the year.” The five biggest publishers accounted for 77 percent of all books on the Bestseller lists…
Last Week Blamed, This Week Nominated… Rappers And The Brits
Last week British culture minister Kim Howells blasted rappers for promoting violence. This week the Brits music awards nominations are out, and “the list is thick with rappers and Dr Howells’ particular bêtes noires, those ‘idiots’ from So Solid Crew – as he put it – are nominated twice.”
Vying For The Richest Museum Prize
Museums big and small across the UK are battling for the first £100,000 Gulbenkian prize. “The prize is worth almost £40,000 more than any other. It was intended to create a buzz in the museum world on a par with the Turner and the Booker prizes in visual arts and literature. The list is scrupulously balanced in scale and geography from Cornwall to Dundee.”