CORRECTION

 

Dear Journalists,

Some of you are writing that I was forced to choose the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license because the film is violating copyright. That is completely untrue, but has become the dominant motif of stories I read about the project. The confusion is understandable, so I attempt to sort it out below.

Sita Sings the Blues is 100% legal. I am free to release it commercially, which is why the film is gaining a number of commercial distributors in addition to its free sharing/audience distribution, which is also legal, and wonderful.

Sita Sings the Blues is in complete compliance with copyright regulations. I was forced to pay $50,000 in license fees

Continue reading CORRECTION

July 29th, 2009 | Category: copyleft, copywrong, Free Culture, Law, Publicity Bitch, Sita Sings the Blues, the interwebs | 7 comments

My Wikimedia Rant

Note: Please, please continue uploading my comics to WikiMedia Commons, beloved uploaders! Nina’s Adventures is next. I completely endorse and support this work! Thank you! I love you! I post the rant below because, well, it’s on my mind now, and life isn’t perfect.

Continue reading My Wikimedia Rant

July 24th, 2009 | Category: copyleft, copywrong, Free Culture, handbasket, hell, heresy, politics, sucktastic suckage, the interwebs, wiki | 16 comments

The Hots return – and need your help

Remember this comic strip Stephen Hersh and I did for King Features Syndicate in 2002 – 2003?

Well, we’re releasing ALL of them to EVERYONE under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license!

But this project needs your help. I’ve assembled all the strips I could find and put them in two giant zipped folders (one for B&W dailies, one for color Sundays), which I uploaded here on archive.org. But someone – anyone – now needs to convert the TIFF files to PNG and upload them one at a time to Wikimedia Commons, where they can be read, shared, and enjoyed by everyone.

Feel free to come up with a better file naming protocol

Continue reading The Hots return – and need your help

July 22nd, 2009 | Category: archive.org, Comics, copyleft, Free Culture, the interwebs | 13 comments

More (C)ensorship

Amazon erased purchased e-books from consumers’ Kindles. Wait’ll you find out what books. This is an inevitable consequence of Digital Restrictions Mongering.

Meanwhile, US courts banned a book using ©ensorship law!

Now’s as good a time as any to plug QuestionCopyright.org‘s ©ensorship T-shirts. They’re actually quite inexpensive, and wearing them does a huge public service as you educate people around you.

“Wearing them really works, by the way. I wore one on a train recently and wound up having a great conversation about copyright with two people, one of them a musician coming back from a gig, after they asked me about the front.” –Karl Fogel

Amazon erased purchased e-books from consumers’ Kindles. Wait’ll

Continue reading More (C)ensorship

July 18th, 2009 | Category: copywrong, handbasket, hell, Law, politics, questioncopyright.org, scum, T shirts, the interwebs | One comment

Sita DVD Release Party

Celebrate FilmKaravan‘s new Creator Endorsed distribution* of the Sita Sings the Blues DVD!

When: Tuesday, July 28, 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: Interieurs | 151 Franklin Street between Hudson & Varick (map)
Entry Fee: $15* Cash/Check @ door (all proceeds go towards the SSB distribution campaign)
*Includes OPEN BAR, Kebabs and a free SSB DVD ($19.99 value)

RSVP to [email protected] or [email protected] by Friday July 24, 2009

More info on facebook

I will be there, along with some original paintings from the film, and prints, and other merch including brand new “Hanuman” cloisonne pins, not yet available anywhere else!

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Continue reading Sita DVD Release Party

July 17th, 2009 | Category: BUY! BUY! BUY!, New York, Publicity Bitch, Sita Sings the Blues | 6 comments

There is a Mountain

Or is there?

Try and guess what I was thinking about when I came up with this metaphor.

Or is there? Try and guess what I was thinking about when I came up with this

Continue reading There is a Mountain

July 17th, 2009 | Category: Animation | 4 comments

The Battle of Lanka in 02:30

Thanks, Cousin Phil!

Thanks, Cousin

Continue reading The Battle of Lanka in 02:30

July 14th, 2009 | Category: art, awesome, creativity, Free Culture, music, Ramayana, the interwebs, TV | One comment

Before and After

I titled this “The Maiden and the Crone” on facebook.

Speaking of which, I seem to be posting a lot more updates on facebook than on this here blog. Is this part of a trend? Are blogs going to die of atrophy? What does it all mean?

I titled this “The Maiden and the Crone” on facebook. Speaking of which, I seem to be posting a lot more updates on facebook than on this here

Continue reading Before and After

July 10th, 2009 | Category: the interwebs, wimmyns | 4 comments

July Media Roundup

Screen Daily quotes me in this article about indies and “piracy.” Fortunately I come off as a voice of reason in a world gone mad (to me at least). Don’t believe the MPAA’s lies; they don’t have the interests of small independent filmmakers at heart, that’s for sure.

The Morning News runs a nice short interview of moi.

July’s United Airlines “Hemispheres” in-flight magazine

Far Eastern Economic Review: Salil Tripathi’s October 2008 article about “Sita” finally viewable without an exorbitant subscription fee.

Radio: I was interviewed for NPR’s To the Best of Our Knowledge. Starts at about 13:30.

Screen Daily quotes me in this article about indies and “piracy.” Fortunately I come off as a

Continue reading July Media Roundup

July 10th, 2009 | Category: Publicity Bitch, Sita Sings the Blues | 2 comments

New Director Photos

Dang I’ve needed new “official” photos for a long time. Luckily my best friend Ian Akin is in town, and we were able to visit my friend Seema’s house in Long Beach Saturday, and Ian took some swell pictures.

More here.

Dang I’ve needed new “official” photos for a long time. Luckily my best friend Ian Akin is in town, and we were able to visit my friend Seema’s

Continue reading New Director Photos

July 5th, 2009 | Category: Publicity Bitch, travel | 2 comments