i`ve been listening to the radio and looking through the newspapers, actually i`m just familiarising myself with my industry, so when i do get a job, i have some idea how things are done to some extent.
every country i`ve worked in, has different rules about advertising. in trinidad you can`t name your competitor directly and that work because the whole industry is a good old boys club and clients aren`t necessarily gleaned through skill but who you know and play golf with on a weekend.
the first time i heard an agency say `no` to a client i was in florida at a meeting. this was our biggest client and my boss told the client no, my jaw was on the ground. never in my entire career, that`s when i realised that i was in a whole new playing field.
but that`s not the point of this post.
do you ever notice that you start writing something and one of the ancillary thoughts just decides it wants to take over the whole and you`re heading down a whole different path?
that`s the not the point either, just a thought?
the point finally
i`ve noticed, everything has fine print and disclaimers. from some conditions apply to may cause internal haemorrhaging. i know advertising is pretty much the business of selling lies but this getting ridiculous.
all these disclaimers and fine print mean that it`s no longer about blurring the lines or bending the truth, we`re misleading people outright and only because these are such litigious times, that the truth has to be mention in some small way.
next time one of these ads for prescription drugs that airs on tv all the time comes on, ignore the happy go lucky people depicted in the ads, and listen to the disclaimers and read the fine print at the bottom of the screen, it`s down right frightening.
let`s take enzyte, the natural pill for male enhancement, here`s one:
\”Individuals shown are paid models, and not necessarily Enzyte customers.\”
and if that isn`t enough:
\”These statements have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, and individual results may vary. Enzyte should be taken as part of a healthy lifestyle and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.\”
but this is the nail in the coffin, from the enzyte website:
\”Enzyte may help create firmer, fuller-feeling erections, but it cannot alter natural physical size.\”
doesn`t this negate the whole advertising campaign? no wonder they`re giving it away.
i could go on, but what is the point. pretty soon, i`ll be joining the masses telling you to buy this, wear that, use the other, else you wont be as cool, productive, smart as everyone else.
remember the snaffleburger corporation says: CONSUME! CONFORM! OBEY!
below are a pair of articles i wrote on digital rights ownership and management a little over two years ago, in the interim, some of the things i mention like DRM [Digital Rights Management] have moved from an emerging technology to full time commercial use, like at apple`s itunes music store. i made some changes and corrections, i hope you find it enlightening.
If you are under the mistaken impression as a legal software purchaser, that you own it, then you my friend have been completely deluded. As a software purchaser or should I say a software licenser what you pay for is the ability to use the software on the machine you installed it on. Dont believe me? He is a sample from a typical End User License Agreement or EULA from Aladdin Systems Stuffit:
The Software is owned by Aladdin Systems and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat the Software like any other copyrighted material (e.g., a book or musical recording). Paying the license fee allows you the right to use one copy of the Software on a single computer. You may not network the Software or otherwise use it or make it available for use on more than one computer at the same time. You may not rent or lease the Software, nor may you modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software. If you violate any part of this agreement, your right to use this Software terminates automatically and you must then destroy all copies of the Software in your possession.
Generally, software is distributed pursuant to EULAs. These EULAs often take the form of what is called a “shrink-wrap” or “click-wrap” agreement, where a user shows his or her assent to the contract by either breaking the shrink-wrap or clicking through an agreement when he or she installs the program.
The EULA for a particular piece of software may restrict users` rights to the software, including their right to make archival copies. Under some EULAs, users do not even own their copy of the software, but merely receive a license from the vendor to use the copy. The EULAs for individual software vary, so read the EULA for the software in question for details.
EULAs are somewhat specific to computer software. Most other forms of intellectual property are not distributed pursuant to a license. You don`t have to assent to a license agreement when you buy a book or music CD, for example.
EULAs began as a practice by software vendors in part because there were doubts in the early days of software programming (pre-1980) as to whether computer programs were copyrightable subject matter. Some people thought that copyright should and would be limited to more creative and non-functional works such as literary works, and there were some doubts as to whether copyright applied at all to computer programs.
The software industry used contracts to try to protect computer programs, fearing copyright law would not cover its work. Today, this practice continues even though it is now well established that copyright law does cover computer programs.
I guess youre wondering what all this has to do with you? and how you US law has any bearing on your life?
