YOUTUBE/VIACOM AFTERMATH - Part 1: The Media Exposure

It took quite awhile longer than I'd expected. This thing got around in a big way, what with The Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! and Slashdot and Ars Technica and seemingly a jillion more outlets that covered it. Lots of people wanted to weigh in on this and for sake of objectivity I've tried my best to include everyone that I could find that raised valid arguments about this issue, regardless of which side they took.

So here ya go: a (more or less) definitive reference to the published articles about the Christopher Knight/YouTube/Viacom incident.

SPECIAL MENTIONS

Kevin Nalty AKA "Nalts" himself provided commentary on the controversy early on with this nice video that I totally dug...

"Viacom's copyright cops get carried away" - by Nick Ferrell for THE INQUIRER also deserves special recognition because this is the first time ever that I've been referred to as a "bloke". Farrell also writes that I "stood for" school board (yes this is a British publication :-)

And The 12 Angry Men Blog bestowed me with the honor of "Hero of the Week" this past Friday :-)

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PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

"'Saber man', YouTube run afoul of copyright" - by Gerald Witt for the News & Record

"Viacom slaps YouTuber for behaving like Viacom" - by Cade Metz for The Register

"'Star Wars Man' Runs Into Trouble with Viacom for YouTube Video" - by Chad Tucker for Fox 8 WGHP (with video)

"Small Town Man: Victim or Copyright Infringer?" - by Abby Prince for WebProNews

Plus Ultra Podcast Episode 5 with Tracy R. Twyman (audio interview in MP3 format)

"Vindu's View: YouTube copyright fight shows fair and legal different" - by Vindu Goel for San Jose Mercury News

"A tale of two videos: what's mine is mine unless you change it enough to make it yours" - by Vindu Goel for San Jose Mercury news

"Followup: Chris Knight wins battle with Viacom over YouTube clip" - by Vindu Goel for San Jose Mercury News

"YouTube, Viacom bow to light-sabre wielding defender of online justice" - by Cade Metz for The Register

"YouTube video involving local candidate resurfaces" - by Gerald Witt for the News & Record

"Chris Knight's Copyright Infringement Case Resolved" - by Abby Prince for WebProNews

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PUBLISHED ARTICLES BEFORE REINSTATEMENT

"Viacom Says User Infringed His Own Copyright" - by Slashdot

"Punishing Corporate Copyright Abusers" - by Dan Gillmor for Center for Citzen Media

"YouTube yanks goofy 'Death Star' clip at Viacom's insistence" - by Russell Shaw for ZDNet.com

"So by Terms of Service, you mean like a bull services a cow" - by John Murrell for SiliconValley.com

"Viacom steals video, issues take down notice to the artist" - by Fair Use Day

"Here's Your 15 Minutes And Your DMCA Notice" - by Jason Lee Miller for WebProNews

Viacom: It's Not Copyright Infringement When We Do It" - by Kristen Nicole for Mashable

"Viacom is a Big, Mean Bully" - by Kevin Nalty for Will Video For Food

"Viacom Can Take Your Stuff and Copyright It" - by Evan for Uneasy Silence

"Viacom runs Web video, claims copyright" - by Owen Thomas for Valleywag

"Viacom says that local blogger infringed on his own copyright" - by Darkmoon for LUX.ET.UMBRA

"YouTube Complies with Viacom" - by Jordan McCollum for Marketing Pilgrim

"Christopher Knight's Crapolicious Copyright Case" - by roasty for Crapolicio.us

"This time Viacom is accused of violating copyright" - by Greg Sandoval for CNET News.com

"Chutzpah!" - by Mike Weiksner for Connected Conversations

"Viacom - pokaz hipokryzji" by Antyweb (IN POLISH!)

"Man posts on YouTube: Viacom steals video & then files takedown on Creator" - by Simon G Best for Groklaw

"Viacom Accuses Guy Of Copyright Infringement For Showing Video Of Viacom Infringing On His Copyright" - by Mike Masnick for Techdirt

"Viacom's 'bass-ackwards' screw-up: issues takedown for video it 'pirated'" - by Jacqui Cheng for Ars Technia

"Viacom breaks copyright time continuum" - by DiscoZome for Unknown Worlds Forum

"Viacom orders YouTube to remove a copy of their work they took from said YouTuber?" - by Sean P. Aune for TECHBLORGE.com

"Is plagiarism protected by copyright law?" - by Silicon Valley Sleuth

"Full-Circle Copyright Infringement" - by The J-Walk Blog

"Quand c’est Viacom ce n’est pas une infraction au copyright!" - by Aziz Haddad for Mashable (IN FRENCH!)

"Copyfight: Viacom runs Web video, claims copyright" - by Technology News Blog

"Viacom in a copyright doomloop" - by Adriana Lukas for Media Influencer

"Viacom's Chutzpah" - by Jeff for spin the cat

"Viacom Dings Man For Copying His Own Video" - by Yahoo! Tech

"Viacom Pulls Clip It Doesn't Necessarily Own" - by Jackson West for NewTeeVee

"Viacom Accuses Copyright Owner of Copyright Infringement!" - by Mike Abundo for Inside Online Video

"Misusing and Abusing Social Media and Trust" - by Laurel Papworth

"Viacom's Got Big Balls" - by Bubba for Fazed

"YouTube DMCA Chutzpah? Sorry, Viacom Also Entitled to Play Fair Use Game" - by Donna Bogatin for Inside Chatter

"Urheberrechtsposse: Viacom vs. Knight vs. Viacom" - by Felix Knoke for Spiegel Online (IN GERMAN!)

"Don't make Christopher Knight the posterboy for copyright oppression" - by Evan Brown for InternetCases.com

"Say What?" - by Bob Schwartz for A South Dakota Moderate

"Hypocrisy in the Copyright Infringement Debate" - by Of Zen and Computing

"Viacom slammed for pulling VH-1 YouTube clip" - by Matt Chapman for vnunet.com

"YouTube-Related Legal Disputes, Part I" - by Peter Lattman for The Wall Street Journal

"Viacom s 'bass ackwards' screw-up issues takedown for video it 'pirated'" - by Chad Smith

"Viacom: Fair Use Is What We Say It Is" - by Scott Gilbertson for Wired

"For Me and Not for Thee" - by Sleepcatz

"Audacity: Viacom copies YouTuber’s video w/o permission, then accuses YouTuber of infringement" - by The UTube Blog

"Viacom Once Again Abusing DMCA?" - by Andy Beal for Marketing Pilgrim

"The One with the double standard" - by in the key of :: T

"Viacom: Direitos de autor? O que é isso?" - by OrangeEye (IN PORTUGUESE! I think...)

"Indie Filmmaker in Copyright Spat With Viacom Over YouTube Clips" - by Mark Hefflinger for Digital Media Wire

"Viacom demonstrates the meaning of the word 'hypocrisy'" - by Less for Stupid Evil Bastard

"Can you copyright something you've nicked?" - by Dizzy for Dizzy Thinks

"How to Infringe Your Own Coyright - It Happened on YouTube" - by Bogdan Popa for Softpedia

"Christopher vs. Goliath" - by Tilly Gokbudak

"Full-Circle Copyright" - by Bernard Goldbach

"YouTube coypright conundrum" - by Software Online Guide

"Copyright Infringement Goes Meta" - by Erin Simon for Maximum PC

"Hvem eier en YouTube-video?" - by Electroworld (IN NORWEGIAN!)

