spriteleigh

Michael Geist sez, "Last month, there were several Canadian media reports on how the work of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, had entered the public domain. While this was oddly described as a 'copyright quirk', it was no quirk. The term of copyright in Canada (alongside TPP countries such as Japan and New Zealand) is presently life of the author plus an additional 50 years, a term that meets the international standard set by the Berne Convention. Those countries now appear to have caved to U.S. pressure as there are reports that they have agreed to extend to life plus 70 years as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership." Read the rest

Yasujirō Ozu

"Yasujiro Ozu, the man whom his kinsmen consider the most Japanese of all film directors, had but one major subject, the Japanese family," writes Donald Richie in his definitive study Ozu: His Life and Films, "and but one major theme, its dissolution." Read the rest

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This funny commercial for Snickers set to air during the Super Bowl adds Steve Buscemi and Danny Trejo to the classic Brady Bunch episode in which Marcia gets smacked in the nose with a football thrown by Peter. "Making of" footage is featured in the video below. I don't know about you, but I think Buscemi makes a lovely Jan!

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Fadi Saleh of the YouTube channel baracksdubs has been working steadily to edit the president into singing songs for years now. This time he’s outdone himself, as Obama does the Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars song “Uptown Funk.” -via Viral Viral Videos

Two professional warriors face off against each other in a refined yet brutal form of combat. This is sword fight of cinema, which is the source of some of the most compelling scenes in film history. Clara Darko rounded up selections of 60 great movie sword fights, including scenes from The Princess Bride, Star Wars, Rob Roy, Kill Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean, among many more. They're arranged from a cautious beginning to a bloody end. She notes that the soundtrack, which was very well selected, is from Kill Bill.

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-via io9

Deb Chachra, a brilliant engineer, teacher and thinker, explains why she doesn't identify as a "maker" -- because when we elevate "makers" over maintainers, carers, and do-ers, we carry on the tradition of elevating traditionally male work over traditionally female work. Read the rest

My new Locus column, A New Deal for Copyright, summarizes the argument in my book Information Doesn't Want to Be Free, and proposes a set of policy changes we could make that would help artists make money in the Internet age while decoupling copyright from Internet surveillance and censorship. Read the rest

CBC interviews Robert Aschberg, who is hosting a new reality TV show in Sweden about exposing online bullies.

The Swedish reality TV show Trolljägarna (Troll Hunter) sets out to expose the anonymous users and shady characters fuelling online hatred and harassment.

Julia Reda, the sharp-as-a-tack Member of the European Parliament for the German Pirate Party, has just tendered her draft report on copyright reform in the EU. It is full of amazingly sensible suggestions. Read the rest

All I can do is scream FUCK YES at the top of my lungs.

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More than a dozen years ago (yikes) Depeche Mode did a contest where they invited people to remix their then-latest single “I Feel Love,” for some prize I do not remember because, yeah, like I was going to win. Nevertheless I’m a Depeche Mode fan and I thought it would be fun to take a crack at it. I posted the resulting remix before, but now I have the ability to do the little clicky streaming thing, so I thought I’d post again. Here you go.

And for compare and contrast, the original single.

(I did not, in fact, win the contest. Oh, well. At least I had that writing thing to fall back on.)

EFF has released its mobile app to help people join in important, timely struggles, but you can't get it for your Iphone or Ipad, because Apple insists that EFF use DRM, and this is contrary to everything it stands for. Read the rest

Doc Searls and David Weinberger, two of the original Cluetrain Manifesto authors, have revisited their canonical work of Internet wisdom, publishing a new, remix-friendly document called New Clues; it's funny, sad, humble and inspiring. Read the rest

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I spent the last ten years of my radio career playing country music, and I have to say that this is a pretty good song. The problem is that it’s supposed to be six different songs, all released by different artists in 2012, 2013, and 2014. But once you start mashing them up, you see they are completely interchangeable. The songs are:

