Terran Franklin

Remember when I said, “If it weren’t for Desktop Defender, I wouldn’t even be on Facebook?”  Well?  Remember what I said, “Any site who deletes even a passing image that could be even confused as Mr. Peace Be Upon Him, I would cancel all accounts and encourage a boycott, even if I’m a paying customer?”

Well, Facebook, you’re just like Comedy Central.  A bunch of Dickless Cowards.  And I will no longer need your services.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/31/pakistani-court-lifts-ban-facebook-site-removes-page-deemed-offensive-muslims/?test=latestnews

By removing those pages, you show that you’d keel over to a bunch of mindless, extremist assholes who would have wished you dead regardless of whatever you deleted those pages or not, and that you care more for a bunch of retards who pride themselves of never reading a book than someone who would shell out their hard-earned money—and I’m not talking about myself here—who could actually support you.  By kowtowing of some hypersensitive fucks who break out the torches and pitchforks if you so much as look at them cross-eyed, you cease to be a company worthy of my involvement.

I’ve already flagged my account for deletion, and after 14 days, all information you have on me should be officially removed.  And I do hope that others who value their own self-expression over fearing someone who’s on the other side of the fucking planet do the same.

Facebook:  Officially Dead to Me.

As everyone in my ‘inner circle’ of proofreaders and idea hashers know by now, there’s two Scarlet PI books that are in beta at this time, and one of them is the first book from a fan of the brand.

As most of you know, I usually send my books on PDF format, the most common for long files like novels.  And I look for people to help with all the spelling and grammar mistakes; all those little typo bunnies that seem to keep away from me.  But there’s always the problem of how they could send feedback to me on these files, because programs that let you annotate PDF files aren’t often freeware.

Enter the Nitro PDF reader:  http://www.nitroreader.com/tour/

I found this over at lifehacker, and it seems to be the best way to go if you want to stick to working with the PDF, and not have to make a separate file to list all the errors with references in pages and line numbers…which sometimes get askew as I keep working on the book while you’re editing.  For those who prefer to edit straight on the file, this tool would be recommended, at least for you to try out.

One note of caution however.  When I installed this file, I get the infamous “Insta-Krash” when I launched the file.  It appeared that a DLL didn’t agree with some OSes.  It’s already been addressed by the company:  http://www.getsatisfaction.com/nitropdf/topics/why_nitro_pdf_cannot_open_on_my_os  Go there and download the patch, copy the file to the program’s directory at c:/ProgramFiles, and it’ll work nicely.

This is an added comment to Cory Doctlow’s recent demand that the above phrase needs to be killed.  Not only is he the inspiration behind the Scarlet PI brand (he’s in the dedication) but he’s the one who encourages the use of the Creative Commons license, a license I use exclusively.  He’s one of the leading front man in what he calls “Copyfight,” or what I’d call “Copyright Law Reform.”

As most of us know by now, we’re caught in the crossfire between traditional copyright law, and the trans warp drive speed spread of information that the Internet grants.  When traditional Copyright Laws were written, there wasn’t turntables, tape recorders, radios, VCRs and Cable.  When those and many more technologies popped up, traditional Copyright Laws couldn’t keep up and the people who supposedly own the creative works, most of them weren’t even the creators themselves, lost their shit.  Here’s a list of their caterwauling examples from before the invention of the Internet:

#5.  VCR’s Will Kill Television!

#4.  Phonographs and Player Pianos Will Kill Music!

#3.  Pirated BASIC Will Kill Software Development!

#2.  The Cassette Will Kill Music! Again!

#1.  The Printing Press Will Kill Literature!

None of those happened.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  Music, Television, Software Development, and Literature grew by leaps and bounds because of these technologies, because it became possible that more or more people will have access to them.  It became easier for the people to do with the creative works, as what Cory said in his reasons behind his copyfighting:

When non-industrial entities (e.g., people, schools, church groups, etc.) interacted with copyrighted works, they did things that copyright law didn’t have anything to say about: they read books, they listened to music, they sang around the piano or went to the movies. They discussed this stuff. They sang it in the shower. Retold it (with variations) to the kids at bedtime. Quoted it. Painted murals for the kids’ room based on it.

