What is Digg?46 Comments
- ninetimes, on 10/10/2007, -2/+33I think it's noteworthy that Twain was not at all worried about people *reading* his books, but worried about publishers making money from his work without paying him.
When considering the intent of copyrights, the distinction seems very important to me. Copyright is not to make sure people have to buy a copy to read it, listen to it, or view it. It's to prevent other publishers from creating copies for profit. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+28Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he didn't charge 20 dollars for his books, with only a few chapters actually being interesting.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18Yar, thar be Huckleberries.
- CraigJ, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Well, he sure did get the "pirates" labeled correctly.
- commernie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12I must have read a different article than you, because the one I read told about a Mark Twain who was fiercely opposed to publishers (record companies) screwing authors (artists). If TFA is correct, I think Twain would have despised the RIAA and characterized it as a "pirate" organization.
- BoneheadFarker, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12No...I believe the RIAA, or at least it's predecessor, are the "pirates" he's talking about. He nailed it, I'd say...
- Defuser, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12Correct. The entire point of the article is that Twain saw the PUBLISHERS as the "pirates", not the people reading his work. And he was right. The RIAA are the real pirates today. It's amazing to me that they do EXACTLY what the erroneously claim other people are doing: Sell music that they are in no way responsible for creating. Say what you will about Metallica, but at least they had some sort of justification for their stance on file sharing: they actually created the music that was being shared. The RIAA though, are just a bunch of scumbags that want to make money off of what other people have created.
- noahhoward, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Movie companies do something along the lines of his idea to ensure they beat the most out of every horse.
A lot of movies follow this progression:
Theater -> DVD with scenes removed and "bonus" content -> DVD with "Additional Footage" (the original version from the theatre) -> DVD Directors cut (the movie they actually made)
My wife and I noticed this with Hitchikers Guide, one of our favorite parts in the movie when we saw it in theaters was the scene with the whale where he says "Hello ground, will you be my friend?" then there is a thud and a small mushroom cloud as the whale hits. When the first DVD come out it was simply "Hello Ground" they had cut the movie from the theater version. Later, we caught the 'extended' version on TV and the scene was back again. - CraigJ, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10what do the number of comments have to do with the number of diggs or getting to the front page?
- geekee, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7If you buy an album with only a few good songs, you should start listening to better bands.
- CraigJ, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6RTFA much?
- anachronaut, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5What does Charles Dickens (author of Great Expectations) have to do with this topic? Maybe I missed the joke, but I'm confused...
- Subvexer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3This is what pharmaceutical companies have been doing with expiring patents.
- Mearn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Today's Tom Sawyer he gets high on you
- ShrimpCrackers, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2/And sadly they still are pirates. Wierd Al went out saying he makes less than 20 cents per album that you buy. 20 cents, where do you think the rest of the $15-18 goes to? RIAA and the Record Companies.
- jdavid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2wow, this is a brilliantly weird solution, its a combination of watermarking, stenography, and marketing that gets people excited about paying for pieces of lost information. I think LOST fans would eat this up today. I also think a modern day Tom Sawyer could be loads of fun.
- mabhatter, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2That's why IBM says "real men own fab" about being in the computer business. Apple says "people that love software build their own hardware". Software is a dime a dozen and obsolete or reproduceable easily by 100 other people instead of you. On the other handware has to be made by somebody. If you own the fab (or the presses) you'll always be in business. Look at IBM kicked out of the PC market and laughing all the way to the bank making processors for every nintendo, Xbox, & PS3... Plus their big iron servers. They can support software going open source because you still have to run it. Same with Apple and OSX. They build the OS from common components but it's tailored to work best with their hardware.... The idea of tying the two makes their hardware more valuable.
On the other hand even today's "publishers" are really just middlemen. They don't OWN CD/DVD/paper presses anymore, they shipped that overseas or to litle job shops that get fed scraps just like the artists. His issue also applies to them. But on the other hand, does a guy who paints your house get money every year for his labor? How about the guy who made your car? Nobody likes to have their money train run out, but that's life. Most people get paid for CONTINUING to do work every day... not for what they already did. Authors are more like those who get lottery tickets then complain that their million dollars paid out over 20 years is going to run out on year 21... how unfair is that!!! The government hasn't really been fair to the industry by extending the payments for no more work being done... they haven't forced the publishers to deal with the end of the business cycle where the works go away even if people still like them. - Travelsonic, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Expectation is not a gaurentee to profit. Definately we should be wary of illicit sources of material, but it is dellsional to expect instant or gaurenteed success of of every copy of something you make... or what you make to begin with.
- cambrown99, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I like who he labels as the 'pirates' here.
- qwertydvorak, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2no, he was the father of the directors cut, or the deleted scenes.
