The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article covering the fashion industry’s request that congress pass a bill giving copyright protection to its designs. You may remember that I took a copyright class last year, spent the summer working for a copyright firm, and that I’m going into copyright law after graduation. I have a thing or two to say about the fashion industry’s request.

At first I was completely against this maneuver. I thought it was a horrible idea. The last thing we need is federal regulation in yet another artistic field. The nature of art involves a certain degree of borrowing, and, yes, even ripping-off. Every artist in existence has ripped off other artists and co-opted other artists’ ideas. It’s how creativity works. Inspiration and what have you. No one has any new ideas anymore. It’s a matter of taking someone else’s idea and twisting it into something quasi-original.

But then I thought about all the counterfeit clothing and accessories that cut into fashion designers’ sales. Sure, maybe counterfeit products function as free advertising, and maybe those buyers wouldn’t and couldn’t afford some of those items and would never buy them anyway, but there’s something to be said for preventing others from making a blatant copy of a work and passing it off as their own. Case in point – music copyright law. Software copyright law. Any copyright law. The creator is entitled to protection of the unique expression of an idea (though not the idea itself).

There are more arguments, of course, but I won’t go into too much detail. OK, maybe a little. How would we enforce fashion copyright law? Will judges have to decide if one blouse rips off another one? Do we get experts to testify? Can you copyright simple classic designs, like the vertical blue-striped shirt I’m wearing right now that every guy owns? The WSJ article also brings up another issue – that the counterfeit market forces the fashion industry to adapt quickly and come up with new designs after last year’s designs saturate the market, and that this is good for fashion.

So what do you think? Should a dress’s cut be copyrightable? The look of a purse? The design of shoes?

You must. I’m not a huge tv-watcher but this show is gold. Pure brilliance. I still haven’t watched last week’s episode – gonna get to it tonight – but I’ve heard it’s one of those episodes that is so good it’s hard to watch. Just makes you feel all awkward and sympathetic for the people you’re watching. Like when Ben Stiller used to be really good at making you feel absolutely horrible for him. If you like that kind of humor, you’ll like The Office. Before it came to America, The Office was a UK show very similar to the new American version, but with a British sensibility that can’t be recreated or described. It’s just – British humor. Highly recommended.

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yarrrrrr. Shiver me timbers. Rebecca remembered, but I didn't.

1) One of your professors has a sub come in to discuss a narrow area of law. This sub is the leading state expert on this subject. He’s an older man, maybe 60, and rather large. He stands up, shakes his left leg, and adjusts himself without trying to hide his movements behind the lectern. Horrified, you look at the girl beside you and claim, “I feel violated. Did he just do what I think he did.” “Yeah, ew.” Then, the professor does it again, this time turning to the side to face half of the class.

2) You arrive at your Securities Regulation class a little early as the previous class’ professor is packing up. He says, “Is this Securities? How do you like it? I also teach it some semesters.” You give him a blank stare and think to yourself: “This class is freaking impossible. It’s like tax, but worse.” Just as you’re about to give a perfectly civil response, he adds, “You know, because this stuff is basically impossible.”

If you read my post on cherz’s blog, you would have seen that I had big plans to see the Reverend Horton Heat on Thursday night and skip class on Friday. Did I see the Reverend? No. It sold out. Did I skip class? Of course. I couldn’t possibly go to class when I had gotten it into my head to skip. Instead, I went mountain biking and the equipment gods sent their wrath upon me.

I’ve broken all kinds of bike parts on bike rides. If I haven’t broken it, I saw someone else break it. I’ve also seen people lose all kinds of parts while riding, including a crank bolt a few months go. But I could not have been prepared for what happened yesterday.

There I was, just riding along, and I notice that the drivetrain on my single-speed feels wobbly. Now this is especially odd because the whole point of a single-speed bike is that there are fewer parts to go wobbly and thus less headaches on the trail. There’s a crank, a chain, a chain tensioner, and a cog. That’s it.

So imagine my surprise when I stop and look down at my bike and see nothing wrong. What? Something was wobbling. I get off the bike and take a closer look and see that there is indeed a big problem. What’s wrong with this picture?

There should be four bolts around the perimeter of the chainring. Those bolts hold the chainring to the crankarm. One of the bolts managed to work itself loose and take a walk on the trail.

I tightened the three remaining chainring bolts, cursed, and headed back to the car. My epic three hour ride was cut short to one hour. But that’s ok because I don’t think I would have lasted for three hours.

Hell no. Not gonna do it. Why should I? I love my nano but I’m an iPod minimalist. I upload songs to the nano and that’s it. No pictures. No calendar. No notes. When I charge the nano I don’t open iTunes – it charges whether or not iTunes is open. I have no need for the jukebox-style album covers. When I hear of features like "jukebox-style album covers," I think, "slow my computer to a screeching halt." No thanks.

So to all the Apple junkies who downloaded iTunes 7... suckers!!! (insert winky smiley face thing here). I hope you had a good reason to install it, cuz I can hear your hard drive grinding from here.

Before i get into describing the staggering awesomeness and total exhaustion of the weekend, which will take me a couple days to get to, i have this to say: it felt good to be in a place where people have tatoos of Texas on various body parts. You don't see that so often in Houston. But in Austin it's standard issue. Gotta love it.

there's a new ipod nano out. it's thinner, has an aluminum case, has a 24-hour battery life, and a brigher screen. damn you steve jobs, i can't afford all of your ingenuity.

Cherz made the grave mistake of inviting me to be a guest-blogger on his site. He has two other guest-bloggers and I am the lynch pin that will bring the whole thing down. Just wait and see. Case in point: my first post.