Now we have the internet, and what happened with the VCR, Music Players, Printing Presses and all the other inventions before it, even Radio, all appeared to be in slow motion by comparison.  And that caused many corporation to really get paranoid, and in some cases, outright Evil.  And by evil, I mean suing a 12 Year Old Little Girl out of her college fund because she didn’t want to buy a $20 album with just one good song.  And worse off, they went on television and boasted it.  That’s worse than overstepping their bounds.  To me that’s pedo-fucking-phelia.  And don’t let me get started with what the RIAA thinks is an appropriate fine for downloading a song in the first place.  (Hint:  They actually think The Pirate Bay owes them more money than what is actually available, read ‘printed and coined,’ in the whole world.)

I swore off every buying a music CD in my life at that point.  On Principle.  For all I know about the RIAA, they’d get erections on the idea of taking everything away from you and selling you into slavery just because you have a song running in your head.  Much less in your iPod.  It’s probably the only way they can get it up, I suppose.

The main reason behind all this hyperbole is because of the nature of the internet.  It basically runs on copies.  Every time you press a key or download a web page, you make a copy.  It’s how they work.  The Internet, by its nature, is completely incompatible to traditional Copyright Law, a law that has been written when people are still going about in horses and buggies.  It does not address properly the environment we have today.  That is why we have the Creative Commons License so that these holes can be filled in.

And that’s why I believe that we should have Copyright Law Reform so it can address what is the new kind of Fair Use today. And in “Why I copyfight,” Cory tells the reason why:

Copyright law valorizes copying as a rare and noteworthy event. On the Internet, copying is automatic, massive, instantaneous, free, and constant. Clip a Dilbert cartoon and stick it on your office door and you’re not violating copyright. Take a picture of your office door and put it on your homepage so that the same co-workers can see it, and you’ve violated copyright law, and since copyright law treats copying as such a rarified activity, it assesses penalties that run to the hundreds of thousands of dollars for each act of infringement.

There’s a word for all the stuff we do with creative works — all the conversing, retelling, singing, acting out, drawing, and thinking: we call it culture.

Culture’s old. It’s older than copyright.

The existence of culture is why copyright is valuable. The fact that we have a bottomless appetite for songs to sing together, for stories to share, for art to see and add to our visual vocabulary is the reason that people will pay money for these things.

Let me say that again: the reason copyright exists is because culture creates a market for creative works. If there was no market for creative works, there’d be no reason to care about copyright.

That leads up to the phrase “Information Wants To Be Free,” which is what Cory is now trying to shoot down.  The reason why he’s doing so, and I saw this easily, is because of the confusion behind the definition of the word “Free” is:

It’s time for IWTBF to die because it’s become the easiest, laziest straw man for Hollywood’s authoritarian bullies to throw up as a justification for the monotonic increase of surveillance, control, and censorship in our networks and tools. I can imagine them saying: “These people only want network freedom because they believe that ‘information wants to be free’. They pretend to be concerned about freedom, but the only ‘free’ they care about is ‘free of charge.’”

Before you claim that I’m going all Clinton on you, let me explain that there are two definitions of the word “Free,” as it applies here.  Free as in Beer, Gratis, and Free as in Speech, Libre.  You’ll find the comparison in Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_Libre

When someone like me says IWTBF, we mean Libre.  When some RIAA pedo lawyer hears is, however, he thinks Gratis.  And immediately calls on that 12-year-old girl and sticks it in her pooper, and she better love it or else he’ll take her lunch money.

And therein lies our problem.  The phrase isn’t a bad one, but the meaning gets the proverbial lost in the translation, and it is still spoken in English.

What everyone involved needs to understand, except for that lawyer because his need for Delicious Loli has rotted his brain, is the difference between Gratis and Libre.  You can have one and not the other.  That’s why you sometimes have to pay for open source software, because the people who made that software still has to eat, and they don’t often have the luxury of getting up before the crack of dawn to drag their butts to a burger joint to put on a smelly monkey suit and flip burgers all day.

That’s where I’m at with my own works myself.  You have to pay for the books, unless I offer the whole text free, but once you do, you pretty much have a wide birth of free use liberties—including distributing the work yourself and especially making derivative works (The coming Scarlet PI book “Adventure Under the Rising Sun,” is just that!) under the Creative Commons License.  In fact, it’s flat out encouraged.  In essence you’re buying what I’d call an Open Source book.  It’s libre but it’s not gratis.

