Normally I find Techdirt insightful, but this article is extremely disappointing. Fortunately, a number of commenters have done a good job of countering this horribly lame and uninformed article. I've spent the last few years studying Russian (and Russia) and as a result I've become more aware of the culture there and how our media presents a lot of misinformation regarding Russia and Putin. Although I don't personally agree with everything politicians in Russia do, I can say that our own politicians are at least as, if not more, unreasonable. So, to make a long story short, I don't have much confidence in portrayals of Russia presented by our biased and agenda-driven media. Having said that, I don't see Russia Today as any more biased or agenda-driven than CNN, CBS, FOX, or any of the other major media "news" sources here in the good ole USA. I would like to think that Techdirt in the future will be more conscientious in its coverage of issues related to Russia. Thank-you.
Lady Gaga didn't need permission to write here "Born This Way" adaptation of Madonna's "Express Yourself" and so why should Weird Al need permission to write a parody of a parody? Or maybe he should have just gone straight to Madonna and got her permission and bypassed Gaga.
Rosetta Stone has got to be the most over-priced language learning product on the planet! It has not proven to be even close to the most useful product I've used in my language learning endeavors. Obviously Rosetta Stone fears that if they are forced to compete, that they might have no choice but to drop their price to about a tenth of what they currently charge, which would still be more than their product is worth!
The Kremlin has a YouTube channel! Just tack a slash and kremlin after the basic YouTube URL and see for youself! At this moment a speech by Medvedev is autoplaying!
During the 1980s I spent a lot of time recording music on cassette tapes using a 4-track multi-track device. It was a lot of fun, but GarageBand on a Mac is so much easier and way more fun. Cassette was great for back then, but I would hate to go back to that!
I had never seen 2 Live Crew's parody "Pretty Woman" and so I tracked it down on YouTube. Although it was funny and somewhat entertaining, it was nothing more than silly. Satire usually has a serious point to make and it seems to me by allowing parody that makes fun of a work and not allowing satire that can be argued to appropriate a work, that the law is lowering the quality of public discourse. The USA has a reputation as being an anti-intellectual nation, but I never realized that this reputation was so blatantly codified by our legal system.
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Media Bias Regarding Russia
Normally I find Techdirt insightful, but this article is extremely disappointing. Fortunately, a number of commenters have done a good job of countering this horribly lame and uninformed article. I've spent the last few years studying Russian (and Russia) and as a result I've become more aware of the culture there and how our media presents a lot of misinformation regarding Russia and Putin. Although I don't personally agree with everything politicians in Russia do, I can say that our own politicians are at least as, if not more, unreasonable. So, to make a long story short, I don't have much confidence in portrayals of Russia presented by our biased and agenda-driven media. Having said that, I don't see Russia Today as any more biased or agenda-driven than CNN, CBS, FOX, or any of the other major media "news" sources here in the good ole USA. I would like to think that Techdirt in the future will be more conscientious in its coverage of issues related to Russia. Thank-you.
Madonna, Lady Gaga, Weird Al
Lady Gaga didn't need permission to write here "Born This Way" adaptation of Madonna's "Express Yourself" and so why should Weird Al need permission to write a parody of a parody? Or maybe he should have just gone straight to Madonna and got her permission and bypassed Gaga.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone has got to be the most over-priced language learning product on the planet! It has not proven to be even close to the most useful product I've used in my language learning endeavors. Obviously Rosetta Stone fears that if they are forced to compete, that they might have no choice but to drop their price to about a tenth of what they currently charge, which would still be more than their product is worth!
Kremlin on YouTube
The Kremlin has a YouTube channel! Just tack a slash and kremlin after the basic YouTube URL and see for youself! At this moment a speech by Medvedev is autoplaying!
Recording on cassette tape
During the 1980s I spent a lot of time recording music on cassette tapes using a 4-track multi-track device. It was a lot of fun, but GarageBand on a Mac is so much easier and way more fun. Cassette was great for back then, but I would hate to go back to that!
Parody vs. Satire
I had never seen 2 Live Crew's parody "Pretty Woman" and so I tracked it down on YouTube. Although it was funny and somewhat entertaining, it was nothing more than silly. Satire usually has a serious point to make and it seems to me by allowing parody that makes fun of a work and not allowing satire that can be argued to appropriate a work, that the law is lowering the quality of public discourse. The USA has a reputation as being an anti-intellectual nation, but I never realized that this reputation was so blatantly codified by our legal system.