Another Day in Arkansas

Yahoo News is reporting that “a Little Rock man whose SUV was cut off in traffic was arrested after he allegedly shot at a motorist with a crossbow following a brief chase.” It’s an interesting way to express anger, and one that you wouldn’t expect to see outside of the Southern States. In a surprising twist, the suspect was drinking beer rather than moonshine. Do all the normal people in Arkansas (and yes, there are a lot of them) get annoyed when the drunken yahoos perpetuate the negative stereotype? I know I cringe a bit when Canadians give maple syrup or fur hats as gifts.

Been Abused by Collection Agencies?

A TV producer has contacted me looking for people who have been threatened, harassed, berated or otherwise abused by a collection agency. Have you been mistreated in such a way? Does the prospect of some sweet televised justice excite you? If so, send me your information (use my mailman account) and I will pass it on to my contact. Who knows, you may end up sticking it to those jerks who have been sticking it to you for years.

Myspace: Wow!

It took Myspace all of 19 minutes to delete from Chad Ronning's blog all the content that he had stolen from me. Big congratulations to everyone at the Myspace Copyright Department for a fast and fair enforcement of their terms and conditions and of copyright law.

User-generated content like you find on Myspace, Youtube and similar sites is the only thing keeping the internet from becoming a weak reproduction of broadcast television. Thieving douchebags like Chad Ronning devalue original internet content.

As a general rule, anyone who wants to use something I've written just has to ask - I'm hardly a copyright nazi. Just show some basic courtesy. Better yet, write your own stuff.

Who would bother to steal my stuff?

I'm very interested to see how Myspace responds to the letter below sent to their copyright agent. Will they enforce their terms and conditions? Will this Chad Ronning fellow stop stealing my material? Will the 4 people who read his site wonder where all his blog entries went?

I'll let you know if I get a response.
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Dear Myspace,

I am the copyright holder of all materials published on www.angryman.ca, including specifically, the page http://www.angryman.ca/rants.html some of the content of which has been re-published word-for-word on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/cronning without proper citation, without approval by me, and without attempt to contact me requesting approval.

Specifically, the entire text of blog entries dated October 2, 2006; July 26, 2006; July 23, 2006; July 1, 2006; June 8, 2006; and June 6, 2006 reproduce word-for-word entries from my web page http://www.angryman.ca/rants.html This content, reproduced without permission constitutes the majority of the web log of user 'cronning' (Chad Ronning).

This is in violation of Section 9 of the Myspace terms and conditions http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/TermsConditions.aspx and I request that you remove the offending blog entries from Myspace or, if neccessary, cancel the account of the user.

I certify on penalty of perjury that the above information is true and that I am the holder of the copyright for the material described above.

Sincerely,

Adam Scott