Commentary

Balticon 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged conventions fandom science fiction on by

With Balticon coming around again, I took another look at their code of conduct. It still has some disturbing features, and I’m not going, although it’s within a day’s driving distance and will likely have a good filk program.

There is a blanket prohibition on “Slurs and derogatory comments about a person, group, or category of people.” That presumably includes, just to come up with some examples, the Chengdu con chair, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Russian army, billionaires, Neil Gaiman, and the new Pope. It will be one dull convention if no one can say anything bad about any of those people! When attendees can be accused without eyewitness testimony, it’s even worse. This isn’t just hypothetical; in 2022 Balticon used this provision to make life miserable for one of its program participants.
(more…)

The Democratic Party has abandoned America 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged law liberty New Hampshire on by

I am furious at the Democrats. They are cowards who won’t stand up to a president grabbing as much power as he can. To a man who has literally portrayed himself as king and pope. To a man who says he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution.

To be precise, I mean the office holders and leaders in the party. Voters have to choose a party if they want to vote in primaries, and they choose where they think they’ll have a positive effect. They don’t necessarily like what the leaders are doing. But I have utter contempt for nearly all the Democrats in Congress.

The Republicans in Congress are despicable, with rare exceptions like Rand Paul. They’re actively collaborating with Trump to enable abductions of people and maintain a fake “emergency” so he can impose ruinous taxes on us. But that’s not the topic here. The Democrats are supposed to fight this. They don’t feel like it.
(more…)

Is the Empire in Star Wars fascist?

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Disney fascism star wars on by

I’m looking forward to seeing the new seasons of Andor. With it has come a new round of claims that the Empire is a prime example of fascism. But there are several kinds of totalitarian systems, and the Empire doesn’t really fit the fascist model. Using the term too loosely takes something away from identification of the real thing. In an earlier post, I discussed the nature of fascism. You may want to read that article before continuing here.
(more…)

Silent film restorations and copyright 3

This entry was posted in Commentary Movies and tagged copyright silent movies on by

In January, I posted the 1925 silent film The Lost World to my YouTube channel together with my original accompaniment. A hundred-year-old movie is supposed to be out of copyright. The video is downloaded from the Internet Archive, which I took as confirmation of its public-domain status. Last week YouTube took it down, citing a copyright complaint by Flicker Alley. The issue is that Flicker Alley claims to hold copyright on the restoration of the movie which I downloaded.

So far I’ve taken two steps. I contacted Flicker Alley disputing the copyright claim. They responded promptly, insisting their copyright is valid. I then submitted a counter-claim to YouTube. What happens next depends on Flicker Alley’s next response. If they persist, I’ll have no choice but to keep the movie permanently off the Internet. Accompanying silent movies is a hobby that I don’t make a cent from, and it isn’t worth it to me to pay a lawyer to dispute the matter in court.
(more…)