Re: Tigre Unmasked!

1

The '72 Chevy and '84 Olds strike me as trying to hard.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 5:45 AM
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I will say that the article is sadly optimistic about what it takes to get laughed out of court. Complaints making allegations about space travel (in the context of a dispute over a traffic violation) are treated soberly. If you could laugh something out of court, I'd have a much easier job.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 5:48 AM
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I can understand how a court could treat them soberly, but I don't see why you'd want to argue about space travel in disputing a traffic violation. Was the guy running from aliens?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 5:56 AM
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4

It was the kind of complaint where it was a little hard to trace the thought process exactly, but there's a fringe-on-the-flag sovereign-citizen type argument about how drivers licenses are required for "motor vehicles", but if what you're driving is a "private conveyance" that's totally different and you don't need a license. Then he drifted off into quoting something about the legal definition of a spacecraft.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:04 AM
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5

I'm guessing that didn't work, except if his goal was to annoy.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:05 AM
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6

On topic because Steely Dan.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:06 AM
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7

Oh, it doesn't work, but you still have to make all the motions to make it go away. Holding up the complaint between the tips of two fingers and saying "Really?" doesn't do it.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:08 AM
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Zeppelin has been criticized for this for decades. The one response I remember was along the lines of "what's the problem, all those blues guys are dead."


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:14 AM
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9

Just like the aliens. Dead and buried somewhere near Dayton.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:17 AM
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10

Comment from a friend who is a professional music transcriber who specialises in rock stuff is that Zeppelin are probably guilty of lots of copyright infringement and theft (conscious or not), but that Stairway to Heaven almost certainly isn't one of them, except in the sense of vague similarity that would cover a zillion songs.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:27 AM
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11

1 the dude needs to drive an El Camino.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:49 AM
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11: I told him your car is CREEPY man
And not in a gangsta kinda way
But in a PERV kinda way


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5yt0gXLkh0


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:55 AM
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1, 11: It is a constant source of surprise to me that magazines catering to men don't have an annual feature on "How to Turn Your [Accord/Prius/Tesla/Minivan/Hoverboard/Razor scooter] into Travis McGee's Miss Agnes Rolls-Royce Pickup Truck in 4 Easy Weekend Projects," but I suppose no man today reads books, except for these guys and, you know, come on.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 6:57 AM
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14

Isn't the key difficulty with Miss Agnes acquiring the antique Rolls? Once you've got that, a couple of hours with a cutting torch and some ugly blue paint and you're done. But the article would end up being the recipe for rabbit stew that starts by advising you to catch a rabbit.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:18 AM
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Like, turning anything that didn't start out as an antique Rolls into one seems beyond the scope of a weekend project.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:26 AM
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16

Maybe if you have a 3-D printer.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:33 AM
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17

And someone who already has an antique Rolls and wants a 3-D printer?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:35 AM
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18

That's just greedy.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:37 AM
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19

14, 15: 4 weekends! Rome wasn't built in a Columbus Day!


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:38 AM
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20

Based on the outcome of the "Blurred Lines" case, even if it doesn't rise to the level of copyright infringement, LedZep is going to lose the case if they come off as rich, entitled assholes. How likely do we think that is, fellow readers of Hammer of the Gods?


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:41 AM
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21

There's a lot of ground between your run of the mill rich, entitled asshole and Robin Thicke.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:42 AM
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22

Surely it is not possible to "blast", no matter what one's sound system is, "Hey Nineteen".


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 7:52 AM
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23

Here is the portion of "Taurus" in question. Spirit I think toured with Zeppelin and they definitely heard that song performed before writing "Stairway". I could give a fuck about the legal implications, but sure, of course they ripped that off.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:19 AM
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24

I'd need a clip of "Stairway to Heaven" to be able to tell.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:31 AM
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25

That "Taurus" sure is cheesy. Dead-ringer.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:37 AM
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26

LedZep come off as rich, entitled assholes? I am shocked! Shocked!


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:40 AM
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One of the commenters at Sifu's link in 23 says:

The section in question that is alleged to be ripped-off by Led Zeppelin is known in music theory as a "line cliche"... this particular line cliche has been used countless times. It's all over the entire genre of Latin music alone. If songwriters and musicians were allowed to claim ownership of a line cliche, we'd be embroiled in lawsuits for the next millennium.

Which I think nails it. Rock is by its nature a fairly constrained genre and there are only a limited number of possible lines in it. Also, that number was probably approached a long time ago.

Nevertheless, LedZep are rich, entitled assholes.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:47 AM
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28

Who can forget Spirit's Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus LP? Most people, probably. I think Taurus was on an earlier album.


Posted by: bill | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:55 AM
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28: I for one cannot forget it. That would require having heard it.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 8:57 AM
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30

This is pretty good on the musicology side of the Stairway case, less so on legal analysis. LZ famously stole tons of songs (and did stuff like claim traditional blues songs were Page/Plant compositions, though AFAIK they've never tried to enforce the publishing) but the Spirit copyright claim is extremely weak for a number of reasons, and hopefully the Ninth Circuit will shortly make it harder for these kinds of cases to go to trial.

