I'm currently reading "Free Culture":http://free-culture.org/, by
Lawrence Lessig (You can get it for free, as in beer, as a PDF and read
it on the train, like I'm doing). I'm not through it, so forgive me if
I'm just repeating what is said later in the book.
He talks a lot about not only the issue of copyright, but also of works
disappearing because the only copy of them is the copy stored in the
publisher's archival system. When the publishing company goes broke
(which it most likely will, eventually), those copies disappear. The
problem isn't particularly big for books and such, newspapers are often
already archived, but it is a big problem for ephemeral media like TV
and web sites. Nobody is allowed to make a copy (at least, that's how
the US law works, it's a little different here in Norway) at all.
I don't think removing copyright altogether is a good idea at all, but
in this case, we need to limit copyright in the interest of making works
available to the public at large.
My idea, which erupted in my head just a few minutes ago and might
therefore not be fully evolved is to only allow works to be copyrighted
if they are being distributed. If you make a television show and don't
make it available on DVD or VHS or the Internet afterwards (probably
within some predefined time limit), distributing copies is allowed,
basically making you lose your copyright. If you at first allow
people to download the show off the Internet for free but later decide
to release a DVD set, the people who have already downloaded a copy off
your site retains all the rights to that, but they will not necessarily
have the rights to redistribute. So, as long as you publish the works
in some way, you retain copyright. If you fail to do that, well, then
your work is in the public domain. (As it will be by today's laws about
70 years after your death, assuming the US Senate stops passing
copyright extension laws at some point.)
This will make available a huge amount of works to draw from when making
new works, and it will make it fairly easy for a publisher to retain
rights for as long as she actually cares about the work. Stop caring
and lose your rights, which in turn will hopefully stop people and
companies hoarding copyrighted works just for the hoarding.
I was skiing on Friday, cross-country, for the first time this year. My
father has been skiing each and every day since Christmay Eve, but he's
crazy when it comes to that. Stein and I walked a 8km loop. Not very
far, but still. It was very nice, and my skis behaved fairly well, so I
enjoyed it. The rest of the day was just spent, I didn't do anything in
particular. "Doing nothing" is something I think I have learnt this
Easter. It's nice to be able to, though one shouldn't do it too much.
I was also in amazingly good shape considering the amount of wine we
consumed on Thursday, 9 bottles on six people, and Eirik and I were
responsible for at least the last 3 litre cardboard box. Excellent
and enough food, so it was just nice to sit around talking and drinking
wine. I should do that more. Missed Karianne a lot, but suddenly I got
an SMS from her. They had left the LARP because Bodil became fairly
ill. They left for Eirik's parents' cabin close to the Swedish border.
I called and talked with Karianne for a while and she seemed to be in
good shape, and Bodil was more ok as well then, so I was a bit calmed by
that.
Saturday we were on a short, short, short ski trip on the hill beside
the cabin. It's tradition to go up there and make a fire and roast hot
dogs on it. For the first time, we brought beer, which was nice. The
trip is very short, fairly suitable for a four-year old, but nice
nonetheless. I got a bit out of shape in the afternoon, since I did not
get my afternoon nap. Tulle, Pierre and Lea came over with Tulle's most
excellent cake. I can't really describe it, but it's the most wonderful
cake I have ever tasted, as usual. (She has made it for the last few
years at least, and it's always a success.) Dinner was good, but I
didn't feel too good, so I went to bed early. Talked with Karianne for
quite a while as well.. I missed her like crazy then, but then it was
only eighteen hours until I were to see her.
Easter day we discovered that the Easter bunny had been around and put
eggs all over the living room, as it usually does on Easter day. We
spent a while tracking them down, but it was fun. Stein and I left
fairly early in the day. yiwaz (my laptop) wasn't too well, so I gave
up reading at some point. We used a lot of time for getting into Oslo,
and I wasn't at my mother's until nearly 1600. She wasn't home, so I
just popped out again and gave Karianne a call. She being at Bodil's, I
asked her to walk in my direction and we'd just meet up. I think I
closer to ran than walked from Adamstuen to nearly Carl Berner's Plaza,
which is a good fifteen-twenty minutes walk. (At my speed, which means
it's about three kilometres.)
Seeing her walking towards me felt good. Very, very good. I had missed
her a lot, probably a lot more than I'll be able to explain in mere
words. It felt like a knut untied itself inside me and warmth flowed
into all my limbs. Good, happy feeling.
