Congress Revisits the Copyright Act

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s now famous Betamax decision. On January 17, 1984, the Court ruled that Sony’s Betamax VCR was perfectly legal.
The majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, said that although you could, in theory, use the device to record copyrighted television shows and movies and then sell them for profit, most consumers merely used their VCRs for “time-shifting,” recording their favorite shows for viewing at a later time. Americans, the court decided, should be allowed this sort of “fair use.”
Yet, as we celebrate this anniversary, we don’t enjoy the same freedoms with television shows and movies purchased on DVD. It’s illegal to make copies of any DVD.even if you’re just making backup copies for your own personal use. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law passed in 1998, prohibits anyone from circumventing “copyright protection systems” used by digital media, and today, all DVDs are equipped with such protection.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1594064,00.asp

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About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.