"Copywrong" - by Rob for Unconventional Wisdom

"Viacom's flexible attitude toward fair use" - by Matthew Sag for Fairly Useful

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PUBLISHED ARTICLES AFTER REINSTATEMENT

" Viacom Yields to YouTuber Who DMCA Counterclaimed" - by Slashdot

"Return of the Jedi" - by Ed Cone

"Amateur's Counter-Notification on Viacom Results in Clip Returning" - by Kevin Nalty for Will Video For Food

"YouTube restores clip downed by Viacom" - by Nick Farrell for The Inquirer

"Viacom admits mistaken DMCA notice after EFF gets involved" - by The UTube Blog

"YouTube restores Viacom-banned VH-1 clip" - by Matt Chapman for vnunet.com

"YouTube Reverses Course on User’s Video: Reposts It" - by Dan Gillmor for Center for Citizen Media

"Don't Be Bullied By Big Business! Counter False Copyright Infringement Claims" - by Justin Hall for My PC Pros

"Viacom Copyright Infringement Lifted" - by The Judge for Media Morgue

"Remember that guy who got his video stolen by VH1 and Viacom had his clip taken down from Youtube? He filed a DMCA counterclaim, and won" - by reddit

"School Board Candidate Beats Viacom" - by Movieweb

"School Board Candidate Beats Viacom" - by contactmusic.com

"YouTube restores controversial clip protested by Viacom" - by Ruben Francia for TECH.BLORGE.com

"YouTube Honors Counter-Notification Versus Viacom" - by Mike Abundo for Inside Online Video

"Man defeats Viacom in DMCA takedown dispute" - by vurbal for afterdawn.com

"Look Before You Upload" - by John Naughton for The Observer

"Fallen Star Wars Clip on YouTube Has Been Restored" - by Kristen Nicole for Mashable

"School Board Candidate Beats Viacom" - by IMDB Studio Briefing

"I'm Back" - by Jeffrey Starr for Not Bad Films

"Campaigners who get told they don't own the rights to their own election ads" - by The Labour Humanist

"A banner week for music and copyright" - by chooch for Shuroki Online

"Update: good guy wins, Viacom loses" - by Mike Weiksner for Connected Conversations

If there's any more that are found, I'll be sure to post them here also.

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:-) turns 25

It was 25 years ago today that Scott E. Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, used the following combination of characters in an e-mail:

:-)

It was the first-ever usage of what has become known as an "emoticon".

Happy 25th birthday Colon-Hyphen-Parenthesis!

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YouTube restores Rational Response Squad's account (and commentary about supporting a group of atheists)

Early this morning Brian Sapient of the Rational Response Squad posted on the group's site that YouTube had restored their account.

You might remember a few days ago when I wrote here about how the atheist Rational Response Squad had apparently been targeted by a Christian organization. Creation Science Evangelism Ministries allegedly filed "false DMCA copyright requests" against the Rational Response Squad with YouTube, and YouTube subsequently yanked Rational Response Squad's account. But as you can see, it is now back up.

In the past few days since posting on this blog that I would "give the Rational Response Squad my full support in this matter", plenty of e-mail has come into my box about that. A lot of the sentiment is reflected in the comments made on the earlier post. And many people are really, really angry that I took up sides with a group of atheists on this issue. Especially in light of what, supposedly, Rational Response Squad has done in the past.

The first time that the Rational Response Squad ever appeared on my radar screen was during the weekend, when this affair with YouTube made news. I don't know what the Rational Response Squad has done before.

Saying that I'm supporting them in this matter does in no way certify or imply in the least bit that I'm somehow endorsing their attitudes and tactics in other matters.

But don't take that to mean that just because I do follow Christ, that it's supposed to mean that I automatically endorse "my side" in every situation, either.

This thing is for the Rational Response Squad to hash-out with Creation Science Evangelism Ministries. I don't have a dog in that hunt...

...although I do feel compelled to say this to Creation Science Evangelism Ministries: you guys aren't "getting" it at all. And these kinds of shenanigans aren't doing the ministry of Christ any favors. If anything, this enmity against the Rational Response Squad is hurting our cause, which is supposed to be one borne in love. I can't see that happening here at all.

Why did I, a Christian, lend my support to a group of atheists in this situation? Because it was the Christian thing to do. Nothing more and nothing less. If that doesn't satisfy you then maybe it'll please you to know that it was at least the American thing to do. As in the real America: the people that used to be able to disagree without feeling obligated to destroy each other. The people who used to be wise enough to realize that if it could happen to others, it could happen to them too.

This shouldn't happen to atheists any more than it should happen to Christians.

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Guess what we're going to see this weekend?

Nope, this one won't be in 3-D. But it's still going to look pretty darned awesome, no doubt about it.

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Jim Broadbent is playing Horace Slughorn!

Dark Horizons is the first to report that award-winning actor Jim Broadbent has been cast to play Horace Slughorn in the upcoming film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (and no doubt this means we'll be seeing him again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well).

If you haven't read the books, Horace Slughorn is a fairly major character in the sixth book. Slughorn is a former professor of Hogwarts who Professor Dumbledore persuades to come out of retirement and teach again at the school. Slughorn also has a knack for getting attached to students who he believes (and often rightly so) will go on to excel. So naturally, Slughorn appreciates Harry's already-celebrity status.

Broadbent will also be seen this coming spring in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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Happy Constitution Day

220 years ago today, on September 17th, 1787, the Constitution of the United States - the supreme law of this country - was adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Although it could be said that the Constitution was only really "enacted" after nine states agreed to ratify it (New Hampshire became that ninth state in late June 1788), today is by and large considered to be the Constitution's "birthday".

If you would like to read the Constitution (and you really should), here is the full text - including subsequent amendments - hosted by the National Constitution Center.

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Robert Jordan has passed away

James Rigney Jr. - better known by his pen-name Robert Jordan - has died in South Carolina of a rare blood disease.

Jordan was the author of the rather popular Wheel of Time series. He had finished the eleventh book in 2005 and he was working on the twelfth and final book when he passed away. I only read the first volume, The Eye of the World, and that was about 12 years ago but I remember it being a pretty great read. I may have to check out the rest of the series now, especially since a number of people have commented on some rather Christian themes throughout the books.

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LOST's Terry O'Quinn wins an Emmy!

Congratulations to Terry O'Quinn, who last night won his first-ever Emmy - that for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama - for his portrayal of John Locke on Lost!

Lost actually had two entries in the Best Supporting Actor/Drama category tonight: the other was Michael Emerson, who plays Benjamin Linus.

If you ask me, all the Best Actor/Actress categories should have been filled with Lost people. That's the thing about an ensemble show with a cast that strong: practically everyone deserves to be there.

But O'Quinn richly deserves this win. Locke is one of the most fascinating characters in television history and there's not possibly anyone who could have done the the role better than Terry O'Quinn. The more Locke-centric episodes this past season - especially "The Man from Tallahassee" and "The Brig" - were some of the most intense in the show's history (heck, "The Man from Tallahassee" had this whole house screaming). And not just Lost either: O'Quinn has done some amazing work over the past decade and it's great to see him get acknowledged for his efforts.

