Funny nonetheless

I've met both James Patterson and Nora Roberts which maybe made me laugh at this all the more.

Thanks PALS!

Sorry for not posting this yesterday but I'd like to officially thank my hosts and all the attendees of the Prairie Area Library System's PALS Day this past Wednesday. The weather was perfect (sunny on the day I got to hike through the woods, and rainy while we had to be inside for the presentations) and I wish I could steal your park and its facilities and transport them to about 10 miles outside of Lincoln, NE. Everyone was wonderful to me and made me feel welcome. Feel free to invite me back any time.

Parallel Parking w/ Mr. Car

Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song

Woah! It looks like Happy Birthday might not actually be under copyright.

"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. The song that became "Happy Birthday to You," originally written with different lyrics as "Good Morning to All," was the product of intense creative labor, undertaken with copyright protection in mind. However, it is almost certainly no longer under copyright, due to a lack of evidence about who wrote the words; defective copyright notice; and a failure to file a proper renewal application.

SSRN-Copyright and the World's Most Popular Song by Robert Brauneis

One bielyon dollars!

Ok, I exaggerate a little but this is getting a smidge ridiculous. The MPAA is demanding $15.4 million from The Pirate Bay to "cover the damages they suffered from 4 movies and 13 TV-episodes that were made available via the popular BitTorrent tracker". Sorry, but by that logic, never mind the insane math involved in coming up with that number, the MPAA should be suing Google too since I can find torrents of The Pink Panther via their search engine too.

Pirate Bay's response: “The worst thing is that I lost 100 kronor on a bet on the number they would come up with,” Sunde added. “And, it sucks that they didn’t claim more than for Napster and the other sites. It’s cooler to break the record.”

Meme: Passion Quilt

I haven't officially been tagged with this meme to my knowledge but I was inspired this morning by the combination of a quote from a book I'm reading and preparing for a Library 2.0 presentation next week. So, here's my entry:

Who am I tagging? Many I know have already done this but I'm sure I've missed a few so if you've already done this, my apologies:

1. laurak
2. mlibrarianus
3. rgarza
4. nirak
5. cjburns

3 Simple Meme Rules:

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

BBC removes Doctor Who fan’s knitting patterns from the Web

I'm not a knitter but I've been watching a lot of the photos on Flickr (especially the recent Face of Bo and Adipose creations) and wishing someone would love me enough to knit some of these for me. So when I read the story of the person who's received a cease and desist from the BBC for posting homebrew knitting patters online I felt just a little sick.

“We note that you are supplying DR WHO items, and using trade marks and copyright owned by BBC. You have not been given permission to use the DR WHO brand and we ask that you remove from your site any designs connected with DR WHO. Please reply acknowledging receipt of this email, and confirm that you will remove the DR WHO items as requested.”

Really, who is this hurting? No money is changing hands and the BBC isn't loosing any market share since they're offering no such thing officially. Hey Russell, what do you think about this?

Read more and link to the full story on the The Open Rights Group Blog.

Top 10 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes

(Contains some adult language)

Visa Officially Says Stores Cannot Deny Purchases If You Don't Show ID

According to The Consumerist, here's VISA's official policy on stores requiring ID for a credit card purchase.

Merchants may not refuse to honor a Visa card simply because the cardholder refuses a request for supplementary information. The only exception is when a Visa card is unsigned when presented. However, "See ID" is not considered a valid signature. In these situations, a merchant must obtain authorization, review additional identification, and require the cardholder to sign the card before completing a transaction.

To report any merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate, please notify the disputes area at the financial institution that issued your card account. Your card issuing bank has access to the appropriate Visa rules and regulations as well as to the Notification of Customer Complaint forms which should be used by your bank to document and file merchant complaints.

As an alternative, you may contact the Global Customer Care Services to report merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate. Please contact the Global Customer Care Services at 1-800-VISA-911 (1-800-847-2911). Please advise them that you were referred to file a complaint. The staff will be able to initiate a complaint form over the phone.

Flawed Bush logic on surge

Countdown, May 7: On Tuesday, Max Booth, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, insisted that the surge has worked and civilian deaths were down in Iraq. However, he wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal the day before claiming the jump in American fatalities could be a sign of things getting worse before they get better.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24511312#24511312

Moyers on Wright

Bill Moyers reflects on his interview with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. (Sorry, the video isn't readily embeddable.)

Little Brother » Download for Free

The CC-licensed free download is now available.

I did listen to the audio version over the weekend and I've got to say it's an amazing book that everyone should read. I got goosebumps a few times and started to tear once or twice too.

Pink Martini

Last Friday night I got to see Pink Martini with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Pop. Here's a sample if you're not familiar with their music.