Tuesday News: Sony wants leaks plugged, Stephenie Meyer’s fan fiction project, the DRMd litter box, and the value of strong female protagonists
Publishing Newsconsumer products / DRM / fan-fiction / female protagonists / film gender / privacy / Sony / Twilight / Twitter / women in film21 Comments
Note: We’re taking a break for Xmas and (assuming I don’t celebrate too much tomorrow) will be back with the news on Friday, December 26.
Sony threatens Twitter with legal action if it doesn’t ban users linking to leaks – In the wake of the Sony hacking, social media users have been linking to or in other ways sharing some of the stolen data, and now Sony is threatening to take legal action against any service that allows its users to do so. Reddit has apparently banned users who do this, but Twitter has not made any official statement or taken any position, and while Sony is also contacting users directly, they may also take action against Twitter in general.
The threat was made in a letter sent by Sony lawyer David Boies to VIjaya Gadde, Twitter’s general counsel, and conveyed that the company would “hold Twitter responsible for any damage or loss arising” from the use or continued dissemination of the stolen information. In the letter — which was similar to one sent to publications including The Verge last week — Boies said that his client “does not consent to Twitter’s or any Twitter account holder’s possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading, or making any use of the Stolen Information,” and that Sony requests Twitter’s cooperation in suspending any accounts found to be sharing the leaked data. –The Verge
‘Twilight’ to Be Revived in Short Films on Facebook – I don’t know how I missed this when it was announced a couple of months ago, but Stephenie Meyer has announced her next project: a series of short films, created by women, on different Twilight characters. That’s right: Stephanie Meyer is moving into fan fiction. The films will be chosen as part of a contest, and they will be shown on Facebook sometime in 2015. On her website, http://stepheniemeyer.com Meyer indicates that “We’re excited to have Twilight fans participate in a variety of ways,” and as the New York Times notes, there is a connection to the mission of increasing the number and visibility of women film directors, which is actually kind of cool.
The short film series, called “The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga,’ ” has the backing of Women in Film, an organization devoted in part to ending a shortage of female directors. While not overtly championed by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, the initiative could be viewed in the context of her “Lean In” efforts to empower women in the workplace.
A group of female panelists, including the “Twilight” actress Kristen Stewart and Ms. Meyer, will select the winning shorts and mentor participants, Lions Gate said. Other panelists include the actresses Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer and Julie Bowen; Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the first “Twilight” movie; the film producer Cathy Schulman; and Jennifer Lee, who co-directed “Frozen.” –New York Times and Stephenie Meyer
The Future: A Cat Litter Box and DRM – If you need any more evidence that DRM is getting out of control, read this Medium piece by Jorge Lopez on his discovery that the Cat Genie he originally loved was DRMd in order to keep customers from purchasing products outside the Cat Genie family. Coffee machines. Litter boxes. What’s next?
Seriously CatGenie, you added fairly sophisticated DRM to a litter box? I’m a tad hurt you spent my money on building in a restriction instead of figuring out how to avoid constantly cooking poop.
This made me realize that I don’t actually own a CatGenie, I’m renting it. Though I paid for it, I have to pay per use yet I’m still responsible for all repairs until it craps out and I have to get another one. A tad disheartening. –Medium – Jorge Lopez
Little Girl Makes The Case For Strong Female Characters By Listing What They’ve Taught Her – Get the tissues out and prepare to be inspired by a 10-year old reader. Author Myke Cole shares his niece’s list of lessons she’s learned from female protagonists, from a variety of literary sources. As Cole says,
“We have a deal,” he said. “She texts me from her mom or dad’s phone with a book or comic book request. I drop whatever I’m doing and order it for her online immediately. I do not censor her choices. If she wants to read it, then I want to buy it for her.”
“I’ve worked tirelessly to instill a love of fantasy and science fiction in her, raising her on everything from Wonder Woman and Captain America to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter,” he added. –Huffington Post
I can’t believe there are people manufacturing, buying and using something which gobbles up so much energy, water, and harms ecology so much, just because they can’t let the cat out or are too stuck up to clean a litter box. This doesn’t need DRM, this needs to cease being sold.
What about pregnant people who need to avoid handling cat feces? Or elderly? Or disabled in a way that prevents litter-scooping at the optimal times? (Or something I haven’t thought of.) The outside is dangerous to cats in many areas, & they bring in fleas & ticks at the best of times. (Local humane society will not let you adopt tame cats if you would let them outside; only barn cats.)
