Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Sunny Skies, Freezing Winds

A non-sequitor for the title. Hah.

A separate post about my weekend wedding adventures is forthcoming. I swear.

A few random bits for the now, though.

And lots of one-line, one-sentence paragraphs.

Because it's just that sort of post. Or at least it was. (If you catch my drift, and I most certainly think you do.)

First we have a Dork Tower comic that speaks to all geeks. Although I have not as yet attempted to date while living at home (and I will so attempt in the rather near future), I could easily picture a first date going like that, especially the toys line. For I am the grown-up kid who refuses to grow up and still yet peruses toy stores. Just ask my friends – I've trained them to cringe when we pass a toy store and the inevitable "Mind if I stop in for just a sec?" follows, coupled with the equally inevitable five minutes of shelf perusal and subsequent determination that buying something would only make things worse. Trust me. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.

Though the descriptions of graphic novels, "speculative fiction," adventure gaming and anime are spot on. Hehe.

Second, we have ugh -- I'm not going to be able to directly link the posts. Grrrrr. Bad blogging system there. Okay, we have a few posts over at diesel sweeties -- Double crud. It looks like the author doesn't retain past news postings. Le grrrrr.

Take two. Action!

Second, we have some news postings over at diesel sweeties where the author describes a cease & desist letter from Lucasfilm Ltd. demanding the author stop selling a few t-shirts whose designs potentially bear some similarity to Star Wars entities.

I hate this kind of thing. It's a mild overextension of their copyright rights and is, well, wrong. In my opinion, (which is a very non-legal and non-binding one not offered as an indication of any sort of direction one should take nor an opinion which someone with an ounce of intelligence should rely on or follow) they don't have the law wrong per se. But neither does the t-shirt artist. His pixilated designs are, again "in my opinion" (as the entirety of this may be taken), fair use as derivative works. They should be safe, and they are – just not from those who seek to unfairly overextend their copyrights. So, in this case, the 800-lb. gorilla shall flex his muscles and thus, head thrown back roaring his/her battle cry unto the heavens, triumph this day. The poor, starving webcomic artist and novice t-shirt designer shall remove the allegedly infringing products since he cannot well afford the ensuing litigation.

And so it goes.

Though I wish, oh how I wish, the t-shirt designer would leave the designs up and thumb his nose at the gorilla, proudly proclaiming the rights that he (apparently arguably) clearly retains.

And if that last sentence wasn't clear, the short-short version: flip off Lucasfilm, say "screw you" and keep at it. Challenge them instead of bowing to their seemingly insurmountable weight of unsold Star Wars paraphernalia.

Man, I am wordy today. But I think that may be a facet of my job at times. Meh.

Anyways, grab your shirts now, before he takes them down on Friday. I for one shall snag at least one of them. They r teh kewl. Or something.

P.S. The title describes Connecticut upon my return. So cold. (At least in comparison to Texas.)