Picture this. On second thought, better not.
Several fans of Janet Jackson who attended performances on her "Unbreakable" tour took videos of her performing. Then they went and posted the videos on Instagram. Since the performances are copyrighted, this is what some of them found when they tried loading those Instagram accounts later.
These fans are very angry over this. I can understand their anger over the loss of other photos they may not easily be able to replace. But I also fully support the right of performing artists to enforce their copyrights involving their works.
If you want to take video of a concert, fine. Just don't post it online.
* * *
Although this story broke last year, it didn't show up on my radar until today. Last October, Timothy Boatright, a transgender male student at Wellesley College ran for the elected position of Diversity Officer.. Timothy put down female on the application to Wellesley and did not disclose the fact he is transgender until after he'd enrolled.
The justification that he gave for enrolling at an all-women's college was that as a trans student an all women's college felt safer physically and psychologically. Makes sense to some degree.
What I can't wrap my head around is why a woman who feels male would actually want to conceal this fact and apply as a woman to an all-women's college when she apparently intended to begin her transition while enrolled there. It didn't come as a surprise that a number of the students at Wellesley took exception to Mr. Boatwright's campaign to become a diversity officer. As a white male, just what diversity did he represent at a women's college?
There is a major double-standard here. If a transgendered woman attempts to apply as a male to an all women's college, the application would be rejected by almost all of these institutions. Mills College in California became an exception to that policy in May of 2014. But why is it that a biological female who is a transgender male can get into a woman's school when the same school (except Mills) would reject a biological male who identifies as a transgender female?
Are all of the transgendered to be exempted from gender specific rules of any kind, at any level? In my mind, whenever someone begins their transition process, at that point they should be granted and required to live by all of the parameters of the gender they identify with.
* * *
The IRS and state tax agencies will be working with a number of public and private entities in an effort to stem the ever-increasing rise in tax fraud. IRS figures claim that in 2013 they paid out over $5.8 billion in tax refunds that were fraudulent while stopping four times that amount in refund claims involving fraud.
Imagine just how much more the IRS could generate in tax revenues if the Congress would stop hamstringing them by cutting their budgets? In 2010 the IRS budget was $13.4 billion with a staff of 94,600 employees. Now in 2015, the budget is down to $10.9 billion and the number of employees is down to 81,300. One estimate claimed that the $340 million cut from the IRS budget in the most recent fiscal year would result in lost tax revenues of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
The Republican leadership in the House and Senate knew this and forced those cuts through anyway, to punish the Obama Administration for alleged mistreatment of conservative PACs. This is just dumb all the way around.
* * *
Bill Cosby fired his attorney, Marty Singer and hired a large, downtown Los Angeles firm to take over his representation in the sexual assault case where Gloria Allred represents the plaintiff. Ms Allred was quoted as saying "Mr. Cosby has decided to hire 700 lawyers to fight one woman."
I looked at the size of the firms Ms Allred and Mr. Singer are partners in. Singer's firm is twice the size of Allred's firm. That disparity didn't seem to bother her and the fact that Mr. Cosby is now represented by Christopher Tayback of Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has no real impact on Ms Allred's ability to pursue the litigation.
Then there is the fact that there are actually at least a half-dozen civil lawsuits and one possible criminal prosecution pending against Mr. Cosby, making Ms Allred's comment about 700 lawyers versus one woman wholly inaccurate.
Once again, Gloria Allred, who prefers brightly colored business suits for her press conferences appears to be full of brown bovine fecal matter.
* * *
Tara Kyle, the widow of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle is appealing the jury award of $1.8 million to Jesse Ventura who claimed he had been defamed in Kyle's book. The jury awarded Ventura $500,000 in damages from the defamation claim and $1.3 million in "unjust enrichment" damages from the book's profits.
The basis of the appeal is the requirement that Ventura prove that Kyle acted with "actual malice" in making the statements he made in his book. Actual malice is explained in detail at that link but the basic concept is that Ventura must show that Kyle knew his statements were false or made with reckless disregard concerning the truth or false nature of the statements.
I don't think that Ventura's claim has merit on either the defamation basis or on the unjust enrichment basis. People didn't buy that book to read about a bar brawl between Kyle and Ventura, accounts of which were at least partially verified by witnesses at the original trial.
