That’s about the longest I’ve gone without posting, and I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been so successfully cranking away on Sunborn. And while indeed I have been working on Sunborn, it’s been slow progress. Life has been very full on the family front: wrestling meets with my older daughter (who is now a junior in high school), various homeschooling activities with my younger daughter (eighth grade, but just starting to tackle a college intro course in cosmology, which she is auditing), new job for my wife, and…well, it’s all great stuff. The only down side is, when I do sit down to write, I’m having to reach hard to find creative energy.
So I’ll be leaving this to get back to that in a moment, but I wanted to record some stray thoughts prompted by today’s reading. Followers of the comic strip Get Fuzzy—and I’m as big a fan as they come—have no doubt been enjoying the last week’s worth of strips featuring Bucky as a budding screenwriter, and Rob as his source of feedback. If you don’t get it in your local paper, read it online. You might start with the February 1 strip, and work your way forward. (How not to workshop your writing!)
The Washington Post online today points to a very interesting article from PC World, Hollywood vs. Your PC, Round 2. In brief, the digital video equipment in our near future is going to be full of barricades to prevent us from recording desirable content on TV. (Same with high-def radio.) Digital rights management being pushed by the entertainment industry will screw the consumer, in order to guarantee continued huge profits to the content providers. (Probably not to the writers behind the content providers, but that’s another discussion.) Sony’s recent escapade with CD protection could be just an opening round. As one pundit put it, the only way to prevent it might be for consumers to just refuse to buy the equipment they’re getting ready to offer us. (Not a big personal issue there for me. Any piece of entertainment electronics over $200 is unlikely to make it into our house in the near future. So we won’t be buying high-def real soon, anyway. But I’m sure going to keep recording those great old movies on Turner Classic, while I can.)
Okay, I said I was getting back to the book, and that’s what I’m gonna do. So long, for now!
substandardTim
as a musician myself (http://www.crewmannumber7.com) I can see the benefits of trying to stop all the illegal downloading but at the same time completely agree that copy protection is just going way too far. Personally I think if someone has paid for it then it is theirs to do with as they please.
substandardTim
by the way I normally just post as “Tim”, somehow I’ve got two different accounts.
Jeffrey A. Carver
Hi Tim — Yeah, I want to stop piracy, too. Even gave some cold, hard cash to Harlan Ellison’s legal fight against internet pirates. At the same time, the courts ruled long ago that it was legal to record (for example) TV shows, for personal use. That right should not be rolled back, as the studios want it to be. Copyright is not an absolute, and it was not intended solely for the benefit of the creator of works. Much of the rationale behind it was to encourage the creation and dissemination of original works, for the benefit of society as a whole.