Copyright Laws are Endangering the Imperial Project (and Good Entertainment)

In the recent history of imperialism the leading edge of the effort has been ideological. When the European imperial powers invaded (discovered) America from the 1500's through to the independence movements of the 18th and 19th century, Catholic Missionaries destabilized the indigenous cultures of the continent; the leading edge of a rather more violent juggernaut to follow.

Today the USA's global empire is in it's infancy, and for some reason (greed?) a law protecting copyright, prevents material from spreading over the boarders of Imperial America on the World Wide Web. Ironically - while the U.S. Congress continues to approve yearly Trillion dollar appropriations towards building a global network of military bases (International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Militairy Bases) - copyright law approved by the same Congresses prevents me, here in Canada, from watching "Star Trek - The Original Series" on Youtube. Instead of Captain Kirk I get - "Sorry, this content is not available outside of the United States."

Is this any way to run an Empire? I ask you.

At the same time BBCWorld is doing the similar things with it's Youtube account. Even though every show you could possibly ever remember is up on the BBC's Youtube Channel - they're only clips of each episode! I can watch 1:23 of episode 1 of "My Hero", the BBC's hit sit-com. Tease me and leave me no way to watch the rest of the show "You bastards! You've killed Kenny! (favourite South Park phrase)

I think what they're doing at BBC is a form of web copyrighting - creating/holding a space with the Titles, and very little content - so that in the future when they find a way to snuff out all the copyright covered uploading going on, on Youtube, and peer to peer file sharing sites - they will have a legal case, they can say they've always been operating in these environs. This tactic is probably on the advise of their lawyers.

Does Anyone out there know how to run an Empire these days?

Well screw them and their lousy empire!

To Wit:

Star Trek (copyright Paramount) - Season 1 Episode 6 - Part 1 - Mudd's Women; Uploaded by some person who shall remain nameless, but a hero to all Trek fans outside CBS's American world.

And under Captain Kirk The BBC's hit sit-com "My Hero" Season 5 - "Brain Drain" - Part 1, from another hero of the off-shore enlightenment!

(Both these will be removed shortly, bookmark associated links quickly.)

Star Trek The Original Series "Mudd's Women"



BBC's My Hero - "Brain Drain"



Now That's Imperial Entertainment! ;)




mh

Live Blog Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Yankees, 2009 World Series Game 6

I'm Planning to Live Blog Game 6 of the 2009 World Series Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Yankees at Michael Holloway's BaseballBlogs.

Get crucial incites from a passionate Baseball Aficionado and veteran Blogger at Michael Holloway's BaseballBlogs Live Blog of the 2009 World Series - Game 6 November 4, 2009 starting at 8:00 PM EST.



mh

Current Technological Progress in Information Technology will be Measured Against the Technological Convergence that Created Television

Comparing applications developing on the web to anything but television I believe, misses the mark.

The revolution in mass media under way now can only be compared with the last relevant technology. That's easy to see in the history of the development of technology from a historians point of view - but it is very difficult to see while its happening - in real time. Who's to say what will develop out of these Internet Applications we are playing with now?

All these new applications - with their new portability - though our manipulation of them in the real world - are in the process of creating an "UberApp." When we create it via this Great Wiki represented currently by Twitter, the most progressive application - it will be will be a 1000 times better than TV - but just like TV.

When the internal combustion engine was refined to run a buggy, people didn't compare it to a train, they compared it to the last relevant technology, the horse and buggy. That's easy to see now, a hundred years later, back in the day who knows what the 'losers' in the race tried to do with the technology as it was refining; we have no idea because their visions never saw the light of day. Meaningful applications quickly became the 'it' technology, that those same 'losers' may then have ceased upon and perhaps became 'winners' with later.

Janus Friis, the inventor of Skype (free Phone) and Kazaa (free Music), said in a recent interview at GigaOM online magazine: "Television is the most powerful mass medium...". That's a brilliant way to look at it.

Is the culmination of this great connectivity going to be powerful? Yes, I think so - absolutely.

I love the way Janus Friis thinks about problems; he continues,

..and we are trying to do is marry the best of television with the best of internet. What people love about the television is the story telling. What people don’t like is television that is locked in linear time. We want to try and preserve the best bits of television, and discard bits people don’t care for.

"locked in linear time"

He's discussing the project he and his partner in "crime" Niklas Zennstrom are currently working on, namely the internet television set also known as the Venice Project which is being developed to function with the open source Mozilla search engine.

Tip of the Hat to Tim O'Reilly, or was it Michael Geist?

What Tweetie bird got me here? This cat doesn't know, but i like it.



mh