Another Nation May Back Out of the ACTA

This time it's Mexico.

The ACTA stands for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, basically a bunch of international standards on intellectual property and copyright that's being hammered out by a bunch of different countries - including Canada.  (This is why the Tories want to pass bill C-32, to get us up to snuff with the ACTA should it pass.  This is a topic on which blogger Michael Geist has written at length, and he's far more informed and up-to-date on this issue than I am.  Head over to his blog if you want to educate yourself.)

Thing is, a lot of the nations involved in the negotiations have become less and less keen as time has gone on.  The EU parliament, for example, is making noises that they may ultimately reject the agreement due to a lack of transparency throughout the process, combined with worry about "giving governments a blank cheque to write draconian anti-counterfeiting laws that endanger citizens' fundamental freedoms."  Many have also suggested that some parts of the ACTA have proven to be overly preferential to corporate interests.

And Mexico's now unofficially rejected the ACTA in a non-binding agreement.  Which may amount to nothing, but is more likely an indicator that Mexico's going to make its withdrawal official pretty soon.

Canada's still all up ons, though.  So, congratulations, Canadians!  Our government is now officially more secretive and beholden to corporate interests than Mexico's government.

Sintel short film

Sintel is a really very impressive undertaking, and you should really watch it right now.

It's a 14-minute film made by independent artists using free 3D rendering software, and released under the Creative Commons 3.0 license (meaning it's free to download, copy, distribute, remix, learn from, etc.)  While it's not quite Hollywood quality (the animation gets a bit choppy during some bits of action, such as during the first fight scene), it's very, very close.  And it was done by an international team of artists working collaboratively with donations from folks on the interwebs.

It's also the second animated film of this ambition that I know of which was released under a creative commons license (the other being Sita Sings the Blues which is also awesome and highly recommended.)

It will be interesting to learn how the DVDs do commercially - Sita Sings the Blues, last I checked, was doing quite well despite the setback of being boondoggled to the tune of $50K over songs that were meant to be in the public domain in the first place.

The comments here will be spoilers, so read them only after you've watched the film.

Comic Book News (also an Art link)

Most people who read this blog are probably not aware of the legal shenanigans that comic book mogul Todd McFarlane gets up to. Keeping up with comic book creator drama, in particular figuring out who's engaging in douchebaggery, is a hobby of mine... So, in order to truly appreciate what I'm about to share, you need a bit of context.

Mr. McFarlane was once a big name in the comics industry. Less so these days, but he was the most popular Spider-Man artist of his day, he helped found the No. 3 publisher Image, he created one of Image's flagship books Spawn (later turned into a terrible couple of movies and some moderately cool cartoons), and he used that to springboard a very successful toy company.

Well, back when his book Spawn was in its infancy, he wanted to really kick it off into high-gear around issue 7 or 8 (can't recall exactly which issue it started), and so recruited a number of top-tier writers to write several issues for him. These were all pretty famous names at the time (at least famous for the comics industry): Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Dave Sim, and Neil Gaiman. I might be forgetting someone, but it doesn't matter - the important name in that list is the last, for our purposes today.

Most of these stories were eminently forgettable, but then they all wrote single-issue stories so you couldn't expect a whole lot. Gaiman's was by far the most energetic of the set, though, and he created a number of interesting characters and setting elements for McFarlane. McFarlane should have been grateful, because really Spawn had little going for it up to that point besides his overrated art, and I suspect he acted grateful - but as soon as he got the opportunity, McFarlane violated the agreement he had with Gaiman which began a number of long legal battles.

You can read Gaiman's own thoughts on the matter here. There's a follow-up here. He also describes some of the legal shenanigans McFarlane got up to in an effort to twist copyright law to his own ends here.

Those links show that the courts sided with Gaiman in every single instance, granting him ownership of characters he created: Angela, Cagliostro, and Medieval Spawn. Believe it or not, this case established some important legal precedent from what I understand.

Thing is, apparently Todd didn't like this much, so he created a secondary Medieval Spawn character - basically a carbon-copy of the first, so he could continue to use the (different) character without paying Gaiman any royalties (never mind all the royalties he already owed him, but that's another matter.) Well, I guess a judge took issue with this because recently a ruling was handed down with an awesomely geeky statement to accompany it:

"The two characters are similar enough to suggest that either Dark Ages [McFarlane] Spawn is derivative of Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn or it is the same character to which plaintiff owns the copyright.

"Much as defendant [McFarlane] tries to distinguish the two knight Hellspawn, he never explains why, of all the universe of possible Hellspawn incarnations, he introduced two knights from the same century," Crabb writes. "Not only does this break the Hellspawn 'rule' that Malebolgia never returns a Hellspawns [sic] to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years, as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4), it suggests that what defendant really wanted to do was exploit the possibilities of the knight introduced in issue no. 9. (This possibility is supported by the odd timing of defendant’s letter to plaintiff on February 14, 1999, just before publication of the first issue of Spawn The Dark Ages, to the effect that defendant was rescinding their previous agreements and retaining all rights to Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn.)

"If defendant really wanted to differentiate the new Hellspawn, why not make him a Portuguese explorer in the 16th century; an officer of the Royal Navy in the 18th century, an idealistic recruit of Simon Bolivar in the 19th century, a companion of Odysseus on his voyages, a Roman gladiator, a younger brother of Emperor Nakamikado in the early 18th century, a Spanish conquistador, an aristocrat in the Qing dynasty, an American Indian warrior or a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I? It seems far more than coincidence that Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is a knight from the same century as Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn."

Judge knows her stuff. Here's Gaiman on the latest development.

Oh, and before I forget, here's my latest character design: Jade Fan. As always, comments are welcome.

Anyway, that's all for now.

CCER

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You may or may not be aware, but very soon copyright laws in Canada - particularly as it pertains to the internet and electronic media in general - will be getting an overhaul.

It won't be a good overhaul. In fact, it will be an overhaul that flies in the face of what Canadians said they wanted during the consultation process, and goes against the advice of a number of very prominent Copyright experts.

You can learn more at the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights website. You can also go there and take the two or three minutes it takes to use their fancy web gadget to send an e-mail to your MP to voice your protest. Really, it's super-easy to do, and it's important. So please go do it.