Because we all need more puppies

By way of a comment from ginmar I read the following:

Puppies

THEY met on the local hot rod scene. They saw one another at tattoo conventions around the area, comparing bikes. They looked like heavies, a band of Hells Angels, with nicknames equally tough: Mike Tattoo, Big Ant, Johnny O, Batso, Sal, Angel, Des.

They meant no harm. Clad in leather, inked to the hilt in skulls and dragons, with images of bloodied barbed wire looped about their necks, they shared something else-

By their fruits shall ye know them.

Why am I not surprised

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 — An in-depth analysis of the Proposition 8 vote released today shows that party affiliation, political ideology, frequency of attending worship services and age were the driving forces behind the measure’s passage on Nov. 4. The study finds that after taking into account the effect of religious service attendance, support for Proposition 8 among African Americans and Latinos was not significantly different than other groups. Through a precinct-by-precinct analysis and review of multiple other sources of data, the study also puts African-American support for Proposition 8 at no more than 59 percent, nowhere close to the 70 percent reported the night of the election. Finally, the study shows how support for marriage equality has grown substantially across almost all California demographic groups — except Republicans.

Read the full report

Which ties into what I said right after the election.

One wonders how widely this will spread; because it seems we can have a scapegoat.... Finally, the study shows how support for marriage equality has grown substantially across almost all California demographic groups — except Republicans.

More on the BART Shooting

I am too far from the events, physically it was hundreds of miles from me, in a city I have moderate connection to (I've spent a fair bit of time in Dublin, and in SF, but the Fruitvale station, in Oakland, is a place I pass through, not part of a neighborhood I know), which makes it emotionally less visceral.

Yes, it pisses me off. joedecker isn't far from it, and he has a really good roundup of local news, and personal commentary.

Thank heaven for ubiquitous video devices, and the the net, or this would be one more abuse of power (which might be no more than making TASERs a casual tool of the police forces) easily swept under a rug.

Pixel stained techno-peasant stuff

I care about copyright. As someone who sells my creative efforts it matters to me that I can do so without fear of someone else making money from it, and my being cheated.

Copyright is really useful in that regard. I am not, however, on board with the idea that I have to have absolute, 100 percent, complete and total control of every single thing which happens to my pictures. Go to my Flickr stream and you can see the images I load in the largest size. You can copy them. You can do the same thing with the images up at Terrence Karney Photography (where there is a new post up, on workflow).

I've said it before, I can't stop it, so what I can do it make it hard for people to get a free copy which is equal to the ones I sell. I figure those who truly can't afford it, will; at the very least, be willing to tell other people about where they got the image.

Which is why a story about a quotation from Roger Ebert, about a movie being scuppered because a copyright holder is too greedy to take a chance on not making money.

My cynical self is pretty sure it knows why they are willing to shoot themselves in this foot; they are deathly afraid the "total control" model they are using will be shown (again) to be wrong. That a more open flow of things (like music) will be shown to be profitable.

Why this bothers them, that's harder to fathom. I suspect it's a case of projection. They are so greedy they can't imagine people being less greedy, and willing to pay for something, which they might be able to get for free. Me, I'd rather have a clean copy than a free one; and I am reasonably certain that's the case for enough people that money won't be lost.

Even when I can get a free copy, as clean as the paid copy (say an MP3 of Stan Rogers' Barret's Privateers), I'll want more of his stuff, and I'll spend the money to buy an album; or go to a concert (where I may buy an album). I also can't afford to buy an album on spec, for every artist I might like.

In any case, the more people know of an artist, the more chance that artist has to sell. There are a lot more artists out there (even on big labels) than the radio plays. Keep me from hearing them, and there is no way I will buy them. So bottling them up this way... it's robbing Peter to starve Paul.