Actually, no, I don't have the obligation to view ads. That's what Junkbuster's all about. If I had the obligation to view them, then Junkbuster would be sued into the ground the way the DVD industry is trying to do to the deCSS people.
As it is, there is a technology out there to detect adblockers and prevent the next page from being served if they're in operation; it was originated by and is used by the folks at Mind's Eye Fiction for the "pay for the story by viewing banner ads" payment option. If sites were really concerned about losing a few pennies from banner ads not loading, they would institute it themselves. --
Those fans who're happy that Disney's seen the light and will release Mononoke with Japanese audio intact might consider writing thank-you letters to Mr. David Jessen, the Buena Vista exec who made himself a target for fans' letters by posting his office mailing address on the Internet.
My letter, with Mr. Jessen's address at the top, is right here. --
I dunno...Boies's new fair-use/antitrust use-of-copyright defense is a very gutsy move, and one which does have a real (albeit small) chance of succeeding judging from the remarks of Senator Hatch the other day. Boies has raised the stakes from the invulnerable RIAA trying to kill off that pesky Napster to Napster vs. a suddenly-vulnerable RIAA in a hands-grasping-each-other's-throats life-and-death grapple as they roll toward the cliff over the Reichenbach Falls...
Though IANAL, I feel that Boies's argument is based on a logical reading of prior legal precedents--perhaps a slightly out-in-left-field interpretation, but one that can be logically supported. And if it succeeds in depriving the RIAA of its right to enforce its copyrights for having used them in anticompetitive ways (which is looking more and more possible given that the government has been making "antitrust investigatory" noises toward the recording industry lately), the RIAA could lose all its teeth.
I don't have an office-type job yet, so it may just be me...
But does nobody else use the 'net almost entirely for their leisure? I have a group of friends I hang out with online, I get my jollies from posting to Usenet and mailing lists, and if I'm deprived of contact with my friends for a while, I start feeling anxiety, and that's just no fun.
I would like to think that if I did have an office 'net-connected job, and used Internet access from home, I would do it just for fun stuff, not for job stuff. I know the difference between fun and work, and you won't catch me doing one bit more work than I absolutely have to...unless I should find I love my job, and then the two roll into one. --
Well, the box set AnimEigo is doing won't be shipped to Ireland. However, when they release the DVDs individually later on, the firms like Express.com and Amazon and so on will get them, and I believe some of them will ship overseas. Sooner or later, you'll be able to get them... --
Long-distance romantic relationships don't tend to work well--and on the Internet, where "nobody knows you're a dog" and all, should not be encouraged for those who might not know what they're getting into.
But long-distance friendships can grow and thrive remarkably well; some of my best friends are people I've never met in person; there are a couple where I don't even know what they look like. --
Well, even given that I disagree slightly with your definition of Open Media...how about Themestream.com? It lets anyone publish anything they want, and pays by popularity (currently a dime a hit, but I expect that to drop eventually when they leave "preview mode")...hence, only the people who write stuff people read make money.
I wrote an article about the Princess Mononoke DVD situation and decided to donate the proceeds to Nausicaa.net. It got posted to Slashdot, and boom!. Over $182 worth of donations. I also write a column about the Palm that makes a respectable amount of money. --
The article link is working again, and I just checked on it...it's up to 820 hits. Which means that so far $82.00 is going to go to Nausicaa.net whenever I get paid...and the weekend isn't over yet!
Thanks, everyone who's read it, and everyone who's going to. This is harnessing the Slashdot Effect for good.:) --
Well, Disney is releasing it through their Miramax and Buena Vista labels, which have somewhat less to do with Disney, and aren't immediately recognizeable (to most people) as Disney brands. --
Well, you might as well ask, "So why do you like movies?" or "Why do you like reading books?" There is animé for every personal taste out there; if you don't like one genre, you might still prefer some other. There's romance, action-adventure-shoot-em-up, science fiction, fantasy, comedy, drama, whatever you want. I don't think anybody likes animé just because it's animé. --
"So why do you like Applejacks?" "We just do, okay?"
Well, actually it's a little more involved than that. It's largely a matter of personal preference, and goes back to the old "dub vs. sub" debate that was spawned when the first anime fansubber discovered what you could do with a genlock and the first anime importers started releasing dubs. You can't really get much of a rational answer when you ask someone about that--at least, not the kind of answer that could convince someone who believed the other way.
But in another sense, it comes down to just plain having the choice. Some people didn't like the English dub, but even those people who liked the English dub as well as or better than the Japanese version might still like the option to compare the voice acting and changes to story from one version to the other.
Buena Vista bought the rights to distribute Ghibli stuff worldwide--including in Japan. As I understand it, Ghibli didn't really have the resources to go into en masse releases; they're a production studio, not a distribution studio. Disney/Buena Vista, however, had the necessary economy of scale, and agreed to commit not to cut anything without Miyazaki-san's sayso. --
Disney's Jet Li & Jackie Chan dub without original language DVDs were done not for any reasons of importation difficulty--they were done because Disney didn't bother to buy the rights for these movies. They apparently didn't feel they needed to; they were doing an English dub anyway, right?