We walked over to Bodil's place where I was introduced to Live (a
friend of Bodil's) and Bodil's -weasels- ferrets. (At least I think
that's the English term, they're called "ildere" in Norwegian.
(Of course, they weren't called weasels, but ferrets, so I've corrected it now))
Called "Skade" (damage) and "Simpel" (simple), they were
amazingly cool small animals running all over the place. I
immediately though they were fun to play with, and they seemed to like
me as well. Live was interesting to talk to, even though most of her
attention was concentrated at the Playstation game "Black Chronicle".
Karianne and I were fairly affectionate as well so I think we kinda
pushed her into it as well, but she was told to complain if we
bothered her, something which she did not.
Karianne and I met up with a friend of her, Hallvard, on Monday. He was
an interesting guy to talk to, and lived just next door, so we got
invited up to his place as well, where he showed us a couple of short
films. Lots of small, technical stuff to pick on, but fun and
interesting films nonetheless. After that, we walked over to Bodil's
again, where Live had left (for a family party), so we had to sit on the
stairs until Bodil and Eirik came home from the cabin. It didn't take
long, just a few minutes.
Bodil was in terrible shape. She was tired, and you could see that she
had problems enough walking. She managed the stairs surprisingly well,
though and was told to sit down and ask people to help her instead of
doing stuff herself. She seemed to brighten up a bit when Simpel and
Skade ran all over the place, but was still tired and worn down.
Karianne and I were invited to dinner at my mother's so we walked over
there, ate and had a good time before returning by tram. We walked by a
7-11 store and picked up "Prozac Nation" and a bottle of soda pop.
Eirik went out for some flour in order to make pizza. While he was
making the pizza, Bodil had a small setback and Karianne and she decided
to go outside to catch some air and I think also to shield me. As the
pizza was finished, Eirik SMS-ed Karianne wondering if they were to come
back soon. Karianne called and asked us to come down and help get Bodil
inside. We ran down and helped her get back inside and again tried to
calm her a bit.
The pizza was good, though not the movie. The reason for the movie
sucking wasn't the movie maker's, but the shop's. The DVD was scratched
and no amount of cleansing could convince the player otherwise. So, we
watched about half the film and I want to see the rest soon, the parts I
saw were interesting and I want to view to rest of it.
Instead, we played a game of carcassone (that's spelt wrongly, but I
hope somebody will tell me the correct spelling.. Which Karianne later did.),
which was fun. I haven't played it before, but managed to finish
second. We went to sleep fairly quickly afterwards. I slep light and
not too much, but it was good nonetheless.
Tuesday morning, I read comics until Karianne woke up. Made breakfast
for her and Bodil before we walked Bodil over to the psychiatrist.
We walked for the first part of the way, but in the end, she was so
tired she couldn't stand on her feet so at first Karianne and I carried
her between us before I took her alone, since it was easier for me that
way. Luckily, it wasn't very far, since even though she's not that
heavy, carrying a fully-grown person takes a bit of effort.
Karianne kept Bodil company while I left for work to pick up an UPS
(uninterruptible power supply, small but heavy box) and some sheets of
paper. As a bonus, I picked up a fan for my AMD64 system, so I can play
with that if I have the energy when I get home. I went to my mother's
to pick up my stuff before heading off for the train. Like my brother
had told me earlier, there is wireless coverage in my mother's
apartment, probably from a neightbour or something. So I managed to
download most of my email after a tiny bit of wiggling about. (I
guessed at free IPs and managed to pick one which was in use.)
The UPS tried to kill me a few times on my way to the train, both on the
tram and after that. Met up with Karianne at the station and had a nice
goodbye there. (She's staying behind looking after Bodil until Friday
the latest, and yes, I already miss her.)
I have discovered that NSB's comfort tickets are an excellent idea.
They cost 75 NOK more than ordinary tickets (that is, they cost whatever
you usually pay, green tickets, student discounts, whatever, plus 75
NOK). For that, you get less noise (Hanne and I had the misfortune of
sitting in the children's compartment when leaving Oslo last Easter),
free tea, coffee and papers. Most importantly, you get a power socket
so you can blog or read or hack or whatever on your laptop all the six
to seven hours it takes to get from Oslo to Trondheim or the other way
around. Excellent, I say.
I wish Karianne could have come back to Trondheim now, but, well, she
couldn't because of Bodil, and I both understand and respect that. We
had a great time for the few days in Oslo, and I'll see her Saturday the
latest. It feels a lot shorter, and I'll be busy in Trondheim as well
until then.
