10/12/06: Guy Talk, Maria, and Incipient Violence

[Calbeck]

She got to de choppah.

[Bruce Bergman]

Just wondering - Is a "Foreboding Click" at all related to an "Ominous Hummmmm"?

Oh, and Cube, Moment: When you filk an existing song ("I feel violent, Oh so violent...") it might be a good idea to make a respectful nod to the original material at the bottom of the strip (where it won't get trimmed off in the archives) - Something like "Apologies to Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim"

Acknowledging that they do have a copyright on the material tends to cut down on the fire-breathing "Cease and Desist" letters.

--<< Bruce >>--

[CubeOtter]

Oh, and Cube, Moment: When you filk an existing song ("I feel violent, Oh so violent...") it might be a good idea to make a respectful nod to the original material at the bottom of the strip (where it won't get trimmed off in the archives) - Something like "Apologies to Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim"

Ah, yes, you are correct. We're honestly still a little new at this webcomic business - sure, we've been reading them forever, but to actually *do* them is something else altogether. It's a maturity process.

Our problem of course is that we're tossing so many references out there that documenting them all may be a wee bit of trouble. And lately it's been feeling like no one quite understood what we're doing anyway, because there are no obvious references that it's music either.

I will pass the comment onto Moment and we'll see about correcting the strips in question.

[Bruce Bergman]

Okay, that (the 10/17 strip) was a more than a bit overboard - AKA what passes for "Normal" around here... Just the mention at the bottom was plenty, no need for a storyline derail - or worse, a <gasp!> RetCon repair...

But Berke Breathead just *might* have been a bad example for Cerine to use - after all, Berke isn't getting a single dime from all those "Calvin pissing on <fill-in-the-blank>" stickers on the back of cars, and after the first few incidents went unchallenged all the lawyers in the country couldn't stuff that genie back in the bottle.

That's an example of what happens if the copyright holder *doesn't* send out a C&D Letter every time he finds (or is told about) a violation. You snooze, you lose.

FWIH the rampant copyright violations of his characters was the main reason he packed it in and stopped publishing for several years - until finally Opus banged on Berke's personal Anxiety Closet door and demanded to be let out in the public again...

They don't have to be totally nasty letters with no redeeming qualities - Disney has sent out a few C&D's to daycare centers that used their art on the walls, then offered to come over and repaint those walls properly and license the characters for a token fee. Why, you ask? I saw the "Before" pictures, and the original daycare drawings were hopelessly off-model to the point of being embarassing - looked like Salvador Dali on Acid...

"And now back to our regularly scheduled storyline" please, folks.

--<< Bruce >>--