NEWSgrist: *Watch What We Say* July 2004 pt.3

NEWSgrist - where spin is art
An e-zine covering the arts since 2000
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Vol.5, no.14 [July 26, 2004]
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Saturday, July 24, 2004
When iPods are illegal

Is your computer a loaded gun? (Salon)
At a Senate hearing on Thursday, defenders of the Induce Act – which
would ban technologies that encourage copyright infringement – will try
to explain why their bill isn't the stupidest idea they've ever come up
with.
By Siva Vaidhyanathan

[…] If we don't want to radically alter the personal computer and the
Internet itself, there is not much the Senate or the entertainment
industry can do about file sharing. Users who are accustomed to this new
technocultural environment will simply find another way. They will migrate
en masse to other services like Gnutella, ICQ, FreeNet, and BitTorrent.

Recently the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation worked
up a mock complaint that might be issued if the Induce Act becomes law.
The complaint makes it clear that Apple would be liable for selling the
popular iPod music player.

Remember: When iPods are illegal, only criminals will have iPods.
(read full article in Free Press News)

Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 08:32 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/when_ipods_are_.html

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Sculptural Piracy?

[image: Kiki Smith finishes a piece…]

via Furd Log:
Technological Alienation
The hook for this [NYTimes] article, When Technology Imitates Art, points
to the cognitive problem that comes up every time a technology is employed
in a novel fashion to create something that could be produced another way,
but now no longer need be.

> A FEW weeks ago, a sculptor in France contacted Studio Roc, a new
stone-milling company in North Hollywood, Calif., with the type of
challenge the company was seeking. He had a 19th-century limestone lion's
face that he wanted to reproduce for a line of fountains. But carving each
face by hand was a tedious chore for which he no longer had the time or
resources.

> Instead, he shipped the original work to Studio Roc, where technicians
mapped it in three dimensions with a laser scanner. Then they placed a
limestone blank in a computer-controlled milling machine and used the scan
data to carve a duplicate lion face at the touch of a button.

[…] But the harnessing of these granite-grinding Xerox machines, able to
duplicate just about any sculpture, may also blur the line between what is
authentic and what is not. Is such a sculpture art, or merely a
computer-aided copy? [emphasis added, Furd Log]

more from the NYTimes article:
Not that sculptural piracy requires laser scanning. Mr. Lash noted that
foundries, mostly in Asia, already churn out countless copies - some from
molds of the originals, others based on photos. "Just look at all the
Remington horses in circulation," he said.

But Mr. [Julien] LaVerdiere noted that duplicating a well-known work was
once an honest academic endeavor, pursued mostly by artists honing their
skills.
"It's long been a tradition to copy classical sculpture," he said. "And
now we're kind of using 21st-century technology. It's really cool. It's
too bad it costs so much money."

Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 06:16 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/sculptural_pira.html

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The Anarchist in the Library: Slashdot Review

Siva Vaidhyanathan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Culture
and Communication at New York University, defender of Fair Use, and the
author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and
How It Threatens Creativity.

His new book is The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between
Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System.

According to Siva, Ernest Miller (Slashdot) gets it: "This is the best
review the book has received so far":

At its most basic level, The Anarchist in the Library is about control of
information, both cultural and political. As Siva says in the last
chapter, "This book was supposed to be about entertainment - the battle
over control of digital music, text, and video … But as I researched
this new project, the world shifted beneath my feet … My concerns moved
to the regulation and control of all sorts of information, much of it
cultural, much of it political." Thus, throughout the book, Siva contrasts
two very different regimes of information control: oligarchy and anarchy.
[…]
… In the end, Siva's moderation is demonstrated as he concludes that
there are seldom easy answers in a world where control of information and
culture is sometimes necessary. Without giving specific answers, Siva
argues for approaching problems from a particular perspective: with
engaged, humane cynicism and a commitment to civic republicanism, both
within and without our borders. It is a perspective well worth reading
about.

Read the latest argument against the INDUCE Act (Inducing Infringement of
Copyrights Act) made by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and check out the EFF's
action alert: The Induce Act: Innovation Under Attack.


Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 10:27 AM in Books | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/the_anarchist_i.html

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Infinite Fulfillment

images + comments via tom moody…
The exhibition opening was crowded but not too crowded and hot but not too
hot. The work fell into two broad categories: things made with actual fill
patterns (printouts, videos) and hand-crafted objects that mimicked fill
patterns (painting, drawing, needlepoint). Variations and exceptions
abounded in this 90-some artist show.

…and james wagner:
I couldn't imagine it would come together so well. Hearing or reading
about it ahead of time, the concept seemed mad. It is (and I mean that in
the very best way), but its execution was absolutely brilliant.

show info:
THE INFINITE FILL SHOW
Curated by Cory + Jamie Arcangel
Opening reception: Thursday, July 22, 6.00 - 8.30 pm
Dates: July 22 to August 19, 2004
Summer hours: Tuesday to Friday, 11.00 am - 6.00 pm

Foxy Production announces The Infinite Fill Show, a group exhibition of
dazzling black and white patterns, curated by brother and sister team Cory
and Jamie Arcangel. The exhibition includes new and historical, readymade
and handcrafted works in a range of media. The curators sent out an open
call to artists for found or made objects which had to adhere to two basic
rules: they must be black and white, and they must contain repeating
patterns. The curatorial concept was inspired by MAC Paint, the 1984
software application with varied 16-bit monochrome patterning that could
be picked and dropped into areas of the screen to denote color and depth.
For Cory and Jamie Arcangel, this rudimentary precursor to Photoshop's
draw and paint functions provides a creative tool to explore multiple
perspectives within a unifying aesthetic. > snip! <

Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 09:34 AM in Art Exhibitions | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/infinite_fulfil.html

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Friday, July 23, 2004
No More Lies

from SeanBonner.com via Eyebeam ReBlog:
Russell Simmons owns a loft facing ground zero. Since 9/11 there's been
extremely limited access to the building, but this morning our good
friend, photographer Glen E. Friedman get in for a few minutes to make a
statement which will be up through the RNC. Here's a bunch of pictures
from inside and out.

Friday, July 23, 2004 at 03:25 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/no_more_lies.html

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FROM: IM VOTING BUSH OUT a political blog hosted by NEWSgrist:

Visual Resistance

via a post at RNC Watch in June:
Some of New York's coolest radical artists have organized a NoRNC Poster
Project, which you can now find out more about online. According to their
website, " No RNC Poster Collective is a small collective of friends with
experience in graphic design and independent media. We came together with
the goal of facilitating visual resistance against this summer's
Republican National Convention. We want to make protest beautiful and
connect artists with organizations working against the RNC. Our goal is to
create a visual blitz in New York City against Bush and the Convention,
and to blend art with politics in the finest New York style."

July 23, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/imvoting/2004/07/visual_resistan.html

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Thursday, July 22, 2004
Watch What We Say

Artists and activists are preparing to mobilize for the duration of the
Republican National Convention 2004, to be held August 30 thru September 2
in New York City. In addition to taking to the streets, the Web and the
airwaves, protests are also shaping up as exhibitions and performances.
Perhaps the most thoroughly conceived of these events is the Imagine
Festival which will be held at numerous exhibition spaces, museums and
theatrical venues throughout the City. But many spontaneous, underground
and unaffiliated events are also taking place. Here's the latest (watch
for more announcements of this sort in the weeks to come):

Press Release July 2004
Watch What We Say
Venue: Schroeder Romero
173A N.3rd Street. Williamsburg Brooklyn NY. t: 718 486 8992.
Opening Reception: Wed August 25, 2004. 6-9pm

Exhibition Dates: August 26 - September 2, 2004. 12-6pm.
Contact: Marc Lepson. 718 692 4571. [email protected]

Artists:
Robbie Conal, Jim Costanzo, Erika deVries, Electronic Disturbance Theater,
Christopher Knowles, Joy Garnett, Jerry Kearns, Joyce Kozloff, Carrie
Moyer, Ann Messner, Jenny Polak, William Pope L., Dread Scott, Peter
Scott, Carla Repice, Leonard Silverberg, James Tomon, Barbara Weissberger,
Krzysztof Wodiczko, Emna Zghal
An exhibition of new and recent visual works in a variety of media, Watch
What We Say presents a mix of emerging and established artists who address
pressing political issues of the moment in poetic, subversive, emotional
and clear-eyed terms.

