An open letter to Senator Feinstein - co-sponsor of the US Senate Protect IP Act

Senator Feinstein:

I can appreciate that you have received a large amount of traffic regarding the Protect IP Act.  I can even understand having a form letter for popular topics.  However, I want to make certain that my concern is adequately expressed. I am fully aware that piracy is not protected speech.  Had I written a book, only to find that someone else is selling it for 1/3 the cover price on the street corner, I would be angry.  I have no objection to legitimate copyright holders requesting the removal of their own work from a site, nor do I - in principle - have an objection to providing adequate legal tools to fight piracy.

Here is what I take issue with:
The definition of "Internet site" as currently written would include my blog under the provisions of this bill.

If a "qualifying plaintiff" argues that my blog harms his copyright (highly unlikely as I do my best to respect the law), then

"On application of a qualifying plaintiff following the commencement of an action under this section, the court may issue a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, or an injunction, in accordance with rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, against the domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities ..."
 - From Section 4.b.1 (emphasis mine)

As far as I can tell, based on my reading of the bill, there is no point - before the fact - that the court is required to determine that the Internet site is, in fact, in violation of the law.

Then, once the required notification is submitted to the owner of the hosting service where my blog sits, the owner MUST take action to block my blog.  Relief can be provided IF the court finds that

"the Internet site associated with the domain name subject to the order is no longer, or never was, dedicated to infringing activities as defined in this Act"
 - From Section 4.f.2.A (emphasis mine)

This - to be frank - smacks of guilty until proven innocent.

While the loss of my personal blog is of no great importance to the US economy, I am concerned with what happens when a content owner decides that making a claim of copyright infringement can be used as an economic weapon.  After all, the injunction (or other court remedy) can be applied on application rather than after court determination.  Further, there is no penalty for making a false claim.

You stated in your letter that you feel the bill needs further amendments.  I must agree most heartily that it needs to be changed from its current form.  I insist on a very simple change: require the court to first determine that infringement has actually occurred before taking action.  This would restore the concept of innocent until proven guilty that is foundational to our justice system.

Spirit of the Century Review

The folks at RPG.net posted my updated review of Spirit of the Century a while back.  Here's the link.

Hanna the movie

I just watched Hanna (the movie) today with my wife.  It wasn't a bad film but it wasn't what I expected either.  A friend at work had said that it reminded him of foreign films.  I think what he meant was that some films don't really fit into the American style.  They tend to revolve around non-violent conflict to push the film forward.

Assuming that is what he meant, then I have to agree with him .... to a point.  Hanna is more a foreign film that got made by an American company with the corresponding split personality to go with it.

The dialogue and action tracks seem to have been recorded at different sound levels.  While this is not unusual, it was particularly bad in this film.  I had to reduce the volume by a full 1/3 during action scenes.  Even with the volume basically maxed out on my TV, the dialog felt like it was a first pass without the standard re-dub.

If you like action films (and quirky ones at that), it is worth a watch.  If not, better pass. I would have been disappointed had I seen it in the theater.

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

Old reviews

I dusted off and updated my old Spirit of the Century review after doing some play testing.  I submitted it to the rpg.net site and hope to see it posted soon.

Holidays are interesting with family and gaming so we'll see how things go.

Happy gaming to all, and to all a good night!

The wizard casts "Raise Blog"

I'm resurrecting my blog after nearly two-and-a-half years. Still going to be spotty at best but at least it will exist.

Star Trek - The Reboot

I have been putting this review off for far too long. I saw the film over two weeks ago at the friendly local drive-in with the wife and kids. Since then, I wanted to collect my though and my computer had a graphics card failure but that was still only a few days worth. Here goes:

For any remake (or in this case a reboot) to make it, it has to do three things well. 1) It must pay homage to the original. 2) It must leave its own stamp on the material. 3) It MUST be good! I have seen too many examples of a failure of #3 to even list.

Too many writers and directors seem to think that #1 and #2 and mutual exclusive. They aren't but it takes more skill to do them well. So how did Star Trek do?

Well lets start with #1, keeping true to the original:

I loved Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and her expanded personality - hey, it's 2009, she shouldn't just be the black woman behind Kirk should she? Of course not! Well acted and I look forward to seeing her in action in the future.

I was a little taken aback by the physical appearance (balding) of the actor playing Scotty (Simon Pegg) but he nailed the performance so I can forgive that minor item.

I was so impressed with the amount of character they were able to cram into Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Bones (Karl Urban) and Scotty given the nearly miniature screen time they received, that my hat is off to each of them.

On to the main attraction. I was always more of Spock fan so we'll talk about him next. He was played in such excellent form by Zachary Quinto that I literally forgot that he wasn't a younger Leonard Nimoy. Not that they have a large degree of physical similarity but that he didn't play Spock so much as become Spock. Zachary, you, sir, were amazing in that role.