Well it can be summed up in three simple words Business Software Alliance. The global enforcement arm of the worlds major software manufacturers, they use their considerable resources to bring pressure to bear on goverments to pass legislation that is entirely benefical to them and not necessarily you the consumer. Legislation has already been passed almost everywhere on the planet which continues to infringe on your limited rights. In the software industry, cavet emptor is even worth the paper its printed on.
Now let`s look at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the other enforcement arm of the software, movie and record businesses and a possible horrific future of digital rights Palladium.
With the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US, end users have even less rights to the software, they have legally purchased. The Digital Millennium Act represents the United States` compliance with the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty (WIPO), signed in December 1997. WIPO was designed to usher international law into the e-commerce era by establishing consistent rules for protecting intellectual property rights in the borderless wilds of the Internet. To that end, the act will make it illegal to defeat copy protection. The final version included a hotly debated, broad provision that restricts technology itself, by making it illegal to manufacture or distribute any “product, service, device, component, or part thereof,” that`s primarily useful for cracking a copy-protection scheme. It casts a wide net that will ensnare more than copyright infringers the act will prohibit anyone from prying into the secrets of material they`ve bought and paid for, even if they have no intention of distributing, or even copying, that material.
The act has been the big stick many US film studios, record companies and software manufactures have applied pressure on the US Congress to pass more bills like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has allowed them to clamp down on new technologies.
The first real victims of this aggresive big stick policy were Linux users, with the extremes that the Motion Picture Association of America went after the creators and distributors of DeCSS. DeCSS is code that allows people to watch DVD movies on Linux-run computers. The application removes encryption, a big no-no under the DMCA.
Now they`ve gone to work on computer manufacturers and software developers, persuading them to release PCs with restrictive hardware, software and settings pre-installed.
Computer manufacturers seem more likely to produce computers that operate more like VCRs or DVD players than the PCs people are accustomed to. These machines have copy-protection embedded in the hardware, much like home recorders that keep people from making copies of videos they have purchased.
A possible abuse of the law and technology was Microsofts proposed security and rights management solution Palladium, which provides a computing platform on which you can`t tamper with the applications, and where these applications can communicate securely with the vendor. The obvious application is digital rights management (DRM): Disney will be able to sell you DVDs that will decrypt and run on a Palladium platform, but which you won`t be able to copy or use on a non-Palladium platform. The music industry will be able to sell you music downloads that you won`t be able to swap. They will be able to sell you CDs that you`ll only be able to play three times, or only on your birthday. [ed note: The iTunes music store is actually set up on a similar model, where tracks are licensed for only 5 devices] There is also the possiblity of remote censorship: the mechanisms designed to delete pirated music under remote control may be used to delete documents that a court (or a software company) has decided are offensive – this could be anything from pornography to writings that criticise political leaders. Software companies can also make it harder for you to switch to their competitors` products; for example, Word could encrypt all your documents using keys that only Microsoft products have access to; this would mean that you could only read them using Microsoft products and not with any competing word processor.
Welcome to 1984.
Technorati Tags:
drm, dmca, copyright, digital media
i`ve been hearing varying opinions on the blender 50 worst songs of all time and it got me thinking, these are just songs. some of them are one hit wonders, others are mostly talented musicians who just went wrong somewhere.
the 9th circle of my own personal musical hell is more about artistes whose every utterance cause my ears to haemorrhage and my brain to leak from every available orifice.
in my circle i`m strapped to a chair, front stage; with surround sound speakers around me tuned to the deadly quartet of celine dion, peter cetera, barbra striesand and the bastard child of all that is evil and wrong on this planet, michael bolton on lead vocals with musical accompaniment by yanni, kenny g, john tesh and ace cannon. background vocalists include neil sadaka, john denver, richard marx and the backstreet boys with guest raps by the cash money clique and a plethora of guest vocals, all of whose names escape me at the moment; singing a medley of their greatest hits, over and over and over again.
i`ll be the first to admit that even though my musical tastes are diverse, i listen to a great number of things; the current track being one in question; that most people find unappealing, but you don`t hear most of what i listen to on the radio with any regularity. these artistes; and i use the word loosely; have been unleashed on a unsuspecting public, repeatedly.
this is my own personal hell, but i`m sure you have one of your own as well.
You are a GRAMMAR GOD!
If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!
How grammatically sound are you?
