An Open Letter to the Wikipedians
Greetings, goodlies of Wikipedia, you who once booted me off of your encyclopedia because I, Blackwolf the Dragonmaster, was not cool enough to even merit a proper article in your vast castle of pages!
But enough nonsense! Mine is not to kvetch; mine is to simply say thank you. And now I shall explain why.
As most of the world knows by now, yesterday, you led the charge in a 24-hour protest against two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted motion pictures and television programs. Clearly, your day-long rant certainly made all the difference.
For my regular readers of this Diary of Magecraft just now joining us, methinks a proper plot synopsis is in order: these two bills --- the Protect Intellectual Property Act, in the Senate; along with the Stop Online Piracy Act, in the House --- are reportedly supported by the film and television industries as a means in part to crack down on Internet piracy. However, sites such as Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Flickr, et al, are of the mind that the new laws, if enacted, would expose them to extensive lawsuits and give the media the potential power to literally shut down websites over alleged accusations of copyright infringement.
As a result, you Wikipedians went dark for 24 hours, beginning at midnight Eastern time last night, while other websites, my Dark Chambers among them, stood in solidarity in their --- in our --- own individual manners. Long point short, in what appears to be a continuing conflict pitting Silicon Valley against Hollywood, the Silicons have the upper hand .... for now.
Needless to say, the Wikipedians made the wiser, more noble decision, for which I must offer my heartfelt and honest thanks. One hopes, then, that the major film studios and broadcast and cable networks will get with the program and accept the fact that unless Hollywood conforms to the methods and mentalities of an ever-growing, ever-changing, ever-evolving digital domain, the ancient ways espoused by the founding movie moguls of old will undoubtedly consume them!
Bottom line, kiddos: It's a publish-or-perish world. Get used to it, Hollywood, or face certain extinction at the hands of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs may be gone, but your humble Dragonmaster is a wise enough Wizard to understand that his ghost may come to haunt the realms of Hollywood.
Of course, these are no more than mine own opinions. I could be wrong.
And as ever --- and, by Merlin's beard, it's been quite some time since last I uttered these particular words --- I wanna know what you think, America. Gimme an e-mail at either electric_pirates@hotmail.com or blackbeardian@yahoo.com.
Master Blackwolf
But enough nonsense! Mine is not to kvetch; mine is to simply say thank you. And now I shall explain why.
As most of the world knows by now, yesterday, you led the charge in a 24-hour protest against two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted motion pictures and television programs. Clearly, your day-long rant certainly made all the difference.
For my regular readers of this Diary of Magecraft just now joining us, methinks a proper plot synopsis is in order: these two bills --- the Protect Intellectual Property Act, in the Senate; along with the Stop Online Piracy Act, in the House --- are reportedly supported by the film and television industries as a means in part to crack down on Internet piracy. However, sites such as Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Flickr, et al, are of the mind that the new laws, if enacted, would expose them to extensive lawsuits and give the media the potential power to literally shut down websites over alleged accusations of copyright infringement.
As a result, you Wikipedians went dark for 24 hours, beginning at midnight Eastern time last night, while other websites, my Dark Chambers among them, stood in solidarity in their --- in our --- own individual manners. Long point short, in what appears to be a continuing conflict pitting Silicon Valley against Hollywood, the Silicons have the upper hand .... for now.
Needless to say, the Wikipedians made the wiser, more noble decision, for which I must offer my heartfelt and honest thanks. One hopes, then, that the major film studios and broadcast and cable networks will get with the program and accept the fact that unless Hollywood conforms to the methods and mentalities of an ever-growing, ever-changing, ever-evolving digital domain, the ancient ways espoused by the founding movie moguls of old will undoubtedly consume them!
Bottom line, kiddos: It's a publish-or-perish world. Get used to it, Hollywood, or face certain extinction at the hands of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs may be gone, but your humble Dragonmaster is a wise enough Wizard to understand that his ghost may come to haunt the realms of Hollywood.
Of course, these are no more than mine own opinions. I could be wrong.
And as ever --- and, by Merlin's beard, it's been quite some time since last I uttered these particular words --- I wanna know what you think, America. Gimme an e-mail at either electric_pirates@hotmail.com or blackbeardian@yahoo.com.
Master Blackwolf
posted by Master Blackwolf | 7:13 AM
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