Illegal Lyrics
From Billboard via BoingBoing, a little good news from the front. A guy named Walter Ritter created a free application called Pearlyrics, which displays the lyrics of the song that’s currently playing in iTunes. If there are lyrics in the mp3, it displays those, otherwise it searches a few lyrics websites and saves what it finds. It’s a pretty good idea, and it certainly doesn’t sound like it should be illegal. Nonetheless, Warner/Chappell sent a cease and desist letter, and Ritter pulled it from the site to avoid any legal entanglements.
The EFF posted an open letter to Warner/Chappell, pointing out that since the software is only doing what any user could legally do with their hands and an internet browser, it’s not in fact an infringement of US copyright law. They also suggest that making legal threats against the makers of such software might expose Warner/Chappell to federal liability. Yesterday Warner/Chappell apologized to Walter Ritter, who has a nice post on the Pearlyrics site about it.
I’m so happy I could buy a CD. I think the high-profile Sony disaster has made content owners a little more careful about throwing their weight around – nobody wants to come across as dumb and anti-consumer as Sony did. It’s also nice to know that some actual grown-up lawyers like the ones at EFF are looking out for our interests.
Onion AV
The bigtime has finally found me – a couple of people have written to tell me that Baby Got Back got a nice mention in the Onion AV Club this week, under Great Cover Songs of 2005. Thanks Onion! I like the designation “humorist,” I’m going to start putting that on business cards.
Holy Tango of Literature
I tip my hat to friend and fellow traveller Francis Heaney, who in addition to being a very clever man who writes music and words and cartoons (and who knit himself a vest at least once), also understands how to work it. Francis has written a book called “Holy Tango of Literature,” a collection of poems and plays that famous poets and playwrights would have written if they had been required to use titles that were anagrams of their names. “Toilets” by T. S. Eliot, “Nice Smug Me” by e. e. cummings, you see what I’m saying. The book is quite funny, and would certainly make a nice Christmas gift for the geek in your life, especially if that geek is you.
Here’s the kicker: dude is giving that shit away! On the internets! In a recent blog posting, Francis links to a pdf and an html version of his book, in the hopes that you will like it and buy it. The eBook is Creative Commons, so you can exerpt and link and talk about it all you want, which I am about to do here. This is “I Will Alarm Islamic Owls” by William Carlos Williams:
I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn
and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises
Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah
NYC Appearance
Traditionally I post these things the day of the event, which I know doesn’t help anyone, so I’m getting a bit of a head start this time. John Hodgman and I will be doing our book reading thingie at Pianos this Friday 12/16 at 7PM as part of the One-Story reading series. Martini drink specials will be in full effect starting at 6:30, so go ahead and get drunk then. It will make it easier for us to entertain you.
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