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MAN ON FIRE: What ALMOST happened to protest uniforms at Reidsville schools

This morning I was going back though the past few months of blog posts looking for something I'd written pertaining to education. In the course of searching I found the video of WGSR's Star Talk on June 14th where Mark Childrey interviewed me about my plans to address the July 9th meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education while dressed as a Jedi Knight. It was all to protest the "Standard Mode of Dress" (legalese for "school uniforms") at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools that the board had approved.

As was reported here a few weeks later, the board wound up rescinding the earlier vote to implement the policy after POTSMOD (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) turned the meeting into a media spectacle with picketing by students, black armbands and not just a Jedi but an "escaped convict" too :-)

Well, I watched the video again and it got to the part where I was alluded to Mark that I had "something much more outrageous" in mind if the board continued to refuse to acknowledge us. What this was, I told Mark, would "drop jaws all over the place".

Fortunately, the board did hear us out. And we are thankful that they did and that they overturned their initial vote for the uniforms.

But I was not bluffing. There was something that I had planned to do if the board, at the July meeting, continued to deny our protests.

If the Jedi Costume didn't grab their attention, I was seriously intending to escalate this thing, big time.

The only people who've known about this before now were my wife Lisa, Samantha Fettig of POTSMOD, Richard Moore, "Weird" Ed Woody, and just a few others. They were all sworn to secrecy about it. They also, every single one of them, tried their darndest to talk me out of doing this.

But after studying it long and hard and figuring that (a) if it was in the public interest to do this then I'd have no problem with attempting it and (b) it would be an awesome experience if I survived, I was all the more bound and determined to be ready to do this.

So what was it?

If, after the July 9th meeting, we could not help but believe that the Rockingham County Board of Education was not interested in our concerns about the school uniforms and why we did not want them, then I was going to pick a date and send out a whole wazoo-load of press releases, telling every TV and radio station, newspaper, blogger and whoever else came to mind to be at a certain spot at a certain time.

When the press was all situated, I was going to come out wearing one of those flame-proof suits that cover you from head to toe, set myself on fire, and with the cameras rolling stand there with a sign saying "SCHOOL UNIFORMS BURN ME UP!"

The effect was hopefully going to be like what you see in the photo on the right.

The plan was for me to stand there for several seconds all lit up holding the sign, long enough for everyone to get good footage and pics, and then have volunteers with fire extinguishers douse out the flames.

So intent on going through with this was I, that the announcement of my plan for it was written into the first draft of my speech before the board. Luckily a cooler head (bad pun I know) prevailed and the "threat" didn't make it into the second version of the remarks. But I can only imagine what the look of horror on the faces of all those board members might have been, had I gone through with publicizing it that night...

...and especially what the reactions from a certain few of the members would have been. You see, they're the ones who know me. We've been friends for many, many years. And they would be the first to tell you that they KNOW that I am outrageous enough to try something like this! Emphasis on "try": they're well aware that I would take a stab at it even if success wasn't guaranteed. If the stunt might be glorious and spectacular, that's all I need to know to want to attempt it. Although so far as physical danger goes, this would have been one of the more daring things that I'd have ever considered.

Would I have really done this? For my brothers and sisters in POTSMOD and for the kids at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools, you bet that I would have.

Thankfully (and I really can't stress that nearly enough), things didn't get to that point at all. The board voted 7-3 at the July meeting to overturn the uniforms policy at the two schools. So ever since classes started a few weeks ago the middle and high school students in Reidsville get to wear whatever they want, so long as it adheres to the reasonable dress code.

But for a few weeks there, in the summer of 2007, Rockingham County was almost the site of its very own version of the Burning Man tour.

Look, it could have been worse. At least I didn't have The Wicker Man in mind when I hatched this crazy plot...

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More alleged DMCA abuse on YouTube: Creationists use law to silence critics

Now that the Viacom/YouTube situation is behind me (I hope), I'm in the process of putting together a collection of the various published news stories/blog posts about it all: from the time it began to its resolution. And I'm also working on documenting the step-by-step process that I went through to contest it, including the full text of the counterclaim.

Suffice it to say, one of the things that has happened as a result of all this is that I'm now much more interested in digital copyright matters than I was before.

So this article on Slashdot caught my eye: a pro-atheist group called the Rational Response Squad has had its YouTube account terminated after an organization called Creation Science Evangelism Ministries allegedly flooded YouTube with "false DMCA copyright requests". The termination apparently came after the Rational Response Squad tried to contest the copyright claims (I'm assuming this means that the Rational Response Squad filed DMCA counterclaims as I did in my situation).

I definitely don't agree with the Rational Response Squad and what they stand for. And there's probably not much at all that these people would ever appreciate about my being a believer in God and a follower of Christ (albeit a very imperfect one).

All the same, if these allegations are true then a dire injustice is being done to the Rational Response Squad by way of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And YouTube has a lot of explaining to do.

And if Creation Science Evangelism Ministries is indeed attacking its critics with fraudulent claims like this, then the people behind it are showing a very poor example of Christ-like character. And they should be called out for that. But right now I'm more concerned about what is happening with YouTube and the DMCA.

I can almost understand what happened with YouTube so far as my incident went. They were put between the proverbial "rock and a hard place". And under the DMCA once a copyright claim was received, they had to act accordingly. They acted wrong, but in looking back and knowing more about it than I did before, I don't see how YouTube had any choice under the law but to remove it... at least until I filed the DMCA counterclaim.

But this situation with Rational Response Squad and Creation Science Evangelism Ministries is, in many ways, far worse than mine was. The thing with my video was at best, I like to think anyway, ignorance. The actions against the Rational Response Squad could - it might be argued in a court of law - be criminal.

However what is really troubling is that, if the report that Slashdot posted is true, then YouTube has terminated the Rational Response Squad's account without a complete and considerate investigation of the matter. And maybe I'm thinking on a way wrong level here when I say this but after reading what is supposedly happening with the Rational Response Squad, it's enough to make me wonder what might have happened to my own account when I filed the counterclaim against Viacom's move against my own YouTube video. Without the considerable press that my situation generated, would YouTube have been just as keen to not have my account be terminated?

You would think that YouTube would give every claim and counterclaim the seriousness that each deserves, even knowing that many of them are no doubt going to be frivolous. That's to be expected of any enterprise that's put itself in the public position that YouTube has done. But to possibly not only fail to investigate such inane claims but also acquiesce to them goes so far beyond negligence, that I also cannot but believe that these actions would be criminal in nature also.

As I said before: as a Christian, I don't agree with what the Rational Response Squad stands for. But if what they are saying is true and they are indeed being quashed on YouTube by Creation Science Evangelism Ministries, then I'll give the Rational Response Squad my full support in this matter.

I'll close this post out with an observation using my personal "worst possible epithet for anything". This situation, along with my own and numerous others, proves one thing: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act sucks donkeys balls to no end.

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O.J.'S 11 - The Poster

You've probably heard by now that O.J. Simpson is being investigated - along with several accomplices - for armed robbery at a Las Vegas casino. The very first thing that popped into mind was that "this sounds like Ocean's 11!"

I couldn't resist. This was screaming for a Photoshop job.

Instead of the 2001 remake with George Clooney and pals, I went with the original 1960 movie with Frank Sinatra and the "Rat Pack", which I saw a long time ago and always liked.

So here it is: "O.J.'s 11" (or "O.J.'s Eleven" however you want to spell it out)...

