As bad as the ISA: ACTA turns everyone into pirates, including ISPs and you're mom.

I'm late to the bandwagon, but the ACTA discussions have already started. The ACTA is a hugely important act being discussed right now, at this moment, behind closed doors in Seoul, South Korea. Discussions are ongoing and will last the week, I presume. Details have been kept under lock and key, but some of the points have surfaced online.

It's not looking very good.

From Boing Boing:

* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.



From TorrentFreak:

* Similarly, all participating countries have to adopt a ‘notice and takedown’ policy where copyright holders can request ISPs to remove infringing materials, again without having to provide solid evidence or proof that they actually own the copyrights. When ISPs don’t comply with the requests they will be held liable, which means that they will be seen as pirates themselves.

This goes further beyond free music and videos. This affects each and every one of us if it's passed. Anyone "accused" of infringing copyright could have their internet service revoked. Keyword: accused. As in, "however we see fit".

This is as bad as Malaysia's ISA. Spread the word people. The fight continues.

Futher Links:
Slashdot
Michael Geist(who originally reported on this)
ReadWriteWeb

The X3 we will probably never get.

Like most geeks, I pretty much hated X3. Mike Dougherty, who worked on X2, Superman Returns, reveals the film we would have got instead of Superman Returns, had Bryan Singer stuck around for a third film.

Listen to it here.

It starts about 22 minutes in, and lasts about 10 minutes, in it, he basically pitched us the movie X3 would have been. And it sounds pretty damn awesome. I won't spoil anything. But this should make you hate Brett Ratner more.

Bryan Singer's future is kind of in murky waters to me. IMDB says he's going to be involved in the remake/re-envisioning of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica movie/TV series thingy.... magicboby... There rumblings that he was going to direct a Superman Returns sequel, which would be all "Wrath of Khan", but that never came to pass. Valkyrie was his last film, and that was pretty much a big heap of disappointment. The other projects he seems to be involved in are "You want me to kill him?" "Capeshooters", and "Freedom Formula".

It's hard not to be sad for Bryan Singer's misguided decision to leave the X-men franchise for Superman. Come back already.

Digital comics with a small iverse app review tucked in somewhere.

On a whim, I downloaded the iverse app, mostly because it was free, to see what Comics on my iPod would have looked like. What I discovered got me thinking, and in somewhat organized form, here are my thoughts on digital comics.

Reading comics digitally has never been easy. It hasn't. We have yet to discover the way to design comics so that when presented on a screen, they don't feel like mere imitations of their physical counterparts. News, movies, TV shows we can do. News are soundbites. You don't really need to care how you get it, as long as you get it. Film and TV have been on the small screen for a long time, and while it doesn't compare to projected 35mm, the quality we can sometimes do without.

Comics, however, walk the thin line between interaction and passive reception. You read and turn the page at your own speed. You control how the story moves. Got something you need to clear up? Flip back a few pages, make sure. How you interact with a comic affects how much it will impact you. It's something unique to comics, and it's something the medium excels at exploiting.

On the physical side of things, Watchmen is undoubtedly the Citizen Kane of the graphic novel. Few are the times such a comparison is valid, but this is surely one of them. tThe Citizen Kane-ness of Watchmen however, does not extend to its' digital counterparts. As we stand today, digital comics are clumsy, unintuitive, and hard to read. The best experience viewing digital comics I have had is using FFview for the mac, coupled with my almighty touch pad. Click to turn the page, double-finger scroll to look around. It's not perfect, and doesn't compare to actually flipping the page, but much better than iverse in its' current form.

Some comics, like the 3 or 4 panel strip, make the transition with no hitches. But as we move up the ladder in sequential narrative complexity, things become, naturally more complex.

It's been a rough ride for the digital comic, and as it stands, if you were to put your regular comic or manga on a screen that's smaller than A3; the length of an average issue opened up, there are three major problems to circumvent.

1. Vertical panels. Works on the page, but as we are now, completely unworkable on the screen. Split it up, have your reader turn his iphone vertically, horizontally? Too much fidgeting. Takes you out. Just have the page as it is? Zoom in then? Slightly better, but still jarring due to the zooming in and out.