It’s this distinction that needs to be address if we are going to have that sensible Copyright Law Reform that we need in this world, and in some minds we need it more than Health Care Reform or even Immigration Reform.  It’s vital for the culture as a whole to be as open and as libre as it should be.  Because, as Cory said at the end of “Why I Copyright,” if culture, is not this open, this libre, or as Cory says, “loses the copyright wars,” the reason for copyright dies with it.  Because nobody would be willing to risk getting sued than raped by some corporation, or even acknowledge them with their purchases.  Or get raped in the ass by some drooling lawyer who ODed on Viagra.

And if Copyright laws become so strict that people stop using or appreciating creativity, where would we be as a species then?

Earlier this evening, I put both DeviantART and FurAffinity on notice:  If they take out any pics of Mohammad that were drawn this day because they fear Muslims, I would pull all of my pictures, close my account, and suggest everyone boycott both sites.  For being total pussies with no balls.  Just like the worthless fucktards at Comedy Central who should be beheaded to the tune of the South Park theme.  (They would turn around and make periodical series of Jesus Christ right and left, but they are too fucking chicken to offend a Muslim?  Even flamboyant gay man will question their sexuality.)

As a sign of how serious I am about this, keep in mind that I subscribe to DeviantART.  Who do you think they’d listen to:  A bunch of chanting misanthropes who’d kill everyone who as much as look at them cross-eyed, or paying customers?

In other words, DeviantART, FurAffinity, Facebook, YouTube, you’re fucked either way, pal.  You might as well be fucked with balls on your body.

Compare that with something an actual Muslim actually said about something that the Prophet actually done:

In a recent piece I wrote for The Washington Post, I highlighted a well-known Islamic parable that tells the story of the Prophet Mohammed and his interactions with an unruly female neighbor, who would curse him violently and then dump garbage on him from her top window each time he walked by her house.

One day, the prophet noticed that the woman was not there. In the spirit of true kindness, he went out of his way to inquire about her well-being. He then went on to visit his unfriendly neighbor at her bedside when he found that she had fallen seriously ill.

This genteel act of prophetic kindness toward unfriendly or overtly hostile neighbors is the Muslim "Ubuntu" standard that we should all aspire to, not irrational threats of violence aimed at the silliness of some sophomoric cartoons aimed at inciting a provocative response around the world.

If we ask ourselves the simple question "What would Mohammed do?" about this, the even simpler answer would be two words: "Absolutely nothing."

And may Mr. Peace Be Upon Him give those who want to kill DeviantART users the bird and then Sparta Kick them off of Heaven.  They do the Prophet more of a disservice than all the Mohammad art in the world.

If you’re seeing this, it’s because I got a brand new DSL modem, hopefully with a longer life span.  I can get back to full speed and collaborating with my circle of friends on proofreading the two—and coming in June a third—book which will be released later on this year.

I also have an update on my futile quest of getting everybody in said circle into a single location.  Some people use AOL and not YIM, some are focused on YIM and won’t even touch ICQ, and some who do E-Mail refuses to go to Google Docs.  Don’t even think of setting up a message board for them all, the only thing you’ll get there is spam and trolls. And me, if it weren’t for Desktop Defender, I wouldn’t even go to Facebook.  Getting everyone together in a same portal on my computer is a lot like herding cats.

And here’s another winkle in the mix.  Google Wave, a wild collaboration tool from the presumably “Don’t Be Evil” company, is finally open to everybody with a Google Account.  I’ve been trying Google Wave for some time now, and it works fine…provided you can get people to actually use the product.  Like I said, some people flat out refuse.

Heh.  Such is the trials and tribulations of being a writer with a necessary pulse on the couple of people you trust with your ideas.  (And sometimes are entrusted with theirs, so I won’t complain.  Much.”

I come home from my apartment after petsitting for my parents to find my DSL modem on the fritz.  I tried the usual resetting procedures, such as unplugging it for 30 seconds or pushing that reset button on the back with a pin, but that didn’t help.  I’m going to have it checked out with an AT&T Store, but it might be a sign that I need a new DSL modem. :p  There are other places where I can get some Wi-Fi, but I’m going to be stuck off the net for a while.  I’ll get back as soon as I can.