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The Star Wars classroom at Monroeton Elementary School

It all started a little over a month ago, and the very strange tale of how we wound up with a life-sized statue of Yoda in our home. Bear in mind that Brian Hodges wanted it to go in his new office at Mercer University and since he's teaching cello, he was going to replace Yoda's lightsaber blade with a cello bow. But he didn't have enough room and so Yoda came back to North Carolina from Atlanta (after already coming up from Florida) and ended up in our "foster care".

The thing is that even at life-size, Yoda takes up considerable space. Lisa and I didn't really know what to do with him. But then an idea came to us. Or to be more accurate, the notion came to mind to "adapt" Brian's original idea...

Let's put Yoda in Lisa's music classroom at school! That way Yoda would have space, would be used to promote music and would get to be enjoyed by lots of people, especially young children.

And that's what we did. Well, that's where it started anyway. Because Lisa said that other teachers usually have a "motif" going on in their room about something they enjoy (like some teachers have their rooms decked out with their favorite NASCAR racers). So we thought that we'd put some of that collection of mine to good use and give her classroom a Star Wars theme.

We put the finishing touches on it this week. And it's already proving to be a huge hit with the kids! And with the faculty and staff too (and word has it that it might have even been oggled by a few school board members).

So here ya go: Mrs. Lisa Knight's "Star Wars"-themed music classroom at Monroeton Elementary School in Reidsville, North Carolina...

Even before entering the classroom, you'll find a hint of the magic and myth and music within.

Immediately to the side of the door as you enter the room, there's this board with Yoda's instruction that "Learn music, we will!"

It's a pretty spacious classroom, as this next picture indicates. Monroeton Elementary also serves as one of the election precincts and whenever elections are held, Lisa's classroom is where they set up the voting booths! So I have to wonder if we had put all of this stuff in her room last year, would it have helped or hurt my chances at getting elected to school board, considering that TV commercial that I'd ran?

The commanding centerpiece of the room (after the teacher, hopefully), Yoda!

There hasn't been a day that's gone by so far this year that Lisa hasn't told me about how delighted the kids are with him. Yoda has become a very welcoming and friendly presence for the children. And I've heard a number of especially great stories about how it seems some kids - who might otherwise feel shy or withdrawn or somehow intimidated by being in school for the first time in their lives - really "open up" with Yoda around. This is something that the kids, heck everyone can relate to in a positive way. Which I think is the very purpose of mythology to begin with. It's awesome to be able to actually apply that in such a direct (and fun) fashion!

Here's another pic of Yoda, showing more of his size and the "Music: The Force That Binds Us All Together" sign.

In case anyone's wondering, I removed the blade from Yoda's lightsaber for sake of safety. We'd thought of putting a conducting baton in the saber hilt and make Yoda look like he was leading an orchestra, but that might not be completely safe, either. In the end, we decided he looks good and inspirational just as he is even without it.

On the far wall from the door, there is a series of portraits depicting "Great Musicians of the Star Wars Saga". The first is of The Max Rebo Band from Return of the Jedi:

Followed by Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes from A New Hope:

And finally, Augie's Great Municipal Band from The Phantom Menace:

Here's Artoo Detoo! Actually it's an Artoo-Detoo cooler:

'Course you can't have Artoo without Threepio being around somewhere to complain about things (even if he's just an action figure case):

After Yoda, the biggest "celebrity" in the room is this almost-life-sized cardboard stand-up of Chewbacca. Considering that Chewie is (a) a Wookiee (b) fiercely loyal (c) enormously strong (d) eager to rip arms out of the sockets of people that he doesn't like and (e) in possession of the only gun on public school premises, I think it's pretty safe to assume that this is the safest classroom in Rockingham County!

Here's one of the bookshelves, filled with music books. On top of the shelf there are Star Wars picture books that during the occasional free period the students are welcome to look through and enjoy. The students are not welcome to put on the Darth Vader mask: have you any idea how uncomfortable that thing is? No wonder Vader is so cranky all the time! But they still think it's a pretty neat thing to behold.

Knowing that the younger children would really dig these, we've got two of the Star Wars Mr. Potato Heads on display (seen here guarding a metronome).

And now, something that I wish we didn't have to show you, but even here there was a bit of fun to be had. It's a reality of life that part of a healthy childhood is coming to understand the concept of self-discipline. And it's very necessary for a teacher to promote and maintain that discipline in his or her classroom. Hence the system that Lisa has chosen to use in her classroom: a discipline board. Except that this is no mere "discipline board"...

You've heard of a Dark Lord of the Sith? Well that's nothing compared to the abject terror brought on by The Dark BOARD of the Sith!

I know: this is probably the only elementary classroom in America that instead of pictures of George Washington and Abe Lincoln on the walls, there's pictures of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. Just like it's a sure bet that this is the only music classroom anywhere that has Figrin D'an and Max Rebo rather than Mozart and Beethoven. Maybe we'll get lucky and score a special guest visit from John Williams at Monroeton :-)

And as you are leaving class, there is this traditional tiding of good fortune as you go on your way...
So ends the "virtual tour" of the music classroom at Monroeton Elementary. I gotta say, it's a terrific feeling knowing that more than it being just fun eye-candy, but that the kids seem to really be moved to engage themselves in learning by all of this Star Wars imagery around them.

And in case you are wondering: No, Lisa does not refer to her students as "younglings"! Not yet anyway :-)

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Madeleine L'Engle - author of A WRINKLE IN TIME - has passed away

It happened last week, and I've been so wrapped-up in things that I haven't had time to keep up with most of the news lately. It was on Jenna Olwin's blog that I heard that Madeleine L'Engle had passed away at the age of 88.

Words fail to describe how heartbroken I'm feeling right now at hearing this news.

When I was in elementary school, there was this "book club" thing that our teachers always took part in: we'd get these circulars from the club and go over them with our parents and they'd send us to school with the form and checks for payment and a week or so later we'd get our stuff at school. 'Twas a lot of fun actually. Well when I was ten and in fourth grade we got that month's circular and one of the books was A Wrinkle In Time. One of my best friends told me it was an "awesome book" and so I got Mom to order it.

That was 23 years ago. And you know what? I've still got that same copy of A Wrinkle In Time sitting on my bookshelf. Wherever I've gone over the years, whether off to college or to live and work in Asheville or in our home as a married man, A Wrinkle In Time has gone with me. It's amazing that it's still in as good a condition as it is, given how many times I've read this copy.

And then when Lisa and I started dating, on the very first trip that she took with me to my hometown of Reidsville to meet my parents, we were in Barnes & Noble in Greensboro one night before going to see a movie and I bought her a copy of A Wrinkle In Time, too. 'Twas the first book that I ever gave her. She loved it too.

Suffice it to say, there are few books that ever impacted me more than did L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time.

You know what was so wonderful about that book to me? Because reading it as a ten-year old kid, it opened my eyes to something that I had never been aware of before: that the realm of science and that of faith are not only not incompatible, but they are one and the same. And in one way or another, that has been one of the bigger revelations that has dominated and guided my life in the long years since.

I never got to meet Madeleine L'Engle, but I do know some people who were fortunate enough to not only meet but talk with her at length. One of my friends said that she was "amazing". Another said that she had "grace and a powerful light behind her eyes".

And now she is gone from us.

But in her own way, maybe more than she ever knew, Madeleine L'Engle became just as legendary a warrior against the darkness as those who were mentioned in A Wrinkle In Time.

Mrs. L'Engle, thank you for everything that you gave us. And we hope that you are enjoying the thrill, at long last, of a real tesseract.