2. Full page panels. Assuming the copy is a big enough point size, this isn't too much of a problem. Your screen is not going to be able to display this the way it was meant to, so you'll have to scroll your way down a single panel. Imagine reading a full page panel with a magnifying glass tied to your eyes. Heaven forbid, your point size is a tad small, and you have numerous massive word balloons. The way iverse has done it, as far as I can tell, is to make three copies of the same panel, slice off the top and bottom so they fit on your screen, and have you read the copy while you scroll through three same identical panels. It distracts to no end. And let's not even mention double page spreads.

3. The act of turning a page. Nothing is more exciting then flipping the page of a book with your own hands to discover a shocking twist on the next page. It is something unique to the physical media, and pressing down on a piece of plastic does not in any way replicate the power that the simple act of page turning provides. There needs to be some way in which our intervention will lead to some form of discovery. That amount intervention cannot be too light, nor too much. Turning the page sits squarely in the middle on a scale of one to ten, one being too little effort and ten being too much. The internet has yet to provide us with an answer.

If we are to make comics work for the screen, they have to be designed for them. Taking regular print comics and slapping them on to you glorious LCD monitor will just hurt the story. The big two won't change because that's the way corporations are run. I'm not saying print comics should die. I in fact love them to death and I don't think they're going away for a long, long time. There have been several examples of digital comics done well. Most of them can be found on Scott McClouds' site. Renowned author and comic creator. I provide the best example in my opinion, utilizing flash to make clicking as powerful as page turning. The man has come up with several more ideas, open ended stories, vertically scrolling panels that fit on your screen, etc. None of them are worthy of comparison to Citizen Kane yet.

Digital is the future. Manic distribution channels, cost effective, crazy accessibility. We just need to move in the right direction for it to happen. Start designing comics that work for both print and digital for a start. Avoid the usual trappings print comics fall into when presented digitally. And think. Experiment. Let's get out of the panel for a second. It will take time, and a lot of trial and error. But with enough vigilance, we'll get there eventually.

When we do discover the holy grail of digital comics, which would be a format that is seamless, immersive, and powerful, the next step would be successfully monetizing it, but that would be a rant for another day.

Zombies, lesbians, and the legion of superheroes in this week's comics.

Every so often you get a week like this. Good stuff rammed down your throat, barely leaving enough room for air to ventilate. No mistake, this was a stellar week.

So.
The lone Marvel book I remember this week. The conclusion to Johnathan Hickman's "solve everything" story arc, and an epic start to what must be a great run by the creator of Nightly News and Pax Romana. Much has been said about this arc, which was, for many, a return to form for the FF. I wouldn't know, I had never read any Fantastic Four. It doesn't take away form the fact that this book is fun as hell. Hickman has pretty much proven his chops with his previous works for me. Dale Eaglesham's art annoyed me at the beginning. I'm one of those young whippersnappers who's used to seeing Reed Richards lanky and thin, instead of beefy and big. The character designs are fresh and exciting, just the execution of it bummed me out. Still, it remains wildly imaginative, permeated with BIG BIG ideas but never forgetting the fantastic family values. It's pretty much what I wanted a comic book to be. This team is going to do great things. If anyone can make the Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben live up to their namesake, it's these guys.

It's no coindence that Smallville's best episode last season was written by Geoff Johns. It's one of the most referenced stories in pop culture. I can't think of anyone who doesn't know it. Yet this reinvention of Superman's origin story is never dull. I know nothing about Kal-el's dalliances with the Legion. I always thought they were lame. Just couldn't get myself excited for characters named "Lightning Lad" or "Saturn Girl". Earlier this year, Geoff Johns proved me wrong with his Legion episode of Smallville. Here he does it again. The man is a serial offender. I suspect his JSA episode of smallville next year will continue what he has done to me. Getting me interested in characters and books I did not care for. Sometimes, it's fair to hate someone this fucking good.
Also, Gary Frank is nailing it.
Another origin book! I hadn't realized we had so many this week. What's left to say? Everything good about Detective comics has been said to death. I feel like I'm beating a horse that's half way decomposed. But if you really need an in depth review(something I'm NOT going to provide this time of night) go here.
Ah blackest night. Even though I don't quite remember what happened in this issue, I still like you. Like a good dream I woke up from; can't remember what it was about specifically, only that it was extremely enjoyable. Is that praise or slander? There was a big scene at the end, and alot of character moments for guys I'm not familiar with. The Atom especially gets quite a bit of panel time here. Nevertheless, it's all very very good. Will be watching how this goes with a very, very keen eye. Also, fuck tie-ins.

