Category: issues

“The case tests the so-called “first sale” doctrine, which generally allows the purchaser of copyrighted works to re-sell or use the work without the copyright holder’s permission. That’s why used bookstores, libraries, GameStop, video rental stores and even eBay are all legal. But how the doctrine applies to foreign-purchased works — the so-called gray market — has been a matter of considerable debate.”

“[W]hile the huge viral success of [Korean pop group] Psy’s hit has created a whole genre of jockey-based dance moves” – from dissident artist Ai Weiwei to London mayor Boris Johnson – “Gangnam is a place, too. It’s the Mayfair of Seoul, the high-rise district of the city just south of the river. Although it does feature one large and rather beautiful temple, Bongeun, for the most part, Gangnam is an upmarket shopping area.”

“Here, the bottomless capacity for affront of morally upright, often evangelically Christian, middle England clashes repeatedly with the patrician disdain of those men (and they were overwhelmingly men) who ran the culture industries, be they telly, theatre, cinema, magazines or pornography.”

The now-classic children’s album’s driving force remembers, in 1971, searching for books for her 3-year-old niece – and finding only (what now seem to us) rigid gender stereotypes. “My god, she thought. This is what she’s going to be reading. This is all there is for her to read. What am I going to do? Then she thought: I’ve got to make something that will obliterate this.”

Back in 1972, there were no mainstream songs or stories telling little girls that they could be pilots as well as stewardesses or athletes as well as cheerleaders – let alone telling boys that it could be okay to cry. Record labels and publishers weren’t eager to make such content, either. Fortunately, Thomas was determined – and she knew lots of famous people who could help.

To a considerable extent, yes – though for little boys, things aren’t so clear. Dan Kois checks in with some of the album’s creators, tries it out on a group of today’s grade-schoolers – and talks with their parents, who grew up with those songs.

“Even after controlling for all those things, the analysis found that having a creative class job dramatically reduced a person’s chance of being unemployed over the course of the crisis.”

“Creative Scotland, which distributes £80 million of Government and National Lottery funds, has announced new internal reforms a fortnight after its chairman, Sir Sandy Crombie, received an unprecedented letter of protest from more than 400 artists.”

The kingdom “wants to be taken seriously as a cultural contender – not only by buying in artistic endeavours from around the world but also in home-growing fresh local talent from scratch in a pointed mark of difference to its flashy neighbours in the desert. … Never mind the social and political restrictions preventing criticism of the royal family or showing anything too controversial.”

How do the country’s taxpayer-funded performing arts organisations balance the responsibility to provide opportunities to the nation’s own artists with the imperatives to present the best work possible – and to sell tickets, which often means engaging famous performers from overseas?