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VIACOM SITUATION UPDATE: YouTube has restored my clip

It will be two weeks ago tomorrow since YouTube notified me that it had pulled the clip I had uploaded from VH1's show Web Junk 2.0 featuring my first school board commercial. VH1's parent company Viacom had considered it an infringement of copyright and requested that YouTube to act accordingly. Later that same day I filed a counter-notification claim with YouTube, arguing that I should be entitled to use the clip because it was a derivative product built on material that I was the original creator of. The incident received quite a bit of publicity after I posted about it on this blog.

A little after 9 p.m. tonight I received the following e-mail from YouTube:

Dear Kwerky,

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we've completed
processing your counter-notification dated x/xx/xx regarding your video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddyVQwpByug

This content has been restored and your account will not be penalized.

Sincerely,

Harry
The YouTube Team

And sure enough, the clip is back up.

Very special thanks to Fred von Lohmann and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for their terrific assistance in this matter! Folks, I cannot begin to describe how impressed I have become with the Electronic Frontier Foundation because of this. Theirs has been the kind of service that is so rare to witness nowadays that when you do see it, it practically comes as a shock. There's no telling how much grief and headache that Fred and his crew have prevented not just for me, but for a lot of other people also. And if you find that you are capable of doing so, I would really like to suggest making a contribution to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is one organization that really does merit a tremendous amount of respect for the work that it does.

There is more that I'm feeling led to say about this, but that'll have to wait to be appended to this post or on a new one tomorrow. But I wanted to go ahead and let it be known that the situation is now, apparently and very thankfully, resolved.

EDIT 9:33 a.m. EST:

There is something that I feel compelled to say now that this situation is apparently resolved for good. Something that I've been yearning to scream almost since this whole thing started...

At no point have I ever seen this, or even desired to see this, as a "get Viacom" thing. And I seriously regret that some people saw this incident as an opportunity to lash out at that company for sake of spite or profit or whatever.

Doubt it not: there's been a huge amount of frustration on this end for the past two weeks. But it's been such great irony that I've had to laugh about it too.

I've got nothing against Viacom. And I wish that nobody else would have anything against Viacom, either. Life's way too short to spend even a moment of it wanting to hurt others.

Believe me, I know from firsthand experience: bitterness will only reap regret.

Big companies are made up of people, too. Yeah, I know that a lot of big companies have screwed plenty of things up. But that's only because collective might magnifies the flaws that are already in every human being on the planet. And despite that apparent strength in numbers, you have to make yourself realize that it's not some corporate leviathan that you're in disagreement with, but the people within it... and it's altogether possible that you and they are more alike than you realize.

Ya see, we've made it all too easy to hate "them". It’s a hard thing to hate an individual person. But make that person a Viacom executive, or a Democrat or Republican, or a Protestant or Catholic, or a Muslim or Jew, or whatever, by de-humanizing them and sticking them behind some mass façade... and it becomes not just easy to hate them but it's practically expected that we try to destroy them!

I don't hate Viacom, no matter what's happened in the past few weeks. And I hope that nobody else does either, for this or for any other reason. So if you do, please stop.

Man has spent six thousand years struggling with law and how to comprehend it. We still haven't got it down pat. And then things like the Internet and digital media come and muck it up even more. I sincerely believe that's what happened here: Viacom and I converged on untrotted soil, in a way that to the best of my knowledge had never happened before. Fortunately, we got out (and once again I would like to thank Fred von Lohmann and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for their assistance with this situation).

In a way, I'm sort of glad that this happened. Just as I'm glad that I ran for school board even though I didn't win a seat. This Viacom/YouTube deal is something that I learned a lot from, and came out a better person for it. It's made me much more aware of things like copyright law and the DMCA (and the myriad of problems with that legislation). I think it's safe to say that from this incident I learned quite a lot about my personal strengths and weaknesses. It was a growth event.

And along the way, I got to meet and come to know a lot of good people.

Even the bad... or just the plain crazy... things that happen to you in life, you can find something good to take from them. If you want that.

It doesn't look like this is going to wind up in any kind of litigation, and for that I am thankful. If I can die someday without having sued or been sued, then I will die happy. This ends just as I had hoped it would: with the clip back up and, I like to think, with Viacom and me getting to shake hands and move on and wishing each other well. I'll certainly harbor no hard feelings toward Viacom for the past two weeks.

And I hope that Viacom doesn't think that this means that I want them to stop using my commercial on VH1. I just want to be able to let not only my friends see it but my children and grandchildren someday, which might be after the Web Junk 2.0 site has gone defunct.

Sometime in the next few days I'm going to "collect" the various news stories that appeared online about this thing and post them here, if nothing else than for my own convenience. But also for future reference in case anybody else wants to study what happened with this issue (including arguments that were made against my case... and there were plenty). Along with some other pertinent documentation, such as the DMCA counter-notification claim that I filed, which I would welcome others to study and scrutinize and if they feel so led, to criticize (hey, it was my first one :-).

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Jane Wyman has passed away

Here's the story that's breaking this afternoon.

She would have been a legend even if she was never immortalized by Doc Brown's words to Marty in Back to the Future: "I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!"

Seriously though, she was a solid actress right up through her years on Falcon Crest. Was it more than coincidence that Wyman started doing that role right when ex-husband Ronnie began to be President? I've always wondered about that. But her Angela Channing character was the perfect follow-up to J.R. Ewing and Dallas on Friday nights in the Eighties. For that alone, she earns honoring here.

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It's official: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

That's the title of the fourth Indiana Jones movie. Shia LaBeouf announced it live during the MTV Video Music Awards and Lucasfilm quickly confirmed it with a press release.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Hmmmmm... I don't like it. Sounds way too long and positively hokey. If the title is referring to this crystal skull, then I'm kind of disappointed 'cuz there's much better artifacts out there waiting to be MacGuffins for a good Indiana Jones story. The "crystal skulls" thing to me always seemed on the same level of wacky as Chariots of the Gods? or the Lost Continent of Mu. In this final(?) movie installment, why couldn't Indy be sent looking for the Lance of Longinus or the Tooth of Buddha or the Mormon Plates or the Cloak of Muhammad?

But then, these are just the thoughts of a guy who's always said that Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness was a pretty good read... so what do I know? :-P

EDIT 7:22 a.m. EST: Okay now that the initial shock has passed I must admit: I kind of like this title. Why? Because it occurred to me during the night that when Spielberg and Lucas set out to make Raiders of the Lost Ark all those years ago, they intended that movie to be a homage to those classic serials that they and all the other kids of their generation used to flock to the local theater to see on Saturday afternoons. And those flicks usually had pretty outrageous titles, like Drums of Fu Manchu and Secret Service in Darkest Africa. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sounds like it's got that same kind of vibe, just with "Indiana Jones" tacked onto it. I know: this is basically the identical argument that Lucas used to sell us The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones... but those wound up working well. So by the same merit, I'll have to say that I'm starting to dig Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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Peter Jackson "film festival" in our house this weekend

We watched two movies on DVD over the weekend and oddly enough both were made by Peter Jackson.

The first was one that I'd heard of for awhile but had never seen before: Heavenly Creatures, which came courtesy of Netflix. This 1994 movie stars Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet (in her first-ever film role) as Pauline Rieper and Juliet Hulme, the central figures in the Parker-Hulme murder case that rocked New Zealand in 1954. It's a fairly disturbing movie, but quite a fascinating one as well. I wound up spending a good part of the night after the movie reading about the real-life events involving these two young friends and how it went so bizarrely, totally wrong. But I don't know how long it could be before I could watch Heavenly Creatures again. This is a movie rife with those kinds of things that once you see, you can't "unsee" if you know what I mean.

