Copyright Holders Should Take Advice From Neil Gaiman

Entertainment, Internet

15 Feb

The battle against copyright infringement is something I’ve always frowned upon, not because I don’t think authors should have the right to protect their material, but because of the way it is usually done. The likes of RIAA spend millions in lawsuits every year, some of them as ridiculous as suing a student for $675.000 for downloading and sharing 30 songs.

So it’s great to hear, directly from someone who has had their work “stolen” several times, that this “stealing” actually helps the author. Neil Gaiman, a best-selling author and a creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama, explains how he discovered that piracy is not really something to be feared. Money quote:

Nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free. What you’re actually doing is advertising. You’re reaching more people. You’re raising awareness.

That about sums it all up, and it’s something I have been saying for a while now. And I believe this not only applies to books, but also movies, music and games.

In related news, the Canadian torrent site isoHunt has been sued for $4 million in a major attack by 26 record labels in Canada.

(Source: ORGZine)

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Cool Music Video Made With Kinect

Gadgets, Music

10 Feb

Moullinex – Catalina from Moullinex on Vimeo.

One can only be amazed with the impressive Kinect hacks that people come up with. And this music video by Moullinex is a very good example. The “data points” were captured using the Kinect, and after some clean-up (like eliminating the background) they used Cinema 4D to animate the frames and then After Effects for the final touches. The whole process is described here, including the project files.

It reminds me of Radiohead’s House of Cards, although this one was done using just a Kinect, instead of the “64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute” used in the Radiohead video.

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Amazon Selling The WikiLeaks Cables For Kindle

Books, Technology

9 Dec

Wikileaks in Amazon Kindle store

Oh, the irony of all this…

Amazon, that last week stopped hosting the WikiLeaks cables because the content was against its Terms of Service, is now selling a Kindle book with those same cables. Yes, you read that right! For under €10 you can buy the Kindle book titled “WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies. All cables with tags from 1- 5000”.

This looks like the work of the same people that are fighting to keep the WikiLeaks content available for all. And if the reviews are any indication, it’s doing its job in turning people against Amazon.

I just think it’s hilarious, and I’m surprised that Amazon doesn’t keep an eye on the content published to its store. It’s not like it’s the first time it ever happened, or did they already forget about “A Pedophile’s Guide”?

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How To Get To Places

Funny, Music

21 Oct

How To Get To Places

(GraphJam)

A little help on the references:

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Galway Comedy Festival 2010

Entertainment

20 Oct

Galway Comedy Festival 2010 logoIf you’re in or around Galway for the next few I think the Galway Comedy Festival is definitely worth a look. From today to next Sunday, more than 40 comedians will be appearing in venues all around the city. Rich Hall, Phil Nichol, Brendon Burns, David O’ Doherty, Phill Jupitus, Jason Byrne, Andrew Maxwell, Maeve Higgins, Colin Murphy, Rubberbandits and Dead Cat Bounce are just some of them.

In last year’s edition I had the pleasure of watching Al Pitcher and this year I’ll go for Rich Hall.

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