blogs about stuff and things.
PIPA Supporters Violate Copyright Too
Last week, I wrote something about the hypocritical copyright violations on SOPA author Lamar Smith’s very own website. You might have seen it when it was featured on the Forbes, Time or Huffington Post websites, or, most likely, when Tyler, the Creator tweeted about it just now.
I asked you guys to send me any other copyright violations you could find by supporters of Lamar’s “Stop Online Piracy Act.” To be honest, we thought the outcry surrounding the proposals had died down—there was talk that SOPA had been shelved, and Lamar’s office hasn’t been taking our calls—but earlier today, Lamarresurfaced to let us know that he still intends to use his bill to criminalize us all for posting the lyrics to “The Thong Song” on each other’s Facebook pages.
But if SOPA does ultimately flop, as all sane people expect it to, the slightly-less-bad PIPA bill is still waiting in the wings to gallop in and throttle all the fun out of the internet. So I’m moving the search over to PIPA supporters. (A full list of which can be viewed here.)
Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff. Sorry if you haven’t heard back from me, I got A LOT of emails relating to this. Below are the copyright violations carried out by PIPA supporters that I was able to prove. There’s many many many more (from almost every single PIPA co-sponsor’s site, in fact), but without actually getting written confirmation from the copyright owners in question, I’m unable to post anything here.
A lot of people have also been getting in touch to point out to me that these people are not violating SOPA/PIPA. Which is true. My point is more that, if these people aren’t able to abide by EXISTING copyright laws, they clearly lack the understanding to create stricter ones and, ideally, should just GTFO.
ROY BLUNT
This is a screencap of PIPA co-sponsor Roy Blunt’s Twitter page from a couple of days ago.
The background image is by photographer Walter Rowland. I spoke to his wife Linny, and she told me:
“Wow, I’m so surprised to see that someone would do this. Especially a senator! It’s even more of a violation because I’m actually in the photo so it’s as if I’m supporting his beliefs. Yes, that’s one of my husband’s photos who is actually a semi-professional photographer, and no, they weren’t given permission.”
Roy has since changed the background on his Twitter in an attempt to cover his tracks.
CLAIRE McCASKILL
This is PIPA supporter and Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill’s Twitter page as it appears right now.
And this is the background image she stole from Flickr user J. Stephen Conn, who told me this:
“I do not recall giving the senator permission to use this photo on her Twitter account. I have put the photo in the Creative Commons, which means anyone may use it for non-commercial purposes, however, proper attribution of the photo should be given because it is NOT in the public domain.”
DENNIS ROSS
The above screencap shows the homepage of Florida congressman/PIPA co-sponsor Dennis Ross’ website.Which features the appropriately titled illustration (above) “Overweight Government Pig” by cartoonist John S. Pritchett. You’ll notice that Dennis cropped out the part where it says “© John Pritchett”. We contacted John, and he told us:
“To my knowledge, I did not license the usage of my “Overweight Govt. Pig” illustration to Dennis Ross.”
Wuh oh!
SHERROD BROWN
And finally, we have Ohio senator and PIPA co-sponsor Sherrod Brown. Who, as you can see from the above screencap, is using an image lifted from Google Maps on his offical senate site.
According to the Google Maps content rules and guidelines page, you are only allowed to use content from Google Maps if you credit Google, and “Make attribution readable to the average reader or viewer.” At the time of writing, Sherrod’s site does not credit Google Maps.
It truly saddens me to see this group of people using creative content that they did not create to further their own political agendas. Here’s to hoping PIPA passes to offer the world some protection from these wicked, wicked people.
Follow Jamie on Twitter - @JLCT
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plans have abruptly changed last minute, and we’ll now be spending tuesday evening with our pals morrow in bloomington. it’s much less ideal, but the extra drive time is always worth it for them, for reals, so we’re happy.
new t-shirts are in [you’re going to like these ones], and we’ll have a…
VIP State Health Care Exposed, or “GOP Tea Party Hypocrisy of the Day”
Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party’s anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor’s office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest…
Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance… and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage.
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Interesting…named after Bolano’s last book, a library, a bar, bookstore, smoking, and you can bring your own (odorless) food. Only fault I am finding is that I don’t work there.
SO KIERAN HOW WAS 1994!? (PUNK/THRASH BAND FROM LANCASTER PA ON TOUR WITH ALGERNON CADWALLADER, NOT THE YEAR I GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL)
TRULY EPIC IN TERMS OF THEIR LIVE SHOW AND NICE DUDES AS WELL. THE RECORDINGS DON’T SUSTAIN MY ATTENTION, BUT IS GREAT BACKGROUND LISTENING WHILE DOING MY DOMESTIC DUTIES (IF I HAD LYRICS THIS MIGHT BE DIFFERENT). IN CONCLUSION, ANY BAND THAT HAS A DRUMMER THAT HAS TO TOWEL OFF IN BETWEEN/DURING EVERY SONG IS DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.
a
gnat
and
fly
gnawing on a piece of food
on the ground
on glass dinner plates
there’s no order
in it
just
circling
entrapping
and courting
each piece
away into the distance
one by one
they both become full
however
they say
fuck it
and
eat
until
there…
Punctuation is not necessary in poetry. Even poets who regularly use it don’t use it as a rule. And as for line breaks….well…unless you’re using a rigid structure, aren’t all line breaks essentially arbitrary? There’s nothing wrong with no-commas and short lines, either.
Hi, aprettyoldplace. I agree that punctuation isn’t necessary in poetry. But it should be a tool that’s considered like any other. It should be used if it can make a poem better. I’ve gotten into the discussion with zhuchupoo before. It’s not that I consider myself some sort of strict formalist but I do think that in the craft of poetry, so called formal considerations should be made.
Well sure, it absolutely should be considered, but how can you be sure that it wasn’t and that the poet just didn’t think better of it? Unless you mean to suggest that punctuation is so great that non-use of it can only mean that it wasn’t taken into consideration……
Frankly, I really like using punctuation, much more so than my friend here, but I object to statements like “I don’t really understand why you don’t use any punctuation,” as it implies it should be the rule. In law, it is the job of the State to prove the guilt of the defendant, not the job of the defendant to prove his or her innocence. Likewise, in poetry, because there really are no rules, one does not need to justify not using punctuation, and it should not be expected; rather, if one does think a poem would be better served if the poet had used punctuation, we shouldn’t state that opinion as if the poet has to account for his decision not to, but we should make our case as to why he or she should.
I agree, aprettyoldplace. The construction of a poem is the author’s alone and should only answer to the composition and construction of it if they choose. The use / omission of punctuation is neither here nor there in poetry as is the architecture, cohesion, etc. If the poet wants to be loved they should rewrite what has already been written and loved, similar to most of the liked, top, or popular submissions on tumblr being resubmissions of popular already published poets/poems as opposed to the unpublished.
As Nicanor Parra said in Young Poets: “
Write as you will
-
In whatever style you like
Too much blood has run under the bridge
To go on believing
That only one road is right.
In poetry everything is permitted.
With only this condition of course,
You have to improve the blank page.”
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For the record:
The following
confessions are honest lies.
Great care was taken
recording their inaccuracies.
Build a monument
to remember me
my greatness, now.
If you wait
until I am dead
I can promise nothing
of value or venture
will come
from this pen.
This has been my prison for 33 years.
