Category: issues

“The European Parliament has approved a controversial piracy law that would allow local police to raid the homes and offices of suspected intellectual-property pirates, search their financial records and even freeze suspects’ bank accounts. The European Union’s directive covers selling everything from pirated CDs and counterfeit toys to fake Chanel and Viagra.”

People who share digital files of music and movies aren’t pirates, an internet advocacy group tells a Canadian judge. “The music industry’s “war against file sharing,” if successful, will mean “significant collateral damage” to the rights and interests of Internet users, a federal court was told Monday.”

America’s morality police are on the warpath again. “The threat of tougher punishment for those who outrage public decency has the broadcast industry in a semi-panic. The National Assn. of Broadcasters issued a statement last week that, somewhat nervously, said, ‘We hear the call of legislators and are committed to taking voluntary action to address this issue.’ One wonders exactly what that portends.”

The US continues its puzzling policy of denying visas to artists wanting to visit the United States. Latest victim, reports a gallery in Washington DC, is Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, whose work is in the permanent collection of American museums including The Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She’s visited the US many times, but her visa was denied to attend the opening of her new show at DC’s Fraser Gallery.

A bill providing $21 million in state funding for the arts is being considered by the Florida legislature this week. “It marks the end of a one-year funding hiatus begun when the Legislature emptied the state’s arts trust funds, leaving no money for cultural grants. Florida’s museums and other arts centers have more than $8 million in private donations from as far back as 1999 that they can’t touch, awaiting matching state money.”

Miami’s new Performing Arts Center is in trouble. The $255 million project is late and over-budget. “With construction costs threatening to spiral ‘out of control,’ the Performing Arts Center’s completion date has been pushed back about another six months to the summer of 2006. Change orders from the builders requesting more money are pouring into Miami-Dade County at the rate of $1 million a week. County officials fear cost overruns could reach close to $100 million.”

Across America “police have been secretly keeping tabs on dozens of visiting rap artists such as 50 Cent, Ja Rule and P. Diddy. At issue: Are investigators violating constitutional freedoms by gathering dossiers and taking pictures of artists in public places — merely because they’re part of a hip-hop industry that has been tainted by murderous violence?”

Revelations that American police officers nationwide have been tracking rappers’ movements have shocked some. Using a police network “to track rappers takes Big Brother tactics to a new, ”onerous” level. ‘This is, from what I can tell, unprecedented. There’s been nothing on that scale.”

For years, Kurdish artists documented Saddam Hussein’s crimes against Kurds. Now, “with Saddam in a prison cell, some Kurdish artists and intellectuals are putting words and images into a new battle for political goals and a dream of a longed-for homeland.”

What should become of an artist’s unplubished work after they’re dead? “One school of thought says if a composer, writer or painter does not wish certain works to be seen or heard they should destroy them; that, indeed, leaving them in existence is a tacit acceptance that they will see the light of day eventually.” And yet, seeing (or listening to) this work often leads to insight on the “official ouevre.