Blackmoor Vituperative

Interesting news for Phantasm fans:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – New Line Cinema is in final negotiations with filmmaker Don Coscarelli to bring the cult horror film “Phantasm” back to the big screen….

Coscarelli also co-wrote and directed 1982’s “The Beastmaster” and wrote and directed “Bubba Ho-tep” (2002), which starred Bruce Campbell (news) and the late Ossie Davis as nursing-home residents Elvis Presley and John F. Kennedy, battling a mummy. (Yahoo! News, (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050310/film_nm/film_phantasm_dc)

Phantasm was a great movie, particularly for a low-budget ’70s horror flick. It was inventive and pretty damned scary. Part of the appeal of Phantasm, for me, stemmed from the physical presence of Angus Scrimm, who can be one seriously scary dude. Another thing which made it resonate with me was that, like most Lovecraft stories, the setting is a small town: a perfectly ordinary place where horrific things are happening.

The real clincher, though, was the spheres. I’m not sure many people realize how much the gizmo factor factor plays in horror movies: Phantasm, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Puppet Master, Halloween, and Friday The 13th (2 and up) all had nifty props which served to unify the movie, thematically (spheres, bladed gloves, marionettes, a William Shatner mask, and a hockey mask, respectively). There have been any number of otherwise-adequate horror movies which were not as successful as these because there wasn’t a gizmo. Do not underestimate the power of a good gizmo.

I also happen to like that the annoying kid died at the end. Hell, I wanted to kill him, myself.

In this lovely item from The Register, we see that the cancer called intellectual property is claiming more victims:

In the first case of its kind, a California video game maker is suing an entire community of software tinkerers for reverse engineering and modifying Xbox games that they legally purchased….
The lawsuit claims the ninjahacker.net users decompiled the code to several Tecmo titles, including Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive 3, and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and figured out how to create their own “skins” that change the appearance of game characters. They swapped modding techniques and hundreds of custom skins over the website message board.
The defendants are not accused of pirating the games, and the modifications and methods at issue appear no different than those employed by hobbyists on other video games — from Halo to the Sims 2 — for years. But according to the lawsuit, Tecmo suffers in the practice anyway…. (The Register, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/10/tecmo_sues_xbox_game_hackers/)

So, from Tecmo’s point of view, even though you paid for the game, you can only play it in the manner the publisher intended. This should come as no surprise. The robber barons at MPAA and RIAA — the real pirates — have been making this argument in the courts for years: successfully, in most cases. It won’t change anything, of course — the genie is out of the bottle, and getting further away from the robber barons’ grasp all the time. With books like Steal This File Sharing Book on the shelves, and the ceaseless motivation of ingenious human beings, it’s only a mater of time. As the author of Steal This File Sharing Book says:

The bottom line is that the corporations, who currently hold all the power and make most of the money, are going to have to change, and that’s something they aren’t willing to do…. Unfortunately for them, their fate is already sealed and out of their hands in the same way that buggy whip manufacturers, slide rule makers, and whale-oil lamp companies found themselves wiped out by technological change.

The question isn’t whether file sharing technology will put today’s corporate powerhouses out of business. The question is when, and that future is closer than they think. (Wallace Wang, Steal This File Sharing Book, 2004)

Another question is how much damage the robber barons can do to the rest of us in the meantime. The answer to that is, “As much as they can get away with.”

I stumbled across an interesting link while looking for filters for my Marineland Eclipse System Twelve aquarium (which is a neat acrylic aquarium, but finding bulbs and filters for it is a pain). StopFCC is a petition to urge legislators to consider carefully before implementing any further censorship on the airwaves, satellite, Internet, and so on. I consider petitions a benign waste of time, much like voting or going to church, so I went ahead and signed it. Of course, the people at the FCC who impose these restrictions on what we are allowed to say , show, write, read, see, and hear aren’t actually legislators. In fact, like most government positions, they aren’t elected at all. They’re simply bureaucrats. Polls don’t mean anything: it only takes one repressed nutcase to complain about a show and get the broadcaster fined. As long as there is some bureaucrat with the power to make decisions over what we are allowed to see and hear, those decisions will be wrong. The problem isn’t that the FCC is too zealous in its unasked-for role as protector of our virgin eyes and ears: the problem is that it has been given that power to begin with.