The Austin City Limits music festival has gotten cocky in its old age. They let you bring your camelback, but it has to be empty. WTF? No water allowed. Oh, but you can bring “two factory sealed water bottles up to 1 liter each.” I sweat two liters of water in five minutes. Two liters is a joke. Meanwhile, I’m betting a half-liter bottle of water costs $7. Someone out there in ACL-land is making way too much money, or getting a really good laugh out of this. Fuckers.

I just felt like channeling a little bit of the stuff that bugs me vibe.

The fun part is that I’ll be skipping class all of Friday and probably Monday since I won’t have read anything all weekend. Wait – I never read anymore. Looks like I’ll be in class Monday.

I saw:

• Gomez
  
• Thievery Corporation (only a few minutes)
  
• Gnarls Barkley (only a few minutes)
  
• Wolf Parade (only a few minutes)
  
• John Mayer (only a few minutes) (ugh)
  
• Ben Kweller (only a few minutes)
  
• Nada Surf (only a few minutes)
  
• The Shins
  
• The Raconteurs
  
• Massive Attack
  
• Ween
  
• The New Pornographers (only a few minutes)
  
• The Greencards
  
• Muse
  
• Tom Petty (only a few minutes)

My top picks were Muse, Massive Attack, The Raconteurs, and Gomez. Three of those bands happen to be from the UK and they happen to be bands I’ve been waiting to see for three years, so this ACL was kind of a big deal to me. These bands don’t come to the US often.

Muse was phenomenal.* Everything was there – musical accuracy, stage antics, variety of song choice, and sound quality. They must have a great sound guy. I was concerned they’d have a hard time translating the complexity of their studio recordings into a live performance but they seem to have a good handle on it. In fact, the same goes for Massive Attack. I didn’t know what to expect with them. I wasn’t even sure they’d have a full band, but they did. They had two drummers. I pegged them as more of an electronic outfit with various keyboards and synths doing all the work. I was also happy to see they toured with the two extra vocalists featured on their studio tracks. Massive Attack are experts at gradual builds and they pulled it off well in the live performance. The light show was also impressive. The main vocalist made a few comments about our buddy W, and on the next song, the light display behind the band scrolled factoids about the Iraq war: the number of Americans killed, the number of Iraqis killed, the cost of the war to American taxpayers, the number of displaced Iraqi civilians, so on and so forth. It was sobering.

The Raconteurs, Jack White’s new band, were insane. That guy is possessed. I saw The White Stripes a long time ago at Emo’s in Austin and I thought he was nuts then. He’s only more crazy now. If you get the chance, definitely check this band out. They will not disappoint.

Gomez was a little more reserved than I had hoped for. They didn’t really let loose and kept to the more mellow tracks. There was one song in particular I wanted to hear with a (surprise) distorted bass part, but they didn’t do it. What really bugged me was that the bass player hung back the whole show and stood by his amp. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a bass player who hides behind the band, musically or physically. Otherwise, they played some good songs and had a good time on stage.

What about Tom Petty? Yeah, there were about 50 million people standing between me and Tom Petty. Tom had already started by the time the Muse show ended. I walked for a while towards his stage and there was still at least a half-mile of people in front of me. There was no way I was going to get closer to see or hear anything. No amount of wattage could have moved the sound to where I and thousands of other people were. So I heard traces of a few songs and left with a couple friends. We ate at Magnolia, they went back to the hotel, and I hit the road to get home in time to sleep a few hours and be at work at 9.

Just my luck, I ran into a torrential downpour on I-71 that brought me down to 30 miles per hour. My sight was limited to 10 feet in front of me. Thankfully I finally got away from the rainstorm and cruised the rest of the way, getting home at 2 am. Seven hours later, I was at my desk, ears ringing and head groggy.

Pictures i lifted from flickr:

Muse:

Massive Attack:

The light towers:

The Raconteurs:

Jack White screaming his head off:

Gomez:

*Addendum: My only complaint about Muse was that ACL pulled the plug on them too early. They were supposed to have a forty-five minute set (which was already too short), but since Tom Petty had started playing, the singer said, "We'd love to keep playing but the people running show are going to pull the power on us because Tom Petty has started." Hence, some of my ambivalence towards seeing Tom Petty.

Is anyone listening to the new(ish) nine inch nails album? I know they’re not underground or indie or the synth-dance-rock that the kids* love so much these days (The Killers, The Bravery, etc), but shit, it’s Trent Reznor. He knows what he’s doing.

Anyway, I’ve been listening to the new NIN album, and while it’s certainly different than the other albums, I like it. Yeah, it might be more commercial, and it definitely has a less “industrial” vibe, but I still feel like a lot of thought was put into it.

I especially like the drum work. You can’t go wrong when you get Dave Grohl to hit things for you. And since there are a lot of grungy bass lines, it gets automatic points. Put a bass through a distortion filter and I’m basically sold. Hey, I’m easy.

* I admit it. I like those bands too. Even though they dress like Robert Smith in a suit.

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve ridden the road bike. I know I’m not at the level I was when I was in Dallas, but I didn’t know exactly how bad it had gotten. There I was at the loop at Memorial Park today, cruising at 18-19 miles per hour, when some douche bag on a full suspension mountain sails past me. Me, on super-duper titanium lighter than your left shoe road bike with bladed-spoked wheels designed to cut through wind better than normal wheels. He was on a completely inefficient trail bike designed to soak up bumps and waste as much energy as possible.

My ego was bruised. So what do I do? What any male would have done. I sped up. I tried to catch him. I dropped a few gears and cranked as hard as I could. But since my breathing was all out of whack and my muscles aren’t used to that kind of stress, I lost him. He rode off leaving me gasping for air. To make matters worse, he lapped me a while later. Who’s the douche bag now?