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A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer. "...ACCORDING TO ITS PRODUCER." Is this a realistic scenario? Perhaps an attempt to provoke offers or start a bidding war for US distribution rights for this film?

...now AMC stands weirdly accused of making reference to 9/11, in its promotional poster for Mad Men's fifth season...

This article by Noam Cohen describes the controversy over the use of public photos on flickr. Flickr is a website used to share images with family and friends, which is now being used by company's and site's selling images without the approval of their owners. One example was Virgin Mobile's use of a picture of Alison Chang, a 15 year old, in one of their campaigns without her knowledge. The picture was under the protection of a creative commons that allowed it to be used for commercial use, making this issue more about privacy than about copyright. Virgin Mobile responded that they were "promoting creative freedom and didn't do anything wrong."

This article basically takes note of the fact that in this world today, originality is not really that abundant, a prospect which can be noticed when one takes a look at, for example, the remakes of The A-team and The Karate Kid over the summer. More specifically, the article deals with the controversy that Kanye West faces with Virginia rapper, Vince P. (Vincent Peters) on the basis that West had stolen the basis for his 2007 hit "Stronger" from Mr. Peter's 2006 song "Stronger".

Published May 23, 2006. Creative Commons License was a controversial topic. The major objection to Creative Commons licensing was whether it was really sprouting creativity; many who did not agree with creative commons believed that it was allowing people to download free songs and that no creativity was needed to make a mashup by combining various artists' works into one song. Simon Lake, the CEO of a not-for-profit company called Screenrights argued that '"there's a certain arrogance in believing you can do whatever you want to someone else's output. To say copyright stifles creativity is ridiculous. If you put those two things together, copyright is the end process, it's what protects creativity. And to suggest that copying is creating is ridiculous."' However, others disagreed and said that it in fact was the contrary. People, like Jim Moynihan, found that copyrights actually "force you to be more creative." In the end however, creative commons allows artists more freedom and the ability to selectively restrict certain works as copyrighted and to allow other works to be public and accessible. But it is illegal to use unauthorized media in mashups, sampling, and remixes; posing the justified potential threat, to many DJs and creators of reworked media, of lawsuits and getting sued.

Pretty Interesting.

This article is biased however it does talk about the the controversies that have been occuring and the feelings of Italian- Americans. It is interesting how some of the people that said that they disliked the show because of it's portrayals of Italian Americans say that they still find the show to be entertaining. Because TV is supposed to be entertaining, it makes you think about at what cost TV should be entertaining.