27 December 2011

First use of "pirates" in the "copyright" sense - 1703

"As to Answers, Banters, True-English Billinsgate, I expect them till no body will buy, and then the Shop will be shut. Had I wrote it for the Gain of the Press, I should have been concern’d at its being Printed again and again, by Pyrates, as they call them, and Paragraph-Men: But would they but do it Justice, and print it True, according to the Copy, they are welcome to sell it for a Penny, if they please." - D. Defoe "The True Born Englishman" (1703)

Yes, I was surprised too.

24 December 2011

Thinking about Google+ and the #nymwars...

Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your 'nym,
they don't know you're a her or him.
You wanna be where you're not seen,
'cos everyone looks the same.
You wanna be where nobody knows
your name.