YR OPINION OF ME IS A VIOLATION OF MY COPYRIGHT ON YR OPINION OF ME

ITEM: Ars Technica reports on the trend of doctors and dentists asking prospective patients to sign forms saying that the copyright on anything they post on the Web about the doctor/dentist’s treatment will become the legal property of the doctor/dentist that treated you.

Put another way: once you sign the form, they own the copyright on any blog post you do about them and the treatment. Which would mean, for example, they could force you to remove a critical post on the grounds of copyright violations.

The good news is that legal experts say doctors would have a hard time making it stick legally if they actually took that route. The bad news is the fact that doctors and other medical professionals even think this is a good and sensible idea.

To be fair, the supposed goal of the waiver is to give doctors the power to fight fraudulent reviews of their practice (posted by, say, ruthless competitors or disgruntled employees), not simply censor bad reviews. On the other hand, “fraudulent” could mean “Anything that makes me look bad or lowers my Yelp rating”. Maybe those of you in the medical profession can give a better perspective on the necessity of this kind of thing.

But either way, it’s just ludicrous to claim that the subject of any article owns the copyright to that article. If a doctor or dentist handed me a form like that, I’d do what the guy at Ars Technica did – look for a new doctor or dentist.

Anyway, the whole article is worth reading, if only to see just how weird things are getting in the Digital Kingdom Of Fear.

Sign here,

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“THE FUNKIEST UFO IN THE GALAXY IS ABOUT TO LAND IN CHOCOLATE CITY”

ITEM [via Coilhouse]: The Mothership stage prop used by Parliament-Funkadelic has been acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, where it will help anchor a permanent music exhibition when the museum opens its doors in 2015.

It’s not the original Mothership (which disappeared back in the 80s after Parliament had to stop using it because of money issues) but a replica built in the mid-90s. George Clinton has agreed to donate it to the Smithsonian. 

The exhibit it'll be parked in sounds worth visiting as well:

“With large iconic objects like this, we can tap into . . . themes of movement and liberation that are a constant in African-American culture,” says Dwandalyn R. Reece, curator of music and performing arts for the museum. “The Mothership as this mode of transport really fits into this musical trope in African American culture about travel and transit.”

It will be exhibited alongside other artifacts from American music history — Louis Armstrong’s trumpet, James Brown’s stage costumes, Lena Horne’s evening gowns. But it will be the only spaceship.

“It definitely fits in,” said Reece. “Funk is not just a good groove, it was its own kind of social protest movement.”

Props. Maybe one day they'll include Common's White House VIP pass.

And now, here’s the song that usually cued the entrance of the Mothership onstage at Parliament shows.

PRODUCTION NOTE: “Chocolate City” is the name of a 1975 Parliament album.

CREDITS: Headline lifted from Funk Music News.

If you hear any noise it’s just me and the boys hittin’ it,

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