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Barcoding mad

Posted in 1 on 01/04/2010| Leave a Comment »

See a cut and pasted article  Barcodes under “Rants” on a disturbing new piece of legislation.

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Shutter Island

Posted in 1 on 28/03/2010| Leave a Comment »

Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese have been producing soundtracks together since Raging Bull and The Last Waltz. Robbie Robertson has been quoted as saying of Shutter Island that This may be the most outrageous and beautiful soundtrack I’ve ever heard. The choice of modern classical tracks is highly unusual, ranging from Penderecki and John Cage to Brian Eno, and I got the soundtrack CD a couple of weeks ago. In 1973, between recording Stage Fright and Moondog Matinee, Robertson was allegedly working on a version of Penderecki material, which never emerged.

The trouble is, that after seeing the film, the images they bring up are so chilling that I’m not sure I’ll listen that much. The film is gripping from start to finish, the locations are stunning as is the sense of period (1956). I’m not going to drop any plot spoilers, but the almighty twists left the audience somewhat irritated, I thought. definitely one to see, even if you come out wishing fervently that there’d been a more conventional ending.

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Trade marks etc

Posted in 1 on 26/03/2010| Leave a Comment »

Copyright and trademarks

I just read a New York Times articles about the Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans, who are trying to copyright their elaborate costumes, so as to prevent photographers profiting from selling posters and photos of them.

The legal issue is interesting. We’ve had this for years  with publishers worried that a MacDonalds sign was visible in a street scene and might lead to problems. The general feeling is that if an image is the central subject of a picture, permission may be needed.

The legal trepidation reached a peak in the mid-90s when American editors started putting ™ or © signs after half the proper nouns in New American Streamline. I had a text about a car crash in Departures unit 55 and the first edit was  `The Ford™ crashed into the Chevrolet™.

I sent the editors  a couple of pages from the Grapes of Wrath where the name Ford appeared and said I don’t believe Ford could ever win a case against a publisher who failed to put “TM” after the word Ford, as anyone could find hundreds of examples without. They saw reason and the offending signs were removed, though one at least © was missed, so superstar Courtney Dallas still boasts in Unit 16 that I have a new Mercedes © and a lot of money …

This impacts on readability.

I also said I couldn’t believe Ford or Chevrolet would be dumb enough to sue, as they maintained their names were trademarked and a court might decide that their loss was nil in a work of literature, thus undermining the trademark. Anyone with any sense knows FORD is trademarked to stop the Central Asian Motor Corporation producing a range of “Fords” and more so, to stop spare parts manufacturers putting “FORD” on their goods. It’s not about describing a car in a book.  When we borrowed  a Ford for filming a video from the manufacturer I told the marketing guy about the TM issue and he fell about laughing at the very idea of sueing a writer for infringing their copyright. After all, his job was product placement, getting the Ford name into as many places as possible.

The moral of the story, as ever, is “Keep the lawyers in check.”

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