Re: [AGA-mcm] Legal Stuff, Fluffs and Muffs

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

--- Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> wrote:

> All this posting reminded me of a couple other things...
> 
> Larry and I decided to try and sell DVDs of the speakers
> like I do with 
> AGA.  I ran the idea by the ACA board, and . . . their
legal council, an
> Intellectual 
> Property Lawyer, who told me I have to make the speakers
> sign over a 
> waiver that essentially says the ACA can do whatever it
> wants with their 
> talk slides.  . . .


We could be happy with less defensible merely by stating
specific purpose(s) rather than trying to get everything as
that lawyer tried. But I think you are right that the best
is to just ask them to let us record and tell them why we
want to record. They are then giving us all the rights we
really need. There's no paper to proove it but we have tons
of witnesses and tradition on our side. ;-)
 
> I have come to the conclusion that there is no way a
> small club like ours 
> can get *anything* interesting done in a 100% "legal"
> manner.

Well, that's tort law for ya.

The lawyer was concerned with *protecting* ACA from any
possible claim rather than *enabling* ACA to do certain
things like share the recordings. 
 
> The other thing I appreciated was conventions that don't
> include 
> Thursdays.

Me too. I preferred the presentation-squeeze we had at
AGA2K3 or the double talks at NEC to the very long nights.

 
> And I've never seen so many speakers with "special
> needs", as well as 
> self-righteous spontaneous A/V geeks . . .
> 
>    *  Playing a video through an iPod that had the one
> connector
>       combination I hadn't brought. . . .


You'd think there's some way to get this stuff specified
before the event. I'm sure the speakers were asked about
special AV needs and some decided to keep their little
secrets until the last minute.


>    *  Needing a special mike that would work with
> "something I'm going
>       to be wearing but I can't tell you what it is until it
> happens".
>       Huh?


And then it turned out to be a really dumb joke involving a
hockey helmet that didn't fit on his head so it didn't come
anywhere near the headset anyway. Talk about being
unprepared! He was so coy about it ahead of time you would
have thought he was going to put on the queen Liz's jeweled
crown, which, come to think of it, would have been a lot
funnier.

>    *  bringing a talk on a Mac but without the VGA-out
> connector  . . .

The MAC *world* doesn't understand that there is no MAC
world; whether or not the MAC is "bettter, it's just a cult
that still expects the rest of the world to get in step.

I might be remembering badly but I think the guys most
concerned about protecting their talks gave the least
informative talks of the show. It was a great show but it
was the fluff pieces that seemed to garner the most
authorial worry. I guess when you have less to lose you
have to protect what little you have. I was remineded of
Terry Gilliam's _Jaberwocky_ wherein the prized possesion
was a rotten potato.

Wow, just think about it -- three luggage cases and over
100 pounds of AV equipment and still someone could bring a
surprise special need that was not in the mix and never
mentioned the special need until "show time." I predict
someday someone will insist on using an Edison Kinetiscope
because nothing else captures its particular aesthetic:

http://www.grossmont.net/evanwirig/110-film2000/sld008.htm

There's something to be said for dress rehearsals ;-)

sh
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