And then this afternoon Lisa and I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Has it really been almost six years since this movie came out? Hard to believe. Well, for whatever reason we watched it and for that I am glad because it left me feeling refreshed and inspired again. That line that Gandalf says at one point: "All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you", is so true. We don't have to believe that we can fight and win all of the battles. And we shouldn't even try to believe it, either. We just have to deal with what God has set before us, as best we can and knowing that whatever happens it does serve His will, even if we can't understand how it can do that from where we are.

Maybe tomorrow I'll put on The Frighteners and make it three Peter Jackson movies in a row :-)

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Fred Reed muses on smarts

Fred Reed talks about intelligence and all the problems that come with it in his latest column...

Generally intelligence has no effect on conclusions, which are glandularly determined. It just rationalizes hormonal inevitabilities.

Further, there's no point in knowledge, except to show off with in sports bars. If you are in Willie's Rib Pit to watch boxing and know about the Long Count (in the Cribb-Molineaux fight), then you amount to something. You do no harm, anyway. All other knowledge is suspect. At best, it is a minor vice, like crossword puzzles. At worst, it encourages people to do catastrophic things with a smug sense of fundamental rightness. The people who got America into Iraq were no end bright and could say impressive things like "Twenty-Seventh Caliphate" and "Theravada Sufism." Much good it did them. Or us.

Brains just allow you to be more elaborately and ornately disastrously wrong.

I've been wondering quite a bit lately: how is it that with supposedly all of these "smart" people that we think are running things in this country, we are still screwing things up... like in Iraq? Reed hits on it here: that these people have let intelligence come in the way of their sense of compassion and consideration. Or as I thought after reading his piece, they have enormous intelligence but woefully lack wisdom.

Personally, I'd rather have wisdom than intelligence. What say ye?

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Pavarotti's funeral was today

So help me, I have cried something furious in the past few days since his passing.

A lot of people really didn't know that about me: that I was a big fan of Luciano Pavarotti. And I'd always dreamed of hearing him live in concert someday. That'll never happen now.

Pavarotti is one of the best reasons why God in His graciousness has allowed us to have things like compact discs. I really believe that. If He let the printing press come about so that His word could be shared with the world, then God let sound recording and other technology happen so that the world could enjoy and stand in awe at the magnificent things He has created. Like Pavarotti's voice.

We'll be lucky if the next hundred years gives us a voice so magnificent. Heck, we'll be lucky if we get a voice so magnificent as Pavarotti's at all, ever again.

Here's another clip that I found on YouTube of him performing. This is the piece that comes most to mind whenever I think of Pavarotti: his rendition of "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot...

Words fail to describe how beautiful this is.

Thank you Pavarotti, for sharing with us for so very many of these long years the talent that God gave you.

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"State Wide Burning Band"

I saw this sign yesterday outside the Monroeton Fire Department on US 158 west of Reidsville...

Thanks to Richard Moore for getting the pic!

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Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"

When good stuff like this has been out for a few months, and I'm only now finding out about it... that's when I know that I've been too absorbed in the serious and need to slow down and enjoy things more.

I love this song! It's catchy and fun and it's quite obvious that Tay is really enjoying his work. Dude's got talent.

This blog is used to post stuff that I think is cool and this is definitely up there. So here he is: Tay Zonday singing "Chocolate Rain"!

(BTW, if you like "Chocolate Rain" then right-click here and save it in MP3!)

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Implanted microchips may cause cancer

Many lab animals that have been given microchip implants have developed cancerous tumors, according to newly published research.

"The transponders were the cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

I thought this was pretty fascinating, in light of how there's a push from several sectors to start putting these chips in humans. And since some people are associating these chips with the biblical "Mark of the Beast", it kinda makes you wonder about Revelation 16, verses 1 and 2...

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

Whether you base your stance on religious belief or medical research or classic libertarianism, I think it's safe to say: putting these things in humans is a bad idea.

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Screen burn-in on an LCD HDTV? Yup

We bought a 37-inch LCD high-definition television set last November. It's specifically an LCD screen because when I was doing research before we went out to look at sets the widespread consensus was that LCD screens don't "burn-in" like plasma screens do.

Well, guess what?

I can't show what this looks like because it doesn't show up well in photos, but there are two very fine vertical lines running down the entire height of the screen: one line running equidistant from each of the left and right sides of the image. They are exactly where the borders of the "pillars" are when you watch a standard (not high-def) image without "stretching" it to fill the screen. Since most of the interesting programming around here is standard definition and I don't like distorted images, the tendency is to watch television "pillarboxed". I guess that's how the lines got in there: with the borders always being "on".

It's supposed to not be a permanent condition of LCD screens. And technically it's not "burn-in" at all, in the sense that plasma screens can get it. It's properly called "image retention"... but that doesn't keep it from being any less a nuisance. Right now I've got the TV on with the image stretched to fill the screen, so that the pixels making up those lines will get "exercised" and start working right again. I'm hoping this will work. If not, looks like that service plan is going to turn out to have been a great investment after all.

In the meantime, if anyone's ever had any experience with this kind of an issue, I'd sure appreciate some advice. I like to try to fix things "in-house" as much as possible, without having to lug something as big as an HDTV back to the store :-)

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A great voice falls silent: Luiciano Pavarotti has passed away

Why does it seem lately that we are losing so many legends?

It was in 1985 when I first heard Luciano Pavarotti sing. It was a concert on television and even as an 11-year old kid, I though there was something magnificent about Pavarotti's voice. Over the years I made sure to watch Pavarotti whenever he was on.

Probably my best memory of Pavarotti was when he did the 3 Tenors concert at the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles, where Pavarotti performed alongside Placido Domingo and José Carreras. I watched the whole thing live and bought the concert CD the day it came out a few weeks later. Before the show they were running footage of Pavarotti in the days leading up to the concert, laughing and playing with a soccer ball.

Here's the story from ABC News about his passing.

I don't know of what else that could be said about the man's talent and personality that hasn't been said elsewhere. But here's one thing that showcases it in spades, and I had no idea that this even existed until a short while ago...

Here is Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown performing "It's A Man's World" in concert!

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The Knight Shift hits the half-million mark!

A short while ago this blog welcomed its 500,000th visitor since the meter started running almost three years ago. Thanks to everyone who has helped The Knight Shift reach this milestone, and here's hoping that it won't be long 'ere it hits a cool million :-)

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TRANSFORMERS hits DVD and HD-DVD on October 16th!

Seibertron.com is reporting that this summer's smash hit movie Transformers - which has come up for discussion a few times on this blog for one reason or another - will be out on DVD and HD-DVD here in the U.S. on October 16th!

Am wondering though if this will include the "extra" footage that is going to be in the IMAX release coming out later this month. Some are already speculating that there might be a "special edition" release of the movie too with that and other things (I haven't found anywhere that there are going to be deleted scenes on this DVD release).

Still, that's going to be pretty nifty: the CD of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers score out on October 9th, and then the movie itself on DVD a week later :-)

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Something I'll never post on this blog and actually MEAN it...

"Look for the complete and factual account of the Viacom incident on this web page in the near future. The account has been delayed due to pending litigation."

