And the mask comes off.

[Aggelakis]

The Anita Blake series was good - for the first...umm... five or so books. I kept going up to eight, Blue Moon (I actually owned up to 9, Obsidian Butterfly, but stopped reading after Blue Moon), because I really wanted her to get over the diddling and come back to the story... did it ever happen? There's now like 20 books or something. I see a hussycover every year or two from her. I'm guessing she still hasn't come back to the story.

[JanessaVR]

Based on her Merry Gentry series, I'm thinking it was the author that shifted steadily more kinky rather than being pushed to do so by readership.  Also, from Mary Sue-lite to Mary Sue: the post-doctorate edition.

Quite.  I started out liking the AB series, but then it degenerated into "all porn and rape all the time" and I stopped buying the books.  I got as far as like halfway through Obsidian Butterfly, and decided that I was done with the series.  From recaps of later books, I'd say that I bailed out just in time, if not a bit late.

And even by then, her writing had gotten so out there with all the torture porn that I really wouldn't want to run into LKH in a dark alley...

[Abraxus]

It's funny, but if memory serves, the greater appeal of the book, and by extension the sexual content contained therein, was that like other romance novels, women could process the images using their imagination, which according to many articles that come out after the original book, is the method that makes it appealing to them.  This as opposed to men who prefer the visual method.  By taking it to the big screen, you make it visual, the imagination element is gone, and with it...the appeal of the whole thing for women.  Of course, men were bound not to like it due to the "Twilight" similarities to the surrounding story. 

So, I am not surprised to hear that a higher percentage of women that I know that enjoyed the book(s), saw the movie and did not like it.  This one will make a lot of money out of curiosity, but now that the verdict is in (for the most part), the second, and third ones will have a hard time trying to recapture an audience already lost.  I am sure there are exceptions to all of the above, but by and large, the response has been pretty one sided in my neck of the woods.

*Disclaimer:  No statements made above are intended to be construed, or implied as sexist, or denigrating to either sex.  You can never be too careful when commenting on things of this nature. ;-)

[Ohioknight]

The older European antecedents of IP law are based on the "moral rights" of creators (cf: droit moral).  This concept did not and does not contain the same presumption that the purpose of artistic protection is to ultimately benefit society or that such works should ever, at any time, necessarily escape the control of the creator.  As a practical matter those rights tended to have expiration dates, but not because of the reason you give as a foundation of the legal justification.  Because that concept did not find its way into the US Constitution, US IP law tends to focus more on the issue of proper financial compensation to creators balanced against the net overall benefit to society, while in many other parts of the world copyright is coupled with other rights not generally recognized in the US, such as the right to preserve the integrity of published works (i.e. to prevent other people from modifying the original work itself, even if financial control is transferred).

Sure, but I thought "moral rights" referred only to the... reputational ( is perhaps a word???) elements of attribution and creative integrity.  Also, where/when were "droit moral" first codified?  I thought it was a 20th century invention.  I know international IP law was a total mess as late as Tolkien's 1950's/60's unauthorized US publications (total nerd here).  The US element of encouraging distribution certainly governed the US Constitution (as you say) but were there earlier statutes?  Pre-Napoleonic? (or for that matter Napoleonic?)

I recognize the criticality for world commerce in agreed IP law and I fully recognize that even a "use it or lose it" condition would create mock availabilities (say, NCSoft makes CoH available on a single machine in their office lobby for a $20,000/per day subscription once per year -- that's "making it available" to society)  after all, Marvel Comics published a single "Captain Marvel" title as a special to make sure DC didn't get access to the trademark.  But such a thing would require IP holders to make at least that much effort and not drop the property in a file to forget.

[Arcana]

Sure, but I thought "moral rights" referred only to the... reputational ( is perhaps a word???) elements of attribution and creative integrity.

For the most part, yes, although because copyright protection as we know it used to be more of a civil issue (handled by contract and private non-governmental entities) the basis for various protections was argued extensively until the 1700s when actual laws start to appear that pass IP protection from private hands and into government hands; in effect making IP protection a legal right (backed by and enforced by the government) rather than a default common law right.  Prior to that, many argued that one of the moral rights of creators was the right to control duplication and distribution.  The debate over this legal notion - which was repudiated by the English government - eventually led to the Statute of Anne; really the first modern law related to the modern right of copyright.

The Statute of Anne starts off:

"Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting, and Publishing, or causing to be Printed, Reprinted, and Published Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors or Proprietors of such Books and Writings, to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families: For Preventing therefore such Practices for the future, and for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books; May it please Your Majesty, that it may be Enacted..."

