So You Think You Have An Original Idea?

Big thanks to Gary Bettan of Videoguys.com for pointing out a really interesting take on modern creativity.  It’s at a site called EverythingisaRemix.info .  A guy named Kirby Ferguson just disassembles two of the most sacred cows of the last forty years - Led Zeppelin and Star Wars - in a funny, deadpan way that makes “This American Life” sound like “Family Guy.”  And they aren’t the only victims here - be sure to hang on through the credits for even more fun!  There are currently two episodes out (of a promised four).  Even though there are embed links in this post, be sure to go to his site and click on the “Donate” button.  This guy deserves a little dough!

What $300 Buys These Days

OK, folks, have a look at “Lazy Teenage Superheroes,” a funny, really watchable (and slightly NSFW for language) 13-minute riff on science fiction:

Roku Gets An Update

It seems inconceivable that I first recommended the Roku box over two years ago, but it is true.  This is one of the times when being an early adopter has been a great experience - with every passing month, the Roku has gotten more functional and has added many more channels, including Pandora, Leo LaPorte’s TWiT Network, Vimeo, Revision 3, MLB.com, Flickr, and dozens of others.  Of course, not all of the channels are to everyone’s taste, but you can usually find something to watch in there.

Engadget has just posted a fairly in-depth review of the new Roku XDS box, with support for video up to 1080p (there is some of that on Vimeo, but not much anywhere else - yet.)  When the baseline Roku HD only costs $59, that falls into impulse-buy territory for many folks. Seems like this is a harbinger of even more splintering in the distribution business, and it is exciting to watch. 

ivi Goes For The Throat

Got an interesting email last week from a company called ivi.  (yes, that’s a lower-case “i”.)  Maybe you got it too.  It contained a link to an application for Windows computers which allows them to receive the over-the-air broadcast signals of stations around the US.  The initial list is pretty comprehensive, including network affiliates in New York City and Seattle.  I downloaded the app, and it is really pretty slick, with decent (but certainly not HD) picture quality.  The business plan seems to be to charge users $5 a month or so for access to scads of TV channels over the Internet.

Of course, most of the broadcasters in the US look poorly on anyone re-transmitting their stuff.  But the interesting twist to ivi is that, instead of waiting for the network lawyers to come disembowel them, they are taking the fight to the networks - through the court system.  As soon as the service launched, ivi was snowed in with a blizzard of cease-and-desist letters from NBC, ABC/Disney, CBS, WGBH and others.  However, ivi seems to think that re-distribution of broadcast signals over the Internet is allowable due to a gray area in copyright law.  From an ivi press release:

The Complaint states that ivi is legally operating under U.S. Copyright Law. According to section 16 of page 3 of the Complaint, “The Copyright Act expressly authorizes secondary transmissions of copyrighted works embodied in primary transmissions. For example, the Copyright Act expressly approves of the secondary transmission of an original television broadcast where the secondary transmission is subject to a statutory license. Under Section 111 of the Copyright Act, statutory licensing fees are paid periodically to the Register of Copyrights in accordance with an established scale and schedule. Section 111 further provides that the secondary transmission of an over-the-air primary transmission is not an infringement of copyrights in the works contained in the primary transmission.”

So, if I read this right, if ivi pays the federal Register of Copyrights previously-set fees, the airwaves are fair game.  Of course,

I Am Not A Lawyer !!!!! ,

so my interpretation of THEIR interpretation might be (and probably is) flawed. And even if they do win this case, you can assume it won’t take long for the pertinent sections of copyright law to be tightened up and exclude such signal-....  what’s the proper term?  Jacking?  Theft?  Rebroadcast? Entrepreneurialism?

Keep an eye on ivi.  Even if they get crushed, this is a subject that is going to come up over and over in the next few years.

And by the way…

I Am Not A Lawyer !!!!!

Somebody Hit David Byrne With The Obvious Stick.

Here’s the old-guy rant:

Way back in 1977 I went to a concert at Salem State College in Massachusetts (I was a sophomore at Boston University at the time) to see a pretty hot regional group called the Pousette-Dart Band.  They were great, but it was the opening act that really caught my attention.  Three guys and a female bass player hauled all their own gear out on to the tennis court that was the stage of the day and proceeded to mystify - and electrify - the very small crowd.  The lead singer looked like he was having a seizure most of the time, but the music was really good, if weird.

You guessed it, I saw the Talking Heads just before “Talking Heads: 77” came out.  And I’ve been a big fan ever since, including the Tom Tom Club and all of David Byrne’s various solo excursions.  Lately he’s been working with Web-merchandising his stuff, including a really interesting album of songs he recorded with Brian Eno.  So today I get an email from The Man Himself (actually some robot sending emails to his list) offering the first chapter of a new product, a kind of E-book called The Bicycle Diaries.  “Wow,” I thought, “this combines two of my favorite things - bicycles and David Byrne!”  So I read more of the copy.  When I got to the middle, though, a couple of sentences brought me to a screeching halt.  To wit:

“I was thinking about the kind of radio show that NPR stations do from time to time, with background music, street sounds and other ambiences that help put the listener in the picture. So, I did one chapter (“New York”) as a test, with me reading, and though it took a lot longer to assemble than I expected…”

Bam.  Jeez, Dave, ya THINK?  Wow, creative work takes TIME.  Anyone that has worked in the business for more than a few years realizes that you don’t get great creative instantly, but to hear that old trope come from David Byrne really stings.

This won’t stop me from recommending his stuff, though - you can listen to the first installment here.  But really.  If anyone should know better than this, it’s the man who gave us Psycho Killer.

Qu’est-ce que c’est?

Rolling Shutter:  The Shutter Of The DAMNED!

I don’t (yet) own a DSLR or a CMOS-based video camera, so to me rolling shutter controversy has been an abstraction at best.  I was aware that many people (Anthony Burokas, particularly) often pointed out the curved moving lines CMOS generates in things like drumsticks and the like. 

But it wasn’t until I saw this post on DVXUser  by Barry Green that I had a real appreciation of how badly things can go when you combine CMOS and motion.  Remind me not to take any prop-plane flights on CMOS Airlines!

Monsterpod: Stick Your (small) Camera Almost Anywhere

I love gadgets, especially useful ones.  That love is doubled when the device is reasonably priced.  And gadgets that are useful, reasonably priced and related to video put me over the top.  So you can imagine my interest when a fellow member of a video discussion list turned me on to the MonsterPod, which fills all three categories well.

At first glance, the MonsterPod looks like an orange and black nylon-mesh suction cup, with a 1/4” tripod screw mounted in the middle.  It’s once you flip it over that you find the magic ingredient - a large blob of what looks like orange Silly Putty, what the MonsterPod makers call “PodGoo.”  You wouldn’t think something this seemingly simple could stick to just about any surface - but you would be wrong. 

Basically, applying the MonsterPod involves shaping and bending the cup and PodGoo to conform to the rough contours of the surface you want to stick your camera to.  And the list isn’t limited to just flat surfaces - the MonsterPod sticks to poles, rocks, dashboards, cement, you name it.  As long as the surface isn’t wet, made of fabric, too greasy or too dirty, it’s a good bet that MonsterPod will adhere to it, at least for a while.  A good firm press - even on vertical surfaces or upside down - will fasten the MonsterPod in place.  The makers recommend a maximum 10 minutes of attachment at a time, but as long as it isn’t overloaded I can see the hold lasting longer.

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