We live in a New Age. Technology not only runs our lives, it rules our being and ruins our sense of comprehensive societal cohesion. Has access to the internet become a fundamental human right? If so, should we have to pay for that right of access?
If I set up a factory and started producing cars that looked just like Volkswagen Beetles from the early 1960’s and called them Molkswagen Teetles, would that be legally okay? I would certainly hope not. Why then do people like Nick Simmons regularly copy the work of real artists, put their own name on it, and try to make a profit?
A couple of days ago, in our Memeingful blog, I wrote an article called — “Stealing Janna Sweenie” — that dealt with an un-named seller on an un-named commercial website that was using Janna’s good name and American Sign Language products to sell really ugly postcards and other knickknacks and trinkets.
Today, I am ready to reveal the rest of the story and to publicly identify CafePress.com as the commercial website involved.
Continue reading → The Deceit of Cached CafePress Keyword Artifacts
Today, I propose we enact a new rule when it comes to the Art of Human Living: Outlawing Crafting. I realize this idea may be less popular than Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” — commoditizing children by eating babies in the time of economic hardship — and I’m sure there are some among us who will also accuse me of treachery against the American Spirit.
We live to pretend to recreate Art from the junk of others.
Intellectual theft has come far in the last century. I can imagine that the idea of taking an article from a newspaper and passing it off as ones own must have been daunting in the late nineteenth century — and surely something that people would not have been so eager to do given the lack of incentive. Now, however, it is too easy to select an entire article with your mouse, copy it, and paste it into your blog — and throw your name on top of it.
Tynt helps you control the copy thieves.
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