I once said that I would prefer Jason Mayhem Miller deal with Bullies.  But I’m wrong.

Why just have a Mixed Martial Artist, when you can have the family that created the fucking UFC teach your kid how to deal with them.  Only the most insane Zero Tolerance Principle would just give a pass at someone putting somebody who’s been tormenting him or her into a submission hold.

Opera has asked for video auditions for shows to go to her coming network, and one of them is something I’d actually vote for:

Rener Gracie’s Audition (Bullyproof)

VOTE NOW TO SAVE THE AMERICAN YOUTH! Every day, hundreds of thousands of kids are terrified to go to school out of fear of bullies. These kids are depressed, have no self-confidence, and unfortunately, many of them are borderline suicidal. On our TV show, the Gracie Brothers will sweep the nations schools to find the children who are most victimized by bullies. This children will be brought to California, where, over the period of several weeks, the will be "bullyproofed" from the inside out. By empowering the children – physically, mentally, and emotionally – we will give them the confidence to take a stand against bullies so they can take control of their lives. Without confidence, a child has no chance at success, and on this show we are going to make sure that every child gets a fair chance.

The link to see the audition and vote for the show is at http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=836&promo_id=1  She’ll gain a whole lot of respect from me if this show is at the O Channel’s starting lineup.  Go and Vote for it!

Sometimes the reason why California is so much in the crapper it so obvious.  Here’s an expert from an article on LA boycotting Arizona because they flat out had enough of nobody doing anything about border jumpers:  Source:  Los Angeles to boycott Arizona over immigration law

"I cannot go to Arizona today without a passport," Councilman Ed Reyes said before the vote. "If I come across an officer who’s had a bad day and feels the picture on my ID is not me, I could be summarily deported — no questions asked. That is not American."

Ed Reyes was born in Los Angeles, California, in America.  The same country as Arizona.

LA Douches, Joe Rogan?  I’m thinking LA Idiots.  I’d even call them retarded, but that would be an insult to Retards.

I got this in my E-Mail just now.  Sigh.  Sometimes you scammers don’t even try:

(If you are not in charge of this please transfer this email to appropriate dept, thanks.)

Dear President,

We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china. we have something need to confirm with you. we formally received an application on May 11, 2010. one company which called "NWT Investment Company" are applying to register "foxfirestudio" as Internet Keywords and the following Domain Names:
foxfirestudio.asia
foxfirestudio.cn
foxfirestudio.com.cn
foxfirestudio.com.hk
foxfirestudio.com.tw
foxfirestudio.hk
foxfirestudio.in
foxfirestudio.net.cn
foxfirestudio.org.cn
foxfirestudio.tw
After our initial examination, we found that the Domain Names applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark. these days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation from your company. if your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible.
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit is 7 workdays. if your company files no reply within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by "NWT Investment Company".

Best Regards,

Cade Chen

Senior Consultant

[Banner Ad with address and phone number]

The colored text is what gave it away.  Dittos with calling me the President of anything and that I can actually afford a Trademark.  And where is the second s?

Nice Try, dickheads.  Learn how to spell next time.

Referenced Link:  http://io9.com/5535558/is-fan-fiction-really-so-wrong

There are some things I feel that I’m obliged to write some things because of what I have done in the past.  One of which is a yet-to-be-published litmus test of whether or not your character can be described as a Mary Sue, from supposedly someone who’s a fucking expert in those kind of characters.  (The reason I give behind why people make Mary Sues is similar to why small decked losers buy ultra expensive Italian cars that have no business outside of a racetrack.  It’s overcompensation for a sucky life.)  I write as someone who has done—and in fact started my writing career—on fanfiction.  In fact, some or the more abrasive trolls would say that I still do nothing but fanfiction and they might be right:  Blood and Metal?  Started as a fanfiction; in fact it was the first story I’ve ever written when it was a Sonic Fanfict and not its current incarnation.  Scarlet PI?  Amusement Park fanfiction, with more than enough originality in it to be allowed to be published by LuLu.  Lost Boy Found?  Hey Hey Hey, Peter Pan doesn’t count; that story’s public domain in America.

And the upcoming Johnny Briz script?  Don’t start.