In the weeks following the attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush's
press secretary Ari Fleischer replied to criticism of administration
policy by warning that "all Americans need to watch what they say, watch
what they do". This challenge to free expression emphasized the climate of
war, repression, and xenophobia that continues to run through American
society. By speaking directly to this web of issues that remain
intertwined and interdependent, the artists selected for this exhibition
present works that testify to the power of creative thought in the face of
overwhelming odds.

For this show, timed to coincide with the Republican National Convention
in NYC, artists Joy Garnett, James Tomon, Carrie Moyer, Jerry Kearns and
Robbie Conal show works that take on images of power via painterly
construction and de-construction of mediated images. Jenny Polak and
Krzysztof Wodiczko look closely at the immigrant experience, while Wlliam
Pope L. and Dread Scott examine racial relations in historical and
contemporary terms, and Peter Scott's 'mirror' image "explores the
interplay between the relentless marketing of fear and the selling of
comfort". Taking a more emotional aproach, Christopher Knowles presents a
simple and moving interpretation of color coded alert levels, along with
Leonard Silverberg's carefully composed ink washes of wandering displaced
persons, Joyce Kozloff's meticulous watercolor map of the partition of
1948 Palestine/Israel, and Barbara Weissberger's humorous and disturbing
corporeal forms. Ann Messner's newspaper vending machine installation
presents a hopeful alternative by dispensing free copies of 'un
conventional heroes', a narrative of personal courage and dissent.
Rounding out the show are video interventions by Jim Costanzo, off-site
performance by Carla Repice, live internet radio broadcast by Erika
deVries and a Virtual Sit-In of the RNC by Electronic Disturbance Theater
(Ricardo Dominguez, Carmin Karasic , Brett Stalbaum, Stefan Wray).

Looking directly at extreme circumstances, these artists project back
lyrical responses that are complex, beautiful, and meaningful. Difficult
questions are posed eloquently, with respect to the myriad of possible
answers.

Watch What We Say is curated by Marc Lepson, an installation and graphic
artist whose previous curatorial projects include Art During Wartime
(co-organized with Dread Scott) shown at IT IN Space NYC, Spring 2003. His
work is on view at the Brooklyn Museum's "Open House" exhibition through
August 15, and can be seen at
http://www.artistsnetwork.org/news7/news288.html

Thursday, July 22, 2004 at 04:21 PM in Art Exhibitions | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/watch_what_we_s.html

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FROM: IM VOTING BUSH OUT a political blog hosted by NEWSgrist:

July 22, 2004
Voting With The Underground

SHOUT OUT YOUR DESIRE FOR CHANGE!
Voting With the Underground is asking for submissions.

from their site:
Do you have a literary or audio work that showcases your right to
expression and emphasizes freedom of speech? A work that highlights the
power of voicing yourself through voting or encourages others to take
action? Maybe a work that celebrates the democratic power of the
individual? We would like to use that work - and your voice - in order to
help others speak up!

We are Voting with the Underground (a division of the Creative America
Project), a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to turning up this
generation's political volume by promoting voter registration and the need
for free expression. We hope to achieve this through words and verse in
the distribution of a CD and literary booklet of local independent artists
(ahem: you), culminating in a pre-election live show in September 2004.
Local businesses who share in our goal of a democracy for and by the
people, will be funding the media and show, joining their logos with our
voices in the product. > snip! <

July 22, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/imvoting/2004/07/voting_with_the.html

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Thinking Outside the Block

Map the progress of sculptor Stefanie Nagorka's "Aisle Studio Tour"
"Unannounced, I appear at home improvement centers around the country and
use their aisles as my studio…"

Thursday, July 22, 2004 at 03:43 PM in Art Exhibitions | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/thinking_outsid.html

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Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Iraq Eye

The IraqEye Group is a collaboration between American producers and Iraqi
filmmakers with the goal of revitalizing Iraqi cinema within the
international cinema community.

