Here are some items related to writing, editing, content style, and content rights that caught my attention over the last month.
TOP OF THIS LIST: A Kinder, Gentler Copyright Bill? by Katie Dean, Wired News, Nov. 22. On Nov. 20, the US Senate passed S 3021, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004. The bill has been passed on to the House of Representatives. S 3021 is a scaled-back version of HR 2391, a far-reaching package of restrictive intellectual property laws.
Internet News also wrote about S 3021 on Nov. 30. They reported: “Gone from previous versions of the omnibus bill are the Pirate Act, the Piracy Deterrence in Education Act and Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R.-Utah) Induce Act. The legislation now primarily focuses on movie piracy in theaters through the use of camcorders and allowing consumers to fast forward past commercials on DVDs and videos.”
The advocacy group Public Knowledge has been watching this issue closely. The consider the scaled-back bill a consumer victory. However, with the way Washington works, expect the egregious provisions to creep back in future bills. So keep watching.
Read the rest of this list…
- Secrets of Great Web Headings and Summaries, by Gerry McGovern, CMSwire, Nov. 1. Excerpt: “What is the single most important thing that you have to communicate to your reader? Do they really care? Because if you can’t find one single, genuinely compelling thing to say, you shouldn’t be writing the content in the first place.”
- Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity – a book by Stanford Univ. law professor Lawrence Lessig. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Also available as an audiobook.
- Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital Media, an online lecture by Edward W. Felten. Available in video, audio, and text transcript.
- Flicktion: This is really fun. People post photos to the photo-sharing service Flickr, and then they or others write fictitious paragraphs to go along with it – yielding bizarre, creative vignettes and stories. (Thanks to Weblogg-Ed for this link.)
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