The contrast between The Road's fruitful language and the boy's near illiteracy - he has a reading lesson partway through the book, I remember, but there's not much time to spend teaching him to read - is a sharp one. Post-apocalyptic fiction seems fascinated with remembering while talking about forgetting.
Did you see that the 1911 Concise Oxford Dictionary is being re-issued to celebrate its hundredth anniversary? I've pre-ordered a copy for myself.
A friend swears by 'Freedom,' a piece of software that allows you to voluntarily lock yourself out of the internet for up to eight hours at a time. It reminds me of those programs where you can ban yourself from casinos.
Reminds me of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale: "We used to have freedom to. Now we have freedom from." (Or it went something like that.)
I do like the suggestion about screen-hogging word processors. I checked out Ommwriter but I don't do much writing on the Mac. I should cast about for PC equivalents.
I can't find any knitting needle fight scenes on Youtube. So you should call Hollywood to pitch this.
I couldn't find a decent video of the murder scene, but (at about 1:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Uh5L8zDVA
Ah! I've been on a James Bond reading kick since I finished the paper, and there's a scene in 'From Russia With Love' where a spy tries to kill Bond with knitting needles dipped in poison. Even better than the knitted mesages in 'A Tale of Two Cities.'
I don't think the knitting needles made it into the movie, though.
Thanks for bringing forward questions from the maze that is copyright law and educational use (especially repurposing). I consulted my familial network (law student child) and assuming I understand your scenario correctly...
Changing format does not constitute transforming (it is still a video) or translating. Does changing format involve making a copy? I thought it would but apparently there is case law to back the position that it does not mean copying.
Uploading to YouTube might stray outside the "educational use" part of the licence, tho, depending on whether the account is accessible to the public (or only to students) or whether the video is up for a short period or for a long time.
Like you, I'd rather err on the side of caution, and it seems there is still plenty to discuss and investigate.
Thanks, Jan, for the case-supported suggestion that "format-shifting" doesn't constitute "derivative transformation." (That bodes well for a few different projects in the works, actually.)
It also seems clearer that Youtube, as you say, tests the "educational use" parameter. For two reasons:
For the time being I've decided simply to link to the hosting site's own player. It means my course page is less visually interesting, but legal security trumps design here.
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