a weblog

It is with great pleasure I post today that the MPAA anti-piracy signs are being removed from The Mall at Tuttle Crossing in Dublin, Ohio.

-> Taubman
-> JCDecaux
-> The Mall at Tuttle Crossing
-> MPAA Poster

Background:

Taubman, the property owners and managers of The Mall got back with me within the last few days that they will be asking JCDecaux, their indoor marketing company, to remove these signs.

I honestly was quite surprised that these are not scary, monolithic corporations, but rather agile growing businesses staffed with some of the nicest people you'll ever talk to. My last discussion Taubman was short, and sweet letting me know that they will be providing me the exact date for when the signs will be removed. Wow! Talk about customer service!

I love my community. Mere yards away from this mall lay the offices of many corporations that are on the forefront of utilizing new technology and media. The Dublin Core metadata comes from here, and that is just one example. For doing business, Columbus, Ohio is a good place to be.

The ads are tantamount to a legal threat to the general public about their property, and they do it opposite advertisements for children's movies. My response is that I do not want them to do that in my community, in the public space where I'm trying to live. I am an artist too, and just because they have a problem with free downloads, doesn't mean they can give the impression that people in *my* community can't download my copyrighted works for free.

It is not that I think that copyright infringement is justified. Rather, corporations are giving legitimate downloading and new internet-based media a bad name by claiming they are a victim of new technology.

Being nice, patient, and making a simple, yet compelling argument about your views is always a great way to create change within a corporation. You can never hurt a corporation by doing this, only make it better, and if they are helping one more customer, you, isn't that good for both parties?

The MPAA itself was founded as a pirate organization. Piracy is wrong, but new media always unleashes itself in ways that can often combat the established structures. The actual history of information as property can be found in the excellent freely downloadable ebook and mp3 audiobook Free Culture by Laurence Lessig. http://www.free-culture.org

So, technology's role in all of this is not my point to make.

It is interesting, however, the fact that the anchor stores of this mall sell DiVX and MP3 playing devices. As an artist, I take great offense that the MPAA would be as bold as to propagandize internet downloads in this manner without being fair to the reality of legitimate downloads. How many people that would ever bother consuming my crappy music or video are being turned away by thinking they can't freely do whatever they want with what I create? I would be honored! Take it! I'll never quite understand why the MPAA wants to preach at the general public (their own consumers).

It is hard to imagine that the extremes of comparison and perception can be tested like this, but here we are.

Today, two stories came up:

-> The Washington Note points out a new western-produced documentary with Iraqi's alledged stories in their own words, called "Voices from Iraq." Most interesting quote:

A torture victim of Saddam says he wouldn't mind being tortured at Abu Ghraib. "You have a nice American woman undress you and play with your penis," he smirks. The audience laughs.

--- AND ---

-> Abu Ghraib abuses tapped to theatre -- People have to reenact what happened in order to understand the vulgar humiliation that the American soldiers inflicted.

It's weird that these two stories, a western and an Arabic dramatization of this horrible event. I guess both sides are trying to downplay it's meaning to some extent, but in hopes of what? The difference of which side is trying to achieve which kind of understanding about the event, is amazing. One side is now laughing, the other is crying.

If, in case, you have not been offended, deeply, lately, consider the following South Park clip:

-> The Aristocrats (WMV)

They even point out at one point the transparency between laughing and crying.

• Four more years of great material for Jon Stewart
• Unhappy liberals are ranting liberals -- and they truly write the best rants.
• State of the union address is more entertaining when you can play the mispronunciation drinking game
• No more lame heinz ketchup jokes
• We can look forward to some great writing in the next four years -- historically, the greatest artists and writers sprouted during economically depressive times
• We won't have to compete with India for jobs once the value of the dollar drops to reflect our growing deficit.

.. and the best point:

• The Internet is still ours.

...via kasia