"Creative work is to be encouraged and rewarded, but private motivation must ultimately serve the cause of promoting broad public availability of literature, music, and the arts.... When technological change has rendered its literal terms ambiguous, the Copyright Act must be construed in light of this basic purpose." Supreme Court
There are 8 million stories in The Naked City. Tell us one, but try to keep it to a New York Minute.
Before I knew who Elliott Smith was, I knew him as this very quiet guy that had discovered the bar (at Luna) and would stay there till closing or near closing most nights, writing constantly in a journal with some kind of dark whiskey drink on the rocks or straight-up in front of him; he always had some kind of bourbon or something like that in front of him. Week after week after week.
They said his name is Elliott, and I thought he was Elliott Sharp, an avant-garde jazz musician. Night-after-night he'd be in there and I didn't want to disturb him while he was writing, but he'd see me walk in or he'd look up across the bar and see me and nod or sometimes I was next to him or something, and I'd say something very small, but I never felt comfortable disturbing his sanctuary. So after about six months of this, he came up to me one night, and he said, "I'm playing at Fez. Would you like to come and see me?" And he was so shy about it and he was so sweet, I said, "Absolutely." And I thought I was going to listen to avant-garde jazz or something which is totally not my thing, but he seemed like such a nice guy.
And so I went to Fez to see him, and there was a line of like 800 people to trying to get into this place and it only held like 300, you know. And I said, "This guy's huge. I wonder what he's about." I had no idea who he was. I got in, and it was wall-to-wall people downstairs – I mean I couldn't move an inch in any direction. And he came out and he did only like 9 songs or 8 songs by himself. It's just hard to put into words, but he was stunning. It was like George Harrison. The beauty of George Harrison in say 1972, you know -- All Things Must Pass. And the grit of Kurt Cobain, who I never met, but I could always kind of feel that grit that he had. Elliott was like a blend of those two things. To be in such a small room and to know that I was a part of that album XO – that I put some walls together for him to write – because he wrote that album, XO at the bar at Luna.
there's a little child running round this house and he never leaves he will never leave and the fog comes up from the sewers and glows in the dark. some things will never wash away
Closing $2 movie theaters should be a crime.
It's unfortunate that the entertainment industry devotes so much energy to supporting punitive efforts at the federal and state level, instead of putting energy into licensing their content for P2P distribution so those same people could be turned into customers. The Pirate Act effectively gives government the authority to use taxpayer dollars to bring civil actions against file sharers on behalf of copyright holders
As the 40 percent increase in downloads over the last year makes alarmingly clear, like it or not file sharing is likely to (continue) on a massive scale no matter how many suits are brought and what the fine print of copyright or criminal law says. Second, putting a tiny percentage of tens of millions of American file sharers behind bars or in the poorhouse won't put one new dime in the deserving pockets of artists and other copyright owners.
Stupid sons of bitches does everyone need to be a moron??
U.S. troops are battling insurgents in Iraq on multiple fronts today as coalition officials vow to "destroy" the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Fighting resumed in Fallujah, while U.S. forces "remain in firm control" of Ramadi, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said. Twelve U.S. Marines were killed late yesterday in Ramadi, according to the U.S. military.
Is losing 12 soldiers "remaining in firm control?" Why are we vowing to destroy the local militia? I understand they're crazy and they killed some of our people, but what does killing the local militia have to do with Saddam? What does killing the local militia have to do with Al Qaeda? Why can't Iraqi forces destroy their own local militias? Could it possibly be that some of these "militia" crazos over there are actually on our side of the line, trying out new toys?