Are you Canadian? Do you use a computer? Then this is probably worth watching:

Cory Doctory of Boing Boing says:

The Canadian DMCA follows the USA off the copyright cliff, instituting even more draconian provisions than were present in the USA’s 1998 law. Since then, the US has seen the bankrupting-by-lawsuit of technology companies, lawsuits against tens of thousands of fans, a general trammeling of fair use and consumer rights (pity the poor schmucks who bought Microsoft “PlaysForSure” devices!) and for all that, no reduction in Internet copying and not one penny put in a musician’s pocket.

I think the video does a good job of articulating the problem. But asking people to write 30 letters is not a reasonable response. If you can write one letter to Jim Prentice and one to your MP, you’ll have done your bit.

Here’s a great place to start. Hugh McGuire put together a great template for a letter to his MP. He has the addresses and everything. I just used his template to send a snail mail letter to my local MP and Jim Prentice.

Okay, back to whatever it is I usually post about around here…

Here it is in black & white, folks:

“If your business model and your aesthetic effect in your literature and your work is intended not to be copied, you’re fundamentally not making art for the 21st century.” – Cory Doctorow from this interview on kottke.org.

(Unrelated to comics or illustration – I’m just a big Terry Gross fan)

It looks like NPR is rebroadcasting Terry Gross’ legendary 2002 interview with KISS, band-leader, Gene Simmons. Simmons’ insecure antics in the interview became stuff of public radio legend and it’s only been available as a transcript until now.

From Wikipedia:

A February 4, 2002, interview with rock star Gene Simmons, who at one point said, “If you want to welcome me with open arms, I’m afraid you’re also going to have to welcome me with open legs,” to which Gross replied, “That’s a really obnoxious thing to say.” This occurred after Gross made two factual mistakes (involving his given last name & the use of fishnet stockings) which Simmons commented on by saying “Better research needed. Fire your research person.” Unlike most Fresh Air guests, Simmons refused to grant permission for the interview to be made available online.

Chris’ post got me all fired up this morning – and I’ve been reading about this Zuda Comics thing in spurts throughout the day. For those who don’t know (like I didn’t before this morning), Zuda is DC Comics’ new foray into the webcomics arena.

I usually stay out of webcomics politics. Webcomics arguments can get bizarre and nasty really quickly. And, at the bottom, I don’t really care about the “fate of webcomics”. I just like comics. If it’s good, I’ll read it. It can be smeared in mud for all I care.

But if you care about this kind of stuff – check out Scott Kurtz’s podcast where he rants about Zuda (NSFW or children) – ugh can’t find the link now. Anyway, Scott thinks corporations like Platinum or Zuda are pulling the wool over people’s eyes. I think he’s dead right in his assessment of the situation. Apparently Scott’s been kicking up dust about this initiative for the last little while.

Well, I’ve decided I’m going to start a webcomic contest! Everyone submit your original ideas to me and I will grant the winner access to a free publishing platform (WordPress), free distribution (Internet protocol) and free marketing (Google). All I ask in return, is the right to sell your stuff to Hollywood. We’ll split the profits. It will be a collaboration. Because – really – how would you do this yourself?

Sound good? Send in your entries!

Looks like Jay Stephens went through the same hellish experience at the American border as I did last month. He was fingerprinted. Photographed. Detained. Generally treated like a criminal. I can’t say I was every bothered by the principle of being prevented from selling my comics in the States – it was the whole tone of the process. Jay says:

Despite the fact that I’m not an employee of either Cartoon Network or the production company Porchlight Entertainment, and I was paying my own way down, I was harrassed, fingerprinted, and photographed at the border and a ‘flag’ was put on my passport preventing me from “trying to enter the States illegally in the future”. All this because they felt I needed a work visa. Well why not just say so?

Exactly. I declared my 200 comics at the border. I wasn’t hiding anything. I was honest and up front. So why not just turn me back? What’s with the fingerprints? And the intimidation tactics? Are they trying to keep a database of honest people?

The whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth.

A short documentary by Guardian photographer, Sean Smith, who is working in Iraq. While everyone is arguing about what is best for “the troops”, this guy is asking them for their opinion.

I just set up a Twitter account. In case you’re new like me, Twitter is a blogging application for your mobile phone. You receive updates on your phone and you can add new posts as well. (21212 for Canadians). I used to work as a developer for a mobile phone company in the UK, so I have a bit a of a latent SMS fetish.

Anyway, so far, it’s actually a lot of fun – keeping up with what the local tech geeks are doing. “Let’s meet up at Laika for a coffee and talk about tech.” “Playing with the new Ruby libraries from Facebook.” That sort of thing. But after a while, it’s not hard to see the potential for Twitter on a larger scale.

As usual, the big media organizations are slow to get on board. I immediately subscribed to a few New York Times feeds. They’re on the ball. They’re Twittering their headlines. Next, I checked BBC. Yep, they’re Twittering too. But at a second glance, something looked fishy. Sure enough, they’re not Twittering their news feeds themselves – some dude named Menti is. And he’s getting a lot of exposure for himself and his site in the process. Menti explains.

CBC? I’d love to get a CBC Twitter feed. But there is none. Not yet. Where is Canada’s Menti? If I had any free time, I’d hack his Perl script and do it myself. These are the new jobs in journalism. Interns used to listen to the police wires all night. Now, it’s scavenging traffic off Twitter feeds until the mainstream media wise up – and doing the CBC-loving Twitter community a favour in the mean time.

I’m teaching a class at Concordia next year – Citizen Journalism. I’m taking a class all this week on course design and lesson planning.

I’m going to start a blog for the class (and the students), but I thought I’d mention it here first.

If you know anyone taking journalism at Concordia, tell them to take my class – I’m really looking forward to it. The curriculum is shaping up nicely – we’ll be dealing with a lot of issues I’m really passionate about. It’s listed as a third year elective – hopefully the students will be just as excited.