I've always wanted more use of metal fonts in legal pleading and am glad this guy is stepping up. I hadn't heard that he was this crazy.


Posted by: R Tigre | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:14 AM
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How about Klingon, language and font?

Also a copyright case, Paramount vs low-budget makers of a film set in the Star Trek universe. Paramount is apparently claiming among other things that they own Klingon-- not copyright to a dictoinary, but ownership of the synthetic labguage, whose foundation they commisioned.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzmetJxi-p0VM19nbUpyNXE0a28/view


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:20 AM
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32

Those typos are totally purposeful, a way for me to later assert copyright from the inevitable numerous cut-and-pastes from my brilliant valuable and unique thoughts.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:23 AM
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33

This is starting to feel like some sort of weird recursive punishment where efforts to avoid work lead me into the world of work.


Posted by: R Tigre | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:25 AM
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34

Dude, you brought up fonts.

How about we discuss the explicit conservatism of many attorneys, refusing to even read material not set in a fusty-ass neoclassical serif. Alternately, overuse by teachers of Comic Sans, leading to a generation of kids who will link it with arbitrary authority and drudgery.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:40 AM
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It has been some time since I've read Arika Okrent's In the land of Invented Languages. But I do recall that Klinglon was one of the few such languages that did not have an odd ideology or strange biography associated with it.


Posted by: Robert | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:59 AM
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IDKIIMHB, the Klingon language was a teenage hobby of mine. It's kind of fun because the inventor was explicitly trying to break some near-universalities in human languages (like the t is regular alveolar but the d is retroflex). At the time I thought it was understood Paramount owned it, but then there were various fan publications that used it, like the Hamlet translation, so not too surprising it could come to blows.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:06 AM
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37

Nerd.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:07 AM
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38

Sorry.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:07 AM
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39

I knew a guy who learned Klingon to a surprising level of fluency. He's dead now. Make of that what you want.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:10 AM
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40

39 I hope he died a good death seeking glory in battle and now resides in Sto'Vo'Kor.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:38 AM
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41

||

40!

Angel Turns Out to be Inflatable Sex Doll

The metaphors, social commentary, and movie scripts almost write themselves.

Gods Must Be Crazy II

|>


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 12:12 PM
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42

If you could laugh something out of court, I'd have a much easier job.

When I worked in the SDNY, I helped on an appeal to the 2nd Circuit where the guy had sued the CIA because they had broken into his apartment, jacked him off, then stole his sperm to impregnant women.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 12:27 PM
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43

If he could prove that, he'd have very solid grounds for a suit.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 12:37 PM
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44

So, I'm assuming he won.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 12:47 PM
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45

They also broke the payphone outside his apartment, and made the 7-11 clerks be rude to him.

He lost at trial and then appealed. i had to respond to his 53 page brief.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 12:57 PM
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46

Was it written in Klingon? Or maybe Dothraki?


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 1:01 PM
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47

I don't see why he would be entitled to damages over either of those.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 1:02 PM
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48

If everybody had standing to sue for damages to someone else's property because they paid to use it from time to time, every time somebody burned down a grocery store, they would owe damages to the customers.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 1:04 PM
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49

Airport again. They've switched things around again like they do here all the time.

The blog is trolling Tigre hard these days.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:32 PM
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50

The comic sans thing is because it's apparently easier for dyslexic people to read. In the UK, teachers are taught to use it (as one of two or three dyslexia-friendly options) on PGCE courses.


Posted by: Seeds | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:42 PM
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51

That was to lw at 34


Posted by: Seeds | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 9:43 PM
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52

A cow orker and section head here uses comic sans in his emails. It makes it hard to take anything he writes seriously and he already had a strike or two against him in that department.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:03 PM
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53

Simon Peyton Jones is notorious for using comic sans for his presentations.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 05- 5-16 10:59 PM
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54

I will tell my son about the dyslexia angle, interesting point. He hates the font very strongly.


Posted by: LW | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 5:46 AM
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55

I like SAS Monospace. I think proportional fonts are a fad that will go away soon.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 5:53 AM
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56

This is another way in which I feel like I'm failing as a human being of my time. I've never had any strong opinions about any font.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 6:06 AM
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57

I've never had any strong opinions about any font.

I like to imagine this as a Bill Clinton style prevarication where font:typeface::sexual relations:oral sex.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 6:18 AM
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56: It is the rest of us who have failed, while peep transcends trivial hatreds, and soars like a bird on the wind.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 7:08 AM
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59

It's sort of a cliche, but I blame the parents.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 7:11 AM
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60

Mossy Character, not Ginger Yellow, discerned the hidden message of my comment.

My comments are the poop falling out of my cloaca as I ascend ever higher into the heavens.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 7:29 AM
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61

The unburdened lightness of being.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 7:34 AM
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The lightness after being unburdened by beans.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 7:36 AM
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63

59: Hooboy.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 9:25 AM
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64

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but why make things harder for the public defender.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 6-16 9:29 AM
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