While, Chris Pine's portrayal of Kirk has earned him rave reviews he just didn't fit for me. Not in a way that was crushing, so much as something just didn't click. Maybe he is a little too young? Not sure. I certainly didn't miss the ridiculous diction from Shatners' Kirk and enjoyed his take on the character so I will take a wait a see on him.

I give them an B-. After all, Kirk is a very important character - even for a guy who liked Spock better.

Let's continue with #2, leaving a mark:

WOW! They did this with a vengence and I'm sure that some of the Trekkie angst is aimed, in part, at the massive changes to the history of the Trek Universe. Essentially, the writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, hit the giant reset button and decided to play in the now empty sandbox. I imagine that if you care, you have seen the show but if not, I will warn you that SPOILERS follow through this review. By using time travel - and not chessy time travel - they were able to hit the reset button and reboot the entire history.

This leaves them free to do whatever they want and it's OK as the old time-line never happened. Getting Nimoy to play Spock Prime (seriously, that is how he was credited) was a master-stroke. The passing of the torch from Nimoy to Quinto (Spock to Spock) was far more believeable than the passing the torch between Shatner (Kirk) and Stewart (Picard) in Generations.

Further, they deal with the fact that Spock is half-human far more here than the original series (OS) ever did. Spock was our impression of a Vulcan even though he was technically half. This Spock is making a choice to follow the teachings of Surak and forsake his emotional ties but hasn't - as of this film - succeeded. He is even involved in a relationship with Uhura and honestly it didn't seem wierd once the shock wore off.

The origin of Bones' nickname - in this film - was apparently a remark to Kirk about his ex-wife getting everything in the divorce except his bones. A most excellent play on words.

So they get an A+ here for leaving a unique mark that doesn't dishonor the memory of the other.

Now, finally, the biggie. Was it a good film?

How can I put this? YES. I think this would have done well without the Star Trek name. Obviously not as well, but still. Despire the critics (rabid Trekkies, really) that claimed, this movie will suck because it's an odd film. (If you don't know what that means, I'm sorry, I'm not going to explain it.)

Go see this if you haven't. If you have? Go see it again.

Adios.

The return of the review

I could bore you with the details but let's just say that life got in the way.

I would like to start back up with a review of [i]Don't Rest Your Head[/i] by the folks at Evil Hat. Now that I have been able to play DRYH, I think I have something useful to say.

A buddy and I were able to sit down and play an impromptu game for about an hour (maybe as much as an hour-and-a-half) while the wives did - whatever it is that they do when we aren't looking. Keep in mind, he had no prior knowledge of the game and I had done no real prep-work up front. We just sat down and played. Inevitably, there were some things that didn't go well. The most obvious being that I got some rules wrong. Nevertheless, the game went off exceedingly well. My buddy fell in love with the system to the point that he ran out and bought DRYH.

So, first things first, let's talk about the system. The player - yes, the game is designed for one and one play, even for groups. The player had three Discipline dice to compete with the GM's 1 to 12 Pain dice. Successes are compared (1 to 3) and the highest number of successes wins. Since the player can be horribly outnumbered, you can add up to six exhaustion dice along with up to six madness dice. Madness dice are temporary - most of the time. Exhaustion dice represent the wearing out of the PC and so permanent. Rack up too many and you risk fallin asleep - the absolute worst thing that can happen to the PC in the Mad City. The highest die (or dice) dominates and determine how vicotry is achieved. It could be that the PC wins the contest but that Exhaustion dominates indicating that the contest has taken something out of the PC. When Pain dominates, things get a little darker, ugliers, etc. With Discipline, the PC gains something back and Madness means the PC runs the risk of snapping. Snapping can be bad because in the long term, you can become the very thing you are fighting against.

As far as the setting, let's see ... Take some urban fantasy, some horror, some suspense, some Alice McGee's Alice in Wonderland and throw in a blender. Set to frappee, serve over a twisted sense of humor and there you go. Basically, the PC has been up for an extended period of time. Perhaps too much caffiene, loud neighbors, new baby, whatever. At some point, the wall between what we think is reality and what is actual out there snaps. You find yourself in the Mad City a twisted version of your town (or in my game, [b]all[/b] towns) - aka the City Slumbering. The inhabitants are from various areas and are all focused on the role they play. A cop will always be on duty - unless he is in the coffee shop, etc. Most have no idea they are not in the "real" world - the City Slumbering - and couldn't help you if you asked.

The Mad City is inhabited by Nightmares of various power levels. The one I made the most use of was Officer Tock and his clockwork cop minions. It may sound cheesy and cute but done right it is downright creepy.

The game is rules light and heavy on player / GM interaction, which is a good thing in my mind. If you even think that you would like to play this one, pick it up, it's great!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!