Saturday, April 20, 2002

Jen [The Shifted Librarian] reports: Point: Rep. Goodlatte Calls For 'War' Against Digital Piracy "At a digital music conference today, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said that legislators and law enforcers would have to fight and win a "war" against online piracy in order for the digital marketplace to have any chance of realizing its full potential....  'Only when the war against piracy is effectively waged and won, will businesses and consumers move in significant numbers to the online marketplace,' he added....  Goodlatte, who co-chairs the Congressional Internet Caucus, said that lawmakers should also look into ways to encourage industry leaders to help stem the tide of online piracy. Specifically in the area of digital music, Goodlatte said that copyright piracy is 'growing exponentially with billions of unauthorized music downloads per month.'  'Until we can stop the growth of piracy online, it will be difficult to truly create a marketplace that will work for digital online content," Goodlatte said.' [NewsBytes] Excuse me? Most of us out here on the Internet are not stealing! We are sampling music and buying more music than ever before. Also Rep. Goodlatte, since we have bought the CD legally, we demand the RIGHT to listen to it, make a copy of it for our car CD player vs. expose the original to the standard 102 degree car temperatures in the summer.  Goodlatte is another Hillary Rosen sock puppet. 2:46:48 AM

Something that Won't Be In My Egg Collection-- The Winter Egg, is a Faberge created transparent Siberian rock crystal Easter egg encrusted with more than 3,000 diamonds and rosecut diamonds. The moonstone hinged egg opens to expose a platinum Easter basket with flowers in gold, garnets, and crystals. The basket symbolizes the transition of winter to spring. The egg, the base and the basket together contain over 4,300 diamonds. The design for the The Winter Egg was documented to be done by Alma Pihl, who died in the early 1990's and made by Workmaster Albert Holmström.  Christie's reported about Alma Pihl the designer: "In far northern Europe, Easter falls when the snows are melting, the light is returning, and the sun is often shining brightly in a clear blue sky. The Winter Egg brilliantly depicts this time of the year. In March, minute rivulets of water trickle down Nature's ice sculptures, glistening like diamonds in the sun. Siberian rock crystal was the perfect material to depict the ice, and in April a magic carpet of white wood anemones appears in the woods. Alma chose a small platinum basket of these heralds of spring, carved in white quartz, as the surprise inside the egg. We have no written evidence of the Dowager Empress's reaction, but Alma was asked to design Tsarina Alexandra's Easter egg the following year (the Mosaic Egg, now in the collection of Queen Elizabeth II of England). The Winter Egg sold at Christie's Auction in New York City on Friday for a record price of $9.6 million, topping the previous record for a Faberge egg by more than $3 million. Christie's preliminary estimated price was between $4 million and $6 million for the glittering egg made for Russian Tsar Nicholas II to give to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1913. Christie's reported the buyer was acquired by an anonymous telephone bidder in an auction that took less than 30 minutes. While I'd love to have a Faberge Egg in my collection, you can bet this one won't be sitting on my mantle. 2:00:39 AM

© Copyright 2002 Mary Wehmeier. Last update: 4/20/02; 2:01:08 AM.