Their first feature documentary is complete.

via the Dactyl Foundation:
The Dreams of Sparrows is a documentary that follows first time Iraqi
director Hayder Mousa Daffar and his team of contributing directors as
they share their vision of life in Baghdad, post war and pre
reconstruction.

Screening:
Thursday, July 22 7PM
Dactyl Foundation
64 Grand St (between W. Bdwy & Wooster)
SoHo, NYC 212 219 2344 www.dactyl.org
contact: Aaron Raskin 917_599_8254 [email protected] www.iraqeye.org

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 04:37 PM in Film | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/iraq_eye.html

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Bidoun Magazine

Announcing: Bidoun: A Quarterly Forum for Middle Eastern Talent

from their site:
BIDOUN was launched in March 2004 to fill one of the last remaining gaps
in the magazine market: the cultural life of the Middle East and its
Diaspora. With pages dedicated to the latest art, fashion, music, film,
architecture and design, BIDOUN is art-directed by the renowned Paris-New
York collective Surface 2 Air, and published out of Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. Its editors are based in Berlin, New York and Dubai.

The only magazine dedicated to showcasing the most exciting developments
in Arab and Iranian culture, BIDOUN is distributed through bookshops,
boutiques and galleries across the Middle East - from the tip of the Gulf
to North Africa - and in cities in Europe and the US.

Here's a list of places that carry Bidoun.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 04:13 PM in Books | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/bidoun_magazine.html

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Knitters For Kerry

My new favorite political blog is Knitters For Kerry. Need I say more?
Check it out. (thanks Andrea!)

Some excerpts:
These days, it's more important than ever before to get involved with the
running of our nation. George W Bush has got to lose his job and we at KFK
are going to make sure that happens– one stitch at a time!
[…]
I belong to a machine knitting group where my fellow knitters do not seem
to be slaving away producing socks. However, I know that stores (Suss
Design is one example) utilize home machine knitters for manufacturing.
There are also advocacy groups teaching people in Africa how to make
sweaters on knitting machines to sell.
I began making a KERRY EDWARDS panel which can hopefully become a sweater
if I can figure out how. But partway through, the machine jammed and now
the piece has to be untangled from the needles. The machine has two beds
of needles, each side with 180 needles. It's a pretty amazing piece of
equipment.
[…]
For everyone curious about what the knitting machine actually looks like,
here it is in all it's glory. The Passap e6000 is a Swiss made machine
produced during the 1980's. Knitting machines are no longer being made for
distribution in the US, so nearly all knitting machines are used, and this
one is no exception. The object with the keypad on the upper left is the
computerized console which controls the designs. Letters are able to be
programmed right into the machine. Each letter is assigned a number. The
Passap is a double bed machine, which means that it can knit two sides of
a fabric simultaneously. I use pretty thin yarn, so the fabric is thick
but not unbelievably so. It's basicaly comfortable, especially if gets a
little bit cooler around here.
> snip! <

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 03:39 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/knitters_for_ke.html

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Don't Sign up: Login

via Eyebeam ReBlog:
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Login
Increasingly, Web publishers are demanding that users register to read
their sites, and increasingly, readers are getting annoyed and turning to
sites like BugMeNot, which offers pre-made login profiles. By Rachel Metz.

Originally from Wired News: Top Stories, ReBlogged by Mark_Daggett on Jul
20, 2004 at 01:53 PM

more from Wired:
BugMeNot.com is a site that generates login names and passwords for
registration sites. The site is a boon to those who want to keep online
anonymity or stamp out spam. According to the site's homepage, 14,000
websites have been "liberated" from registration bondage, and it's clear
many people are doing whatever they can to avoid really logging in.

