 | Ian on Today’s lesson: Teach yo… |
 | Lucy Robinson on Dept. of NOOOO!!! (A Rant) |
| Ian on A Kindred Spirit |
 | kimbo on Painting Theater/Dramatizing P… |
 | Plagiarist Katie on Painting Theater/Dramatizing P… |
Andrew Sullivan points us to this article, which shows how the nationalist, racist, anti-immigrant, semi-facist British National Party (anybody seen This Is England? It’s those guys. If you haven’t you should, it’s so good…) has stolen its website design from the site of a biracial child of an African immigrant and a woman from Kansas who is president of a country that seceeded from Britain some years ago. Sometimes, these people make it sooo easy…
So, Beck is working with the guys from MGMT and various other folks, covering The Velvet Underground & Nico and posting the results here for your pleasure. The result is a mixed bag, but if you’re a fan of The Velvets, (and, frankly, if you’re not, don’t tell me because I would like to remain friends) you should check it out.
Two things to bring us back to the real world from the philosophical plane on which we tend to dwell.
Though Big Intellectual Property continues to abuse their priviledges, threaten legal action, and fail to understand the internet, some people are fighting back (hilariously). Ah yes, I’d be embarrassed too if I’d invited people to attempt to break the record for “Most Individuals Killed In A Terrorist Act.”
Secondly, we have a responsibility to art that inspires us not to make it look crappy. I’m fairly confident that we can all agree that however you feel about The Postal Service or Ben Gibbard, this completely sucks.
That is all.
Another plagiarist writer, this time the editor of Wired taking chunks from Wikipedia. Yeah, it is funny. You’d think he, of all people, would know better. I mean come on. They caught him by using Google. Amazing… (This post sponsored by the Italics Promotion Group)
Around here, we normally at least ironically celebrate those accused of plagiarism. And hey, when a celebrity writes a successful book, especially a health/diet book, and some self-published writer no-one’s heard of claims plagiarism, I’m skeptical. One, because I don’t believe most celebrity are written by their “authors” and a professional ghost-writer is going to be careful about that sort of thing. And two, because any widespread success these days means a plagiarism lawsuit (see: Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code, Mrs. Seinfeld). But on the other hand, maybe if some celebridiot tried to write a book solo, they might not understand certain rules about writing and copyright and such. “Only little people pay attention to such things” or something. In this case, given my heavy heavy prejudice against and raging dislike of the “celebrity” in question, I’m hope the accusations are true and that they find the plaintiff’s book with all kinds of highlights and notes in the margins that say, “Steal this passage!” But obviously, that’s not an objective opinion. Though Hasselbeck is someone that works to inspire strong opinions – to find jurors that don’t already have strong feelings one way or another about her, they’re gonna have to work hard. It just goes to show: when you’re working for a cause, you’re not always going like everyone working alongside you.
Probably for fans only, but totally fascinating. Selected scenes here.