Ruby and I were discussing our views on copyright and DRM. These are the views that OddCo will stick to, because we believe in them.

DRM will not be used for anything, if at all. The reason being that no matter what protections we could put in, people will get around it. The tougher the challenge, the more the geek, like myself, is intrigued. So, instead of making it harder, we want to make it plain easy to share our stuff, to copy it to your iPod v20.0, to backup, to show on a TV, large theatre screen, whatever. If we make it easy, why would people go to all the effort of pirating and distributing our stuff?

We would insist, however, that whatever content is accessible from the member’s only section, should not be spread everywhere. We will probably institute watermarking, so we can identify the exact member that shared our stuff.

Copyright is also a thorny issue, in that some people protect it aggresively and litigiously, and some have more liberal views of it. In our view, if you make something new from our copyright material, be it characters, video, music, parody comics, whatever that bears our copyright, you should attribute a credit to us. Most fan artists do so, in nearly every instance I can think of. So, if you take scenes from our blockbuster video, thats 3 hours long, and make a very cool and entertaining AMV, then by all means! Just so long as you attribute the copyright over the scenes and the music to the proper owners.

If however, you are making money from our copyright works, then we will not be so very happy and easygoing. In fact, you may even find us willing to sue for financial damages. However, we would not go insane on the damages, unlike certain parties in the recent media(*cough cough* $15,000 loss per song on a copied CD is not very fair or accurate…)

Another small thing is as long as no one takes our material and makes very violent, or sexual content with our material, that features real people, we would not be very pleased. However, if you make adult content only featuring fictional characters, so long as credit is attributed, then fine.

As Ruby said:

We promise that we will have QUALITY, free content, always available. It will be full and free. There will not be shitty demos, 30 second samples, or 2 page samples. That should be enough for everyone.

There you have it, a near-official, quasi-statement about or stand on copyright and drm.

I decided the other day to jump onto a very crowded bandwagon, that of a facebook app. At the time of publishing, there are 15,270 facebook apps. Of course, not all of them are used, or even useful.

I don’t intend to make a popular app; I doubt this server could withstand the traffic. I’m making an application just for the sake of making it, to learn.

My first app will be an interface with my Paper Knaves game. It would be rather basic, a chessboard look. I will update this blog with progress reports as it goes, and then the final unveiling. I want to be done in two months. A very reasonable goal.

The overall design is rather simple, and done. The game will consist of a game object, which is a state-machine. It keeps track of its previous state, and based on that, plus input through a generic interface, will perform the actions needed.

What that means is that, I can now make any kind of view I want, telnet, applications, or a web app, without modifying the core business logic. The interface takes care of presentation and returning neccesary information.

The presentation interface will be done with Django, with the database storing only relevant player data: name, games won, games lost, games drawn. Nothing else is stored.

Till next time

So. Someone decided to steal my content. Okay, copyright infringement. He, or she, or they, copied my blog posts verbatim. Then, stuck ads on the side. I’ve sent them an email, as well as reported them to adsense. I know I told him that if they didn’t remove the posts, I’d report them. I didn’t keep to that. Oh well. They stole my stuff, and are trying to profit from it. Why can I not report them to Google/Adsense, and remove their money stream? It wasn’t even a remix, or a remake of my stuff. Just copying, plain and simple. You may have noticed that I have not linked to them, because that would just encourage them. But they know who they are. And if they continue, I will ban them as well from accessing my blog.

I just finished watching the Death Note movies, 1 and 2. It was a rather interesting experience, as I’ve read both the manga, and see the whole anime series. Yes, I’m a fan.

However, the movies deviate very strongly from the manga, but, it resulted in a better product, a better story. I’m not going to give any spoilers, but in my honest opinion, the movies give a much better result. A better story. The director, Sh?suke Kaneko, envisioned a better, more fitting end. In this one, the ending feels more appropriate, and the movie overall was well directed.

This leads to a rather interesting question: are remakes better or worse than the original? And, really it all depends. There are people, that if the remake does not follow each and every single nuance of the original, they cry bloody murder. I disagree with that. When someone does a remake, either of a song, comic, or show, they are saying a few things. First, they’re stating that I want to honour the original product, for inspiring me. Else, why would a remake be made? And second, they’re stating that they have a slightly different view, of how to look at the original differently. To me, remakes are a great window on the meaning on the original, and can add a lot of depth.

Take a look at all the different movie versions of Hamlet, or Romeo and Juliet. Each one adds a new perspective, view on the original. And taken as a whole, with different directors and writers espousing their views of the original, it cannot help but add depth. Hamlet is much deeper, watching Mel Gibson perform almost incestuous actions, when the Yorick scene minimizes the thematic meaning. The directors, and Mel Gibson, obviously, had their own view on Hamlet’s meaning, and brought it to life.

Or, the modern day spin version of Romeo and Juliet, with Leonardo DiCaprio, brings new depth to the relationship and tragedy of the doomed couple. By relating it to a modern-day occurrence, gang feuds and gun fights, jealous fathers and teenage love, it shows the modern-day relevance of the tragedy. It isn’t some misfortune to some old guys in some tights with swords. However, they did not play up the… wistfulness of Romeo, of how he falls for every single pretty face, and gets them. But then, when Juliet is denied him, he only wants her more. They didn’t focus on that, instead focusing on the relationship, the yearning, the connection.

Overall, remakes, done well, and honouring the source material, bring previously unnoticed depth to a story or product. When Oddco makes movies, or games, or comics, I will willingly look forward to remakes of our work, in anticipation of new depth, new meaning.

In fact, some of the most powerful pieces of classic literature, can be called “spin-offs” to use the phrase. Take for example, Grendel, by John Gardiner. It is a deep, evocative character portrait of a monster, and by the end, he is no monster, he is understandable, liked, and mourned. Its a new view of the first english epic poem, and a perfect example of a remake. Or the Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. Beautiful, satirical, and enlightening portrait of Odysseus’ wife, the long-suffering Penelope.

Make a remake! Honour the original source, and make the creator proud!