See, it looks like they were “inspired” to lift an almost exact replica of an artist’s work from a banner in her home town and sell it without contacting the artist for permission to use the art or agreeing to compensation for the art.
Their reply:
I know H&M is a London based organization, but they do speak English there, right?
Follow the whole debacle over at Regretsy, which may be my new favorite website.
My phone rings. The person on the other end is upset. It has nothing to do with me, so I don’t hang up.
And we talk. Their issue may deal with a long term relationship that’s at a cross road, or a dream that fell apart. A loved one passed, or they just lost their job.
I know I can be a dick sometimes. Sometimes? More than sometimes. But when a friend is in need, I’m there. I try to be, at least.
I try not to dole advice anymore. It used to be why people came to me. The last call I had taken like this was pretty sad. My friend had just admitted to family about a failed venture of theirs. I got the call because they needed to talk to someone, someone to ground their spirit. I did offer a little bit of advice, but it’s nothing I can’t share with you.
Don’t learn from yesterday, understand it. Don’t plan for the future, anticipate it. Live in the now, you only have one chance at it.
So it looks like SOPA, the censorship bill that would have crippled the Internet, is dead.
Except, it was not a censorship bill.
And it probably would not have crippled the internet.
Sure, it would have affected you if your name was, oh, Perez Hilton. Imagine how that would have worked? He would never have been able to download, edit, and repost any picture of any model, actress, or celebrity.
Let’s say you are a music reviewer. You go out and you buy a CD from your local store and share your thoughts with your readers each week. Should a record company feel froggy, you could have your site shut down. Wait, what? Why are they censoring me?
They’re not. They’re protecting their copyright and branding.
How far could this go? Would I be able to go to another site and tell them that the webmaster is using my name against my wishes or posting a picture without my permission, and as such shut them down?
Regardless, some of the Internet’s biggest websites went black or posted information on how Americans can contact their local government representatives to have them shut this bill down.
So the legal tool the US Government was going to use to go after overseas pirates of illegal movie downloads is gone. What are we to do?
Listen, I’m no legal beagle but I can tell you this. The US Government doesn’t have legal clout for a crime that occurs in New Zealand. But if SOPA passed, and let’s say there there was a website like MegaUpload with hosting and such in New Zealand, SOPA could easily shut that site down and arrest the site owners.