Sometimes I get called a pessimist. Yes, it’s true. But once in a while, I am given reason to hope. For example, this article in eWeek, Good Web Design Pays Dividends. It’s nice to see a relatively mainstream IT publication espouse simplicity, usability, and standards compliance as goals of good web design. It’s also refreshing to hear someone other than myself say that a commercial web site should support an actual business purpose, rather than serve as a ridiculous flashing do-nothing whirligig for some graphic artist’s resume (most web sites for movies, and nearly all Flash-based web sites, fall into this category). Combined with the unexpected but much-welcome popularity of Mozilla Firefox, I am positively ablaze with hope for the future.

So, for this moment, I am optimistic.

Speaking of Firefox, check out How Firefox Works. Isn’t learning fun?

It’s no secret that I think that intellectual property law in the USA is broken. Here’s another example, from Red Hat’s Fedora Trademark Guidelines:

Fedoraâ„¢ is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. and may only be used with Red Hat Inc.’s express permission. Except as provided herein, you may not use “Fedora” or any confusingly similar mark as a trademark for your product, or use “Fedora” in any other manner that might cause confusion in the marketplace, including in advertising, on auction sites, or on software or hardware. Any party wishing to use the Fedoraâ„¢ mark may do so as long as they meet two conditions:

1. They must only use the Fedoraâ„¢ mark in association with the original Fedoraâ„¢ code found on the Fedora Project website (see http://fedora.redhat.com/) without modification; and
2. If they charge a fee for the CD-ROM or other media on which they deliver the Fedoraâ„¢ code, they warranty the media on which the Fedoraâ„¢ code is delivered, thus ensuring that the recipient receives a usable copy.

This same permission applies to such other Red Hat trademarks as are included in the authorized Fedoraâ„¢ distribution, such as RPMâ„¢. Except as expressly stated herein, no other rights are granted to use any other Red Hat trademarks, specifically including the RED HAT® and “Shadowman” logo® marks. Absolutely no exceptions.

There’s only one problem with this: Red hat does not own this trademark. The Fedora Project at University Of Virginia and Cornell University has owned this trademark since 1998:

Fedora is a general purpose repository service developed jointly by The University of Virginia Library and Cornell University. The Fedora project is devoted to the goal of providing open-source repository software that can serve as the foundation for many types of information management systems.

The software demonstrates how distributed digital information management can be deployed using web-based technologies, including XML and web services.

According to the Fedora Project web site:

The Cornell and Virginia teams have taken a number of steps to try to work with Red Hat regarding use of the name Fedora™. At this date, Red Hat has refused our request to withdraw its trademark applications and reverse its claims of usage restrictions on the name. Cornell University and the University of Virginia are now considering various legal options in response to Red Hat’s actions.

Referring back to the Red Hat Fedora web site, I found an email address for trademark isues: trademarks@redhat.com. Unfortunately, mail sent to that address bounces, with the following message:

This email address has been deactivated. Email sent to this address IS
NOT RECEIVED by a person at Red Hat….

At this point, the smell of rat becomes unmistakable.

I happen to like Red Hat, and Red Hat Fedora. I run Red Hat Fedora on my server at home, and on the development machine at work. I have no grudge against Red Hat. But what they are doing here is wrong, and they appear to know that it’s wrong.

I am reminded of the arguments used by those who support Drug Prohibition: that certain chemicals are dangerous, not necessarily in themselves, but because they incite the people taking them to commit criminal acts. IP law in the USA has become so toxic, so perverse, that it corrupts those who come into contact with it. Red Hat is not the criminal here — Red Hat is a victim. That does not absolve them of guilt, but it does mean that they need more than to be punished and to make restitution: they need counseling, and they need to break free of the toxic addiction that has driven them to commit such despicable acts.