Well, actually CD, laserdisc, and media prices have been at least two to three times what you'd pay in America ever since I can remember. I believe it's because of the higher cost of living they have over there. --
You can Snailmail Mr. Jessen, care of Buena Vista. The address is on my article, but since the site is currently scroo'd up (and probably won't be fixed 'til Monday...their support staff seems to be somewhat nonexistant on the weekends), here it is now:
David Jessen c/o Buena Vista Home Entertainment 350 South Buena Vista Street Burbank, CA 91521-4691 --
As I have said repeatedly in multiple fora--including AnimeOnDVD's openforums, the Nausicaa mailing list, rec.arts.anime.misc, alt.video.dvd, et cetera, I am donating everything I make from the article to Nausicaa.net to help them recover from the costs of a very expensive hardware failure a while back.. Last time I checked (while Themestream was up--honest, it was up when I submitted the article!), I had gotten almost $40 worth of hits.
Don't believe me? Click h ere for the Nausicaa.net listserv message in which I first announced the donation (and challenged others to match it or do likewise...sadly, nobody has come forward to do that yet), or here for the AnimeOnDVD article. Of course, you still have to believe I will actually send the money once I get it--but if I don't, I'll completely screw up my good reputation online, and that is a thing I value and cherish, as I've been around since 1992, help moderate a newsgroup, and so on.
I'm proud to be able to do this to give back to a site I so respect and cherish. Would you care to match the funds I donate, palo0019? Or perhaps write a similar article and donate the proceeds similarly? Anyone else?
When the article is available, I hope you'll click on it and help out Nausicaa.net by a dime. It might also be nice if you'd look at some of the other articles I wrote, including one on Jon Katz, that I will be keeping the money for, but that's entirely up to you.:) --
Actually, "reverse importing" is the Japanese importing an American DVD/laserdisc of Japanese animé.
This is importing, but in the reverse direction of the way it is usually imported (animé is usually imported from Japan, to the United States, not the other way around). Hence, reverse importing. --
Well, poopie. I'm down here in Springfield, Missouri...if I'd known about it, I might could have come up today (I work tomorrow & Sunday), like I did when Princess Mononoke was playing up there. But then again, thinking about it more rationally, I probably couldn't have...gas is $1.70-1.80 a gallon, and I'm still having problems getting my money supply (financial aid) for the summer.
I still read Jon Katz articles because, despite his inane habit of typing lower-case "L" for "1" and doing other crazy things (Hey, Jon! If you can't train yourself to hit that 1 key instead of that L key, at least do a search-and-replace to change "l9" to "19" before you submit the article, okay?), and oft-times blowing hot air, sometimes he actually has something worthwhile to say.
However, it seems like those incidents have been coming less and less frequently lately, sad to say. Still, I can't help myself--his articles have that sort of viceral peeking-out-from-between-the-fingers-of-the-hands- over-your-eyes appeal of a hideous train wreck.
And for that matter, when I do directly criticize his work, I try to do so at least partly constructively, instead of just chanting "Katz go home! Katz go home!" --
Indeed. I've had two full-fledged editorials published in my local paper, with by-line, photograph, and all. The more recent one, on Microsoft's culpability for the Love Bug (which I've posted the text of here) was given about 1/3 of a page, and they added an editorial cartoon to it. Very nice; even my UPS carrier has told me he liked it. --
Slashdot Mirror
As it is, there is a technology out there to detect adblockers and prevent the next page from being served if they're in operation; it was originated by and is used by the folks at Mind's Eye Fiction for the "pay for the story by viewing banner ads" payment option. If sites were really concerned about losing a few pennies from banner ads not loading, they would institute it themselves.
--
My letter, with Mr. Jessen's address at the top, is right here.
--
Ummmmm...looks like we do have a topic for anime. Given that this article is in it...
--
Though IANAL, I feel that Boies's argument is based on a logical reading of prior legal precedents--perhaps a slightly out-in-left-field interpretation, but one that can be logically supported. And if it succeeds in depriving the RIAA of its right to enforce its copyrights for having used them in anticompetitive ways (which is looking more and more possible given that the government has been making "antitrust investigatory" noises toward the recording industry lately), the RIAA could lose all its teeth.
We live in interesting times...
--
But does nobody else use the 'net almost entirely for their leisure? I have a group of friends I hang out with online, I get my jollies from posting to Usenet and mailing lists, and if I'm deprived of contact with my friends for a while, I start feeling anxiety, and that's just no fun.
I would like to think that if I did have an office 'net-connected job, and used Internet access from home, I would do it just for fun stuff, not for job stuff. I know the difference between fun and work, and you won't catch me doing one bit more work than I absolutely have to...unless I should find I love my job, and then the two roll into one.
--
Actually, BGC 2040 vol. 1 on DVD has been confirmed for a 9/12/00 release date from A.D. Visions.
--
Well, the box set AnimEigo is doing won't be shipped to Ireland. However, when they release the DVDs individually later on, the firms like Express.com and Amazon and so on will get them, and I believe some of them will ship overseas. Sooner or later, you'll be able to get them...
