To accompany the conversations I’ve been reading lately about legal uses of content found online, I’ve been reading about how to be civil and respectful, too, while participating online. I believe the legal stuff is important, but it’s pretty dry and contentious. The etiquette stuff is more fun. I stumbled upon George Washington’s Rules of Civility. There are 110 of them. If I understand correctly, he copied them from a book as a child, some time before he was 16 years old. The spelling is his. Here are my favorites, some of which are quite applicable to online behavior:
12th Shake not the head, Feet, or Legs rowl not the Eys lift not one eyebrow higher than the other wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your Spittle, by approaching too near him when you Speak.
50th Be not hasty to beleive flying Reports to the Disparagement of any.
3d Run not in the Streets, neither go too slowly nor with Mouth open go not Shaking yr Arms kick not the earth with yr feet, go not upon the Toes, nor in a Dancing fashion.
2d Speak not of doleful Things in a Time of Mirth or at the Table; Speak not of Melancholy Things as Death and Wounds, and if others Mention them Change if you can the Discourse tell not your Dreams, but to your intimate Friend.
35th Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive.
70th Reprehend not the imperfections of others for that belongs to Parents Masters and Superiours.
89th Speak not Evil of the absent for it is unjust.
90th Being Set at meat Scratch not neither Spit Cough or blow your Nose except there’s a Necessity for it.
94th If you Soak bread in the Sauce let it be no more than what you put in your Mouth at a time and blow not your broth at Table but Stay till Cools of it Self.
105th Be not Angry at Table whatever happens & if you have reason to be so, Shew it not but on a Chearfull Countenance especially if there be Strangers for Good Humour makes one Dish of Meat a Feast.
109th Let your Recreations be Manfull not Sinfull.
110th Labour to keep alive in your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire Called Conscience.
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Strange Things Are Afoot At the Circle-C
As awareness of Pilfered Magazine’s diabolical position (regarding the copyright ownership of the work it distributes) continues to grow, I keep hearing of other websites that are flouting copyright laws and stealing creative work from the web. The latest: ShootForYourLife. As I visit the sites, hoping to find my own work or the work of someone I know, so that my ire can be further affirmed, I keep getting the feeling that I’m being played for a fool.
Out of the corner of my eye, I keep thinking I can see someone sneaking away to the bank with a load of cash to deposit; I know they’re there, I just can’t quite lay eyes on them. To my knowledge, Pilfered and ShootForYourLife are not presently making money from their sites, though how could anyone really know that without a law suit? All will become clear.
So far, the content of the artwork being infringed has not been the primary issue, but rather the infringing itself. There is a conspicuous presence of naked bodies – a lot of skin is being shown, and, exactly as you’d expect, most of it belongs to young women. The sites in question are doing everything they can to get and hold viewers, and we all know that showing a lot of skin can help with that. We know, too, that consequences must follow. As the threats of lawsuits and DMCA takedown notices pile up, I keep thinking about artist Barbara Kruger: ”Your body is a battleground.” I predict there will be a battle. At the very least there will be a kerfuffle. I hope that in the process all of the battlegrounds will be walked carefully.
Maybe it will all just get settled before there are any actual lawsuits. See, I keep getting the feeling that the sites are nothing more than star vehicles for the editors. That is, the sites are essentially portfolio pieces for people looking to get jobs as art buyers, editors, agents, what have you. They woke up one day to find they had just been laid off, or had just come out of school fully prepared to enter a career in an industry that was in the midst of a major downturn, and they said “I know! Let’s just start an online publication. It’ll cost us very little and we can show whatever we want. We’ll have no advertisers telling us how to lay out our pages, and we can sidle around all the copyright stuff long enough for there to be a lot of hoopla. In the end we’ll just drop it all, cash in on our new reputations, and get great jobs. Win-win!”
Maybe the editors of Pilfered and ShootForYourLife are just using copyright infringement as a tool to get some attention, with no thought for the lives and livelihoods of those artists they are claiming to honor and admire.
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