It's the Fourth of July

I find it hard to celebrate the founding of our country when the current Supreme Court is working so hard to dismantle our freedoms. But this isn't a "thoughts and prayers" post.

I may not be physically capable of marching alongside my siblings, but I write about what we hope to become as a nation. I can volunteer at local polling places. I donate to the causes I believe in.

Friends and family have been asking me what happens next. They are appalled when I lay out the current white supremist end game. They think there's no way it could happen. But it can and it will if the collective "we" don't do something about it.

Because if we don't DO something, America will be spoken of in the same breath as the current Russian regime. Or Nazi Germany.

The World Is Changing and Not Changing at the Same Time

There were a bunch of events that happened this weekend. Some have people in an uproar while others seem to have traveled under the public's radar.

Actress/ rapper Awkwafina hosted Saturday Night Live. It was only the second time a Asian-American woman has hosted in the forty-three-year history of the show. For once, there were no awkward sketches concerning Asian-American stereotypes. The closest was Awkwafina's monologue where she admitted her father had an accent, the same Queens accent as Trump.

Then there was Kavanaugh. People act like this is the first hotly contested Supreme Court nomination, but some of us remember Bork and Thomas's nomination hearings. But deep down, he's just another white guy, and a lot of white guys seem to fear the way the world is changing.

Less than twenty-four hours after Awkwafina's hosting and Kavanaugh's swearing in, Jodie Whittaker's first episode of Doctor Who aired in BBC's world-wide simulcast. Since her casting was announced over a year ago, the protests by certain factions of fans center around that idea the Doctor has always been a white male. Yet, during Peter Capaldi's three seasons as the Twelfth Doctor, the show took a chance and had the Master regenerate as a woman. Michelle Gomez was a delight as Missy, short for the Mistress.

Despite the protests over Whittaker's casting, the BBC pulled in the highest ratings (9 million viewers) for the show since Christopher Eccleston's first appearance as the Doctor (9.9 million).

So what does this all mean?

Saturday Night Live, the U.S. Supreme Court, and Doctor Who all still exist. The universe hasn't imploded. Babies are still being born.

Change will come, is coming, has always come. The only thing we can really control in life is being kind to each other.


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I've closed comments because there's still a lot of heated feelings about this past weekend's events.

More Breaking News

Once again, my examination of marketing has been interrupted by significant news in the digital world.

I don't know how many of you have followed the lawsuit by Eminem's production company against Universal Music Group ("UMG") over digital rights and revenue.  Eminem (aka Marshal Mathers) signed his contract in 1998, right before digital downloads revolutionized the music industry.  Even though the 1998 contract was rescinded and replaced by a second contract in 2003 (after UMG made a deal with Apple to sell Eminem's music through the iTunes store), the key issue of payment for the downloads was not specifically addressed.

The legal issue centers on the contract's wording of whether digital downloads should be considered a sale or a license.  In other words, under the contract terms, Eminem gets a certain percentage if a CD is sold versus a much higher percentage if that same music is licensed for use by a film or TV show.  The suit revolves around how digital music should be considered when no specific clause exists in the contract, but both parties are acting under the assumption such digital rights were sold.

In 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (and I'll be the first to admit they are a very liberal court) ruled that a digital download is a license to use the music, not a physical sale.  If you're curious, here's the apellate decision.

The amazing thing is on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.  This generally means the Supremes agree that the Ninth got the law right, or at least didn't eff it up bad enough to fix.

Now, the case will go back to the Federal District Court of Central California (i.e. the original trial court) to determine the damages that UMG must pay Eminem and F.T.B. Productions.  The estimates being thrown about are $40-50 million.  I have no doubt UMG will appeal the trial court's final figure as well.

This is a precedent setting case, and it'll be interesting to see who tries to use it first in the digital book arena.

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Then to top things off (as if the Eminem case wasn't enough), Judge Denny Chin rejected the Google Book Settlement yesterday.  His big concern was Goodle's blatant grab for author's rights without regard to copyright law (which is why Author's Guild, etc., threw a fit when the Digital Library Project was first proposed).  The rejection was made without prejudice, which means the parties can hammer out a new settlement agreement and submit it to the court.  In his decision, Judge Chin said if the parties change to an opt-in settlement, instead of an opt-out, it would ameliorate many of the objections to the settlement.

It's nice to see the justice system standing up for artists' rights.