And Hank Rockjaw tags along behind it.

Freedom Beer, the newest Hank Rockjaw serial, begins today. My publisher, 1889 Labs, is graciously hosting it for its run. I’ll be posting entries Monday, Wednesday and Friday from now until February 29th.

There will be fists, beer, mystery, beer, jet fighters, beer, intrigue and beer.

If you don’t like Valentine’s Day, then this book is for you.

And if you do like Valentine’s Day, then you should also like this book because you seem to be the sort of person that likes things.

Who is gunning for Hank and the brewery that’s been in his family for generations? Who is behind the mysterious Saint Secaire Brewery? Is it Josh, former sweatshop owner and former punch recipient, trying to exact his revenge on Hank for ending his exploitative business? Or is it Zelphia, Josh’s enigmatic attorney, who arrives unannounced at his home?

And why is this book cover so fucking awesome?

Hank Rockjaw is in the same boat.

When a mysterious enemy threatens the Rockjaw family brewery Hank must use his wits and his fists to cut through a web of intrigue and betrayal. Who can he trust? Is it the beautiful and mysterious Zelphia Dipthong? Or Roland Wu, his mysterious gardener? Or the Cult of Aristaeus, a mysterious motorcycle gang?

Clear your calendars, because from February 1st to March 1st 1889 Labs will be hosting Hank Rockjaw’s latest serialized adventure: Freedom Beer!

The Court’s opinion points to the Berne Convention of 1886, wherein member nations agreed to provide copyright reciprocity. The ruling ostensibly closes a gap of protection for foreign copyright holders.

I do not have an issue with reciprocal international copyright, but the explicit impermanence of public domain scares me. It is a slippery slope. Once public domain can be revoked for good reasons then it can be invoked for bad. And in this case, it is already bad as it is threatening the jobs of orchestra conductors, educators, performers, publishers and film archivists that depend on that material in the public domain.

Why is it imperative that the US follow Berne Convention when they merrily reject other international accords? The Berne Convention makes it easier for the Recording Industry to get support to prosecute copyright infringement in other nations by saying “we protect it here.” Despite Ginsberg’s statement that “in aligning the United States with other nations bound by the Berne Convention, and thereby according equitable treatment to once disfavored foreign authors, Congress can hardly be charged with a design to move stealthily toward a regime of perpetual copyrights.” In a contextless milieu, maybe. But the Supreme Court exists to work within context and set or explore precedent. Given the direction of SOPA, PIPA and other anti-culture legislation, Ginsberg’s statement falls on calloused ears.

Copyright’s purpose is to provide protection to encourage new cultural production. The dissenting opinion by Justices Breyer and Alito notes that fact and says that the decision “does not encourage anyone to produce a single new work.” This will limit derivative (read: new) works and does not provide any impetus to create new works, it merely provides retrograde protection for works that we have already incorporated into the public domain.

I am still reading the opinion but so far I have not seen any statement regarding the treatment of existing derivative works. Two options exist: nothing will be done to their creators, or their creators will be punished according to the retcon performed by SCOTUS.

The same media industry wieners have purchased some proposed legislation (it appears that the sponsor of SOPA, Representative Lamar Smith, has some rich friends in media). The US Senate considers PIPA and the US House of Representatives considers SOPA but the two are at least fraternal twins. Many excellent arguments have been written against both pieces of legislation by people much more knowledgeable than myself, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and concerned law professors. And the European Parliament has weighed in on the matter with a resolution expressing their concern.

Culture isn’t mine, and it isn’t yours, and it isn’t theirs. It’s ours. Publishers may act as a steward and many do an excellent job in that role, but come on, how many damn fantasy stories have been written about stewards overreaching and acting like jackasses and then the real king comes back and is all like “you’re a dick sandwich, check out this sweet crown?” We’re the real kings, the media lobbyists are the dick sandwiches.

If you’ve picked up any published editions of my books, you’ll know that they were released under a Creative Commons license. I’ve gone ahead and added the comparative license to content on this site as well.

Judge for yourself.

I’ve squished as many bugs as I could on my development server so it’s time to roll it out and start testing it in development. I also wanted to pull the train of self-doubt and second-guessing on design choices out of the station.

Clean up list (for myself):

• Badge for the Guide to Moral Living in Examples, because how the hell can you get to it now?
• Add links back to the one-shot stories (Urgoth the Defiler!)
• Add linklove badges to the sidebar
• Previous/next navigation appearing wonky on FF8 (and likely other browsers)
• Comment system fucked, must revirginate
• WP post timestamping not behaving according to the principles of linear time (the stamp on this post shouldn’t read “12th Round in the cycle of Hrang at the 1839th Blink of the ChronoCyclops”)

And for the curious, a ChronoCyclops is sort of like an eggtimer, but instead of buzzing when three minutes are up it shatters your cervical vertebrae with an oaken club. As a result, they’re about as easy to get as lead forks or milk cut with powdered plaster. Fucking nanny state.