[D]oes this result from our sanctions jive with how our State Department seems to want to encourage governments around the world to allow open communication through the internet and social media?
No, not really, but that's mostly because the Iran (and Cuba, etc.) sanctions are imposed not by the State Department, but by the Treasury Department, through the Office of Foreign Asset Controls. Both are executive agencies and at least nominally report to the president, but the policy priorities of executive agencies do not always align or make sense as a whole.
After I watched this last night, I wondered why I hadn't seen any posts about it already. My girlfriend had to keep telling me to stop shouting at the screen so she could hear.
You don't address what to me was the most hilarious of Alexie's self-contradictions. He describes the supposedly dire condition of the music industry, where no one makes money off CDs and as a result are compelled to (god forbid) tour the country playing live shows. Then he turns around and says that his old way of selling books -- touring the country making live appearances -- has dried up. He attributes both the expansion of touring as a business model for bands and the diminution of touring as a business model for authors to the piracy of content, but doesn't explain why these industries have experienced essentially opposite effects. Nor does he attempt to explain why the disappearance of a "reading culture" is in any way attributable to the fact that people are reading more books online -- why would anyone be less interested in meeting the author of a digital book than a physical one?
I am dying for Monster Energy Drink to meet Monster Cable in a no-holds-barred trademark-overenforcement cage match. How has this not happened already? Or have I missed it? Who caved to whom?
I agree that Hottrix' copyright claim is weak but it's not true that "[the Coors app] needs to be the exact implementation" of the Hottrix app for a claim to exist. The actual standard for infringement says that if Coors had access to Hottrix's copyrighted work before making its own (as it seems clear it did) and if the two are substantially similar, then the court can infer copying and find infringement. Which I think is a more favorable standard to Hottrix than "exact implementation."
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Relationship to State Department policies
No, not really, but that's mostly because the Iran (and Cuba, etc.) sanctions are imposed not by the State Department, but by the Treasury Department, through the Office of Foreign Asset Controls. Both are executive agencies and at least nominally report to the president, but the policy priorities of executive agencies do not always align or make sense as a whole.
My design
I've got a design that I think will pass muster:
"Pasty boys & dour girls not having sex."
Thank you
After I watched this last night, I wondered why I hadn't seen any posts about it already. My girlfriend had to keep telling me to stop shouting at the screen so she could hear.
You don't address what to me was the most hilarious of Alexie's self-contradictions. He describes the supposedly dire condition of the music industry, where no one makes money off CDs and as a result are compelled to (god forbid) tour the country playing live shows. Then he turns around and says that his old way of selling books -- touring the country making live appearances -- has dried up. He attributes both the expansion of touring as a business model for bands and the diminution of touring as a business model for authors to the piracy of content, but doesn't explain why these industries have experienced essentially opposite effects. Nor does he attempt to explain why the disappearance of a "reading culture" is in any way attributable to the fact that people are reading more books online -- why would anyone be less interested in meeting the author of a digital book than a physical one?
The Monsters of trademark enforcement
I am dying for Monster Energy Drink to meet Monster Cable in a no-holds-barred trademark-overenforcement cage match. How has this not happened already? Or have I missed it? Who caved to whom?
Copyright claim
I agree that Hottrix' copyright claim is weak but it's not true that "[the Coors app] needs to be the exact implementation" of the Hottrix app for a claim to exist. The actual standard for infringement says that if Coors had access to Hottrix's copyrighted work before making its own (as it seems clear it did) and if the two are substantially similar, then the court can infer copying and find infringement. Which I think is a more favorable standard to Hottrix than "exact implementation."