--
Long-distance romantic relationships don't tend to work well--and on the Internet, where "nobody knows you're a dog" and all, should not be encouraged for those who might not know what they're getting into.
But long-distance friendships can grow and thrive remarkably well; some of my best friends are people I've never met in person; there are a couple where I don't even know what they look like.
--
I wrote an article about the Princess Mononoke DVD situation and decided to donate the proceeds to Nausicaa.net. It got posted to Slashdot, and boom!. Over $182 worth of donations. I also write a column about the Palm that makes a respectable amount of money.
--
(Sorry, I couldn't resist. :)
It's funny that the more columns Jon Katz writes, the more he seems to keep saying the same thing...
--
Thanks, everyone who's read it, and everyone who's going to. This is harnessing the Slashdot Effect for good. :)
--
Well, Disney is releasing it through their Miramax and Buena Vista labels, which have somewhat less to do with Disney, and aren't immediately recognizeable (to most people) as Disney brands.
--
Well, you might as well ask, "So why do you like movies?" or "Why do you like reading books?" There is animé for every personal taste out there; if you don't like one genre, you might still prefer some other. There's romance, action-adventure-shoot-em-up, science fiction, fantasy, comedy, drama, whatever you want. I don't think anybody likes animé just because it's animé.
--
Well, actually it's a little more involved than that. It's largely a matter of personal preference, and goes back to the old "dub vs. sub" debate that was spawned when the first anime fansubber discovered what you could do with a genlock and the first anime importers started releasing dubs. You can't really get much of a rational answer when you ask someone about that--at least, not the kind of answer that could convince someone who believed the other way.
But in another sense, it comes down to just plain having the choice. Some people didn't like the English dub, but even those people who liked the English dub as well as or better than the Japanese version might still like the option to compare the voice acting and changes to story from one version to the other.
Hope that clears things up.
--
Buena Vista bought the rights to distribute Ghibli stuff worldwide--including in Japan. As I understand it, Ghibli didn't really have the resources to go into en masse releases; they're a production studio, not a distribution studio. Disney/Buena Vista, however, had the necessary economy of scale, and agreed to commit not to cut anything without Miyazaki-san's sayso.
--
When I say "rights" I mean the rights to include the original Cantonese audio track on their DVD. (Manga Video's Devilman had a similar problem.)
--
I think the things Neale Stephenson says about Disney and Culture in In the Beginning Was the Command Line are absolutely dead on.
--
Well, actually CD, laserdisc, and media prices have been at least two to three times what you'd pay in America ever since I can remember. I believe it's because of the higher cost of living they have over there.
--
David Jessen
c/o Buena Vista Home Entertainment
350 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4691
--
Don't believe me? Click h ere for the Nausicaa.net listserv message in which I first announced the donation (and challenged others to match it or do likewise...sadly, nobody has come forward to do that yet), or here for the AnimeOnDVD article. Of course, you still have to believe I will actually send the money once I get it--but if I don't, I'll completely screw up my good reputation online, and that is a thing I value and cherish, as I've been around since 1992, help moderate a newsgroup, and so on.
I'm proud to be able to do this to give back to a site I so respect and cherish. Would you care to match the funds I donate, palo0019? Or perhaps write a similar article and donate the proceeds similarly? Anyone else?
When the article is available, I hope you'll click on it and help out Nausicaa.net by a dime. It might also be nice if you'd look at some of the other articles I wrote, including one on Jon Katz, that I will be keeping the money for, but that's entirely up to you. :)
--
This is importing, but in the reverse direction of the way it is usually imported (animé is usually imported from Japan, to the United States, not the other way around). Hence, reverse importing.
--
When the moment is just right
The timing is per their usual
You know the legislation's tragic
It's passed by smoke and mirrors and magic
Has effects that are quite unusual
Fight Virginia...I can't wait to
Fight Virginia, yeah, yeah, hey hey hey o/~
(With apologies to Train.)
--
Well, poopie. I'm down here in Springfield, Missouri...if I'd known about it, I might could have come up today (I work tomorrow & Sunday), like I did when Princess Mononoke was playing up there. But then again, thinking about it more rationally, I probably couldn't have...gas is $1.70-1.80 a gallon, and I'm still having problems getting my money supply (financial aid) for the summer.
Maybe next year.
--
However, it seems like those incidents have been coming less and less frequently lately, sad to say. Still, I can't help myself--his articles have that sort of viceral peeking-out-from-between-the-fingers-of-the-hands- over-your-eyes appeal of a hideous train wreck.
And for that matter, when I do directly criticize his work, I try to do so at least partly constructively, instead of just chanting "Katz go home! Katz go home!"
--
Indeed. I've had two full-fledged editorials published in my local paper, with by-line, photograph, and all. The more recent one, on Microsoft's culpability for the Love Bug (which I've posted the text of here) was given about 1/3 of a page, and they added an editorial cartoon to it. Very nice; even my UPS carrier has told me he liked it.
--