This Blog is Not All Spocko, All The Time

For what it's worth, I'm vaguely working on a post about Cab and Blanche Calloway, klezmorim, edgy Jewish composers of the 1930s and 1940s, "Yiddish swing," and animated cartoons. I just need to do a little more research and dig out my book on the history of klezmer. However, I don't yet have that done, so here's one more post with some information about Spocko's case. I gather that there's an official "blogswarm" going on, and I wouldn't want to miss out.

I know Spocko from becoming one of his "19 readers" and a semi-regular commenter over at his now-defunct (though, I hear tell, soon-to-be resurrected) blog. We've exchanged a lot of long e-mails and talked about each other's projects. It turns out we're in similar, although not identical, lines of work, and we've been able to bounce ideas off each other's heads quite often. It's not every day you get to have your own personal Vulcan to talk to, after all. That's a resource worth having. Not only that, but he's a really nice guy, as well. Near as I can figure, too, he actually gives a damn about helping companies keep their brand reputations, which is mostly what Spocko's motivations are about. Scurrilously capitalist of him, isn't it?

Bits and Pieces From the Tubes

Paul Lukasiak has mirrored the audio clips here.

Mike Stark has a call-to-arms post up about why and how to do this blogswarm, which appears at Calling All Wingnuts and DailyKos.

Scottish blogger Christopher Dallman of Deacon Barry retells the story of Spocko as a modern fairy tale here.

The Peninsula Press Club (serving the Bay Area) picks up the story: ABC Radio Silences Web site of KSFO Critic

And here's a Corrente post with audio clips, and info about Disney as "anti-Communist witch-hunter" in the comments...

And finally, here's the relevant statute from the US Copyright Office:

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use38

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Stay tuned for more updates. I think it's only going to get hotter from here on in.