Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Goodies to Go! ™
January 3, 2000– Newsletter #61





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Goodies to Go! ™

January 3, 2000– Newsletter #61

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Please visit https://www.htmlgoodies.com

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Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,


I write these newsletters a week in advance of your getting
them, so it’s actually December 27, 1999. (I got the MouseRug
for Christmas by the way.) It’ll be the next newsletter before
I can see how the Y2K predictions panned out.


Did you hear…


A USA TODAY/IntelliQuest survey found that even though
many online shoppers had difficulty and didn’t receive their
merchandise on time, the majority will be back. It just wasn’t
enough of a problem to put them off completely.


Even though a federal mandate states no taxation on good
purchased over the Internet, North Carolina and Michigan are
trying an end around. Both states have added a line for
tax-payers to total their entire online purchases for 1999
and give 6% of that total. Surprise, surprise, surprise! I
wonder how this will play out in court when people simply
refuse to play the tax stating the federal moratorium
protects them. It will happen and it’s my opinion the
tax-payer will win.


Another big buy-out! AOL bought MapQuest, a leading Internet
map site. AOL intends to get MapQuest to portable services
like smart cell phones, and Palm Pilots.


What’s the penalty for hacking and cracking? Well, two years
and five years without a computer for Jay Satiro, 19, of New
Rochelle, NY. Satiro basically created cyber money and bought
stuff. Clever, but illegal. I wonder which will be worse in
his eyes…the jail or the years without a computer?


Now onto today’s topic…


Here’s a bit of information you probably didn’t know. When I
was first learning to code HTML, I put up a fan page. Yes
folks, at one point in time I kept the official David Lee
Roth Home page. I still have the brass Zippo cigarette
lighter emblazoned with Roth’s early 90’s DLR logo. It was
a present for putting the site together. Every now and then
I visit current Roth sites and still see some of the images
I created for the original. It’s really fun to see.


It was a fan page. I put it up because I like the guy’s
music. (Any comments about all my taste being in my mouth
shall be kept quiet!) Luckily, Dave liked the site, saw the
good in having it, and actually sent me information and
images to post to the site. I put it up out of pure enjoyment.
Nothing more. Nothing less.


It’s a good thing that Dave didn’t work for 20th Century Fox
Television. If he had, I would probably be playing with a
lawsuit right now.


Have you ever watched “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”? I have
watched one episode and it wasn’t my cup of blood…or tea.
Well, just like my Dave pages, people are putting up fan
pages of the Fox television program. That’s good, right?
Any publicity is good publicity and since these are fan
sites they can only stand to widen the fan base and keep
those viewers coming back for more…uh…vampire slaying I
guess.


Not so claims the lawyer-types for Fox. They are upset
because the fan sites are, in their eyes, going far beyond
being simple praise for the show. The Fox people say the
sites offer too much information. They are ruining the shows
by giving away plot lines, something called “spoiling”. Plus
the sites are posting copyrighted audio clips and some are
going as far as posting entire show in RealVideo format.


So far, the lawyers are winning. Targeted sites are served
and have to take down large amounts of information. Many
just quit or continue in a very stripped-down version.


I immediately thought that the reason for the targeting was
an attempt to move viewers away from the fan sites to the
Fox “Buffy” site. So I went. There’s no advertising there
so that can’t be it.


A fellow professor claims that Fox simply must do what it’s
doing because of copyright. You may not know this but you
can lose your copyright protection if you do not take steps
to protect what is yours. This is probably the main reason
for the full-court press, but does it have to be so harsh?


The WB, and Columbia TriStar Television Group take action
against sites that defame, make a profit, or post pornography
on fan’s show sites, but other than that they basically leave
the fan sites alone. Tony Kramtz, CEO of Imagine Television
noted that it was better to embrace the fans rather than try
to squash them.


Fox has gone for the squash. I guess they believe they need
to take such action in order to protect their product, but
it’s become a PR nightmare. The whole thing looks like a
big bully picking on someone who is, at the root of it all,
supporting what the bully does. One can see the Fox point
of view, but it just looks bad.


Those who keep fan pages have organized a blackout day for
May 13th. On that day every Fox-oriented fan page will be
taken down. It’s a ceremonial gesture at best, a Web-based
equal to holding one’s breath until you turn blue. In fact,
it may be what Fox wants.


Hopefully I haven’t led you to believe that I am for fan
pages doing whatever they want. I am not. In fact, I can
actually see Fox’s point of view. Just because you like a
show, that does not immediately grant you carte blanche to
do with it what you want.


You can’t post full episode transcripts and expect that Fox
is going to smile through it all. You can’t post full
episodes in digital video and expect Fox is going to thank
you for it.


There is a limit to the copyright law Fair Use allowance.
Posting still images may fall within the allowances, but
posting plot lines the week before they will air I’m
certain do not.


I can understand a fan’s belief that they somehow “own” the
show. The argument that if it wasn’t for the fans, the show
wouldn’t exist anyway is valid to a point, but going to the
lengths these fans have gone is too far. In reality, it’s
not your show. It belongs to Fox.


On the other side of the coin, Fox could have handled this
in a much more light-handed manner. Summons and threatening
letters should be a step taken way down the line.


If I were in charge, I would make more of a point of
embracing these pages. From the start the fan pages would
have been sent a letter, on company letterhead, thanking
them for their interest. The letter would have included
guidelines of what can and cannot be included on the site.
In return for fan’s following these rules, some
fan-page-only images would be sent to the Webmaster for
posting. Some approved sound files would be offered.
Approved video clips would be offered. By doing that, Fox
would have remained in control and kept their copyright
intact.


If they had done all that and then a site stepped out of
bounds and broke the rules, it would have been much easier
for the lawyers to take action. In fact, the other fan
pages may very well have backed the lawyers.


I remember when I was receiving information from the Roth
camp. It was great to think that they believed I was big
enough to be included in the loop. These fan pages could
have been coddled the same way. The amount of free publicity
is worth creating a position within the company just to
handle the fan sites.


There’s still time for Fox to do just what I am suggesting.
Stop bullying these fans and embrace them. In exchange for
taking down the copyrighted material, offer them something
special for taking the time to post the pages. A Buffy
autographed picture in return for helping Fox to correctly
promote the show would probably go a darn long way.


My brass Zippo sure did.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s that. Thanks for reading.


Joe Burns, Ph.D.


And Remember: Why is it considered bad luck to open an
umbrella indoors? It actually had nothing to do with rain.
Umbrellas were first invented as protection from the sun.
Opening the protection inside, where there was no sun, was
thought to be an insult to the sun god. That’s bad luck.

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