Letters to the Editor
Tona Aspsusa
Published Letters: 53 Editor's Choice: 14
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Disingenious comparison
[Read the article: Chinese pirates can't touch the Brits and the French]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The only thing the silly war on piracy has accomplished has been to muddy the waters about fair use and personal use so far that this type of comparison is even possible.
It used to be fairly simple, a moral distinction even seven year olds could easily grasp. Copying a tape from a friend, or your favourite book for *your own use* (including to give as a gift to someone) was ok - copying something and selling it, not ok.
This simple rule is something most people would agree with, and it is still reflected in the legislation of most European countries (though under much attack from various industry groups).
This rule is so simple, it even worked well for things like performing plays or music. You sell tickets to your performance? You pay something to the composer/author.
By painting *any* copying as piracy the entertainment industry has only managed to antagonize most of its customers, it has also resulted in severely weird attempts by various copyright holders to squeeze churches, hunting societies and square dancers for royalties.
The end result might just be that this over-reaching results in even worse muddying of the moral surrounding IP. If a teen (or a grandma) copying a CD or downloading an episode of "Seinfeld" is a "pirate", if a square dancing club using a bought recording without paying royalties are "pirates"... those guys making a good living by flogging pirated designer labeled jeans, medicines or DVDs can't be that bad, can they?
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I don't know about Germany,
[Read the article: In Germany, the iPhone is free -- for $1,465]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but here in Finland my bills for my Treo (with the cheapest GPRS/EDGE unlimited data plan) are in the vicinity of the price difference quoted ($ 843 = ~ € 572 /24 months => ~ € 23.80), usually less (not a heavy talker).
The irony is that Finland, homeland of Nokia, used to forbid sale of locked phones totally. Now it is allowed, and people are amazingly tardy about switching over from GSM to 3G. Whereas back in the day the switch from NMT to GSM was amazingly fast.
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Already with XP...
[Read the article: Microsoft kills Vista's anti-piracy kill switch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... many people chose to run a "pirated" or "cracked" version - simply because it was *easier* when you bought a new laptop to wipe it clean and install a downloaded up-to-date version than sit through all the updates and patches and what-not.
This is a just common-sense from MS. After all, most new computers ship with some flavour of windows pre-installed. My guess would be that the majority of user-installed "pirated" win-OS:s are running on machines that came with (possibly another version of) a pre-installed win-OS.
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Nice essay - nice film
[Read the article: The man who lost his past]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I had almost forgotten I'd seen this movie. Probably because while it was perhaps emotionally a satisfying film, it was somewhat frustrating when it came to the riddle of what memory is, and where the limits for Bruce's amnesia lie.
The transient fugue-states discussed in the film doesn't really fit, and the film leaves further exploring undone in favour of delving deeper into the history of the "old Bruce" and the development of the "new Bruce".
The armchair neurologist (yup, I'm another Sacks fan) in me would have liked to see more tests and interviews, more discussions about how total or not Bruce's amnesia wrt his childhood is. Would he recognize childhood foods and smells? And would there be a sliding scale of recognition, such that it almost borders on remembrance?
The scenes in Paris were especially frustrating - I would dearly have liked a trained memory-specialist to have accompanied him and discussed what he did and did not recognize. Did he know the Metro routes? Could he orient in the city himself without getting lost?
Exactly where are the coundaries of his amnesia? THESE are the truly interesting questions.
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Sadly, the first obstacle mentioned,
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...operating the radio, has already happened in real-life. Iirc the steward (with some flying experience) who miraculously stayed conscious on that Helios-flight that crashed in Greece couldn't find the switch for the radio.
Who knows, if he had been able to get advice maybe he could have done something? Even if it would only have been running out of fuel over the sea instead of over a mountain.
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What's the point of reviewing stuff like this?
[Read the article: "Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ok, we now know that it probably doesn't work that well as a film.
But really - Sweeney Todd is about the most operatic of Sondheim's works (I can hardly remember any spoken lines at all, but there probably are a few). What's the point of starting from the premise of "musical" when writing about it?
An opera-buff with a cinematic interest might be capable of writing something interesting about this adaptation. Or even someone with a deep knowledge of Sondheim and/or Sweeney Todd might offer some interesting analysis.
This review tells me *nothing* about how the music is handled (is it much adapted? how is it played, symphonic vs "musical theatre"?), how the characters work (or don't) on the screen, if it's an ensemble or soloist driven take on it (the only stage version I've seen had a chorus so good it often resembled one of those Russian monumental operas), if it is realistic-gritty or metaphorical-fantastic in it's look.
Salon needs a classical/musical music writer, or at least someone who can post links to interesting writing about this stuff. This is a waste of time.
Oh, and my favourite, "have a little priest", is eminently hummable.