MPAA violates copyright

The MPAA’s program for monitoring Universities has been taken down for its infringement of Copyright. According to boingboing, the wiretapping software, based on Xubuntu operating system, did not satisfactorily provide the sources for their spyware.

big brother

College students - 1, MPAA big brother - 0.

The best minds of my generation: Destroyed by dirty words

Anyone who knows the current author of Brink knows that she’s a big ol’ fan of the Beat generation. And not just because she has a crush on Jack Kerouac, and not just because it’s her own personal fantasy to yell “DIG THIS!” at Charlie Parker while slugging wine with Neal Cassidy. No, not just those. She loves the literature, too.

ginsberg

In any event, 50 years ago yesterday, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” was deemed non-obscene. Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a wonderful piece about its cultural importance, which he read at the trial and can be found in Ann Charter’s “Portable Beat Reader,” if you have a couple extra bucks. Well, despite everyone’s love of the poem, Pacifica Radio ? the PUBLIC STATION ? thought it was dangerous to broadcast. So they did it online. Um, what? We’re here celebrating the day that this poem was freed from public scrutiny, that is, that everyone decided it was allowed to be disseminated to the public for its cultural significance, and 50 years later it’s suddenly too much for us all to bear?

“Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody’s serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.”

Keep on fighting the good fight, sons and daughters of the Beats. Brink’ll keep reading.