Category: Media (Page 45 of 45)

Conan Copyright Curmudgeons

February 25, 2009 / Jack / 0 Comments

Conan copyright trolls censor fan-readings of public domain stories

Posted by Cory Doctorow, February 25, 2009 4:16 AM

The Time Traveler sez, “Broken Sea Audio, a nifty non-profit audiodrama troupe has been threatened with litigation if they continue to adapt ‘public domain’ stories that were written by the late Robert E. Howard: ‘Broken Sea Audio Productions, headquartered in New Zealand, has shut down all their Robert E. Howard projects after receiving another threatening letter from the lawyers for Conan Properties International LLC (aka Paradox Entertainment). CPI is the limited liability company that claims all licensing powers over works by Robert E. Howard worldwide.’

“CPI says that since Broken Sea’s productions reach countries where these stories are not in public domain (a doubtful claim in itself) they have to remove all Conan material from their site. Under this logic, any country could hijack public domain from the rest of the world by just claiming a copyright never expires and could also claim fair use does not exist. ‘Take that etching of Charles Dickens off your website.’ could be the new rule.”

Damned right — IANAL, but I’m pretty sure that if Broken Sea Audio’s free Conan readings infringed upon CPI’s copyrights in Outer Freedonia, CPI’s remedy would be to sue Broken See in Outer Freedonia, and that that unless Broken Sea has assets in Outer Freedonia, the suit would probably end badly for CPI.

Icebox Gets Ink

February 16, 2009 / Jack / 0 Comments

Jeffrey Adams’ Icebox Radio Theatre got some good virtual ink from the Podcast Examiner today as Walter Kolenda gave high praise for their work on

Check out everything said at the Examiner here and be sure to subscribe to Icebox Radio today!

Wyrd Shutting its Doors…

January 26, 2009 / Jack / 0 Comments

wyrd

It’s always disappointing to see a new organization close its doors and here’s another. Wyrd Enterprises is shutting down by the end of January. Michael McAfee announced the closure on January 14th, and helmed the alliteratively titled “The Fantastic Fate of Frederick Farnsworth the Fifth”. Check out the show and give some last chance donations to a sterling effort in Audio Drama at their products section.

According to the information, we haven’t seen the last of Mr. McAfee thank goodness. You can find him involved with the Post Meridian Radio Players.

As the Madness Turns…

January 14, 2009 / Jack / 0 Comments

Unspeakable and Inhuman As reported by Derek Fetters in Audiodramatalk.com, Canada’s premier horror magazine, Rue Morgue, gives mention to audio drama’s only Lovecraftian soap-opera, The Unspeakable and the Inhuman in their most recent issue #86 on page 10.

Featured in a single paragraph in the “Roadkill from the Info Highway” section, Rue Morgue mentions the U&I Myspace page and as well as providing a positive review of the show!

So exactly what is “The Unspeakable and the Inhuman”

From the Myspace page is written:

“WHAT THIS IS
A serial audio-drama, soap opera inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft
Actually this is just the extended pilot, created initially to get feedback from people at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR, which happend Oct 6-8, ’06. We’ve decided to put the episode up here, and a few scenes which didn’t make onto the original disc, to help promote it. When we go into full production you may hear different actors, different effects, and cleaner sound.

HOW THIS HAPPENED
My friend Sam had an idea for a series of short films – a soap opera inspired by H. P. Lovecraft. At that time I had begun to develop a company that would produce serial audio drama for podcast.

We decided to team up, turning the soap into an audio serial. We were working on the series bible when we realized the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival was a month away. With such a perfect test audience soon to be assembled in Portland, OR we scrambled to create what became an extended pilot of our series – which we named The Unspeakable and the Inhuman, and that’s what you’re listening to here.” “

That’s more than good enough for us. Check out the horror at neohoodoostudio.com !