Friday, December 13, 2002

From the Can't wait for next Wednesday Dept. The software that gives life to the sweeping battle scenes in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy does more than paste 50,000 cookie-cutter warriors onto a digital backdrop. Courtney Macavinta reports from Wellington, New Zealand. Digital Actors in Rings Can Think. [Wired News] Best line: "We set off the simulation, and in the distance you could see several guys running for the hills." 9:19:39 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

From the Revolution-is-in-your-mind Dept. "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."   Bertolt Brecht. [Quotes of the Day] 9:13:42 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

O'Reilly on copyright infringement (it's not piracy) Tim O'Reilly offers up a remarkably sensible piece on the whole "file-sharing is piracy" nonsense; then follows up with commentary on why it's not piracy, it's copyright infringement. Included is this quote from Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun: It follows that interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion or fraud. The Copyright Act even employs a separate term of art to define one who misappropriates a copyright: "Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner," that is, anyone who trespasses into his exclusive domain by using or authorizing the use of the copyrighted work in one of the five ways set forth in the statute, "is an infringer of the copyright." Kinda puts a new perspective on Hollywood's rhetoric. Remember that when you write your Congressperson. 8:02:15 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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