I suspect the copyright clause owes some debt to the Statute of Anne.

The Visual Artists Rights Act creates an additional moral right for certain covered works in the US: the right to not have a work of "recognized stature" damaged or destroyed, even if the artist no longer owns either the work or even the copyright to the work itself.  In other words, if you're a famous sculptor and you make an important piece of sculpture, you can demand that it not be deliberately destroyed by its owner even if you sell all other rights away to that new owner.

[Ohioknight]

The Statute of Anne starts off:

"Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting, and Publishing, or causing to be Printed, Reprinted, and Published Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors or Proprietors of such Books and Writings, to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families: For Preventing therefore such Practices for the future, and for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books; May it please Your Majesty, that it may be Enacted..."

"for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books; May it please Your Majesty, that it may be Enacted..."

Even then, the justification of the wealth of society is recognized right along with the support of the creator
-- and again, suppression of material is the exact opposite of the intent of the laws.

[Arcana]

"for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books; May it please Your Majesty, that it may be Enacted..."

Even then, the justification of the wealth of society is recognized right along with the support of the creator
-- and again, suppression of material is the exact opposite of the intent of the laws.

I offered that up specifically to note the controversial nature of who had what rights: the Statute of Anne was passed in 1710, but the basic idea was fought over for over 250 years before it became law.  Prior to that, copyright was a legal battlefield between those with the power to distribute works (publishers), creators, and the crown/government which was presumed to represent everyone else i.e. "the people" but in practice didn't really.

[Arcana]

To take the pressure off - I thought I would share this review of 50 Shades of Grey by an MMA fighter - Yves Edwards:

Apparently it could have been worse:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/%E2%80%98fifty-shades-of-grey%E2%80%99-male-moviegoer-attacked-3-women-arrested/ar-BBhEms2

Worse for whom I'm not entirely sure, but worse nonetheless.

[CMKook]

I will take issue 23. Ha, I would take issue 6. I would take issue 1! I will take anything!

[pssst, is there any chance we could work those I24 costume pieces in eventually... ?  ]

I dunno about issue 1... we didn't have shit in issue 1

[Minotaur]

I dunno about issue 1... we didn't have pancake in issue 1

Was issue 1 "city of regens" or was it issue 2 ?

[Ironwolf]

Issue 1 was badly broken.

Terrible server lag and it wasn't fixed until after Issue 2. I remember rubberbanding backwards half a zone. Issue 3-4 would be the classic uber powerful fixes. All the broken stuff was there as far as being overpowered and yet many bugs were fixed. If you want the SO only no market/Inventions - Issue 3-4 is what you want otherwise known as the Rise of the Fire Tanker.

I once herded the entire Crystal room in the Eden Trial on a Fire Tank - then 2 blasters nuked and destroyed all the Crstals except for the huge amount of baby spawns.

[Brigadine]

Issue 1 was badly broken.

Terrible server lag and it wasn't fixed until after Issue 2. I remember rubberbanding backwards half a zone. Issue 3-4 would be the classic uber powerful fixes. All the broken stuff was there as far as being overpowered and yet many bugs were fixed. If you want the SO only no market/Inventions - Issue 3-4 is what you want otherwise known as the Rise of the Fire Tanker.

I once herded the entire Crystal room in the Eden Trial on a Fire Tank - then 2 blasters nuked and destroyed all the Crstals except for the huge amount of baby spawns.

holy crap that's not rubberbanding its unintentional teleporting 

[Arcana]

Issue 1 was badly broken.

Terrible server lag and it wasn't fixed until after Issue 2. I remember rubberbanding backwards half a zone. Issue 3-4 would be the classic uber powerful fixes. All the broken stuff was there as far as being overpowered and yet many bugs were fixed. If you want the SO only no market/Inventions - Issue 3-4 is what you want otherwise known as the Rise of the Fire Tanker.

If I recall correctly the one thing you lose in I3 is perma-unstoppable tele-tanks.  I think you still have perma-MoG and perma-Elude.  /Dark and Ice/ were still hosed.  Burn was still ridiculous, and Terra Volta was still a shooting gallery.

When people think of the "good old days" they are mostly thinking about Issue 3, but there are exceptions: Invuln tankers thinking about Issue 1 or AR/Devs thinking about release.  Most people who think pre-I2 were the good old days are either thinking about some very specific narrow circumstances or are probably mistaken.

