Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Big Media Attacks Fair Use -- Three's Company Bullies Playwright David Adjmi

Public Domain and Fair Use are the copyrights of the Little Guy. Big Media Bullies are increasingly attacking those rights.

Most recently, lawyers for the TV sitcom, Three's Company, have threatened playwright David Adjmi, because his newest play -- 3C -- parodies that old show.

Fortunately, playwrights' groups and decent law firms are rallying to defend Adjmi against the mega-rich Hollywood bullies.

Reporting for Playbill (July 18, 2012), Adam Hetrick writes:


Playwright David Adjmi's dark comedy 3C, which takes a page from the 1970s sitcom "Three's Company," has come under fire from lawyers representing DLT Entertainment, the company that owns the popular television series.

According to a report in the New York Times, Adjmi was contacted by Kenyon & Kenyon, the lawyers representing DLT Entertainment, who sent a cease-and-desist letter citing copyright infringement, listing 17 points of similarity between the play and the sitcom. 3C uses a scenario similar to "Three's Company," but explores darker implications of American culture in that time. The now-closed production ran June 6-July 14 at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

A stage adaptation of "Three's Company" is in the works and DLT felt Adjmi's play was damaging to the property. The series also has a life in syndicated reruns.

The correspondence from the lawyers also stated that the production could not be extended past its July 14 closing date, that no future productions could be performed and the script could not be published. Box office figures were also requested in addition to a written agreement from Adjmi that he would comply with their demands.


Read the rest of Hetrick's report.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Is Seth MacFarlane's Ted Anti-Semitic -- Or Anti-Christian?

Radio's Ken Chiampou (of KFI-AM 640's John and Ken Show) has accused Seth MacFarlane's new film, Ted, of containing anti-Semitic material.

Ken complained about the film's depicting (or laughing about?) Christian children beating up Jewish children on Christmas. Ken made his remarks during his movie review of Ted, which was broadcast on Friday, July 13, 2012.

You can hear Ken's remarks here.

But is a scene of Christians persecuting Jews anti-Semitic -- or is it anti-Christian?

Christian kids beating up Jewish kids certainly doesn't paint Christians in a positive light.

If a film depicted Jews persecuting Christians, that would certainly be regarded as anti-Semitic. So really, to be logically consistent, if Christians are portrayed as the persecutors, isn't that anti-Christian?


Also, is actor Will Smith a homophobe?

And is the film, Up in the Air, anti-Asian?


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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Middle Class Is Escaping California

Big government -- ever more taxes, spending, and environmental regulations -- are driving out the middle class from California!

According to a Wall Street Journal report by Allysia Finley (who's thought up yet another way to misspell Alisa):


"California is God's best moment," says Joel Kotkin. "It's the best place in the world to live." Or at least it used to be.

Mr. Kotkin, one of the nation's premier demographers, left his native New York City in 1971 to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley. The state was a far-out paradise for hipsters who had grown up listening to The Mamas & the Papas's iconic "California Dreamin'" and the Beach Boys's "California Girls." But it also attracted young, ambitious people "who had a lot of dreams, wanted to build big companies." Think Intel, Apple and Hewlett-Packard.

Now, however, the Golden State's fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape. The first thing that comes to many American minds when you mention California isn't Hollywood or tanned girls on a beach, but Greece. Many progressives in California take that as a compliment since Greeks are ostensibly happier. But as Mr. Kotkin notes, Californians are increasingly pursuing happiness elsewhere.

Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families.


Read the rest of Finley's article.

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