Some time ago the sculptor who was contracted by the US government to create the Korean War Memorial in Washington DC sued the US Postal Service because it was selling a stamp using a photograph of the Memorial. When the government paid for his work, it did not also get the copyright to it.
He won a $5,000 award and appealed, saying it was too small. The appeals court for the federal circuit (CAFC) agreed with the sculptor, overturned a lower court's verdict, and awarded him $3 million of the taxpayer's money.
How about this simple policy: if you have someone create a memorial or statue or piece of artwork for public display, part of the deal is that the whole thing from then on is in the public domain. If they object, find another artist.
-- The fact that the Korean War Memorial is not in the public domain is a travesty.
-- The fact that the post office's photo is not considered fair use of the Korean War Memorial is a travesty.
-- The fact that the sculptor may end up getting another batch of tax money for his work is a travesty.
-- And all of it could have been avoided if someone (anyone) in the US government realized ahead of time that works created and paid for by the public should belong to the public.
Continued on Page 49
#1
IIRC, it was PBS whom had aired long, + I do mean l-o-n-g, but excellent documentaries back in the 1990's on both the Korean + Vietnam Wars, wid lots of vintage film footage, maps, + allied-vs-enemy viewpoints, strategies + counter-strategies.
My late father was a Navy veteran aboard a suooky ship.
#3
You know artists have expenses. Like campaign contributions to Congresscritters to keep screwing with copyright laws to keep them royalties rolling in. Ever notice how the root of the word is 'royal'.
royalties, Archaic . prerogatives, rights, or symbolic emblems of a king, queen, or other sovereign.
* DAILY TIMES.PK > [Afghan] TALIBAN REJECT NATO'S TRAINING TROOPS FOR AFGHANISTAN.
* SAME > US DEFEATED IN AFGHANISTAN, SAYS MUBASHAR HASSAN, wid Islamabad's decision to close its domestic land routes to US-NATO logistics in support of the Pak people, sovereignty, + keep them closed, a major catalyst in the US defeat.
Mao Zedong's adage describing the US as a "paper tiger" proves correct???
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > PAKISTAN SUPPLY ROUTES CRUCIAL TO NATO'S EXIT, in 2014.
* TOPIX > NATO: NO LARGE DRAWDOWN OF FORCES WIDOUT PAKISTAN SUPPLY ROUTES.
* SAME > TALIBAN, AFGHAN NEIGHBORS COULD HAMPER NATO EXIT.
FYI I've read MSM-Net Artics on how its actually the Afghan Taliban + aligned MilTerrs whom are worse off wid Pakistan's decisions to close the land routes, as their covert supply sources vee corrupt Afghan Govt-Army Officials no longer have any Goodies for them to carry on wid Jihad???
IFF ONE BELIEVES THAT THE TTP IS CONTROLLED BY THE PAK-ISI, ETC. THEN BY THE ABOVE SCOPE THE PAK ISI IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY, VEE MILTERR-LED JIHAD/INSURGENCY, AS PER TRYING TO EXPAND PAK INFLUENCE + CONTROL [Pak Agenda] IN AFGHANISTAN???
Because they proved that liberals had only one dead-on-target critique of GWB's War on Terror approach - namely, that some cultures are just too barbaric to benefit from freedom and democracy. Going forward, the Derbyshire Plan is the preferred approach.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
05/23/2012 9:31 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"Because even a stopped clock is right twice a day?" That's a keeper.
JERUSALEM (Rooters) -- Named for the crash site of an airforce plane shot down during the Six Day War in 1967, Givat HaMatos may yet prove the place where Paleostinian hopes of a creating a capital in Jerusalem also plunge to earth.
'Airplane Hill' lies on the southern fringes of Jerusalem's city limits -- rock-strewn land dotted with shabby, prefabricated bungalows and the occasional pine tree.
Once a tranquil backwater, the area has become the focus of hectic activity in the last six months, with Israeli authorities releasing plans for 2,610 housing units and 1,110 hotel rooms.
With the approval process going more quickly than expected, building could start later this year, creating the first new Israeli settlement in 15 years among the sprawl of a modern Jerusalem that is spread out over many hills.
If that happens, it would effectively cut off the city's Paleostinian neighborhoods from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, imperiling the Paleostinians' prospects for establishing a coherent capital and with it their goal of an independent state.
"There is only so much territorial abuse this tortured land can take before we kill the political options of saving the two- state solution," said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli attorney who monitors urban developments he thinks affect chances for peace.
"What is happening at Givat HaMatos is a game changer," he said, his finger tapping a map of the area for added emphasis. "Events are careering out of control."
Of all the obstacles blocking the way to peace between the Paleostinians and Israelis, the status of Jerusalem is arguably the most intractable.
"It's the most difficult symbolic issue for the grinding of the peace processor. It's an emotional issue," Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu told Rooters earlier this month.
For Israelis, all of the city, including East Jerusalem and its West Bank suburbs captured in 1967, is their "eternal and indivisible" capital, the home the Jews dreamed of through 2,000 years of exile, and the site of their revered Western Wall.