[Parabot]

Issue 1 was badly broken.

Terrible server lag and it wasn't fixed until after Issue 2. I remember rubberbanding backwards half a zone. Issue 3-4 would be the classic uber powerful fixes. All the broken stuff was there as far as being overpowered and yet many bugs were fixed. If you want the SO only no market/Inventions - Issue 3-4 is what you want otherwise known as the Rise of the Fire Tanker.

I once herded the entire Crystal room in the Eden Trial on a Fire Tank - then 2 blasters nuked and destroyed all the Crstals except for the huge amount of baby spawns.

I remember that. My first character was AR/Dev blaster. Smoke grenade originally debuffed the mobs' accuracy by about 220%. I could solo most anything as long as I could hit them all with smoke grenade, first. Good times. Issue 5 sucked. I quit for 3 months after that and tried a bunch of other stuff but CoH was the only game that could hold my attention.

[Ironwolf]

If I recall correctly the one thing you lose in I3 is perma-unstoppable tele-tanks.  I think you still have perma-MoG and perma-Elude.  /Dark and Ice/ were still hosed.  Burn was still ridiculous, and Terra Volta was still a shooting gallery.

When people think of the "good old days" they are mostly thinking about Issue 3, but there are exceptions: Invuln tankers thinking about Issue 1 or AR/Devs thinking about release.  Most people who think pre-I2 were the good old days are either thinking about some very specific narrow circumstances or are probably mistaken.

The radiation and dark debuffs had no range limit. You could superspeed to the end of a mission - debuff one and run back and literally draw the entire mission to a couple of waiting blastes and clear the entire mission in 5 minutes. Individually you were weaker in the Issue 3-4 period but as a team you were in many cases unkillable with stacking buffs/debuffs and unranged powers, no aggro cap and no damage cap number.

After inventions solo you were stronger - but team wise you could do insane things like herd 500+ freaks into a dumpster in Creys.

[Shadowsmith]

The radiation and dark debuffs had no range limit. You could superspeed to the end of a mission - debuff one and run back and literally draw the entire mission to a couple of waiting blastes and clear the entire mission in 5 minutes. Individually you were weaker in the Issue 3-4 period but as a team you were in many cases unkillable with stacking buffs/debuffs and unranged powers, no aggro cap and no damage cap number.

After inventions solo you were stronger - but team wise you could do insane things like herd 500+ freaks into a dumpster in Creys.

Oh, I remember accidentally herding an entire floor of tsoo with my dark defender. I was a moron and put my dark debuff on the sorcerer. The sorcerer teleported to near the end of the floor and ran back to us aggroing everything on the way. We were surviving thanks to the debuff until the sorcerer teleported again. Then the mound of caltrops combined with everything else to slaughter us quickly enough.

[pinballdave]

The radiation and dark debuffs had no range limit. You could superspeed to the end of a mission - debuff one and run back and literally draw the entire mission to a couple of waiting blastes and clear the entire mission in 5 minutes. Individually you were weaker in the Issue 3-4 period but as a team you were in many cases unkillable with stacking buffs/debuffs and unranged powers, no aggro cap and no damage cap number.

After inventions solo you were stronger - but team wise you could do insane things like herd 500+ freaks into a dumpster in Creys.

8 man defender teams, rolling nukes, bubbles, sonic, kin, dark, rad for the win!! Of course the screen freezing fulcrum shift is a must!

[pinballdave]

There were outdoor instances where Mr. Twisty would try to pull the whole map by himself, too.

[Battlechimp]

Back in I1 you also could not use multiple dark armors at the same time.  They couldn't be stacked, so you had to choose which one to use in any given situation.

And then Unyeilding was Unyeilding Stance. It rooted you when you used it.  So a lot of invul tanks took teleport early on. 

And did they fix the katana animations by then?  They had originally used the broadsword animations... can't remember when they gave them their own animations

[Arcana]

The radiation and dark debuffs had no range limit. You could superspeed to the end of a mission - debuff one and run back and literally draw the entire mission to a couple of waiting blastes and clear the entire mission in 5 minutes.

Something only old timers could have ever seen was that there used to be this thing where radiation defenders would lock their toggles on a mob in Perez, then fly around the entire park trying to herd literally everything, and then would announce (or sometimes not announce) that they were bringing them to a gate.  Whereupon an entire zone of baddies debuffed to the floor would swarm a gate and literally turn into a shooting gallery.

Until someone killed the anchor.  Then it was 28 Days Later: CoH edition.