Twisted Sanctuary

Episode 9 Recap Blacked Out to Protest SOPA/PIPA

Odds are you’re looking for the recap of episode nine of Venice Season 3. Unfortunately, you won’t be finding it here today.

We apologize that we can’t provide the recap this evening. We know many people look forward to reading it, and we certainly enjoy sharing our discussion of the show. However, alongside many other websites, we are adhering to the Internet Blackout of January 18, 2012 to protest the possibility that Congress may adopt the bills known as SOPA and PIPA as they are currently written.

If these laws are passed, many of the things we do in creating these recaps – such as linking to film or TV clips or using screencaps to illustrate our point – would be illegal. Currently, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a safe harbor for bloggers and other content providers. If we use something that is technically under copyright, the copyright holder is obligated to notify us and request that the offending item be removed from our posting. SOPA and PIPA would strip us of that protection. Additionally, though we often link to copyrighted material, we believe we have a legal right as critics to do so. SOPA and PIPA would remove our ability to argue this through due process. Our site could be removed from the internet without our ability to present a legal challenge. These bills engender censorship and create a chilling effect on creativity and innovation.

This doesn’t just apply to us. It applies to anyone who has ever linked to a film clip or a song on Facebook or Twitter. It applies to anyone who has ever spent an afternoon catching up on Bo and Carly clips or relived the magic of Otalia on YouTube or watched a fanvid. One could argue that Venice would not exist without the enormous response that Otalia created – a response that was fueled in large part by people being able to enjoy these clips over and over again. As Rysler points out, she never saw a single moment of Otalia before Guiding Light ended its run on CBS. Under these laws, that content would have been inaccessible to her once the show ended.

If you want the Internet to remain free and for “safe harbor” laws to remain in effect, we urge you to contact your US Representatives and Senators and tell them that you do not want them to support SOPA (House) or PIPA (Senate).

Do it for Otalia. Do it for yourself.

Sincerely,

Jaina, Rysler, and Kelinswriter

What does it say about me that the LJ advertisement bot or whatever thinks that my journal would be a good place to advertise *NSYNC ringtones?

I think I'm insulted, LJ.  Or at least disappointed in what you think are my tastes.  How could you?!?!

The 12 Politically Correct Days of Holiday

(formerly known as The Twelve Days of Christmas)



On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my Significant Other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:

TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming,

ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note),

TEN melanin deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping,

NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression,

EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans,

SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands,

SIX enslaved Fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products,

FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration,

(NOTE: after members of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further Animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.)

FOUR hours of recorded whale songs

THREE deconstructionist poets

TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses and...

ONE Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree.

Merry Christmas Happy Chanukah. Good Kwanzaa. Blessed Yule. Happy Holidays! (unless otherwise prohibited by law)*

*Unless, of course, you are suffering from Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD). If this be the case, please substitute this gratuitous call for celebration with suggestion that you have a thoroughly adequate day.

The good news is that I'll now stop spamming my flist with random crap and that the next post will be fic. *ahem*

...you're sitting around reading a wiki about the history of fandom, fan fiction, and the etymology of the word beta reader and you actually find this interesting.

Yeah, so, apparently I'm a huger geek than even I realized. :p