Top Russian writers are protesting plans by their government to remove Russian literary classics about the repression of the Soviet era from school curriculums. “The protesters allege that bureaucrats are trying to keep literature dealing with the purges of the Soviet era away from schoolchildren, presenting an anodyne version of the nation’s former imperial glory.”
Tag: 07.28.03
What It Means To Copy (And What’s Allowed)
Is copying a movie or music outright theft (piracy) as the movie and music industries claim? Maybe. But maybe not. There are lots of misconceptions as to what is stealing, what is fair use, and what is infringement of copyright. Here’s a primer on what is allowed and what isn’t.
Suing For The Music – Two Thousand Years Of Lawsuits
If it’s really true that 60 million Americans are swapping music files, and the recording industry has issued 900 subpoenas with the intent of suing every file swapper out there, how long will it take to get to all the “pirates?” According to one calculation: 2191.78 years to subpoena each person.
Why Do Dancers Do What They Do?
Tobi Tobias posed a question: “Some would say that dancing is the cruelest profession, all but guaranteeing grueling work, physical pain, poverty, and heartbreak. Yet the field has always been rich in aspirants willing to dedicate their lives to the art. Why?” Among those taking up the challenge of an answer are Mindy Aloff, Lila York and Maina Gielgud…
For Your Protection – Who Owns The Art
For a long time museums turned a blind eye as to whether the art it was acquiring was attained legally. Now there are myriad laws passed to deter theft of cultural property from one country to another. “What prompted this shift in global attention, when the world often turned a blind eye in the past?” And are these laws doing what they were supposed to do?
A Dedicated (Writing) Life
Book dedications can be over the top, but they often express a little piece of the writer’s personal situation at the time the book is published. Looking back over a career of books written, one can see an archaeology of personal fragments expressed in dedications…
Art-On-Demand
London’s National Gallery has introduced a digitizing/printing system that allows visitors to print out copies of artworks in its collection. “The ‘print on demand’ technology will allow visitors to browse through and print in reproduction quality A3, A4 and A5 size prints. By 2005 the gallery hopes to have the whole collection available.”
Making The Case For Russian Opera
Alex Ross writes that conductor Valery Gergiev is “the fiery angel of the Russian repertory, who has seemingly sworn not to get a full night’s sleep until Glinka’s operas are as familiar as Puccini’s.” His recent orgy of Russian operas performed at Lincoln Center wasn’t the biggest attendance driver but it made an excellent case for the golden era of Russian opera.
Remembering Emerson (If Not Reading Him)
It’s the 200th anniversary of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s birth. John Updike notes that Emerson is much honored, but less often read these days. “Emerson, with a cobbled-together mythology, in melodious accents that sincerely feigned the old Christian reassurances, sought to instill confidence and courage in his democratic audience, and it is for this, rather than for his mellowed powers of observation and wit, that he is honored, if honored more than read.”
Guthrie Posts Another Budget Surplus
Minnesota’s “Guthrie Theatre eked out its seventh consecutive operating surplus during the 2002-03 fiscal year, in which season subscriptions and total attendance declined and the value of the theater’s endowment plummeted by more than $8.5 million.”