And we, as a society, need to do something about the cause of this cancer eating away at our creative and commercial future. A good start, if you are interested in that sort of thing, is to read Lawrence Lessig’s blog.

SheVaCon was great, as always. Here are some high spots:

Friday

Registration was a breeze. There was no line at all at 17:00 or so, when we got there. We got our badges and then checked into the hotel. The Holiday Inn Roanoke Tanglewood is a terrific hotel. The room was large, and included frills like a refrigerator, microwave, and Wi-Fi. I wish I’d brought the 802.11g card for the laptop: I assumed I would have no use for it on our trip.

We didn’t do much Friday night but roam around and go to a few panels. I attended a sparsely-attended workshop on miniature painting by Bob Snare (one of the MarsCon organizers — he’ll be running the Dealer’s Room for MarsCon 2006). I learned quite a bit, to my surprise. Turns out I have been doing washes and dry-brushing wrong all this time. Well, maybe not wrong, but his figures definitely look better than most of mine. I’m going to try his technique on the next few I paint.

Saturday

Lots going on Saturday. In the morning to early afternoon, I ran a Champions game, The Testament Of Dr. Destroyer. Five people played: only one had ever played Hero System before, and that was a long while ago. To say the game was lively would be an understatement. I am sure the other people in the room would have liked us to be quieter. Fortunately, I don’t think any of them were actually gaming. SheVaCon isn’t really a gaming convention, alas. Maybe they’d attract more gamers if the game listing on the web site was kept up to date. The SheVaCon web site is under new management this year, so hopefully, it will be better for 2006. Another thing they could do better is post the game schedule on-site in a legible format. What was posted near the game room was like a tenth-generation Xerox copy of a Gantt chart. It also did not help that the RPGA games were in the convention area, and anything else (including my game) was hidden away on the fifth floor somewhere, without any indication of its being there. All in all, the con could do much better in the gaming arena.

After the game, I visited the con suite, which was terrific at SheVaCon, as always. I do wish people would let the hotdogs finish cooking before grabbing them, though.

Some other highlights of Saturday were the panels, the costume show, and the never-to-be-missed Nth Degree party. SheVaCon seems to atrract a literary crowd, at least in terms of guests. Most of the panels that I attended were concerned with the art and science of science fiction writing and publishing. Interesting stuff. I did not get into the costume show itself, because it was standing-room-only by the time I got there. Still, they all had to walk by me in the hallway to leave, so I got a good long gawk at the costumes. The ones which stand out in my memory were Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations, the evil fairy Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, and the character Rayne from the Bloodrayne computer game. These were all good, but the one that realy impressed me was Rayne. She pegged the costume exactly, and she matched it physically, right down to the hair.

I spent a lot of time playing Bloodrayne.

There was an unusual event on Saturday: the world premiere of a movie called Apocalypse. Wow, was it bad: real Mystery Science Theater material. But the people who put on the show, which included the director and a few of the actors, were all good sports, and treated us to a terrific catered dinner. They looked like they had a good time making the movie, and for what it’s worth, it was still better than What The Bleep Do We Know?.

The high point of Saturday, of course, was the Nth Degree party, which is a blast at every convention. SheVaCon’s schedule for Saturday night didn’t amount to much more than various people reading their own stories out loud, which has never thrilled me. I’d much rather talk to them one on one at the Nth Degree party. Various folks associated with Meisha Merlin Publishing were in attendance, and were a pleasure to chat with, as always. There were other authors scattered here and there, as well: unfortunately, I do not remember most of their names, as I was pretty drunk at the time. However, I did have the opportunity to pick up a book for a friend: A Million Shades of Gray, by John C. Hertel. How many parties have you gone to where you can get a book signed by the author right in front of you? Nth Degree’s parties are simply fabulous. I hear they publish a damned fine magazine, too. You should check it out.