Not everyone has the physical ability, temporary or permanent, to give their cats the best litterbox experience manually. & yet having a pet promotes better health; lowers stress at the least, & at the extreme end, I know one person whose rescued cat will fuss at him when his blood sugar is wonky, enabling him to have more stable levels than he’s had in his life.
Not everyone can bend over and do a litter clean up. I know I cannot with my bad knees and back. I feel no shame in using anything to help out in this way.
These are all extremes for which different solutions could be found. Solutions which don’t come at the expense of our planet and ecology.
Cats can climb. A litter needs not be placed on the floor. Neighbours or family could help out. The relevant person can get a less demanding animal. A cat can easily be turned over to a good friend for 9-10 months during a pregnancy. A garden, porch or balcony can be fitted with wiremesh high enough and constructed well enough to keep the cat in. And so on.
Exploiting nature to such an extent should be the last thing sought out.
To all the young girls who are not letting the world dictate who they are and what they do…thank you.
@Drano: These aren’t extremes. When you live an a state/area that has a large coyote population, the results are extreme, but cats are dead, every day. I see postings in every neighborhood for lost and missing cats and small dogs; it’s so bad, the general consensus is “how stupid/lazy do you have to be to let your cat outside?” Also, the cats use neighborhood yards–front and back–and vegetable gardens as litter boxes, which becomes a serious problem relative to the food people harvest. There aren’t fences high enough–or allowable via CC&Rs–to keep cats in.
So, yeah, sorry, but where I live, litter boxes are the only responsible alternative. I can wish things were different and I hope cat owners have found some responsible method of disposal, but railing at the litter box owners isn’t the way to go.
@azteclady: Agreed.
@Drano: Because neighbors really want to clean up your cat poo and mesh wire on the porch looks so chic these days…and how great to not be with your cat for nine months. I need a CatGenie for your comments.
I’m interested to see how the Twilight fan “movies” pan out. I think it’s an impressive group on the panel and I’ve always felt Meyer got a load of unnecessary flack for Twilight. I’ve read a lot of books that were far worse than her series and Bella never bothered me as a heroine. (Whether you agree with her choices or not, she is the driving force behind all her decisions. She gets her way in pretty much every instance by the end.)
I’m glad to see Catherine Hardwicke included. It’s always rankled me what a raw deal she got. She was the architect of the first Twilight movie, and really the whole series of movies in that she did the heavy lifting. She found the cast and completely developed the look and the tone of the films. She made a relatively small budgeted film into one that made almost 400 million yet she was replaced by a series of men for the sequels once it became lucrative. Can you imagine Bryan Singer getting pulled off the Xmen movies after the first one did well? Of course not. It would be absurd to think Joss Whedon wouldn’t automatically be offered The Avengers 2 yet somehow she was pushed aside. I wish good things for her.
Is Twilight still a thing? I thought fandom had moved on.
So in addition to the excellent comments re. the critical assistance a device like this can give cat owners, there’s the fact that the Cat Genie was designed to be and is, indeed, considered to be a more environmentally friendly cal litter solution. For example, Tree Hugger notes that it reduces the cat’s carbon “paw print,” in part because it reduces the need for the strip-mining that occurs to create clumping cat litter (which is itself not so swell for the environment). And although you need to be careful if you live in a place where you cannot flush cat litter, both the solution and the litter are biodegradable (unlike clumping litter). The machine also appears to kill a lot of bacteria that commonly hangs around cat boxes.
Lurker coming out of lurkdom to say that these are not extremes. There are many people who suffer from back ailments or knee ailments. There are many people who suffer from arthritis, like my aunt, who have a tough time getting around, etc. Also, there are the elderly who may not suffer from these types of ailments, but who still might have a tough time of it or need a little extra help simply due to aging.
Also, not everyone owns a home. I live in NYC where a large portion of the population here live in rented apartments, most of which do not contain balconies. And if they do, I’m not sure many would want their cat roaming around a 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 10th floor balcony. And no, many landlords would not let a tenant build a wire mesh contraption around a balcony. Heck, many landlords here give you a hard time simply for owning a pet to begin with.
Another point is this: I have lived in my neighborhood for 11 years and only know 1 neighbor. And definitely not enough to have them come to my house several times per week to change the cat litter. And this seems, at least from my experience, somewhat typical of NYC where many do not have close relationships with their neighbors . And frankly, even if I did, I’m not sure I would want to inconvenience a neighbor or family or friend like that.