According to the site's creator, an Australian who wants to remain
anonymous for fear of lawsuits, the site is getting about 10,000 hits each
day. In an e-mail interview, BugMeNot's creator said he started the site
in November 2003 after being annoyed for some time with forced
registration on some sites.
"BugMeNot.com seemed like a good idea because it's something that so many
people want and it's such a simple concept to implement," he wrote.
One BugMeNot aficionado, Eric Hamiter, is doing his part to help the
site's cause – he created a plug-in for the Mozilla browser that gives
users a pop-up window with login information when they land on a
registration-only newspaper site.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 03:26 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/dont_sign_up_lo.html

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FROM: IM VOTING BUSH OUT a political blog hosted by NEWSgrist:

July 21, 2004
Bike To Beat Bush!

via Counter Convention:
BIKE TO BEAT BUSH: PEDAL YOUR POLITICS
NEW YORK CITY
SUNDAY JULY 25, 2004

Bike To Beat Bush plans to raise $50,000 for two organizations powerfully
committed to policy change. As a sponsor, your donation will go directly
to the organization of your choice:
Swing State Summer Break, a 100% volunteer-operated, grassroots
organization aimed at defeating Bush in November; and United for Peace and
Justice, a coalition of more than 800 local and national groups throughout
the United States who have joined together to oppose our government's
policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.

For more information on how to get involved
as a rider, sponsor or volunteer,
call: 212-971-1989
email: [email protected]
or log on at: www.eefers.com/bike.htm

July 21, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/imvoting/2004/07/bike_to_beat_bu.html

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FROM: IM VOTING BUSH OUT a political blog hosted by NEWSgrist:

Voting By Design

via Social Design Notes:
Design for Democracy is a project to bring graphic designers into the
election design process. Started as a class exercise at the University of
Illinois, it is now a registered non-profit corporation backed by the
AIGA.

from their About page:
We are objective and independent, and we are valued for our ability to
consider all possible solutions without preference to a particular
technology, ideology or organization. Our commitment is to the public good
and we adhere to standards and practices that preserve our client-focused
point of view. Our recommendations and the materials we create will be
based on meeting election code requirements and understanding what will be
easily implementable by those who operate elections.[…]

Design for Democracy works directly with election officials in both large
and small jurisdictions to maximize their resources and achieve specific
goals.
> snip! <

July 21, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/imvoting/2004/07/voting_by_desig.html

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Tuesday, July 20, 2004
The Artist Pension Trust

first reported by bloggy and the SFChronicle in May 2004, a story about
The Artist Pension Trust appeared in today's NYTimes, A New Pension Fund
for Struggling Artists, By JULIE SALAMON:

The Artist Pension Trust invites up-and-coming artists to contribute 20
pieces of their work to a tax-protected fund over a 20-year period on the
theory that some of the art will appreciate significantly. All the artists
will share the profits, even if their initial promise never translates
into increased value.

"It's a way of taking advantage of the capitalistic nature of the market
and mix in a healthy dose of socialism to create a hybrid form," said
David A. Ross, the former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art
and then the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who is the Artist Pension
Trust's president. "It will allow artists who do well to profit from those
works when they do really well and at the same time allow those artists
whose work never gets beyond the $10,000 level to rest more easily knowing
that a carefully selected group of peers are pooling resources to present
them all with a retirement income."

Socialist inclinations aside, the trust isn't meant to be altruistic. Its
founders hope to establish trusts in 10 cities, including New York, Los
Angeles, Beijing and Tokyo, with 250 artists participating in each. The
investors will receive 20 percent of the trust's income, and the rest will
be divided among the artists, but not equally. Individual artists will
receive half the appreciation in their work; the rest will go to less
successful colleagues. > snip! <

references:
Cabengo
Mutual Art

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 at 11:33 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/the_artist_pens.html

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To Catch a Fox (OutFOXED, reviewed)

via the NYTimes:
In the soggy early evening hours on Sunday about 60 people gathered in
Zebulon, a modest bar on a not yet completely chic block in the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, to watch "Outfoxed," Robert Greenwald's
new documentary about the Fox News Channel. The event was one of many
"house parties" - dozens in New York City and around 3,500 nationwide -
organized by MoveOn.Org, which helped produce the film, along with the
Center for American Progress. (The film, which does not have a theatrical
distributor, is also being sold on line as a DVD.) […]

Fox News itself came into being with the intention of "balancing" the
supposed leftward tilt of the print and broadcast mainstream, what Fox
opinionators call the elite or secular media. The channel's "fair and
balanced" slogan was, from its inception in 1996, meant as a provocation,
a way of smearing the traditional networks with some of the mud Fox was
happy to wallow in, and of implying a symmetry between Fox's outspoken
(periodically denied) conservatism and the supposedly covert liberalism of
CNN or CBS or The New York Times.

