raving lunacy - oxymorons for the 21st century

Congress passes $60K Law School Loan Forgiveness Program
Are they fucking kidding? LAWYERS? Like we need more lawyers.

H.R. 4137 amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to direct the attorney general to assume the obligation to repay student loans for borrowers who agree to remain employed, for at least three years, as state or local criminal prosecutors; or state, local, or federal public defenders in criminal cases.
Source: National Law Journal

Yeah that’s right, and we get hooked for the bill. If you believe that they will be even handed between prosecutors and defenders, I will shit in your hand now.

What about Teachers? Nurses? Child Protection Investigators? You know, folks that are semi useful.
Are they fucking kidding? LAWYERS? Like we need more lawyers.

“it’s important to get more people talking about word of mouth”
Jackie Huba :Church of the Customer Blog

In yet another Main Stream Media Meltdown is the story of the AP filing DMCA takedown notices against Rogers Cadenhead and his community site Drudge Retort.

The Associated Press is an news organization whose function in life was to take original reporting from its members, homogenize it, (not unlike the production of Kopi Luwak, a coffee bean that is processed by running it through the digestive tract of an Indonisian marsupial, harvested from the resulting dung, and then offered for sale at a premium price as being unique) and offer it back to its members to fill in the spaces in local newspapers, whose own management think that news from elsewhere, having been stripped of origination credits, and ‘claimed’ to be accurate because it is the AP, is a good idea. I say ‘claimed’ as there is no link or credits to the original reports, which on the internet is silly, and is at the heart of this nonsense.

At one time back in the dark ages before the Internet, this was a good idea, as it gave local newspapers access to world events and reporting it could otherwise not afford. However with the Internet, the plethora of publishing tools, worldwide availability and the hyperlink, the AP is another business whose foundation is crumbling in the flood waters of websites, personal publishing, and the hyperlink.

According to this posting Rogers received this nugget:

AP feels otherwise. In a June 3 letter, AP’s Intellectual Property Governance Coordinator Irene Keselman told me:

… you purport that the Drudge Retort’s users reproduce and display AP headlines and leads under a fair use defense. Please note that contrary to your assertion, AP considers that the Drudge Retort users’ use of AP content does not fall within the parameters of fair use. The use is not fair use simply because the work copied happened to be a news article and that the use is of the headline and the first few sentences only. This is a misunderstanding of the doctrine of "fair use." AP considers taking the headline and lede of a story without a proper license to be an infringement of its copyrights, and additionally constitutes "hot news" misappropriation.

There are a couple of things wrong here. First this is an opinion by AP, (opinions being like assholes, everyone has one and some of them stink, you decide) based on the theory that Fair Use does not apply to the AP. Everything that is published in the United States is covered by copyright, and is also available for Fair Use. There is still no definite answer as to which percentage of an item consists of Fair Use, as some items cannot be easily chopped up into discrete bits such a photos, but a portion of a textual piece has been for many years even before the internet, has been used for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

“hot news misappropriation”

The second thing that AP asserts is “hot news misappropriation” What the fuck is that? Is this like calling a shopping mall a Regional Lifestyle Center?
My opinion, is that this is a bullshit semantic device to try to prop up the argument that the AP is not subject to the same Fair Use rules as every other organization or person in the United States. The French news agency AFP tried this with Google some time back, and it didn’t work.

Quoting a portion of a work is explicitly covered under the Section 107 Fair Use Provision of US Copyright Law. The bonus of the Internet is the ability to hyperlink to the original work. This lets you know that someone has done their homework, allowing you to decide whether or not the criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, is true in as much as can be presented.
Let me give you an example. Here is US Copyright website Fair Use Statement.

Section 107 Fair Use Provision of US Copyright Law.

One of the rights accorded to the owner of copyright is the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords. This right is subject to certain limitations found in sections 107 through 118 of the Copyright Act (title 17, U. S. Code). One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of “fair use.” Although fair use was not mentioned in the previous copyright law, the doctrine has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years. This doctrine has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law.

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1.

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2.

the nature of the copyrighted work;
3.

amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.
Source: US Copyright Office Website

News by its very nature is nothing more than a record of events, as told by people who have experienced it on site. News used to be the bailiwick of journalists, whose desire to report events was their calling. With the rise of aggregating news organizations like the AP, UPI, Reuters and even AFP, there was a period of trust in these organizations in giving us the whole story.

The internet has changed this. We are not confined to single sources for news and information. Here are some other thoughts on this
Jeff Jarvis, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Scott Rosenburg, Mathew Ingram

Organizations like the Associated Press need to change, or they will become a quaint exhibit in the Newseum
(Update Hot News Misappropriation is a legal concept) Hat tip to Matt Ingram. I still think is is a bullshit term.