Yes, even now, I can't resist having some fun with this situation :-)

There is a massive update coming on this, and hopefully in the next few days. In the meantime, if you're a reasonably long-term reader of this blog you'll no doubt "get" the above joke.

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JOUST: The Movie? Is this a joke?

GameDaily BIZ is reporting that a new Hollywood production company is making a full-length feature film based on Joust.

Yes, that Joust! The 1982 arcade game that had you flying around on a giant ostrich and jousting opponents around floating platforms.

The movie is being described as "Gladiator meets Mad Max" and is being set in Las Vegas 25 years in the future.

A movie where people ride ostriches... which actually fly... and fight each other. Ok-aaaaaayyy...

I'll withhold final judgment until I see the thing (and who knows, it might surprise us). And maybe it'll be a success and pave the way for other great movies like Burgertime and Dig Dug.

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Steve Jablonsky thanks YOU for supporting the TRANSFORMERS score!

Here is the e-mail that arrived earlier this afternoon from Steve Jablonsky, the composer of the orchestral score for the movie Transformers.

Hey Chris,

My assistant forwarded your email to me a while back. I checked out your petition, and I wanted to personally thank you and everyone that signed. Support from fans like you really means a lot to me, and it makes me very happy that so many people enjoyed the Transformers score. Sorry it has taken so long to get it released. A score release was always in the works, it just took a while to pull everything together. But I'm glad it's finally coming out.

So thank you again, and a big thanks to the thousands who signed. Feel free to post this on your site or blog or wherever you like, so I can pass along thanks to everyone.

Steve

Thanks Steve! And on behalf of a lot of people, thank you and your team for the awesome work you did on this score! We are really looking forward to having this album and enjoying your music wherever we go.

And to everyone who signed the petition and otherwise supported the release of the Transformers score: THANK YOU!! :-)

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Some TRANSFORMERS goodies: IMAX poster and track listing for score CD

Look! It's the poster for Transformers in IMAX!

And lookie here, courtesy of Amazon.com: the track listing for the Steve Jablonsky score CD!

1. Autobots
2. Decepticons
3. All Spark
4. Deciphering the Signal
5. Frenzy
6. Optimus
7. Bumblebee
8. Soccent Attack
9. Sam at the Lake
10. Skorpinok
11. Cybertron
12. Arrival to Earth
13. Whitwicky
14. Downtown Battle
15. Sector 7
16. Bumblebee Captured
17. You're a Soldier Now
18. Sam on the Roof
19. Optimus vs. Megatron
20. No Sacrifice, No Victory

Seems pretty loaded, with twenty tracks and all.

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Quick update on the Viacom situation

Well, this has certainly been an interesting past 48 hours.

There's been lots of activity happening on this end about the deal with Viacom and me: how they claimed I infringed on their copyright after posting a video on YouTube that Viacom made by infringing on my copyright.

It's evoked quite a bit more controversy than I had expected.

May be able to talk about this more in the next few days.

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This is decisiveness? Fred Thompson announces an announcement

Fred Thompson has said he'll announce his presidential candidacy on September 6th.

Ummmm... isn't the announcement of an announcement the logical equivalent of the announcement itself?

This is part of the reason why I'm so disgusted with modern politics: it's become too much about pomp and pageantry and public bravura, and so very little about substance.

It's like this: the President of the United States is a position of service. Those who fully comprehend that won't play games with even candidacy for it. A real leader would simply say "Yes I'm a candidate", without being a protracted prima donna about the matter.

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More Viacom "infringement" insanity: Now lip-syncing to Prince is out

The story about my issue with Viacom and how they made YouTube take down a clip that I'd posted of a VH1 show which was already made with my own material is starting to get around. Now comes word of another crazy clip takedown on Viacom's orders...

Kenya Allmond received notification from YouTube yesterday that one of her videos had been pulled for "copyright infringement". The offending material? A clip of her boyfriend lip-syncing to "Kiss" by Prince!

At the rate things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if every single mash-up video using Star Trek on YouTube wound up getting zapped down the memory hole by the end of this weekend.

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This blog has been Slashdotted! (And guess why?)

So I just got online for the day and guess what I saw at the top of the page on Slashdot:

It's the story about how Viacom claims I'm infringing on their copyright after they infringed on MY copyright! I just took a look at the original post that I made about this and in the last little while it's gone from 4 comments when I went to bed last night, to 20. I haven't read those yet but I'm about to.

So to all of the good folks who are finding their way to this blog from Slashdot: welcome! Thanks for coming! Hope you'll like what you find here :-)

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Cover for TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE album

The irony didn't sink in until a short while ago: all summer I've been championing the release of Steve Jablonsky's orchestral soundtrack from the movie Transformers. And Transformers was a Paramount production. Well, Paramount is owned by Viacom...

...and now Viacom is claiming that I infringed on its copyright because I uploaded onto YouTube a video that Viacom made by violating MY copyright!

No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose.

Okay, just had to get that out of the way for sake of the irony, 'cuz I do appreciate irony (even when it's not going my way). Anyhoo, I found this on Amazon.com's page for what is apparently now being called Transformers: The Score:

Looks beautiful! I soooo can't wait to have this in my CD collection.

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Viacom hits me with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a video that Viacom made by infringing on my own copyright!

UPDATE 09-12-2007 12:29 am EST: YouTube has restored the clip

"Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "unbelievable gall or audacity". An example of it would be the story of the kid who murders both of his parents, then throws himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he’s an orphan.

That's chutzpah. So is this: multimedia giant Viacom is claiming that I have violated their copyright by posting on YouTube a segment from it's VH1 show Web Junk 2.0... which VH1 produced – without permission – from a video that I had originally created.

Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on THEIR copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright!

The clip in question was pulled by YouTube earlier this morning, at Viacom's insistence.

Last fall, as part of my campaign for Rockingham County Board of Education, I produced three commercials that ran on local television. The first of them – which I simply dubbed "Christopher Knight for School Board TV Commercial #1" – was hosted on YouTube the same evening that the ad started running on WGSR in Reidsville. You can watch it at http://youtube.com/watch?v=nLi5B0Iefsk.

Well, the concept of a candidate for Board of Education pitching himself by using the Death Star to blow up a little red schoolhouse is admittedly unusual. The YouTube clip got around quite a bit: as of this writing it's received over sixty-six thousand views. I put it and the other two ads on YouTube so that I could post them on this blog (because I was trying to chronicle everything that happened during the course of my campaign). And I'd always intended to keep them up after the election too, in case anyone else might find and enjoy watching them. Heck, I've always liked to think that maybe someday, others might see how I was a candidate and feel led to run for office themselves!

A month and a half ago some friends let me know that the cable network VH1 was spotlighting the commercial on their show Web Junk 2.0, in an edition titled "Animals & Other Crap".

VH1 took the video that I had created and hosted on YouTube, and made it into a segment of Web Junk 2.0. Without my originally-created content to work with, VH1 would not have had this segment at all. They based this segment of Web Junk 2.0 entirely on the fruit of my own labor.

I got to catch the episode and was laughing pretty hard not just at host Aries Spears's witty commentary about my commercial, but that VH1 had found the commercial worthy of sharing with such a vast audience.

Please bear in mind that at no time prior to the broadcast of this show was I contacted by VH1 or its parent company Viacom. At this time, I've received no communication from Viacom whatsoever about this.