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as if i didn`t already know this
we`re having our first official house guests this weekend. actually they arrive tonight. and house warming tomorrow, i`m excited, we`re excited. our apartment finally looks like we live here, the boxes are out of the living room, granted there are now a batch shoved into our closet and under a table in our room with the rest destined for the attic. we have pictures up on the wall, books on shelves, granted more books than available shelving, but it looks neat enough.
i hoping some one shows up with a digital camera this weekend and i`ll finally be able to post pictures of the place.
hope you all have a great weekend although, i`m sure, i`ll get sucked in by the addiction that is js at some point.
this week news broke that two male porn stars and at least one female had tested positive for HIV and i`m sure there are people who would say they deserved it, for their wicked lives. they are idiots, who deserve nothing but contempt and something equally communicable. but this is not about them, this about the reaction of the industry. they shut down. voluntarily. everyone is getting tested, people are being quarantined and for the next two months productions will cease. this is amazing. there are countries; hell even the US; that have not approached an HIV outbreak in a clear and effective manner.
yes, i understand it`s in the best interest of their business. but they didn`t hide and say, well it`s not happening. they approached it head on and are dealing with it. which is more than can be said for most corporations these days.
i`m sure the porno industry has its share of problems, but in terms of current business models, especially in light of volumes of corporate malfeasance and irresponsibility, maybe mainstream business can learn something from them.
hopefully the industry can withstand this debacle and the upcoming rounds of the obscenity witch hunt.
this is so obviously my day. i just got off the phone with our internet provider. apparently to stop spammers they`ve blocked the port for outgoing mail to any servers other than their own, so i can`t send mail via my mac.com address. it took me the better part of 20 minutes to find that out from them, then another 15 because i`m a mac user.
i finally get to a supervisor who gives me a list of things to go through, that i`ve already done, only to tell me, oh that`s apple`s problem. no halfwit, it`s yours you blocked the port. i finally get it through his thick skull and he tells me that can be remedied by buying a static ip address from them, ummmm no. while, i`m on the phone with this particular version of the telephone assistance primate, i realised that this company uses authentication on their outgoing mail servers, so theoretically i have no need to be on the phone because i could just use their own servers to send my mail.
i ask “wonder boy” on the phone if this is possible while setting it up anyway, only to have him deliver a resounding `No, it can`t be done` as i sent all the mail that had been backed up all morning via same method.
i`m sitting here wondering why do i call? what is the point? every time i have reason to call, it`s clear, i`m leaps and bounds ahead of them by the time they get on the phone. and they have the nerve to get that `i`m explain it to you simpleton` tone in their voice. and i have to resist telling them `i have knowledge that you haven`t begun to learn yet, asshat`
am i living in the land of the blind, so the one eyed man is king? or in this case, the person with less apparent cataracts?
i have a friend who had a network installation done recently, i took one look at it and realised it was crap work, her network has never worked right. because it was overly complicated and set up in such a manner that only by keeping my friend in the dark they could continuously milk her every time there was a problem.
there is a special hell for those who willing withhold knowledge.
edit: someone forwarded this link from salon, very interesting read.
I was in the middle of a post when JS went down on tuesday about the Jefferson Muzzles
“ the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment. Because the importance and value of free expression extend far beyond the First Amendment`s limit on government censorship, acts of private censorship are not spared consideration for the dubious honor of receiving a Muzzle.”
two days later it`s still on my mind and according to my own rules, it kept but that wasn`t the real focus of my post, according to my mother there are three sides to every tale but only one of them is the absolute truth.
perspective is an interesting thing and with only one side of a story, it`s hard to get a true picture. i`m open here, but not completely. there are things and people i don`t talk about either by request or conscious decision. in real life it`s similar. this has lead to a lot of loose talk, rumours, half truths, outright lies in some cases. it`s take me a while but i`ve developed a fairly thick skin, i vacillate between bemusement and righteous indignation depending on the story.
i have one thing to say at this point, how nice.
i`d been humming duelling banjos since friday when we left to go see vic`s mom. i`d been joking with vic that i might not make it back from meeting her family, but it was all said in jest. so it`s all out there now, it took a while but it`s done.
i had a great weekend, it was fun and comfortable and i was fed and fed and fed. i thought i was going to have to roll home. and speaking of which i`m back down from the 300+ mark, 288 and slipping. no fancy diet, unless you call not eating out a diet. we`ve been cooking and eating at home.
well i`m minding the boychick and friend so i should go see what they`re up to.
anon.