But for the record, I’d have to stand up and say that there should be nothing wrong with people making fanficts, if they could use the area to improve your writing style and process, and if it enhances the fandom in general.  I’ve seen some fanfiction that’s even better than the original work.  So much so that the companies should hire them.  Unfortunately they’re on the 20% side of the 80-20 principle, and might be lost among the ocean of eye-burning typing, insane characterizations, and plots that would only come from under the influences of hormones, drugs, too much talk radio of either side of the fringe, and of course an occasional yet-to-be-diagnosed insanity.  Add basement dwelling assholes who only focus on the 90% of everything that’s total crap and honestly believe that the best thing they can do with their lives is to denigrate that and the people who wrote it and you’ll understand why most companies are backing away from the fanfict hobby with crucifixes in their hands, such as the above.

And I haven’t even added in otaku shippers.  They make the trolls look good.  You’re not supposed to do that.

I come from the understanding that people making fanficts, and the inevitable Mary Sue or slash pairing or smut fiction that can peel the paint on the wall behind you, are almost expected from anything that gathers a fallowing.  If something really hits off and gets popular, it’s flat out required.  You don’t see seventy-part fanfict manga opuses on VR5, do you?  “If you don’t want people to make derivative works of your stuff, than you really shouldn’t put it out to the public, should you?” is what I said.  And these companies and creators have to understand one thing:  They’re more than just fans to you.  They are your fucking customers.  And if you go too trigger happy with the lawsuits and the cease and desist orders, you’ll drive them away.  And later on you give people the impression that you really don’t want people to be your fans, and ultimately, why should they care about what you make or even if you live or die?  They’ll just become fans of some other thing that are much more inviting and more welcoming to what they wish to add to the experience.

It’s probably the main reason behind my exclusive use of the Creative Commons License.  To me it’s my embracing the fact that, there’s going to be people making fanfiction and fanart of a vixen fursuit hopping from park to park, or an all-American young man turned into a wolf staging an evolutionary step in an anthro world.  In fact, I give my readers permission to do so.  Heck, if it’s good enough, I’ll even make it part of the cannon.  (Maatla is too big of a world with too many lands and people involved for me to write everything in the series, if you want to make a side story on some of the characters, feel free.)  I intend to take the creme de la creme of whatever fanficts you all make, assist the writers in polishing them up, and compile them all into an anthology or two.  You’ll get the credits for the stories and original characters and you get the same feeling I get when writing these books—which is similar to the kind of feeling people who work on skyscrapers get when they look up from street level at their finished masterpiece.  “Holy Fucking Shit, I built that!”  That is a kind of feeling you won’t get from an MMO, or when tormenting your village idiot in a pickle suit.  Or slaving away at a cubicle biting down violent tendencies because you’re not allowed to see the sun.

And if you doubt me?  There’s going to be a book released in the Scarlet PI brand titled “Adventure under the Rising Sun.”  It is a fanfict turned cannon.  And it’s written by a fan who became a very true friend of mine who was with me through the worst of crap I had to go through.  This is me standing behind the words I typed above here.

In this way, I’d like to welcome people to write their derivative works for me.  I just have two conditions for the welcome.  One is to abide by the Creative Commons license, of course; Share Alike is there for a reason.  The other is to learn the writing process while you’re doing so.  Use this experience to learn the fundamentals for writing, all that vocabulary, grammar, and organization skills.  (Or at least use your spell checker)  Find a word processor that you will take a bullet for—Mine would be Corel’s WordPerfect, but some would just as comfortable with Microsoft Word, and others are just content to slum it on Open Office.  Make it an habit to hammer down at least 1000 words on paper, even if you have to scribble out an outline or jotting down a journal entry on some social networking site.  Not only will it improve your writing in the fanfict world, but you’ll find yourself wanting to do something I should have done in the Clinton years:  Branch out into your own worlds and your own stories.  Fanfict can be a great world to practice on, with the built-in world and characters for you to use so you can get on with writing a story, but there may come a time when your imagine sparks to life a world of your own.  A dreamscape and fantasy that grows exponentially inside your soul that you believe you should share it with the world.  At that time, you’re ready to leave the fanfictions like a bird leaving the nest and go on to create the next Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or anything else your mind conjures.  Anything that actually attracts fans of your own who start making their own fan works so that the circle can begin anew.

And I’d probably be standing there smiling at you, be it here or with the others who gone before me.