Laser Moon Awakens

Some pretty clever voiceover work and other editing tricks from Auralnauts. 

Floppies on the Wall

I keep hearin' you look down upon my Atari
But you can keep your Commodore because I'm quite happy
If I was sittin' at your desk I wouldn't dare disdain
Because hangin' on my wall I have the best of '80s games

Hangin' floppies on the wall
8-bit glory one and all
Playin' Autoduel 'till dawn, painting floors with Bounty Bob
Drinking too much Coke and watchin' Star Trek: TNG
Now don't tell me I don't have it good

Last night I talked to Lord British and flew a jet in Stealth
With a joystick in my hand I feel in perfect health
So even though your Commodore is plenty cool and keen
I'll stick with my Atari as my primary games machine

RealSports Tennis with young Sean, 40 Love but I'll play on
The best version of Donkey Kong and Shamus you can't go wrong
Burning pizza boxes from yellow submarine
Now don't tell me I misunderstood (...the instructions)

I'm glad you stopped by but I must return to my keyboard
Star Raiders calling and I'm trying to beat my high score
And besides you haven't heard the latest 8-bit dope
Pitfall Harry's only hope is the shiny golden rope

Playin' 8-bit 80s games
You might think I'd go insane
Chasing virtues and my fate from Ultima 2 through 8
Swinging vines in Jungle King, boxing in a virtual ring
Now don't tell me the '80s weren't good...

Now don't tell me the '80s weren't good...

(With apologies to the Statler Brothers)

Earl's Island

New this fall on The EW -

Seven precocious babies - SHIPWRECKED on a tropical island! EARL'S ISLAND!

No food...no lights...no motor car! Not a single luxury! But that won't stop these tenacious tykes from building their own CUTE-OPIA!

Series Premiere Wednesday at 8 after an all-new ARROW!

The Downfall of Fair Use?

Like countless others, I've enjoyed the multitude of so-called "Downfall Hitler" parodies on YouTube. Each parody superimposes amusing English subtitles over a pivotal scene from the 2004 German film Der Untergang (Downfall).

The movie is about the last days of Adolf Hitler as he waits in his bunker for the end of World War II, but dozens - perhaps hundreds - of budding editors have twisted Hitler's dialogue to comment on all manner of pop culture topics, from the fight between Clinton and Obama for the Democratic nomination to the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war to Edmonton Oilers performances on the hockey rink.

Now the film's rightsholders are using technology to strip the videos off of YouTube, despite the protection these works should have as parodies or derivative works. You can see the results in the video above. The parodist may need to work on his spelling, but the point remains powerful; large media companies are stifling creativity and free expression, even when the so-called infringement does no harm to the original work. In fact, I am certain that the Downfall parodies have inspired thousands, perhaps millions, of people to seek out the original film.

As an artist - however middling - I believe that authors and creators of all kinds should be fairly compensated for their work. But not at the cost of hampering expression.

Thanks to changing copyright rules, some works that should have been in the public domain years or decades ago remain in the hands of estates or big corporations, long after the creators and their immediate family have died. Warner Brothers, it seems, will never allow Superman to fall into the public domain. Nor will Sherlock Holmes. And that's a shame, because just imagine if Kenneth Branagh or Joss Whedon or Margaret Atwood had the freedom (and the desire, of course; I'm assuming much, here) to craft new stories based on the original concepts. Imagine if Bram Stoker had written Dracula just a few years later; we may never have seen Coppola's version, or the various Hammer Draculas; for that matter, the character couldn't have appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer without expensive clearances. Dracua haunts the public domain, so all of us are free to write stories about him, just as Disney has been free to make movies about scores of public domain stories.

Draconian content rules threaten to freeze popular culture in the early twentieth century. Even worse, they're beginning to restrict political thought and expression.

Fair use is an important right. We shouldn't let corporations take it away.

Thanks to Mike Totman for inspiring this post.