Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Starbock vs Starbuck

Trademark story of the week: Starbock is asked to stop using that name by Starbucks.

The monolithic coffee company filed its notice of opposition to the Starbock brand of beer sold by bar owner Rex Bell on the final day of a one-month filing period designated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In its papers filed Feb. 19, the Seattle, Wash., company — which has two Galveston locations including one a few blocks from Bell’s bar — claims the entrepreneur’s beer name so closely resembles the Starbucks coffee brand that it could “cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive” the marketplace...

Starbucks spokeswoman Valerie Hwang said “even where it may seem playful, this type of misappropriation of our name (and reputation) is both derivative and dilutive of our trademark rights.

“Starbucks prefers to resolve trademark infringement disputes informally and amicably whenever possible. However, we will take legal steps to protect the value of our trademark, and protect the public from confusion and deception, when we are unable to resolve a matter through alternate means.”

(caught from NPR)

(corrected March 20th)

Haunted Media: a British exhibition

Haunting is an exhibition of art exploring the uncanny in new media:

The exhibition will include Susan Hiller’s seminal installation Belshazzar's Feast which relates in part to reports of the appearance of foreign beings seen on television screens after station close-down; Thomson & Craighead’s Obituary which explores the electronic ether as a space of overlap between technology and the spiritual and E-Poltergeist which is an intervention in a web browser which starts to misbehave, giving the feeling of a ghost in the machine. Susan Collins’s Spectrascope references parapsychological research and attempts to find this ghost in the machine by means of a pixel by pixel live internet link up to a haunted house; Scanner’s sound piece Breakthrough refers to the Electronic Voice Phenomenon of spectral voices in recordings of empty locations and presents a sound piece created from field recordings from spaces with ghostly associations. S Mark Gubb investigates backwards messages in records and plots connections with contemporaneous events. Lindsay Seers then there were three is based on the possible traumatic, psychological effect the invention of television had on the dummy that John Logie Baird used in his first TV transmission and Patrick Ward presents filmic moments in which TV screens are overtaken by static, signalling a communicating other.
(via Rhizome)

Social software and education

I've been asked to give a talk on social software and education next month at a regional event. I'll post some ideas here between now and then, but would like to open the floor to comments, questions, and so on.

Nature of the Book, copyright, and wiki

I'm rereading Adrian Johns' excellent The Nature of the Book, working on the rise of copyright. Johns lays out a complex argument, which isn't well served by a quick summary, but I can introduce it.

During the 1600s, the Stationers' Company dominated English printing, from the transformation of manuscripts into type to hawking finished products on the streets. But the second half of that century saw a rise in the amount of printed materials and piracy, a decline in their quality, and the loss of some legislative support. Instead of turning to a French-style royal licensing system, the Copyright Act of 1710 emerged as the Stationers' best fix, and eventually their effective successor, enshrining the rights of a copy's owner into law.
Some themes are evident, and worth thinking about in today's struggles: copyright as control, defense against piracy, in negotiation with governments interested in control.

As more wiki exploration, I've posted some of my notes to the reading as a wikipage.

SMS and Spain: cartoonist gets it

Mobile technology and politics, continued: "Meetings, interviews, news articles, debates, banners, posters... nobody thought about SMS messages!"

(from BoingBoing)

Which stupid white men shall we pick?

In another instance of that budding subgenre, intellectual property irony, HarperCollins, who once had problems publishing Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, is now trying to get another publisher from producing a book with a similar title, How to Get Stupid White Men out of Office. HarperCollins tells SoftSkull that the similarity in titles may lead to confusion.

The ironies compound rather quickly at this point, even ignoring that a company built on free and unfettered expression appears to be, by implication, objecting when someone else engages in that. In sending the letter, HarperCollins was protecting a book it refused to publish for a time, defending an author it fought bitterly with, and, according to Mr. Moore, doing so without his knowledge.

Siva Vaidvyanathan has a good take on this.

Although the reporter, David Carr, mentions that titles are not copyrightable, at no point does he question HaperCollins about what cause of action they are alleging. And at no point does he raise concerns about the bleed-over between principles of copyright and principles of trademark.

The problem here is not just one of rabid efforts of protection. It's also a matter of the conflation between these two distinct areas of law that we unfortunately (and harmfully) combine under the meaningless phrase "intellectual property."

(via Copyright)

New Lessig book due shortly

Lawrence Lessig has a new book coming out, Free Culture. Lessig notes some reviews in his blog, already: "good... and bad."

I'm looking forward to reading it. I'll be looking to see how he continues or develops his political balancing act between left and right, which appeared clearly in his previous book.

Web game tribute to victims of the Madrid bombings

From Newsgaming, a Flash-based Web game tribute to victims of the Madrid bombings.  Play is simple and affective.

(via Jill)

Passion scourged by copyright infringement

It comes as little surprise that, soon after its release, the ubiquitous film The Passion of the Christ has had its copyright infringed.

Typical case, really, with a raft of usual elements. We have the informal, shadowy networks of access:

The Rev. Brent Endris, pastor of the church, said the youth pastor brought the movie to the church so Endris could review it. The youth pastor had received the tape from someone else, Endris said.

And the spontaneity defense, beloved of teachers:

"This was not intentional," Endris said. "It was a spur-of-the-moment thing."

Followed by expiation, with a whiff of sacrifice:

He said the tape since has been destroyed.

Our lack of surprise on this score should remind us of something about the acculturation of copyright - namely, that it is violated frequently, as a matter of course, and that by the desire to see, read, play with, or otherwise use content is going to drive infringement.

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

Volvo: marketing by mystery

A brilliant new Volvo commercial is designed as a sinister mock documentary, a sort of version of Crash meeting the Blair Witch Project in a lost, low-key X-Files episode set in rural Sweden. Watch for the brooding tracking shots, the sober tone, and moments where some traces of the uncanny creep in, supported by grim music.

"There are strange things happening all the time - but by chance...."
"When I get into my car and I sit in it, I think, is this really like my friend, or is this something I did that I didn't want to do?... some subconscious feeling, that makes me a bit afraid of myself, like what am I going to do in this car?"