Slashdot Mirror

PS. The Hugos (above) are awarded by a vote of fans. The Nebulas are awarded by writers, they often go to more "literary" works.

We should express our displeasure with this and that it will not fly: http://www.dpsinfo.com/boycottnewline

This is based on readings from the '90s so it may be out of date....

Commercial work and non-commercial work have different rules.

For commercial work, you generally need a property release from the property owner. In general, publicly-owned land, buildings, and fixtures are exempt.

For non-commercial work, you generally don't need permission.

However, if the picture is "of" a trademarked or copyrighted item, such as a mural or advertising billboard, then commercial use also requires permission from the trademark or copyright owner.

Non-commercial use is permitted unless it is somehow infringing. With trademarks this generally means it disparages or dilutes the trademark in a non-exempt way. For copyright, the rules are a lot broader.

Think of it this way:
If I'm a famous painter and create a famous painting, and sell the prints for $20 each, I don't want someone taking a 100MB photo and giving it away on the net. Likewise, if I'm in license negotiations with a clip-art company, I don't want any clip-art quality pictures floating around free on the net either.

In general, photographers are probably okay IF:
1) their pictures are non-commercial, AND EITHER
2a) the pictures do not have a complete, unobstructed view of the artwork, AND
2b) after cropping out everything but the art in question, the image is too small or too low-quality to be worth going to court over

If this goes to court and the public wins unlimited rights to non-commercially photograph art in public places, expect some artists to restrict their displays to places where they can impose photographic restrictions.

In the meantime, enjoy this trademarked image. A special memo to the trademark owners: Bite me.

Okay, I was going to moderate here, but I had to correct this instead.

I first learned about her when I was looking for a good sci fi book to read and came across what I think is the only book to win both the hugo and nebula awards in the same year: Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness."

The Left Hand of Darkness did win both awards, but it was not the only book to do so, and not even the first. In fact, it isn't even the only book by Le Guin to do so.

Information courtesy of Award Web. Dates listed are the year of publication, not the award year.
1965 - Dune - Frank Herbert
1969 - The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
1970 - Ringworld - Larry Niven
1972 - The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
1973 - Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
1974 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
1975 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
1977 - Gateway - Frederik Pohl
1978 - Dreamsnake - Vonda McIntyre
1979 - The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke
1983 - Startide Rising - David Brin
1984 - Neuromancer - William Gibson
1985 - Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
1986 - Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
1992 - Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
1997 - Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman
2001 - American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Two things of particular interest:
1. Card, in 1985 and 1986, was the first (and so far only) to sweep the Hugo/Nebula for novels two years in a row.
2. American Gods was the first two win three major speculative fiction awards (Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker)

All of those are worth reading; Orson Scott Card is a particular favorite of mine, but there is not a bad book in the bunch.

IIRC she has won more Nebula awards than any other author. Or maybe it was some other award.

Other big winners of Nebula awards are Ursula K. Leguin (with 5, with 3 for best novel), Greg Bear (with 5, 2 for best novel), Joe Haldeman (with 4, 2 for best novel), Samuel R. Delany (with 4, 2 for best novel).

...I'm sure the guy is a wonderfully prolific sci-fi hack...

<BLOWTORCH>
No, he wrote about a book a year, when he did not have health problems, and this was never anywhere near enough to satisfy his fans' jones for "more please", hence our joy and excitement at the discovery of something we haven't already read. There is a major difference between a 'hack' and a MASTER, and Heinlein was awarded the first ever Lifetime Grand Master award by the Science Fiction Writers of America, as well as numerous Hugos, including 2 posthumous 'retros' in 2000 for stuff written in 1950. He's regarded by many of us as simply the best.
< /blowtorch>

I was thinking, for some reason, that Leonard Nimoy is dead. But, I checked the Dead People Server, and apparently he is still alive.

Dead People Server

I find that Ricardo Semler, author of Maverick (you can read about him a bit here) has applied already some of these principles in his Brazillian company, Semco.

I think that rather than manifestoes, you need to be the right guy in the right place to make this kind of thing work: in the end, sharing information and power is a natural thing, and closing those things and aggressively protecting them are just animalistic tendencies that can't stand up to their more peaceful alternative.

Proof of this is that Semco survived the terrible 80s inflation in Brazil, simply through the advantage that everyone in the company actually was enthusiastic about the company and was 100% committed to it's survival. You don't need reams of management theory to do this, just a bit of common sense.

Ale

When the Hugos go wrong (and they do; The Dispossessed is an interesting book, but it's nowhere near as significant as The Shockwave Rider, the Nebula winner that year)

You seem to have your books confused. The Dispossessed won both the Nebula and the Hugo. Brunner won the 1969 Hugo for Stand on Zanzibar, but has not won a Nebula. Check this site for award lists.

In recent years, science fiction and fantasy (especially childrens' books such as Harry Potter) have failed to come up with anything truly original. No authors have come up with anything which approaches the originality or the epic grandeur shown by Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke.

I will have to violently disagree with this.

Before I begin, I should say that I love both Tolkien and Asimov, grew up reading the Narnia books, and intensely dislike Clarke (except for the rather interesting short story The Billion Names of God, which I think is quite good). Both Tolkien and Asimov get whole bookshelves devoted to them.

I've been reading a lot recently, although only some of it was sf/f. Here's some sf/f authors who are currently publishing that I think are really interesting:

• Pat Cadigan started as just William Gibson with more musical references, but has recently diverged into some really weird, really interesting stuff. I'm now only a third of the way into Fools, but it's repeatedly blowing my mind.
• Kim Stanley Robinson wrote the Mars trilogy, and while I haven't been able to maintain an interest in anything else he's done, that single achievement is more than enough to rate listing with other important contemporary authors.
• Candas Jane Dorsey has only one fantasy book so far, called Black Wine, and if you like dark fantasy at all, it's a must read: possibly the best book of any genre written in the '90s.
• Speaking of dark fantasy, Steven Brust has written some pretty amazing stuff. It's true that he was inspired by Zelazny; it's equally true that he has clearly surpassed his inspiration. Tad Williams is correct.
• And in the realm of lesser lights, Neal Stephenson has written some promising books, especially Cryptonomicon; Frederik Pohl continues to produce good, quality hard sf; and Kathleen Ann Goonan did impress me with Queen City Jazz, although I haven't read anything else by her yet.

No, the real problem is a lack of recognition for these people. Although Robinson did win some awards, there are huge gaps. Generally speaking, in order to make the Hugos, you've got to have commercial success first: and nowhere is this more clear than in the Dramatic Presentation category, where the 1999 awards didn't even mention New Rose Hotel, probably the best cyberpunk movie ever made.

but on the other hand, in searching fFor that page, i also fFound this, this, and this.

mundane? nah. i suspect the author there just has grown numb to what is actually quite commonplace.

anybody got a mirror more up-to-date than this?

but this all pales the shock of seeing Galaxy Quest beat The Matrix

The Muppet Movie almost won a Hugo in 1980.

According to the Dead People Server, Charles is still alive.

From the Dead People Server:
Jim Henson (puppeteer) -- Dead. Bacterial pneumonia. Died May 16, 1990. Born Sep 24, 1936. (Father of the Muppets, voice of Kermit and Ernie.)

Slightly Off-Topic --
Actually, Richard Dawson is still "with us": ie: still alive... see the Dead People Server.

Think he would do it?