One of Fox's great successes, apart from an impressive ability to attract
viewers and infuriate liberals, has been the promotion of the idea that
what it does cancels out the unacknowledged propaganda coming from the
other side. Mr. Greenwald's film challenges this notion and methodically
works to disarm the ready-made accusation that it is outfoxing Fox by
stooping to its methods. […]

Mr. Greenwald addresses all of this and a good deal more - or rather, his
subjects do, since the director himself is unseen and all but unheard -
with methodical sobriety. "Outfoxed" will inevitably be discussed in the
same breath (or with the same hyperventilating rage) as Michael Moore's
"Fahrenheit 9/11," but it lacks both the showmanship and the scope of that
incendiary film. Toward the end "Outfoxed" briefly veers away from being
an expos of Fox News toward a more wide-ranging critique of the corporate
media and the consolidation of ownership, but this attempt at a more
general frame of reference risks weakening the specific force of the
movie's argument, which has to do with the behavior of a particular
corporation.
> snip! <

read more: Spin Zones, Flag Waving and Shouting to Catch a Fox, By A. O.
SCOTT.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 at 11:02 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/to_catch_a_fox_.html

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OutFOXed chez Doonesbury

via Lessig Blog: we made doonesbury! – Lawrence Lessig is OutFOXed
producer Robert Greenwald's IP lawyer.
(see our July 14 post Outing FOX).

Read Lessig's recent article Fair Use or "Fair and Balanced" in Variety.

also just posted: Fox News: Is "Fair and Balanced" "ridiculous"?:
"Is 'Fair and Balanced' ridiculous?" So opened the FOX News Watch segment
examining Robert Greenwald's film, OutFOXed. And astonishingly, the
uncontradicted view of FOX News Watch was "yes"! As Neal Gabler put it,
"To say that this network promotes the Republican view … is like saying
that the Pope is Catholic. It's self-evident … pretty much undeniable."
But, he asks, as if he hadn't actually seen the film, "So what?"

So what? Well first, start with the question that opened the segment: Fox
says it is "Fair and Balanced." If it is "self-evident" that it is not,
then I guess we agree then that it is "ridiculous" to say that it is. And
second, "obviously" media critics get this about Fox. Anyone who
critically watches Fox gets this about Fox. But as one questioner at the
San Francisco opening put it, for those who aren't media critics, and for
those who don't actually watch Fox, just how "ridiculous" Fox's claim is
is something significant. My bet is that a cross-section of FOX viewers
would be surprised just how false Fox's claims actually are.
> snip! <

via Lessig Blog
UPDATE 7/21/04: Read the entire Doonesbury "interview" with Rupert Murdoch
in daily installments.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 at 10:20 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/outfoxed_chez_d.html

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Monday, July 19, 2004
P2P Democracy

This very cool new site was reported today in Wired:
02:00 AM Jul. 19, 2004 PT
While legislators in Washington work to outlaw peer-to-peer networks, one
website is turning the peer-to-peer technology back on Washington to
expose its inner, secretive workings.

But outragedmoderates.org isn't offering copyright music and videos for
download. The site, launched two weeks ago, has aggregated more than 600
government and court documents to make them available for download through
the Kazaa, LimeWire and Soulseek P2P networks in the interest of making
government more transparent and accountable. […]

from their site:
Download For Democracy: P2P goes to Washington
I believe that the internet can and will transform American politics,
allowing citizens to fully realize the Founding Fathers' goal of
participatory democracy.
read more at I'm Voting Bush OUT

Monday, July 19, 2004 at 04:13 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/07/p2p_democracy.html

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