it occurred to me that the police rewarding people for driving correctly wanted to be regarded like the German police in Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel: (1900)
In Germany to-day one hears a good deal
concerning Socialism, but it is a Socialism that would only be
despotism under another name. Individualism makes no appeal to the
German voter. He is willing, nay, anxious, to be controlled and
regulated in all things. He disputes, not government, but the form
of it. The policeman is to him a religion, and, one feels, will
always remain so. In England we regard our man in blue as a
harmless necessity. By the average citizen he is employed chiefly
as a signpost, though in busy quarters of the town he is considered
useful for taking old ladies across the road. Beyond feeling
thankful to him for these services, I doubt if we take much thought
of him. In Germany, on the other hand, he is worshipped as a
little god and loved as a guardian angel. To the German child he
is a combination of Santa Clans and the Bogie Man. All good things
come from him: Spielplatze to play in, furnished with swings and
giant-strides, sand heaps to fight around, swimming baths, and
fairs. All misbehaviour is punished by him. It is the hope of
every well-meaning German boy and girl to please the police. To be
smiled at by a policeman makes it conceited. A German child that
has been patted on the head by a policeman is not fit to live with;
its self-importance is unbearable.
And the problem with that, as Jerome says, isThe German idea of it would appear to be:
"blind obedience to everything in buttons." It is the antithesis
of the Anglo-Saxon scheme; but as both the Anglo-Saxon and the
Teuton are prospering, there must be good in both methods.
Hitherto, the German has had the blessed fortune to be
exceptionally well governed; if this continue, it will go well with
him. When his troubles will begin will be when by any chance
something goes wrong with the governing machine. But maybe his
method has the advantage of producing a continuous supply of good
governors; it would certainly seem so.
Actually two of my ancestors were h,d &q (which I've always thought of as smacking of carelessness).
And on the subject of people who went through the death penalty and out the other side Babbacombe Lee, the man they couldn't hang is perhaps the most famous one (Ashley Hutchings has a rather good song dedicated to him).
The Barton Swing Aqueduct which takes the Bridgewater Canal over the Manchester Ship Canal is, indeed, one of the wonders of the waterway world and worth a discussion to itself.
Actually, we got it from the Australians, who castigated our cricket team as "whinging Poms" during a particularly disastrous tour of Australian in 1979-80.
Cofax@ 193 No: I don't agree. As a term, "fanficcers" is one I can live with. After all, compared to "lazy","selfish" and "rapist" it comes over as sort of - sweet.
With regard to C.E.Petit's comment 47 that the issue with regard to fanfic is in fact "trademark (passing off, reverse passing off, dilution, and disparagement)" I think this emphasises the point my essay was intended to bring out, namely that IP laws are territorial in scope and there are very wide differences between the rules that apply in different territories. For example UK Trade Marks Act 1994 defines infringement as10.—(1) A person infringes a registered trade mark if he uses in the course of trade a sign which is identical with the trade mark in relation to goods or services which are identical with those for which it is registered.
(2) A person infringes a registered trade mark if he uses in the course of trade a sign where because—
(a) the sign is identical with the trade mark and is used in relation to goods or services similar to those for which the trade mark is registered, or
(b) the sign is similar to the trade mark and is used in relation to goods or services identical with or similar to those for which the trade mark is registered,
there exists a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public, which includes the likelihood of association with the trade mark.
(3) A person infringes a registered trade mark if he uses in the course of trade a sign which—
(a) is identical with or similar to the trade mark, and
(b) is used in relation to goods or services which are not similar to those for which the trade mark is registered,
where the trade mark has a reputation in the United Kingdom and the use of the sign, being without due cause, takes unfair advantage of, or is detrimental to, the distinctive character or the repute of the trade mark.
The repetition of "in the course of trade" is intended to distinguish commercial from non-commercial uses (broadly speaking - commercial should not be equated with "for profit"). In this context, therefore, under English law, Fanlib are batting on a sticky wicket, but the individual writer of fanfic - so far as trade mark is concerned - is not, and the standard form of disclaimer can be seen both as the denial of a commercial trading purpose and, in the case of unregistered rights such as passing off, care to avoid "confusion" which - again in English law - is at the heart of the action for passing off.
I was concerned that the Trademark Dilution Revision Bill in the US might have made a difference - at least in its earlier drafts - to this insistence on there being a trading purpose but had believed that the changes made in its passage through Congress had preserved uses of trademark in non-commercial contexts. It would seem from the above that my earlier concerns were justified.
The implications, if the laws of the two nations are now so dramatically different, are very worrying for all authors and not merely fanfic authors. Trademarks, if protected properly and renewed, are perpetual - UK trade mark number one is still on the register (it's Bass Brewers' red triangle). It strikes me that people are going to have to take care not to disparage trade marked products in fiction - for example, checking the USPTO register before reprinting a line like "The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel's dead" - if there's a risk that trade mark holders can bob up and sue for disparagement of their valuable IP.
40 : Jo, I think most fanfic authors are sensitive to strong opposition from specific authors to the use of their worlds in fanfic and don't do it; largely from courtesy but also because it blows arguments about "fair use", "implied licence" and waiver of moral rights completely out of the window.
Regrettably, the omitted portion mentioned that the mandatory/illegal juxtaposition was more common for food additives than sexual practices...
Though a friend of mine who was doorstepping for the Labour Party before the 1992 UK General Election met someone who assured her that he couldn't vote for Kinnock because "the Labour Party subsidised men to live in sin together" and, on telling her circle about it, found herself bombarded with requests for the application forms.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2007 | 7 |
Total: 8 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by legionseagle:
Show all comments by legionseagle.