Of Petitions, Persecution? White Roofs and White Roads.

Are you an author and a copyright owner? Do you agree that copyright promotes and protects free speech and creativity? If so, the copyrightalliance has written a petition to the 2016 political candidates, and you are urged to sign it, too.

http://takeaction.copyrightalliance.org/21036/open-letter-to-2016-political-candidates/

That's the positive. On the negative side, an artists' rights blogger has made a strong statement that President Obama has presided over the worst every administration ever with regard to copyright and the rights of creators (especially songwriters). It's interesting reading.

https://musictechpolicy.com/2016/08/04/mr-obama-meet-mr-kafka/

This week (and this is purely personal) I had my flat roof painted with silver-coating. I do this every few years to preserve the roof, also to reflect heat and thus put less strain on my a/c system and on my wallet.... and on the planet.

Here's an interesting article about The White Roof Project.

http://www.whiteroofproject.org/faq

Apparently, cities are "Heat Islands" and can measure temperatures up to 22 degrees F hotter than the suburbs owing to the heat-absorbing properties of black tarmac on roads and roofs, and of cement etc. One wonders what the science fiction DUNE worlds would have been like if modern scientific theory had been followed, and the desert sands were covered with (presumably white) plastic sheets.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2009/jan/16/ethicalliving-climatechange

As we may lose the reflective whiteness of snow and ice, perhaps substituting other white expanses might be helpful, even if they are not exactly cold white?

Like white roads? http://cleantechnica.com/2014/06/04/white-roads-help-reduce-urban-temperatures/
It is claimed that white roads in Australia have reduced temperatures by as much as 12.6 degrees F!
http://livinggreenmag.com/2013/01/03/climate-change/can-white-roofs-fight-global-warming/

All the best,

Rowena Cherry
For a limited time, Forced Mate, autographed, is $4.70 + $3.99 shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0505526018/ref=olp_f_new?ie=UTF8&f_new=true

Amazon charges the seller (me) $3.05 and media mail shipping is $2.61

The Dark Underbelly Of Our Business

Have you noticed that the United States Copyright law provides virtually no incentive for anyone to pay royalties to the copyright owner?

The "sharing economy" and "permissionless innovation" have made matters more problematic for copyright owners, but it has always been the case that the government is decidedly not on the side of "the little guy or gal".

There's a very short statute of limitations (is it three years?) from the time a copyright infringement is discovered (or can be proven to have been discovered) and when time runs out to sue.  Enforcement of a copyright is the responsibility of the copyright owner, not only to discover it, to send a DMCA notice, and if a counter notice is filed, to sue in federal court.

https://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/microsoft-does-the-right-thing-in-songwriter-class-actions-but-where-is-the-government/

An author would have to be wealthy indeed to be able to afford to take a scofflaw through the federal court process.  The link above applies to musicians, but the principle is the same.

If you should ever wish to send a DMCA to Google, and if you would much  rather avoid the merry-go-round of links that make the process more efficient (ie, only the most determined complainant does not give up before completing the obstacle course), the email address of the DMCA agent is
dmca-agent@google.com

All the best,

Rowena Cherry