|
Some thoughts on copyright oppression and the 'bloid
 Yesterday we discussed the legal bully boy who's decided to make a living shaking down bloggers for copyright infringement. As an instrument of oppression it's more effective than calls to "take away the license" of Fox News because it goes after the little guy who's feeding the opinion system. With very few exceptions bloggers can't afford lawsuits. We work for a living and blogging is a spare time activity.
We had lots of suggestions and I've been thinking on the subject for the past 24+ hours. Rantburg's about to complete its ninth year of hoovering press articles relevant to WoT for comment or just for record and I'd like to see year ten. At that point I'm thinking seriously about turning it over to Doc Steve and retiring.
To survive to that point we have to think about defenses, so here are a few points I'd like to emphasize.- Use just the meat of the article. I'm the worst offender in this respect, but we've got to keep articles short and snappy, which means chopping them as soon as the boilerplate starts. Everybody knows the U.S. has waged war against the Taliban since 2001 blah blah blah.
- Use our foreign sources. The flavor of the 'Burg comes from Pak Daily Times, Bangla Daily Star, and all the other tasty news organizations that carry the news a day or two (sometimes a week or two) before it reaches the domestic papers. Often the news doesn't make the domestic MSM, which is why we carry more news that's fit to print than the New York Times.
Some of those sources wink in and out of existence without warning. Who among us doesn't miss the Frontier Post, that didn't pay its hosting bill? The Balochistan Post, that was fulminating on Tuesday, gone on Wednesday? Quqnoos is now Tolo News, so the database needs updated and I haven't done it yet. That's my fault and I've got to be more diligent. The Rantburg News page should be more up to date than it is. That's my bad alone.
- Add your commentary. Comments can go inline, sidebar, or after you post an article. It's hard to make the "fair use" case if the article's there with no commentary -- what'd we use it for? We know it's part of a continuing series, but it's best if that's obvious enough that we don't have to point it out in court with a $250 an hour lawyer. Or you can pick a subject and write your own article on it from scratch.
- Translate the article into Rantburgspeak. I played with the Translate feature, adding it as an option, but regarding it as a toy. Every once in awhile I look at it and discover it's broken or it doesn't work on Firefox or something goofy like that. I'm thinking seriously about building it into the posting process, so it'll replace "gunman" with "gunny," "militant" with "terrorist," "Red Cross" with "Red Thingy" and so on.
Bad's translations from Spanish-language press, by the way, count as original content.
Since we've been carrying more than just WoT, and I'd as soon not give up pages 4 and 6, I'd have to extend the translation process to the Wonderful World of Politix, replacing "political operative" with "ward heeler" or something along that line. Suggestions for both translation processes will be welcome. Keep in mind that we're looking for a more natural translation than Babelfish gives.
I may also add automatic inlines, if I can refine the process enough. When a spokesman for the Taliban says something the following sentence should read "If you can't believe the Taliban who can you believe?" The same might apply to any spokesman for the Pak government or the city of Chicago, or even the city of [fill in the blank].
- Give me more suggestions. I'm getting old. My mind's slowing down to slug-like lethargy. If I tilt my head too sharply thought process runs out my ear and stains my collar.
One of yesterday's suggestions was to post the link conspicuously rather than hiding it under the headline. I may do that, or I may take only the base link and show that and leave the full link under the headline. I'm still thinking about it. I've been trying to source articles, which is easiest when I use RSS -- the "[Al Arabiya Latest]" slugs, or "[Iran Press TV Latest]." I may have it insert the base URL if the slug's not present.
On another note, I've been mailing out the 'bloid as soon as I complete it for a couple years now. I've been using my GMail account to send it to a mailing list with about 70 recipients. Last night they all bounced because Google's changed its spam-sniffing engine. I'll have to write a routine to send them directly from the 'Burg's mail server, which involves rebuilding the mailing list. If you want on it, now's the time to let me know. Likewise if you're on it and you're tired of getting the 'bloid in your mail let me know and I'll dump you.
Posted by: Fred 2010-07-24 |