"Sure Be Cool If You Did"- Blake Shelton
"Drunk on You"- Luke Bryan
"Chillin' It"- Cole Swindell
"Close Your Eyes"- Parmalee
"This is How We Roll"- Florida Georgia Line
"Ready, Set, Roll"- Chase Rice

I swore off country music when I retired from the business, so I’m not familiar with any of them. But if I were, I’d be tempted to do exactly this. The mashup is from Gregory Todd, an aspiring songwriter in Nashville. I think he’s found the tune that will make him a success. -via Digg  

Windows: We've all done it: in the middle of writing you get a notification that looks a lot more interesting, then another, and another. Suddenly, you're distracted and procrastinating. FORCEdraft is a writing tool that stays open and blocks everything else on your computer until you hit the writing goal you set in the beginning.

Read more...

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If you were going to mash up two things that were as opposite as you could think of, maybe Happy Days and Pulp Fiction would occur to you. Otherwise, I don’t know how Robert Jones and Darrin Fullerton ever came up with this concept, but they made it work. You may suffer from a slight case of cognitive dissonance watching this, but the familiar, bouncy music will make it easier. -Thanks, Robert!

YouTuber rhotoscopic stabilized United 93 footage from the 2006 film, illustrating why shaky-cam is an often-used creative choice. Read the rest

Artist Oliver Laric worked with the Usher Gallery and The Collection in Lincoln to create 3D scans of their collections, then made the files available online. The art that emerged is varied and sometimes astonishing, like the work above by Leah Ferrini. Read the rest

If you like video games that allow you to build your own levels using in-game world building toolkits then you probably already know about LittleBigPlanet, the game with the most versatile game creation toolkit ever. 

Anybody can build the most amazing levels in LBP and let other players to take a run through their world, and as one contributor proved you can even recreate the world found in your favorite classic video game...in it's epic scale entirety.

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Jamie Colliver spent three long years constructing an amazingly faithful recreation of Final Fantasy VIIin its entirety in LittleBigPlanet, and now the Playstation of today has a little bit of the classic PSOne in its memory banks.

-Via Gamma Squad

I love audiobooks, but I hate DRM (actually, I think it's an existential threat to humanity), and since Audible requires all its books to be sold with DRM (even when the publishers object), that's left me with limited options -- until 2014, when I discovered Downpour. Read the rest

Jennifer Jenkins writes, "What could have been entering the public domain in the US on January 1, 2015? Under the law that existed until 1978 -- Works from 1958. The films 'Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,' and 'Gigi,' the books 'Our Man in Havana,' 'The Once and Future King,' and 'Things Fall Apart,' the songs 'All I Have to Do Is Dream' and 'Yakety Yak,' and more -- What is entering the public domain this January 1? Not a single published work." Read the rest

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Glover produced “The Hobbit Song” by remixing sounds, effects, and dialogue samples from The Hobbit trilogy using Logic Pro X. The accompanying video is a visual feast from the three films. This video may prove to be an earworm. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Yoon Mi Rae is set to sue Sony over the inclusion of her song "Touch Love" in The Interview, which, she says, Sony failed to license for the film. Read the rest

DeviantART member DrFaustusAU does all sorts of inventive mashups, using different entertainment franchises and mimicking the styles of other artists. His impressions of Dr. Seuss are particularly good, which he demonstrates by showing Suess-style versions of The Silence of the Lambs, The Last of Us, and other horror movies and video games.

Kyle sez, "Bumperactive custom sticker shop presents a curated selection of Yuletide media ephemera spanning six decades: The 2014 Holiday BUMPERJAM! Skeletor learns the true meaning of Christmas? Check. Santa vs. The Martians? Check. Nutmeg?! CHECK. When all else is lost and Christmas needs saving, the BUMPERJAM is 100% Guaranteed to change the subject."

Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG, the free/open version of PGP) relies on donations to pay developers to keep the project alive and viable; as one of its millions of users, I am grateful and indebted to the people who keep it alive and that's why I've just donated to the project. Read the rest