forgotten freedom burns

This is mostly going to be a clip entry, because there have been so many blog posts this week that made good points.

The slow demise of SL in Australia? I hope not, but things are looking grim.

Facebook now suggests people lie if they want to protect their privacy. The hell, Facebook?

The FTC suggests the biggest online threats to children are...other children. And there's really no way developed that's going to stop that...

Caledon establishes a new Crown Colony--on Blue Mars. And speaking of space travel, NASA is developing its own space MMO. Neat.

Botgirl tackles copybot issues, copyright infringement and inventory control--and gets it all wrong.

And the single scariest piece of legislation ever proposed, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is being fought in pitched battle in New Zealand. Here's hoping NZed wins.

Miss Dio refers to on of my entries in her latest on the topic of copyright infringement--and she also says something very thought-provoking: "One thing we do know for sure about the grid is that it is a festival of unintended consequences." Now there's a statement.

"But this time, they are actually trying to do something.

"Yeah, it may blow up in the their faces, it may do bizarre things we’ll all regret. But it’s something. It suggests to us that, hey, maybe there is someone on the other side of the equation that actually cares enough to try."

Here's to that. As much as I bash the Lindens and Linden corporatethought on this blog, I'm all for them trying to understand who we are and what we do. Maybe it will help, in the long run. I'm pessimistic, but then, that's just me.

Dusan Writer also takes on music in SL a bit--some of the drawbacks, some of the advantages, and I agree with the points made--and the comments following, while most of them I don't agree with, are at least intelligent, articulate and thought-provoking.

And I'll hold with what I say there--if the end goal of any performance is to get more listeners to hear what you do--on the off chance that some of those people will enjoy it enough to help finance your endeavor--then more ears is always better, and SL just can't provide those ears consistently. Micropayments through tips can help, yes, pay rent, advertise, all of that--but by and large, for merchants and musicians, it just won't pay the rent.

Speaking of music, Vimeo is currently being sued for copyright infringement. Why? Because a bunch of their employees created a fun video using Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta.

That link, by the way, is from Jonathan Coulton and Heather Gold. Why? Because, due to a copyright claim by Warner Music Group, I can't find the video of Harvey Danger singing it anywhere. They've even removed the song from his own music page on Last.fm!

This is actually one case where Warner Music Group is doing damage to their artist in pursuit of their cut of the profits; to wit, Harvey Danger himself, whose music is now nearly impossible to find. Just on a personal note, I myself, know fifteen people who have heard "Flagpole Sitta", fell in love with it, and bought albums. Bought, not lifted. Bought, not borrowed. Because they wanted to hear more of Harvey.

Now it's going to be impossible for people to do that. Why? It's not Danger getting in the way. It's Warner, throwing their weight around. It's Warner costing Harvey Danger new fans.

In this light, it's Warner responsible for "theft of content", in a sense, because they are forcing online sites to remove recorded--and in at least one case, fully authorized--content while the dispute rages on. Way to go.

Tying things up. I'll toss one more mention towards the Amazon bar to your left--mainly because I crawled through the warehouses and dragged in to the slideshow every single Munchkin game and expansion I could find, plus more books, some other card games, and candy for the hell of it--because Amazon has informed me that, until December 17th (US time), shipping is free (at least, domestically; I don't know on international shipping rates) over a certain figure--I think it's $25--and, on top of that, if you order by December 17th, you're insured delivery by the holidays.

Neat.

I'll also add that at Kouse's Sanctum, all the Advent gowns and gems are still available. You can stop in anytime and pick up what you haven't gotten to date. Prices range from L$30 at the most, to L$1 at the least, and all of it's lovely. Red, green, white and gold--lovely, lovely shaded fabrics, some outfits complete with shoes! What more can you ask for?

And that's all for now; off to ponder argyle dresses.