There are quite a number of ways to help the environment. One can conserve water, recycle, turn off lights in rooms that are not being used, donate to environmental organizations, start a community garden, etc, etc, etc. I don’t think giving up a beloved furry family member, or not giving one a loving home simply because they might have a tough time changing cat litter so must own a gadget that pulls some energy, has to be an option. That seems incredibly extreme to me, and not very realistic.
In any case, the point of this long winded (sorry!) comment is to say that not everyone shares the same experiences or has the same resources.
@Rachel: Yeah, I was thinking that there are just so many things that are WAY more environmentally destructive than a self-flushing litter box.
Cat litter: I have always had cats, and always inside cats, because of all the risks (to both them and their humans) when cats roam outside. The amount of traditional litter I go through is unreal–the sheer volume–and I would dearly love to use something that would produce less garbage.
However, traditional litter is several orders of magnitude cheaper than something like the CatGenie (in other words, I can afford traditional litter, I cannot afford a CatGenie).
Tangent. My mom has had indoor/outdoor cats for 43 years relatively safely but she lives in the country. The cats STILL use the inside litterboxes. And we empty them onto shit mountain, our special area in the woods. Wish I could be here in 10000 years when they excavate it :). “What primitive society created this monument, Bob? It appears to be constructed mainly of non-local clays and chemicals with rich traces of blah blah blah… Do you suppose they were worshipping the feline goddess of their time, GRUMPY CATTUS?”
Also also, DRM is way out of hand, I agree.
@Jody W.: For some reason, I just had a flashing earworm of Neil Young’s Sugar Mountain, but with a somewhat revised lyric. LOL
Please. No justifications are necessary. People are more important than the earth. I can’t stand the prioritization of “the planet” over people. I support good stewardship of resources, but they are resources to be used. Any day now I’m expecting some anti-exploiter to suggest that genocide is the only solution to saving the planet.
@MaryK:
Sorry, not quite–if there’s no planet, there’s no people either.
The Cat genie is no different to any other of a zillion products out there that tie the consumer into proprietary accessories. Products were doing this long before there was such a thing as ‘digital rights’ to be managed. Anyone remember Polaroid cameras? It’s not a case of ‘DRM gone too far’, but rather consumption culture run rampant (as already noted).
To be fair to the Cat Genie people, they are upfront on their website about how their cartridges work, and about why they work that way – it’s a design decision that’s fundamental to the product concept. I think that the Cat Genie people could have made better, more environmentally sustainable design decisions, but whatever. The consumer has the option to do their homework before they commit to supporting a product like this.
DRM is different. Current methods of DRM don’t enhance the performance of books. They are purely a (somewhat rubbish) method to restrict access to books.
People sneered at wheels on luggage, y’know — “If you can’t carry it at all times, you shouldn’t be traveling!”
Then folks caught on that hey, wheels are actually SUPER convenient and not having to lug a hockey bag plus kids plus your carry-on, and now it’s almost impossible to find luggage WITHOUT wheels. Who knew that everyone’s lives could be better simply because someone decided to be totally outrageous and make stuff more accessible to everyone?
Also the idea that people with disabilities, mobility issues, or pregnancy are “extremes” is really not cool — they’re a big part of life, and just because you personally don’t see a use for something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Saying that solutions could be invented — yes, indeed, this is in fact a solution that is being looked at now. It looks like it’s fairly popular. It’s like people can like a thing you don’t like.
I’d love a self-cleaning and sterilizing catbox — I use silica litter which is amazing for smell and cleanup (and not 40lbs to lug home) but I still have to sterilize the box. I also have back problems thanks to dislocating a rib several times. As an exciting addition I recently broke my ankle. Not having to go up and down scooping every day is amazing, and my cat box for two cats passes the “I didn’t know you had cats” test, even when I was in a 300sqft apartment. Oh, and it means I don’t have to give up my companions for the couple of months it will take to heal my ankle, or the forever for my back. It’s almost like I deserve to have nice things even if I am not 100% able-bodied.
Someone invented a product, I liked it, decided to spend my money on it, and am happy with that decision and the results. Wild, I know. Maybe I’ll do something even worse next like choose something purely based on it being in a colour I like.
DRM is different.
It’s funny, because I was recently discussing this issue with a friend in the tech industry, with the same query, and she clarified that especially in a case where a product contains a chip that limits the way you use it (rights management) — as the Cat Genie indeed does — it’s definitively DRM.
The way producers attempt to protect a trademark or copyright with a variety of proprietary products is, of course, related to DRM, because it involves any number of IP issues, but as technology provides more opportunities to digitally limit consumer rights, we’re already seeing DRM’s expanded presence in both software and hardware, Keurig being a recent example.