Ladies and Gentleman! Step right up and get your Social Objects!
Don’t be the last kid without one!
Just look for the target on your forehead!!
Social Objects? More bullshit from the same cheerleaders that sucked you into Web 2.0, Social Networks and Advertising Sharecropping for Fun and Profit. Tim Oreilly who gets all the credit for Web 2.0 wants to tell you why Social Objects are good for you Now with a new definition of OPEN with the Google API, you can become a marketing target on almost every bodies network.

Social Networks are really very weird constructs. The Idea is to become a member of a community with shared interests, and to become a social person. This is an old idea, dressed in drag with AJAX and widgets, for you to think that this is the next big thing. Like all internet activity, you end up using a keyboard, by yourself to create your online persona. You still have to use the keyboard, ’cause you can’t fart emoticons.

Every one of these ’social networks’ has been created to sharecrop your labor, to enrich the plantation owners, by selling your ass to any marketeer with a checkbook. I wrote more here. Read the Terms and Conditions on any of these sites. You agree to be a marketing target, you give the plantation owners Virtually Unlimited Copyrights to anything you post.
The owners of the social network plantations are telling you that advertisers are standing by to foot the bill for you to post your information, while they are selling every click and link.
The marketeers are telling you that this will help them to target you with only messages and advertisements of interest. What is really happening, is they are struggling to get their message out and keep their fucking jobs. Oh yeah, if they can save money, they can do more of it. At the end of the day you are just another one of the monkeys waiting your turn to get punched out.

Probably the most annoying thing about this is the VRM crowd is getting sucked into it.
Ladies and Gentleman! Step right up and get your Social Objects!
Don’t be the last kid without one!
Just look for the target on your forehead!!

Occasionally an idea gets tossed out here that pegs the needle on the Dumb Meter. music-lover’s liability insurance is the latest winner.
Dave Winer thought this one up:

“How about music-lover’s liability insurance?

Companies, even small startups, buy director’s liability insurance. Without it they’d never get high net worth individuals to serve on their board.

How about RIAA and MPAA insurance. Pay $1000 per year and download all you want, sure that if the RIAA wins a judgement against you, you’re covered.

I bet a lot of people would go for it. Think of the peace of mind it would buy.

Then hopefully, the RIAA would get the idea that they could cut out the middleman.”

How fucking dumb is this? Pay a grand a year, and still get your ass sued by …wait for it…..the RIAA, which is the middleman for the recording industry!
Using Director’s Liability Insurance as a poster child and framework for music junkies is a stupid idea as it allows for the continuation of the current jihad by the recording industry and does nothing to address the systemic problems created by an industry whose track record in dealing fairly with its artists who are responsible for creating music, is riding the thin line of legalized slavery.

Dave’s source also says this:

D&O insurance poses corporate governance issues, as it makes it easier for directors or officers to engage in acts they know to be wrong.

Giving an industry who regard their customers as thieves out of the box, and whose fingerprints are on every piece of copyright extension legislation in the last 30 years, creating a social welfare program for an industry whose days are numbered, another enabling scheme like this is just plain dumb.

The latest proclaimation from the Social Media is Public Relations cheerleading Squad is this gem from Brian Solis of PR 2.0.
Conversational Marketing Versus Market Conversations

The much discussed and highly revered Cluetrain Manifesto is proving to be more relevant than ever. As Social Media becomes more pervasive in marketing, it’s imperative that we become gatekeepers to prevent opportunistic marketers from bankrupting the conversation economy.
Emphasis mine

Intellectual Bankruptcy at its finest. Gushing on the one hand about anti marketing, yet making a desperate plea as the one true source of selfless direction for marketing.
Opportunistic Marketers? Are there marketers that aren’t?
Social Media is about removing barriers to conversation, not rearranging the deck chairs as the ship begins to sink.

A website devoted to help you off the hamster wheel of social networking!! NoSo!!

You do have to join however… 

Now that the Web is a teenager, and it is trying new things, forming relationships, clubs, and stirring up shit everywhere, Business as Usual, left the building and found their cars covered with toilet paper and graffiti. Entire Manifestos in less than 140 characters. Retreating back into the castle, they have decided that a new paradigm is needed. After years of viewing with horror the unfettered, undisciplined, self directed explosion of personal publishing, they are returning with a vengeance.

Armed with whitewash, tinfoil, and a desperate desire to recapture and reeducate, they are returning with the latest PR Crisis Management, Message shapers and crying Trust, Transparency, and Triple Cents Off Coupons, they arrive to do battle.