Thousands protest Global Warming.

so... this week's comics.

Knowing absolutely nothing about the dudes who worked on this, I picked this up on a whim, and boy was I surprised. Twisting, turning, rife with pop culture references and deftly illustrated, this one of the more original series I have had the pleasure of discovering. It begins with an oceanographer lost in what appears to be not the north Indian sea looking for poisonous fish of some sort. From there, we get conspiracy, dismemberment of faces, dick millionaires, great monochromatic art, wit-sharp dialogue and of course, cowboy, ninja, and viking.

It's a ride unlike any other. And like any great ride, it doesn't always seem to make sense, but by the end of it, everything clicks into place with a glorious cliffhanger that brings the issue full circle. My only gripe with it was that they misspelled "Kuala Lumpur" for some reason, and that took me out of the story, being Malaysian and all.

Still, boatloads of fun.


I like Joss Whedon. I like this. Not that the two are tangentially related. I like Fabio Moon more than I like Joss. At least here I do. Which is still pretty awesome. Banter. Hyper. Off course. Left field.Vikings(not really). Mystical intergalactic bodyguards. Battle of the bands. You know this thing is crammed with ideas. Imagination. For a measly 26 pages it's got loads. Plus you get sketches, backup material. DVD extras. The only thing is. This thing WAS free. I think it still is. hmmm. Well. If you haven't ever read this. The opportunity's perfect. Snatch this up. Light on character, but full of wacky. Refreshing breather from everything else. Let loose and go. It's a fun time.



Ugh.

Anything remotely related to Ben Reily gives me the shivers. In a bad way. Just let this end. Die, inconsequential arc! Let us never speak of the Clone saga ever again unless we're in the ultimate universe.

MOUSEHUNT

you evil evil facebook app.

Because I binge write.

Though the word binge here is used very lightly. I find that when it comes to blogging, I can go weeks without writing. I donot know why, but once I get the urge to write, I feel like I should be making for lost time, so I write two, three posts a day for a day or two. Then it's back to silence. Why is this weird phenomenon manifesting itself? It's not like the silence helps inspiration for topics or whatever. But then again, when have I ever been topical? Some people have gaming blogs, others have music blogs, some blogs are funny and interesting, others are dull as fuck. Hell, there's even a blog for cats who look like Hitler.(really) I don't binge drink, or chocolate, or anything else, at least not in recent memory I haven't. But when it comes to blogging, it's not even intentional. Just a pattern I've been noticing lately. Who knows when the next post will be. You all can look forward to it. (all two of you)

Justice for all; Mesrine

I just finished replaying the second Phoenix Wright game. All the while I was trying to figure out why I like the series so much. Because as i play through, I realize it has a lot of elements I've grown to dislike lately. The declarative nature of the dialogue, for one, the fact that you are almost always never on the same page as Phoenix, or all the macguffins invented especially for the sake of plot. Foreign teddy-bear-shaped puzzles or handmade unique silk hats for instance. These things, in my head at least, seem like easy solutions to complex narrative problems. Somehow, even with all the flaws, the charm never wears off. The plot twists keep piling up, and the characters are constantly endearing. It succeeds not only despite, but because of these flaws I feel. The imagination never lets up, and curveballs are constantly thrown your way. The Ace attorney series has forged itself a place in my heart that no form of entertainment comes close to replicate. I await the next game with bated breath.

I also watched the first part of the Mesrine flick last week. I found it popcorny enjoyable despite the historical subject matter. It's a character study and an action flick balanced very very nicely. Vincent Cassell is genius and infinitely watchable in it. They say it's possible to see two different characters in him while he's on screen. And you know what? That shit is bang on. I will be watching part 2 soon, and cannot wait to be charmed again by France's most famous bank robber.

Today, 2 videos from TED.com: Kindness and Mafia.

Johnathan Zittrain talks about the inherent kindness and trust on which so much of the web is built on.

The fall of the Berlin wall and subsequent collapse of communism is often seen as a great blessing to those who were in the Eastern European Bloc. Mischa Glenny shows us the underside and more shadowy aftereffects of the fall. Specifically, how capitalism's dominance affected of organized crime, which has grown leaps and bounds in the last 20 years.

If your reading this from facebook, you can't see the vids. Below this paragraph, click the link that says link to original post or whatever.