Sunday

Sunday is the day to browse the Dealer’s Room and spend any leftover cash that somehow hid in the bottom of your pockets all weekend. I came really close to buying some Reaper miniatures, but didn’t, since I’ve been spending way too much on stupid, ugly, plastic HeroClix to use as figures in our Champions games, and I need to take a break from spending money on gaming crap for a while. Susan picked up a book on writing fantasy, The Complete Guide To Writing Fantasy. I hope she writes something. I plan on reading the book as well, if I can ever find the time.

After that was saying good-bye and feeling bummed because the convention was over: that post-convention malaise. It was only the start of our Virginia Vacation, so I didn’t stay bummed long. After all, we had places to go and friends to see.

Susan and I just got back from seeing What The Bleep Do We Know at the Naro Expanded Cinema, and we can’t stop talking about it. For the most part, we have been using words like “unwatchable”, “flakes”, “spiritualist mumbo-jumbo”, and “scientifically illiterate”.

It would be tempting to call What The Bleep Do We Know the worst movie I have ever seen, but it’s not really a movie. It’s one part infomercial for pseudo-science cults, one part bad home movie, and one part PBS elementary school special which tries to explain a complicated field of study without using any actual facts. I am embarassed for Marlee Matlin: she hasn’t been in much recently, and I hope that this drivel doesn’t poison her career. I feel even worse for any real scientists or mathematicians who may have been involved in this garbage. But the people I feel sorriest for are those who come out of this movie and think that they have learned anything about quantum physics.

This isn’t a new phenomena, of course. When radioactivity was new and little understood, quacks came out of the woodwork, proclaiming it a cure for everything from hot flashes to the common cold. Before that, the same thing happened with electricity: by plugging electrodes to your wrists, you could cure insomnia, gout, and arthritis. It’s no surprise that quantum physics has become the vehicle for superstitious nonsense and half-baked theories concocted by charlatans and bought into by scientific illiterates. Same thing, different decade: people are morons.

If you genuinely want an introduction to quantum mechanics, rather than 111 minutes of spiritualist gibberish, read Alice In Quantumland, by Robert Gilmore. Now that would make a great movie. It would even be educational, in stark contrast to What The Bleep Do We Know.

My personal opinion is that the entire structure of intellectiual property law in the USA and much of the world is so grievously broken that it will soon be either scrapped or ignored by the average person. We are all aware of how ridiculous patent law has become. Trademarks and copyrights are not far behind. You have probably heard about “Happy Birthday”, for example:

The Chicago-based music publisher Clayton F. Summy Company, working with Jessica Hill, published and copyrighted “Happy Birthday” in 1935. Under the laws in effect at the time, the Hills’ copyright would have expired after one 28-year term and a renewal of similar length, falling into public domain by 1991. However, the Copyright Act of 1976 extended the term of copyright protection to 75 years from date of publication, and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added another 20 years, so under current law the copyright protection of “Happy Birthday” will remain intact until at least 2030. (Urban Legends Reference Pages, http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.htm)

I would be willing to bet a sizeable sum that “Happy Birthday” never becomes public domain. Does that seem right to you?

I learned an interesting thing at the Virginia Aquarium the other day. A swamp is not a bog, nor are either of these marshes. A swamp has trees, water, and mud. A bog has trees, water, and decaying vegetation which is decaying more slowly than it builds up. A marsh has grass, water, and mud, and is either a salt marsh or a freshwater marsh, depending on how close it is to the ocean and how much brackish water the tide brings in. The Virginia Aquarium is located right on top of a salt marsh, and the exhibits on the marsh ecosystem are really interesting.

We saw Resident Evil: Apocalypse last night. It’s not the worst zombie movie I have seen — House Of The Dead and Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things are both much worse — but it’s nowhere near as good as the first Resident Evil, which was really good.

28 Days Later and Zombie are probably the best zombie movies I have ever seen. Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things is a great title, though. It makes me want to write something worthy of it.