Hollywood’s one-sided love of public domain works continues

Hollywood loves to adapt stories from the public domain because they often are known quantities and are off copyright and free to use. (Current examples: “The Three Musketeers” and “Puss in Boots.”)
But Hollywood zealously fights to keep its original stories from going into the public domain. So while it benefits from the public domain, Hollywood doesn’t contribute to it. Corporate copyright holders have successfully lobbied Congress to extend copyright terms way beyond the original intent, bastardizing the purpose of copyrights.
Under copyright law, a government gives the owner or creator of a work of art a monopoly on its use for a “limited” period of time. Governments spend considerable resources (i.e. tax dollars) to enforce those copyrights. What the public gets in return is the expectation that those works eventually will be placed in the public domain where educators, artists and other people will be free to use and adapt them for the benefit of society and humanity.
But corporate copyright holders have convinced government officials to stretch the terms of copyrights practically forever. That’s wrong. The public domain of ideas needs to be regularly refreshed.
On Friday, the latest adaptation of “The Three Musketeers” opened in theaters. The movie, starring Logan Lerman and Milla Jovovich, was filmed in 3-D. It’s based on the 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas. The source material has been made into two dozen movies over the last 100-plus years, according to Wikipedia.
Up next is “Puss in Boots” from DreamWorks Animation, which will hit theaters Nov. 4. The computer-animated movie features the voices of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. This version of Puss in Boots is a spinoff from the “Shrek” series of movies, which are based in large part on fairy tales in the public domain.
“Puss in Boots” is based on a 1697 French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, according to Wikipedia.
Many more new works based on or inspired by public domain works are on the way. More on that later.

Photos: Movie posters of "The Three Musketeers" and "Puss in Boots."

More cat names for Apple to consider for the next Mac OS X release

Apple uses cat names to identify its Mac OS X software releases. It’s already used Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. The latest release – Lion – came out Wednesday.
Are they running out of cat names? Not by a long shot.
I’ve blogged several times (in jest) about other cat names that Apple could use. They include: Felix, Morris, Salem, Toonces, Hobbes and Mr. Bigglesworth. (See links at bottom.)
Here are 10 more cat names Apple could use for upcoming Mac OS X releases:

1. Rum Tum Tugger

Rum Tum Tugger is a finicky cat from the musical “Cats,” based on T.S. Eliot’s poetry book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” And just like Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Rum Tum Tugger is never satisfied.

2. Shere Khan

Shere Khan is the powerful Bengal tiger from Walt Disney’s “The Jungle Book.”
As Disney’s largest individual shareholder, company director Jobs could use his pull to get Shere Khan as the cover cat for the next Mac OS X release. Of course, the same could be said about …

3. Figaro

Figaro is Gepetto’s cat from Disney’s “Pinocchio.”

4. Jonesy

Jonesy is Ripley’s cat from the sci-fi horror movie “Alien.” He stayed out of harm’s way and ended up being the only survivor from the spaceship Nostromo. Ripley died in the third movie.

5. Cat Cora

Celebrity chef Cat Cora can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan and look great doing it.

6. Puss in Boots

“Puss in Boots” is a French fairy tale about a cat that uses trickery and deceit to gain wealth, power and the hand of a princess in marriage for his low-born master. The character is the subject of a DreamWorks Animation movie, “Puss in Boots,” set for release in November.

7. Selina Kyle

Selina Kyle is the supervillain Catwoman from the Batman comic book and media franchise. She’s been played by Julie Newmar, Michelle Pfeiffer (pictured), Halle Berry, and soon Anne Hathaway.

8. John Cougar Mellencamp

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member John Mellencamp used to go by John Cougar and then John Cougar Mellencamp when he first made a splash on the pop music scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

9. Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is known for his mischievous grin and baffling banter. He was most recently portrayed in Tim Burton’s movie “Alice in Wonderland” for Disney (pictured).

10. Cat in the Hat

“The Cat in the Hat” is one of the most popular children’s books by Dr. Seuss. It features an impish anthropomorphic cat wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and red bow tie.

See earlier posts on the same subject:

Top 10 cat names Apple hasn’t used yet for its Mac software (Aug. 26, 2009)

More suggested Mac OS X names for Apple (Aug. 28, 2009)

Top 10 Mac OS X names Apple hasn’t used yet (Oct. 20, 2010)

Business executives, politicians, journalists go ‘all in’ on new cliché

The poker term “going all in” is sweeping the worlds of business and politics.
Corporate and government leaders have adopted the phrase as a folksy way to express how totally committed they are to a project or strategy. In poker, when players go “all in” they are betting all the chips they have left on the table.
Microsoft executives used to say they were “betting the company” on a new initiatives like Windows, the Web or Internet services. But now they’re saying they’re “all in” on cloud computing. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer first used the “all in” phrase for the company’s cloud computing efforts in March and has repeated it since, including at an event last week.
“We’re all in,” Ballmer said March 4 in a speech about Microsoft’s commitment to cloud computing.
A search on Google shows that the expression “all in” has really caught on in the last year or so. (See above chart. Click on it for larger view.) You see the phrase online as “going all in,” “gone all in” and “goes all in.”
It seems to have started with business leaders and then caught on with the media and politicians.
Media reports have had EMC going all in with cloud computing, HP going all in with Palm’s WebOS for tablet computers, Motorola going all in with Google’s Android mobile operating system, and DreamWorks Animation going all in on 3-D movies.
Also, President Barrack Obama has gone all in with his budget, comic Seth Meyers went all in as host of the Espy Awards, Warren Buffett has gone all in on railroads, and various sports teams going all in with certain player trades.
In poker, going all in is a risky strategy. If business executives and others keep saying “all in,” they run the risk of sounding clichéd.