5/16/2008

Save The Adipose, Behead The Bean Counters


Hello,
I note that the BBC are harassing knitters now. God it's such a bothering channel! Say what you like about ITV but it isn't always trying to get us to behave. Why won't the BBC leave us alone? If it's not Blue Peter annoying us about bloody 'Bring and Buy', they're bothering us with Children in Need. Why can't Blue Peter just call bring and buy sales jumble sales like normal folk anyway? It's the classic hallmark of a botherer that -trying to turn life's little pleasures into something worthy. I remember they once featured an ex-employer of mine on Watchdog, our life wasn't worth living for weeks afterwards. I don't want to go into detail -suffice to say I got my head nipped by angry pensioners with anti-Scottish conspiracy theories. Awful.

To walk towards the vaguest direction of the point, a fan of both knitting and Doctor Who has knitted some very sweet little 'adipose' toys. Apparently the adipose are some sort of villains though as I gaze into their mother me eyes I find this impossible to believe. I expect they're just misunderstood. Whatever the moral character of the little sweeties, knitted versions make the BBC very cross, very cross indeed.

It's the usual old rot about copyright. What in God's name do we pay a licence fee for? We own all that stuff. As far as I'm concerned anything BBC produced is fair game whether it's knitted, boiled or painted. It's the effrontery that gets me. I'll bet the maniacs, and there is no other word for them, behind this decision have been at home boring their wives senseless about this 'threat' for days now. It's simply appalling. If we tolerate this crochet will be next.

Nevertheless I am a reasonable person, if the BBC don't want us to copy their stuff then they should stop showing it to all and sundry and scrap the licence fee.

Cheers

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you have a downer on the BBc because of a Watchdog episode in which an ex-boss of yours got done over.

Don't believe in copyrights.

I'm looking forward to you and Rumbold making your own Doctor who episodes.

iLL Man said...

The copyright issue in this case is an absurdity. I can think of one other recent issue that exposes the same mentality. Partick Thistle FC warned an unofficial website that any site member using the new club badge as an avatar on the forum would be in breach of some sort of copyright law. You won't be surprised to know that the current chairman is both a lawyer and a total knob. A terrifying combination.

Just disappointed that the BBC are chasing this sort of thing. Total own goal territory if you ask me, especially since the patterns were not made for profit and I imagine the few created and flogged on ebay were hardly selling for anything other than a few quid.

Copyright has it's place, but since there was no corresponding commercially available item to which the 'Adipose' knitting pattern can be compared to or mistaken for, I'd say that the action taken by the BBC and it's lawyers can only be decribed as petty minded and vindictive.

Admittedly I know fuck all about the law, but then, corporations and law firms know fuck all about life, people, or all those other pesky things that they fear are beyond their control.

Clairwil said...

David,
Rumbold????? Has he said he wants to make episodes of Doctor Who? With me?
What's got into him? I hate Doctor Who.

My downer on the BBC is nothing to do with my ex-boss. I just cited it as an example of their do-gooding and bothering. That's bothered me ever since I first laid eyes on an episode of Blue Peter -horrid bloody programme.

I just think it's a bit much to demand a licence fee then complain when we want to use our own stuff. They shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways.

Ill Man,
Very well said. Do you know anything about Rumbold wanting to make Doctor Who episodes?

iLL Man said...

Well, he did email me the other week there, asking if I had any tinfoil and cardboard boxes going spare.................

He wouldn't tell me what he wanted them for though. ;)

Anonymous said...

That's bothered me ever since I first laid eyes on an episode of Blue Peter -horrid bloody programme.

Blue Peter-got a point there esp re Joey Deacon, that didn't half backfire.

Charity shindigs such as CIN and Comic relief (the only TV work Lenny Henry can get) are mere vehicles for the bbc "talent".

Watchdog is a consumer affairs programme, Whats the problem with that!

The BBC have been a little overzealous over this issue, now that the telegraph has got involved it will be quietly dropped.. at least i hope so.

Anonymous said...

Fortean Times had an 'interesting' snippit on a woman in America who'd knitted a house. It was on show in a mall or some such. Anyway, the fire brigade said it was a hazard, so she knitted a fire extinguisher.

Perhaps the victim in your tale should knit herself a lawyer.

douglas