- geekee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"That reminds me to remark, in passing, that the very first official thing I did, in my administration -- and it was on the very first day of it, too -- was to start a patent office; for I knew that a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab, and couldn't travel any way but sideways or backways." Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
This illustrates Mark Twain's view on patents. I'm sure his attitude towards copyright was similar. - mraustin1337, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4Star Trek TNG caused me to dislike Mark Twain so much that I refused to read his books. What a jerk that guy was. Even though that was just some actor, I don't like him one bit.
- inajeep, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't feel Mr. Twain's idea was a good idea, changing the base word and reestablishing the copyright. Although I believe the drug makers are doing just that. What would solve his worry is becoming a publisher himself. Kinda like how you can create an estate for someone where it goes on and on and doesn't die. The issue is that Publisher's have the media's ear and the network to get an author's stuff out which back in his time not be possible. The web has changed things a great deal but not completely. Not everyone is hooked up to the tubes but it's a hell of a start. However, we are part way there. Electronic books. Myspace bands & Digg are examples of self-promotion of writing material although self blog promoters are usually shot down and sneered at. The issue is still the copyright law which has a grass roots group trying to push change. I'm sure not just the publisher are against that change.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1And what kind of ***** changes his name to something even dumber than the original Samuel Clement. Its as ***** up and stupid as those no-talent rappers who have dumb names like Ice Coffee and Snoop Poodle etc
- mabhatter, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's what disney did with Snow White so it won't fall out of Copyright. The only versions available have been "remastered" on VHS or DVD with extras so that counts as a "derivitive" work. George did it to Star Wars too.
- theuniversal, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yes, and in fact book publishers do something similar as well. They'll often release new editions of public domain works with lengthy introductions or commentaries written by some other famous author. The introduction or commentary is protected by copyright and is marketed as a kind of value-added, in order to compete against generic public domain editions.
- bromac, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Dude. Mark Twain has been in the public domain for a few years now, especially since he died in 1910. I don't think he'd be too upset.
- commernie, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I obviously haven't done any experiments, but I can bet that there is a strong correlation between the amount of diggs an article gets and the number of posted comments. If this is true, then the number of comments is a good indicator of the number of diggs. In any case, whether a page makes it to the front page or not is based on many other factors so Numbers_of_pi's comment isn't really valid, anyway.
- geekee, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2It's amazing how dense people can be. Twain wasn't worried about people reading his books back then because he knew he was supposed to be paid for every copy. Anyone who thinks he wouldn't be upset by people making free copies of his books for themseves over the internet is deluded.
- Rizzen, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Ah, but without piracy or internet radio the vast majority of people will have to stomach the mainstream, which is 90% *****.
- Travelsonic, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1"nyone who thinks he wouldn't be upset by people making free copies of his books for themseves over the internet is deluded."
... no less deluded than the one who puts thoughts in peoples' minds/words in peoples' mouthes. - bstolzberg, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Pictures of Mark Twains Masonic gavel which he presented to his Lodge in St. Louis, Polar Star-Rose Hill #79, can be seen at http://www.PSRH79.com - enjoy.
- thegiraffe, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Good job of not reading the article. "Twain didn't want perpetual copyright, only something that would cover his children's lives."
- Travelsonic, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1No, copyright isn't solely about making money, it is about retaining rights over your work to do whatever commercial or noncommercial thing you wanted with it. Hence why copyright infringement is about permission and lack therefore, and NOT about getting/not getting paid, as is the common misleading reason that is given goes.
- 0hffs, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1 "He imagined printing portions of his (then unpublished) autobiography intermixed with his older works, in new binding. It doesn't prevent the original from passing into the public domain, but the author is free to try and create competing works for his benefit."
So basically, the same book - but every copy is dynamic and unique. - BoneheadFarker, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Thanks...now I have that song stuck in my head. Dugg for the Rush reference anyways...
- geekee, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Anyone who makes his own copies is publishing for himself and ripping off Twain. Twin would be upset by this because he expects to be paid for every copy of the work, like you say.
- MerryMortician, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3he would have ***** his pants seeing his work freely distributed on the interwebs... but his great grand kids are lovin it!
- fungule, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0what a bag of gas you are
- geekee, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2No, the purpose of copyright is to make sure Twain gets money for every copy in existence. Therefore, if you make your own copy from the internet, he would be upset.
- wendelgee2, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1Is it down on arstechnica and on DuggMirror, or is just me??
- Numbers_of_pi, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1nothing as far as statistics go, but as a general rule of thumb, going on how everyone wants to put in their 2 cents (myself included), if there aren't any comments, then people aren't reading it. :P
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1Greedy bastard!
- Numbers_of_pi, on 10/10/2007, -18/+1how does this only have 48 diggs, and 1 comment, yet still make it to the front page? in any case, good read.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -19/+2Mark Twain: The father of RIAA?
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