thoughts and opinions by author s. andrew swann
S Andrew Swann | October 9, 2008
This has been flying under the radar unless you’re like me and you follow uber-geek podcasts like I do. However, the US government has been quietly pressuring our friends and allies to sign on to a lil treaty called ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. This is the wonderful little piece of borderline-fascist policy that allows [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 20, 2008
More or less randomly I was reading a thread on the Agony Booth and got thinking about fan fiction and how it relates to writing more generally. I generally look at fan fiction as a benign thing, as long as the fan work doesn’t start infringing on the rights of the original, (i.e. isn’t commercial.) [...]
S Andrew Swann | August 20, 2008
To all the aspiring writers out there who want to make a bad impression and leave a permanently sour taste in the mouths of not only your readers but with anyone who’s ever heard of you, Victoria Laurie has some tips for you. (Original post is gone, but once released those electrons don’t go away.) [...]
S Andrew Swann | June 17, 2008
This was a week where I discovered two little tidbits that really set my blood boiling over the state of IP law in this country. In both cases we have companies using the excuse of copyright to act like Uncle Vinnie the Mob Enforcer, but without the pinky ring or sense of style. First up, [...]
S Andrew Swann | April 28, 2008
As the whole Cassie Edwards story pointed out, it is hard to be a plagiarist these days. Anyone with just a little suspicion can use the internet to correctly attribute just about anything, so it is a stupid, stupid, thing to do. The kind of thing you really only expect from people who never had [...]
S Andrew Swann | April 24, 2008
I am a writer, that means I make money off of my intellectual property. This does not mean I like digital rights management in any way, shape, or form. Here is an object lesson why. I don’t even blame Microsoft for giving the finger to all their former MSN Music customers, because tying rights to [...]
S Andrew Swann | April 19, 2008
“Irreconcilable editorial differences.“ That’s the word as Signet and Cassie Edwards part ways. Thanks to the Smart Bitches for the tip. (Or, if you’re the AP, the Smart B——)
S Andrew Swann | January 31, 2008
Paul McGuinness, manager of U2. Ok, we get it, music piracy = bad. But, do we think that either a) Making ISPs responsible for policing net traffic for copyrighted data or b) Taxing ISPs to compensate artists (read: compensate the monolith corporations that profit from said artists) are in fact good ideas? Quoth asshat: If [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 28, 2008
The whole Cassie Edwards flap continues to ripple outward, leaving blog posts and long comment threads in its wake. One of the things it has unearthed is a widespread misunderstanding of what plagiarism actually is, leading to some rather eloquent posts on the subtle difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism. But there is another widespread [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 15, 2008
I thought I had posted all I was going to on this. But, then, my wife was waiting at Walgreens to get a prescription filled and was walking past the book isle, and came across this. I draw your attention to the lower right corner.
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