Here are a few of the more interesting tidbits in this arena:

Exhibit #1

The Role of Trusted Human Editors In Filtering The Web

By using journalists and serious bloggers as a proxy for trust, Publish2 aims to solve the scalability problem that Scoble raises in Part III of his video, by creating a scalable mechanism for identifying the RIGHT people, i.e. people who are trusted and people who are GOOD at filtering the web. We’re going to seed Publish2 with trusted, skilled human editors and then let THEM decide who else to trust.
Source Scott Karp Publishing 2.0

Exhibit #2

Why Mahalo, TechMeme, and Facebook are going to kick Google’s butt in four years

The only reason you’ll watch these two videos is because you trust me to add value to your lives and not sell links.
Source: Robert Scoble

Exhibit #3

In the Cut and Paste Era, Traffic Happens Elsewhere

In the very near future portals including iGoogle, My Yahoo and Netvibes as well as social networks will be able to easily inhale the smallest pieces of content from across the web. Don’t wait. Start now to make everything on your website embeddable. Traffic is becoming something that happens elsewhere, not just on your site.
Source Steve Rubel

Trust is not equal to Quality or Quantity. Trust is something else.
Having 4000 ‘friends’ is neither a demonstration of trust or validity on any level.
Aggregation is not the get smart quick scheme that these folks think.

But it is so much fun to watch!!!

Today’s Oxymoron comes from the world of Wall Street.

Catastrophic Liquidity Event!

In the world of Wall Street this is where you lose all your money, and/or you make promises you can’t keep.

In this case, Bank of America is riding to the rescue of CountryWide Mortgage. This gem was found at Marketwatch :

“We believe that Countrywide Financial still faces many near-term challenges. But the influx of cash and capital reduces the potential for a catastrophic liquidity event, in our view,” Wachovia told clients early Thursday. “Recent actions also suggest that the Federal Reserve is willing to provide liquidity despite lingering inflation concerns.”
Source: Marketwatch ‘Bank of America invests $2 bln in Countrywide’

As i mentioned above, a ‘cle’ is where big companies can’t pay their bills. This is part of the current mortgage market meltdown. What is happening is a lot of folks got home loans under less than prime lending conditions, Interest Only for a limited term, Variable Rate and a variety of payment schemes to get folks on the books.

NINJA loans (No Income, No Job and No Assets) are my personal favorites. Here is the deal. The guys that packaged these deals were using other peoples money, and got a fee for running paper around. They would create a loan based of a value number of the property, that had almost no basis in reality outside, of cubicles. The mortgage guy would fund the loan and put this on the books as an asset at that value, which would allow them to bundle these up and sell more paper against that value. Those guys would bundle a bunch of those papers and sell them to somebody else. Everybody’s books looked good.

A lot of these were based on the income stream from the folks who are in the homes. You know, the folks who got mortgages.  This is a reasonably straight forward, money for stuff investment deal.

The problems are coming home to roost as these mortgages are resetting to a fixed mortgage, which provides sticker shock like having your privates plugged into wall sockets. During the Interest Only period, your payment is low, but when it converts, not only do you have the interest payment, but also the principal which you have done nothing toward reducing, which now makes you a prime candidate for your own personal Catastrophic Liquidity Event.

Since you have no money, for your new payment, the market value has tanked, foreclosure is moments away. Your mortgage banker isn’t interested in refinancing, as his books have taken a hit, nobody else wants to buy this paper, and the Government isn’t interested in your plight at this point.

The lenders are not concerned with your plight, or this problem, despite being the majority player in this meltdown, they want their money. When you stop making your house payment, it becomes a non performing loan, which is bad. No money for the lender, and cash tied up in reserves.

They are publicly traded companies, who issue forecasts on their income, to keep their shareholders happy and the stock price up. Their problem is to keep the share price up, by getting the non performing loans off the books. Having already written a check with their mouths that their assets can’t cash, Like Earnings Forecast, market guidance, and a bunch of other terms that mean the same thing, it seems to be unacceptable to renegotiate these loans, and get a little less money and keep folks in their houses.

Nope! Despite that housing and home ownership has economic and social benefits, (home owners are more likely to be stable, and contribute to their communities, less crime, and you get to know your neighbors) the next 90 days is more important to these folks than the communities they are creating.

Foreclosure Time and your Personal Catastrophic Liquidity Event!

You are already in the tank because of your new payment which you can’t make, the bank forecloses on your house and sells it. Nevermind what happens to your credit rating, your self esteem, family, or the property values of your neighborhood, the worst is yet to come.

Income Tax Time! From Paul Caron who blogs here, is this nugget:

“If any portion of the mortgage you owe is canceled or forgiven, in most circumstances the IRS will treat that canceled debt as income. The agency will then tax it and maybe even tack on interest and penalties. Say you have a $250,000 mortgage. The bank forecloses and then sells your house for $200,000, the most it can get in this shaky real estate market, and writes off the other $50,000. Uncle Sam will consider that $50,000 - money you owed and will never repay - as income for tax purposes.”
SOURCE TaxProf Blog

So you lost your house, your credit is in the tank, and the IRS is coming. A Catastrophic Liquidity Event.

There is really something wrong with this picture for folks with only one house.