I hope Mrs. Kyle wins the appeal. Ventura's 15 minutes were up a long time ago.
These fans are very angry over this. I can understand their anger over the loss of other photos they may not easily be able to replace. But I also fully support the right of performing artists to enforce their copyrights involving their works.
If you want to take video of a concert, fine. Just don't post it online.
* * *
Although this story broke last year, it didn't show up on my radar until today. Last October, Timothy Boatright, a transgender male student at Wellesley College ran for the elected position of Diversity Officer.. Timothy put down female on the application to Wellesley and did not disclose the fact he is transgender until after he'd enrolled.
The justification that he gave for enrolling at an all-women's college was that as a trans student an all women's college felt safer physically and psychologically. Makes sense to some degree.
What I can't wrap my head around is why a woman who feels male would actually want to conceal this fact and apply as a woman to an all-women's college when she apparently intended to begin her transition while enrolled there. It didn't come as a surprise that a number of the students at Wellesley took exception to Mr. Boatwright's campaign to become a diversity officer. As a white male, just what diversity did he represent at a women's college?
There is a major double-standard here. If a transgendered woman attempts to apply as a male to an all women's college, the application would be rejected by almost all of these institutions. Mills College in California became an exception to that policy in May of 2014. But why is it that a biological female who is a transgender male can get into a woman's school when the same school (except Mills) would reject a biological male who identifies as a transgender female?
Are all of the transgendered to be exempted from gender specific rules of any kind, at any level? In my mind, whenever someone begins their transition process, at that point they should be granted and required to live by all of the parameters of the gender they identify with.
* * *
The IRS and state tax agencies will be working with a number of public and private entities in an effort to stem the ever-increasing rise in tax fraud. IRS figures claim that in 2013 they paid out over $5.8 billion in tax refunds that were fraudulent while stopping four times that amount in refund claims involving fraud.
Imagine just how much more the IRS could generate in tax revenues if the Congress would stop hamstringing them by cutting their budgets? In 2010 the IRS budget was $13.4 billion with a staff of 94,600 employees. Now in 2015, the budget is down to $10.9 billion and the number of employees is down to 81,300. One estimate claimed that the $340 million cut from the IRS budget in the most recent fiscal year would result in lost tax revenues of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
The Republican leadership in the House and Senate knew this and forced those cuts through anyway, to punish the Obama Administration for alleged mistreatment of conservative PACs. This is just dumb all the way around.
* * *
Bill Cosby fired his attorney, Marty Singer and hired a large, downtown Los Angeles firm to take over his representation in the sexual assault case where Gloria Allred represents the plaintiff. Ms Allred was quoted as saying "Mr. Cosby has decided to hire 700 lawyers to fight one woman."
I looked at the size of the firms Ms Allred and Mr. Singer are partners in. Singer's firm is twice the size of Allred's firm. That disparity didn't seem to bother her and the fact that Mr. Cosby is now represented by Christopher Tayback of Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has no real impact on Ms Allred's ability to pursue the litigation.
Then there is the fact that there are actually at least a half-dozen civil lawsuits and one possible criminal prosecution pending against Mr. Cosby, making Ms Allred's comment about 700 lawyers versus one woman wholly inaccurate.
Once again, Gloria Allred, who prefers brightly colored business suits for her press conferences appears to be full of brown bovine fecal matter.
* * *
Tara Kyle, the widow of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle is appealing the jury award of $1.8 million to Jesse Ventura who claimed he had been defamed in Kyle's book. The jury awarded Ventura $500,000 in damages from the defamation claim and $1.3 million in "unjust enrichment" damages from the book's profits.
The basis of the appeal is the requirement that Ventura prove that Kyle acted with "actual malice" in making the statements he made in his book. Actual malice is explained in detail at that link but the basic concept is that Ventura must show that Kyle knew his statements were false or made with reckless disregard concerning the truth or false nature of the statements.
I don't think that Ventura's claim has merit on either the defamation basis or on the unjust enrichment basis. People didn't buy that book to read about a bar brawl between Kyle and Ventura, accounts of which were at least partially verified by witnesses at the original trial.
I hope Mrs. Kyle wins the appeal. Ventura's 15 minutes were up a long time ago.
posted by me at 9:57 AM
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