Ulysses

Recently finished Ulysses by James Joyce, went back and skimmed over it again, and then read some parts multiple times, as there is so much depth to the book. What an amazing novel. How can a day in the life of three people possibly be so interesting? Joyce was a genius, and I am not one to use that term lightly. Ironically, this picture of Joyce looks very much like a freind of mine that is also a writer I enjoy, having earned his PhD in English, with his dissertation on Southwestern lit.

When Joyce first wrote the book, it was not allowed for import into the United States. The "Inspector Javert" types of the time deemed it obscenity. Though the book was written in 1921, it was not able to be legally imported into the United States until 1933 when Judge Woolsey overturned the charge. It is fun to read from his ruling on the matter:

After I had made my decision in regard to the aspect of "Ulysses" ... I checked my impressions with two friends of mine ... They are men whose opinion on literature and on life I value most highly. They had both read "Ulysses", and, of course, were wholly unconnected with this cause. I was interested to find that they both agreed with my opinion ... that its net effect on them was only that of a somewhat tragic and very powerful commentary on the inner lives of men and women.

It is very easy to look back now, and see how stupid it was to ban Ulysses - even though I would still not recommend it for children or youth. But, we still have Javerts running around, trying to force, coerce, and terrorize people. The "Great Eldorado Roundup" is certainly an example of this, but there are unfortunately many more examples of JRA - "Javert Run Amok."

439-0!

Fight Bigotry!

$2 Million Parking Ticket?

What if your child or grandchild got hit with a $2 Million parking ticket? Would you think that is excessive? So would I. Yet it is the punishment the jury decided on in a recent court case for something that I believe is fair use. Here is the letter I wrote to my senators and representative.

Can you imaging paying $2 million for a parking ticket? In my mind this is what has happened today in a trial in Minnesota. A Woman has been fined $2 million for non-commercial sharing of music. If this same penalty were applied to all shared music, it would result in a fine of $400 Trillion. Let me repeat that number: $400 Trillion. How is there any sanity in this kind of award? However, even though the damages were excessively high, the industry felt an award almost twice as high was appropriate.

You represent Virginia. It is your duty to stop this nonsense. Non-commercial sharing is far different than commercial piracy, and should be treated as such. Sharing songs should not carry a penalty similar to a parking ticket, not a penalty similar to murder, especially when the music industry has yet to prove they are damaged.

Please hold hearings on non-commercial file sharing, and call the music industry to task for this gross abuse of justice. Also, please support and/or sponsor legislation that gives a sane penalty for non-commercial sharing, commensurate with the 79 cent price of the file.

Copyright infringement a $150,000 Crime?

Note - Given the pointing out of errors in my earlier post, I have edited the earlier edition. This may leave some comments sounding strange.

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Copyright infringement carries a fine of up to $150,000 per incident. While the penalties on copyright infringement are ridiculous, so are the penalties on polygamy. But those who promote the importance of following stupid and overreaching laws should first make sure that they are obeying all the stupid, overreaching laws.