Misc

From BoingBoing comes a research paper into the copyright issues surrounding the song "Happy Birthday To You".

I'll have to download this paper and read it later, but the abstract sure looks interesting:

"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. The song that became "Happy Birthday to You," originally written with different lyrics as "Good Morning to All," was the product of intense creative labor, undertaken with copyright protection in mind. However, it is almost certainly no longer under copyright, due to a lack of evidence about who wrote the words; defective copyright notice; and a failure to file a proper renewal application.

The falsity of the standard story about the song demonstrates the dangers of relying on anecdotes without thorough research and analysis. It also reveals collective action barriers to mounting challenges to copyright validity: the song generates an estimated $2 million per year, and yet no one has ever sought adjudication of the validity of its copyright. Finally, the true story of the song demonstrates that a long, unitary copyright term requires changes in copyright doctrine and administration. With such a term, copyright law needs a doctrine like adverse possession to clear title and protect expectations generated when, as with this song, putative owners do not challenge distribution of unauthorized copies for more than 20 years. And Copyright Office recordkeeping policy, which currently calls for discarding correspondence after 20 years and most registration denials and deposits after five years, must be improved to facilitate resolution of disputes involving older works.

Over two hundred unpublished documents found in six archives across the United States have been made available on a website that will serve as an online appendix to this article.

Link

This is so cool.

Festo's AirJelly is powered by some magical jelly fish properties, a lithium-ion battery, an electric motor and a bit of helium. If that's not floaty enough for you, there's also a water version, AquaJelly.

This warning label is under each window on the bus that we are riding on.

I can't for the life of me figure out what I am not supposed to do.

Any ideas?

I think I'm going to have to buy OK Go's album Oh No.

Here is the video for Do What You Want - it's pretty cool.

Heh. Now I've started something...

This is Think Pink is a great Fabulous Poodles fan site.

Here is a fun video of Johnny Valentino - the violin player from the Fabulous Poodles - in 1991:



Here are The Fabulous Poodles playing Mirror Star on Peter Cooks' show Revolver in 1978


(man, what awful video effects.

I ran across The Fabulous Poodles in the used record store Oarfolkjokeopus that was three blocks from my house in the late 70's. My friends and I would walk down there and buy stuff that looked interesting - and it was pretty cheap.

I found The Fabulous Poodles, Tuff Darts, Human Sexual Response (you have to love a band that plays a song named "Butt Fuck" on live TV), and many others. Now I have this need to borrow Kevin's USB record player and make some MP3s.

Ok, I know this is a bit old, but I ran across it again today and I still think it's an extremely clever, low budget, music video.

This song sounds to me like a mix of The Knack (but clean) and The Fabulous Poodles (but more poppy) - both late 70's bands and both of whom I love.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again



Ooo, more fun - here is a Lego Animation of The Fabulous Poodle's Mirror Star! The Fabulous Poodles poster on the bedroom wall is a great touch.

From The Onion: Study Finds Working At Work Improves Productivity

WASHINGTON, DC—According to a groundbreaking new study by the Department of Labor, working—the physical act of engaging in a productive job-related activity—may greatly increase the amount of work accomplished during the workday, especially when compared with the more common practices of wasting time and not working.

Damn there are some funny quotes in here:

"Fucking around is in fact detrimental to the work process," the study reads in part.
...
Typical workplace activities, such as shooting the shit, turn out to be less productive than not wasting time.
...
A similar study conducted at Harvard University over a period of three years attempted to determine conclusively whether working was more productive than various different subsets of not working. The results showed across the board that working is 100 percent more productive than listening to music and checking e-mails, 100 percent more productive than meandering around the office socializing with coworkers, 100 percent more productive than playing online Sudoku, 100 percent more productive than watching YouTube videos of nostalgic childhood television programming, 100 percent more productive than reading celebrity-gossip blogs while chatting with friends on Instant Messenger, 100 percent more productive than napping, and 98.2 percent more productive than not showing up to work.

Guess I'd better get back to work...

The Rhyme Torrents project has released a two-disc set (how can a download of mp3's have "discs"?) of Halloween themed raps.

Here is the Halloween album from last year too!

Fun stuff.

They also have a collection of 6 albums of various Nerd-Core songs. Great!

Wow. This is totally cool. Graphic designer Jon Heilman has created a stunning replica of the map from Time Bandits!



It's printed on canvas and measures 40" x 24.5". I want one of these for my living room wall.

Link.

(h/t to BoingBoing)

Mark Vidler (creating mashups as Go Home Productions) has released 12 of his collections for free download!

This is some quality stuff.

(h/t to MashupTown for the link)