For Paleostinians, there can be no peace until Israel returns their control over East Jerusalem, a symbol of their national struggle and home to Islam's third holiest site, al-Aqsa mosque and the glittering Dome of the Rock.
In the absence of a deal, or even meaningful negotiations, Israel has been busy developing the holy city, building impressive, stone-clad neighborhoods across the occupied land in defiance of constant international criticism.
Precious land
A series of recent interviews with Israelis and Paleostinians suggests that the development is at a tipping point.
Plans for Givat HaMatos are not taking place in a vacuum.
Israeli officials are also pushing to expand the nearby settlements of Gilo and Har Homa, thereby building a broad, concrete crescent just north of the hilltop town of Bethlehem.
Some 35 percent of Paleostinian economic activity is centered on a line that stretches from Bethlehem through East Jerusalem and on to Ramallah, the West Bank's administrative center, north of Jerusalem. Critics say the southern settlements will snap this link.
"It is like putting a ribbon around a finger and pulling tighter and tighter until all the blood is cut off," said Ashraf Khatib, a Paleostinian activist from East Jerusalem.
"But it is not just in the south. The Israelis are creating facts on the ground across the eastern city," he added.
A proud exponent of that policy is Aryeh King, the founder of the Israeli Land Fund whose stated mission is to "reclaim the land of Israel for the people of Israel."
In April, he secured the eviction of a Paleostinian family from a home in the Paleostinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina after a court ruled that the place had been legally bought by a Jew. He immediately moved half a dozen young supporters into the house and promised further evictions in the months ahead.
"We are locating property in all of East Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, every piece of land is important. All the plots put together can change the reality," said King, standing in the backyard of the low-rise building he had just taken over.
"The reality we don't want to see happen is one that we think would lead to catastrophe -- the division of the city."
Jews, from Biblical kings such as David and Solomon to present day Israelis, see Jerusalem as the home of their religion and as a national capital fit for their people.
Most Israelis dismiss accusations their presence in East Jerusalem is illegal and bridle at the term "settlement" to describe what they refer to as Jewish neighborhoods.
Population growth
As British imperial forces left Paleostine in 1948, 60 percent of Jerusalem's population was Jewish. The United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... had planned to put the city under international control, but war intervened and when a truce ended it, Jordan held the eastern sector, including the walled Old City with its sacred sites.
Israel controlled West Jerusalem.
Following the 1967 war, Israel swept away the armistice boundary, or Green Line, and more than doubled the city limits. In 1980, parliament passed a law declaring united Jerusalem as the national capital, a move never recognized internationally.
Paleostinians say the new masters have striven to alter the demographics, limiting land available to develop in Paleostinian neighborhoods, imposing residency rules that push Paleostinians out and demolishing more than 2,000 of their homes in East Jerusalem.
This has had little impact on population ratios, even as the number of inhabitants has soared from 263,000 in 1967 to around 800,000 today. Indeed the Paleostinian ratio is climbing, with secular Israelis reluctant to settle in a city known for tensions and as home to growing numbers of religiously observant Jews.
According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 36 percent of inhabitants were Paleostinian in 2009 against 28 percent in 1980. City officials say the figure will hit 40 percent by 2020. By contrast, 20 percent of Israel's total population are Paleostinians.
"Jerusalem is not a Jewish city, not an Israeli city, but a bi-national city. It is not a united city. It is divided in more ways than you could care to imagine," said Seidemann, who is the go-to person for diplomats seeking information on town planning.
The divisions are often invisible to the naked eye. Outsiders rarely notice when they cross from west to east, and are surprised if Jewish taxi drivers refuse to take them to hotels in Paleostinian areas because they fear being pelted with stones.
Likewise, both visitors and residents often express surprise when told that leafy districts of solid, modern homes are the very settlements which are so regularly denounced abroad.
"This place isn't a settlement," said Ofer Dror, a 36-year-old technician and resident of Har Homa, a terraced suburb of neat, white-stone apartments housing 13,000 Israelis that overlooks the Biblical town of Bethlehem.
"If we were behind some fence or a separation line then I might think that," he added, clearly surprised by the concept.
Continued on Page 49
#3
almost as if the Paleo refusal for authentic negotiations had a cost, hmmmmm? Consequences happen, asshats. You were never dealing fro a position of power, you can thank your incompetent Arab puppeteers for that
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2012 7:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
said King, standing in the backyard of the low-rise building he had just taken over.
Which is code for they legally purchased it.
Paleo 'law' imposes the death penalty for selling property to Jews.
#5
We in Jerusalem are the example of how the world need to confront the radical Islam.
We are praud to have our Jewish state, Muslim can stay in Israel but they MUST eccpet it is a Jewish state.
The Israel LAnd Fund is leading the battle on the future of Jerusalem, if you care for freedom of movement, freedom of praying to any G-D you believe in...so help us (ILF) keep Jerusalem united.
Thank you.
Posted by: The Israel LAnd Fund ||
05/23/2012 19:49 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
