I’ve been involved in a few disturbing conversations the last couple of days.
Fair Use has a vital role in copyright law- it allows the use of copyrighted material without permission for what are essentially societal benefits. Criticism, scholarship, teaching and research are specifically mentioned in the text of the law as examples of the kinds [...]
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have released the 2007 Nebula Awards (seen on BoingBoing and Scriveners Error). Again, lots of my interests have converged, especially being an SF/F fan all of my life.
First, Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt screenplay adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle won best [...]
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2007/04/video_cosplayer.html
A group people do the ending dance from one of my favorite anime shows, the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, on a street in Akihabara. The people apparently planned this event on the Japanese forum site, 2Channel. A couple of policemen show up and everyone scatters. Fun, though. ^_^
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (Spoilerific Wikipedia Entry) was one of my wife’s and my favorite shows of this past year. It’s unique in a lot of ways- from it’s play on traditional anime themes to it’s interesting use of chronology. Plus, it’s hilarious.
The anime community has had a long tradition of making works available [...]
I’m going to talk a little bit about anime fandom and briefly mention anime and manga in libraries. Next time I’ll look at the quiet demise of the University of Texas’s UTopia Project. Anime fans are an interesting bunch, and I’ll try to write more about fandom in the blog.
Holly and I were at HEB, [...]
I find Japan’s treatment of new and old objects interesting. OK, that statement isn’t illuminating in any way; what do I mean?
Well, here’s one example. When I was studying authenticity, I noticed that different cultures will define “authentic” differently. Sure, that should be pretty obvious. But take a look at specifics: In the US, an [...]
We in the anime fan community tend to use ethics associated with practices that may or may not relate to actual copyright law- for example, pulling and stopping distribution of fansubs once the works are licensed, not supporting commercial bootlegs, and so on. I think those choices are great. The problem is convincing copyright holders that they are sufficient.
This month, Turner Classic Movies will be showing Hayao Miyazaki films on Thursdays- for the most part, both the dubbed and subbed versions (Studio Ghibli films).
During the introduction, the commentator interviewing someone from Pixar said something I found strange- something along the lines of, ‘when you think of anime, of japanese cartoons, you don’t think [...]
This past weekend Holly noticed that there was a flea market between Manor and Austin. She’d never been to a flea market before, so she wanted to take a look. Getting in and out was a pain, but there were a few interesting things there. I saw a store that sold video bootlegs, that were [...]
My personal major interest is intellectual property. I was introduced to some of the issues related to copyright from before I can really remember. One of the big things that concerned me early on in my college career was related to anime, as one of the founders of the Anime Club at Syracuse University. [...]