On Friday night, my son and his friend wanted to watch either Thor or Captain America. We don’t have cable, but I’m hooked up with iTunes and Amazon. All I wanted to do was rent one of them. But I couldn’t. I could not. I could only buy them. I was dying to give them $5, but it wasn’t available. So, either I have to have Netflix, find a video store (do those even exist any more?).
All posts tagged media
How Do We Get To Fair? The Video Industry and Tech Change
Posted by Jim Caccamo on June 4, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/06/04/how-do-we-get-to-fair-the-video-industry-and-tech-change/
Policy Can Be Changed: PIPA and Protest
A couple of months ago, the web went dark in protest of the SOPA/PIPA legislation. I wrote a post at the time over at CatholicMoralTheology.com blog. In broad strokes, the legislation was aimed at trying to develop mechanisms for dealing with clear infringement of copyright that occurs online. But in figuring out mechanisms to do so, legislators promoted policies that infringed upon legitimate use and set up pretty draconian enforcement schemes that some said would fundamentally damage the systems that the net is built on. The RIAA and MPAA disagreed, but legislators quickly reversed course, perhaps realizing they were out of there depth.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 24, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/24/senator-admits-sopa-really-did-pose-some-risk-to-the-internet-ars-technica/
Vogue’s Human Move
The New York Times’ Eric Wilson recently reported that Vogue magazine will institute a new policy in which it agrees to stop using models under 16 years of age and models “who, from the viewpoint of the editors, appear to have an eating disorder.” The change, which will apply to all of its 19 international editions, is being done, according to Jonathan Newhouse (Chairman of parent company Condé Nast International) to “reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers.”
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 16, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/16/vogue-bans-anorexic-models/
Back It Up Multiple Times
If you’ve never lost data, either by accident (say, a drive died) as the result of something you did, you will. It is only a matter of time. Effective backups are a must. Actually, several layers of backups. Kottke.org has a great little video about how Pixar almost deleted Toy Story 2 (via Dave Pell at Next Draft.) Watch it, it is only a couple minutes long. I’ve had some version of all of these happen, but never with so much at stake. Very scary.
Oren Jacob (who is in the video) fleshed out the story a bit at Quora, adding my favorite tidbit to the story:
And then, some months later, Pixar rewrote the film from almost the ground up, and we made ToyStory2 again. That rewritten film [not the one we had to recover] was the one you saw in theatres and that you can watch now on BluRay.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 15, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/15/back-it-up-multiple-times/
Seriously? Transparency Isn’t Our Strong Suit
From Canadian copyright expert Michael Geist:
[United States Trade Representative] Ambassador Ron Kirk has responded to a letter signed by dozens of legal academics (I signed on) expressing concern with the lack of transparency associated with the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. Kirk says he is “strongly offended by the assertion that our process has been non-transparent and lacked public participation.”
Ah, you have to love the rhetoric. A couple of years ago, President Obama refused to make public the ACTA antipiracy legislation that he was working out with European countries, citing national security interests. People found out about it only through leaks. The SOPA/PIPA legislation made it to the floors of the House and Senate without the public knowing about it. When people found out, the only possible way to do “public commment” was a massive online campaign, including taking sites like Wikipedia dark in protest. The CISPA legislation was passed by the house last month in a rush before anyone had a chance to contact their representatives. On the face of it, these seem to support the plain sense meanings of both “non-transparent” and “lacking in public participation”.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 12, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/12/seriously-transparency-isnt-our-strong-suit/
Seriously?!
As a followup to a previous post, no, Rupert, affecting an air of faux innocence does not count as a valid argumentation style in the adult world.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 8, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/08/seriously/
Rewiring Virtue 