I was quite aware that they were using my own not-for-profit work for commercial purposes and that they should have contacted me. But I didn't really care that they were doing that, either. It was just nice to see something that I had worked on getting seen and appreciated by a lot more people than what I had intended for a local audience. And I was glad that Melody Hallman Daniel, the voice-over actress in the spot, received some widespread notice of her considerable talent.

I was so proud that my commercial had been highlighted on Web Junk 2.0 that I posted the segment featuring it on YouTube so that I could put it on this blog, just like I'd posted the original commercial.

Did I think about the issue of copyright when I did that? Of course I did! But if this wasn't a matter of Fair Use, then I don't know how anything else would qualify it as such either. I made the original video, VH1 used it without my permission and I didn't particularly have a problem with that. I thought that they would have readily understood that were it not for my creativity and effort, that this edition of Web Junk 2.0 would have had to find some material elsewhere.

And then this morning the following e-mail arrives from YouTube:

Dear Member:
This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Viacom International Inc. claiming that this material is infringing:

Web Junk 2.0 on VH1 features my school board commercial!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddyVQwpByug

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

So Viacom took a video that I had made for non-profit purposes and without trying to acquire my permission, used it in a for-profit broadcast. And then when I made a YouTube clip of what they did with my material, they charged me with copyright infringement and had YouTube pull the clip.

Folks, this is, as we say down here in the south, "bass-ackwards".

I have written to YouTube's division of copyright enforcement, telling them that the VH1 clip is derived from my own work and that I should be entitled to use it as such. So far I haven't heard anything back from them. After reading that last part of the initial e-mail that they sent me, I'm wondering how apt they might be to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to wipe out the accounts of anyone who even raises such a fuss about something like this, no matter how well-grounded it is.

What does this mean for independent producers of content, if material they create can be co-opted by a giant corporation without permission or apology or compensation? When in fact, said corporations can take punitive action against you for using material that you created on your own?

That's what's happening to me right now, folks. Viacom is penalizing me for using my own original material, which they used without permission to begin with.

I would really like to fight this as hard as I can. Unfortunately at the moment I lack the time and resources to do this on my own. I am also, admittedly, not an attorney. There's a good bit of knowledge of copyright law floating around in my gray matter, but it's not nearly enough to mount the challenge that I would like to levy against Viacom for doing this.

I want to publicly declare this: that I am not out for any money. Not a single penny. All I want is for the clip to be restored to its original address on YouTube. And I want it to be established that other creators of content have a right under Fair Use to show how their works are being appreciated in the wider world. I just want the rest of us who aren't affiliated with corporate media to have as much right to use our own work as "the big boys" enjoy for theirs.

Any inquiries or suggestions or anything else pertaining to the matter can be directed to me at theknightshift@gmail.com.

EDIT 8:22 p.m. EST: Want to see the forbidden video clip of Web Junk 2.0 using my TV commercial? Mash down here, grasshoppah! Special thanks to Richard Moore for hosting it!

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This is why school uniforms are a horrible idea

Over 300 students - more than a third of the entire student body - at Eastern Guilford Middle School were detained part of the day on the first day of school yesterday because of dress code violations.

These included wearing even the wrong kinds of belts.

How much real education went on yesterday because the teachers and faculty were spending so much time looking for dress code violations?

This is one of the reasons why P.O.T.S.M.O.D. fought and beat the school uniforms when the Rockingham County Board of Education tried to impose them on Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools for this new school year. Because we understood that considering all that goes on in a school day, that teachers shouldn't be given unnecessary tasks that take priority over everything else already on their plate. Be mindful that this isn't the normal, sensible dress code in the traditional sense, but overly burdensome "standard mode of dress" that is for all intents and purposes a school uniform.

Having this kind of draconian dress code policy is unfair to the teachers and it's ultimately unfair to the students.

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First details about the TRANSFORMERS score CD (including possibility of a 2-disc set)!

Since news broke here on Sunday night that the soundtrack CD of Steve Jablonsky's score for Transformers would be coming out on October 9th from Warner Bros. Records, I've watched the album's product page on Amazon reflect considerable demand for this CD. When it first listed on Sunday night it was somewhere in the 40,000-ish area so far as sales ranks go. Yesterday morning around 10:30 EST it was #1,618. Currently it's at #217 and some are saying it might be in double-digits within the next few days. The Transformers score CD has also jumped significantly at the Barnes & Noble site (currently at #669).

All of those are just from presales, for an album that word is only now really getting around that it's coming out.

Every indication right now is that this is set to become a major selling CD. And sales are probably going to soar even more after the DVD/HD-DVD release of the movie later this fall.

Well, The Knight Shift was proud to have been the first news outlet(?) anywhere to announce the October 9th release date, and now it gets to be the first to offer up some juicy details about the CD itself! This all comes from a highly trusted and well-placed source that I am going to dub "Emirate Xaaron" for sake of anonymity. But take my word for it: "Emirate Xaaron" is as good as his namesake Autobot! Here's what this steadfast agent has to report...

- The album is already in production. Meaning that they are pressing out CDs even now.

- Sources who have listened to the CD report that it sounds "AWESOME!"

- The album is one disc and is "as complete as possible".

- Warner Records may consider publishing a 2-disc set containing all the music that Steve Jablonsky and his crew created for Transformers, which presumably would include most/all of the music not used in the final cut of the movie (Jablonsky reportedly composed about 90 minutes of score). The possibility of a 2-disc Transformers score album depends on how well the initial release sells.

- It looks like the public demand for a proper Transformers soundtrack CD might have had some effect. Emirate Xaaron reports that Warner Records had already slated the score album for a release but that it was originally intended to come out "later", in November. Now they are "speeding up the process" to get the score out!

Sounds groovy! Now all we need is a nice juicy official press release from the Warners home office to post here in big bold font :-)

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TRANSFORMERS score album set for October 9th release!

Well folks, it's now looking like we have a release date for the album containing Steve Jablonsky's awesome score from the movie Transformers: it's apparently rolling out on October 9th, 2007!

It must have just listed in the last little while 'cuz I checked Amazon at around 8 p.m. on Sunday night and it wasn't there. But sharp-eyed Transformers fan Chris Barry in the past hour found it here on Amazon and then spotted it here at Barnes & Noble and then again here at Best Buy. It's street price is listing at $18.98 but there is some retail price difference depending on which site you look at. And as previously reported here, it will be coming to us courtesy of Warner Bros. Records.

So ummmm... yay!!! We'll soon have this awesome score in our CD collections! At least I hope that we will all go out and show our appreciation to Steve Jablonsky, Chandra Cogburn, everyone else who composed and performed the score, Michael Bay, Dan Butler at Paramount, and all those other nice folks who made this beautiful score possible by paying good money for this CD.

Heck, I'm so happy to hear about this, I may have to buy 3 or 4 copies!

Thanks again to Chris Barry for the alert (and I would definitely give him a Snickers bar if I could :-).

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She's DOCTOR Knight now!

Bigtime props to my sister Anita, who this weekend will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical Therapy. That makes Anita the first member of our family (that I know of) with a doctorate level of education!

Can't say that Anita hasn't worked long and hard for this. Why, I remember the night Lisa and I got engaged, and we met Anita for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Asheville and while we were eating Anita was telling us all about this dead body that she was dissecting for her anatomy lab and how she was having to scrape out the fat...

...yup, that's my sister: Doctor Anita Knight! :-P

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