Welcome to Biting-Edge, a blog shared by authors and vampire experts, Mario Acevedo and Jeanne Stein. We’ll cover urban fantasy, vampires, pop culture, and all things Joss Whedon. Unlike other fantasy blogs, we don’t insist on body cavity searches (unless you ask politely). Snarkiness is most welcome...though we won't promise not to bite back!

Sunday, January 22, 2012
  A Personal Day for Mario...
Photo Credit: Diego Azubel/EPA


Our friend Mario is attending a wedding out of state so while he's off sipping champagne and flirting with bridesmaids, we have to stumble along without him. I'm sure he'll be back next week with lots of stories we may or may not believe. In the meantime, Happy Year of the Dragon to you!!



Want to know more about the Dragon? Go here
 
Comments:
I've been following one blog that has had recipes for the Lunar New Year this past week.

Both her very involved Pineapple Tarts (http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/for-love-of-making-cookies.html) and far more simple Cranberry Cornflakes Cookies (http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/little-effort-yields-great-result.html) look delicious. I'm thinking of making those Cranberry Cornflake Cookies next weekend.
 
I love cookies... I'll check out that website.

HNY, Leah!! Thanks for sharing.
 
I did mean to respond to your blog last week, but, you know... Snow storm. Ice storm. No power. No internet. I've been fascinated at the wholehearted glee with which people happily steal intellectual property simply because it's on the internet. There seems to be this entitlement mentality that everything should be online, and everything that is online should be free. I first became aware of it several years ago when Napster (the original, not the Best Buy creation) was big. A good friend of mine made it clear that she thought it was the greatest thing going and had plenty of music downloaded to back up her argument. I told her that illegally downloading was akin to stealing and cheating the artist of a royalty. The response was that artists didn't mind, they weren't really being cheated, that it was the Big Bad Record Companies who were losing, and they deserved it. When I asked her if she would walk into her local music store and take those same CDs and walk out without paying she said no. I mean, that would be stealing, right? But she didn't view downloading off of the internet for free as stealing. I read recently that 50% of all high school students admit illegal downloading in the last month, and 25% admit to doing it daily. I'm willing to bet most of those same students wouldn't walk into a store and steal the equivalent CD/book/DVD etc. This mindset is becoming more ingrained. IMHO this mindset needs to be changed. Stealing is stealing, whether it is a physical object or intellectual property in the cloud. I have never illegally downloaded anything. If I want an e-book I press the "Buy" button on my book. If I want a new album I buy the MP3 online. If I want them, I buy them. I don't need to cheat people out of the miserly royalties.

I almost never buy a paper or magazine anymore though. Why should I? Most of their content is available from their respective publishers online for free. In other words they have devalued their own content by making it free which is my point exactly.
 
Such a good post!! I couldn't agree more.Especially with the analogy about walking into a store and doing the same thing. That's stealing but downloading something illegally on the internet is not...go figure.

J.
 
PS there was a really good editorial published in the WSJ entitled Internet to Artists: Drop Dead by Stan Liebowitz. Unfortunately, unless you're a subscriber you can't see it. But he hits it right on the head He concludes by saying: "A balancing of competing legitimate interests is always required for good legislation. So far, the balance has favored the pirates--in spite of extravagant protests to the contrary. The real and massive losses of copyright owners need to be rebalanced against any hypothetical losses that stronger protection might impose."

Amen, Mr. Liebowitz
 
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