Remember, remember, the ninth of November
The Authors Guild/Google Books plot . . .
as we try to slog through a 350-plus-page "amended settlement agreement." But, for today, I'll just turn toward the AG's offices in New York and implore them to go Fawkes themselves.
- I can almost hear the ghosts of the buggy-whip manufacturers screaming now: Nikki Finke uncritically screams that "MPAA BETRAYS THEATERS: Asks FCC To Let Studios Transmit First-Run Films Directly To Consumers." After the miserable experiences I've had with theaters of late, they bloody well deserve counter-betrayal; they betrayed their customers years ago.
- Just seen at the library: The Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook. I suppose it should be shelved near "To Serve Man" and The Soylent Green Companion...
- Cheebuggah, cheebuggah, Icanhascheezburger. Pepsi, no Coke. And trademark infringement. At least it's not a mislabelled motorized recliner. Or toy train (PDF) (yes, parents, you may run and hide now).
- I was going to summarize this in the context of the previous item, but Professor Rebecca Tushnet already did. And it's an important decision, even if it does concern one of the six sources of all that is evil in college football (the other five being Auburn, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC).
- Professor (now Google's Chief Copyright Counsel) Patry remarks on writing the book some audience members claim they wanted, not the book the author actually wrote. There's quite a bit of food for thought in there for fiction writers, and particularly for literaturic artistes (and yes, that misbegotten phrase is just as sarcastic, just as condescending, and just as demeaning as it sounds). Of course, they'll pass it up because — since it relates to a reality not their own — it's not in their diet...