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PER: Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad
versão On-line ISSN 1727-3781
PER vol.16 no.5 Potchefstroom Mai. 2013
"Originality" and "reproduction" in copyright law with special reference to photographs
LTC Harms
SC. BA (Law), LLB, LLD h.c.). Professor in the Adams & Adams Chair in Intellectual Property Law, University of Pretoria; Former Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa. Email: email@example.com
Turning to lessons from foreign jurisdictions, this note explores from a copyright perspective the fact that photographs are produced mechanically and more often than not without any effort or mental input. A minute number are taken for anything but personal use and in the digital age photographs tend to have a high degree of mobility and are also ephemeral and without any commercial value. It is accordingly difficult to justify in general terms copyright protection for photographs. Two of the main legal issues in this context are the criteria for originality and the meaning of the reproduction of a photograph. These two issues form the central point of discussion in this contribution.
Keywords: Originality, Reproduction, Copyright Law, Photographs, Artistic Work, Temple Island Collections Ltd v New English Teas Ltd, Sweat- of- the- brow test.
Black cabs and red buses are part of the London landscape. Countless tourists, bedazzled by the sight and using expensive Nikons, cheap disposable cameras or mobile phones, have been taking snapshots of a red bus passing the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, quite often because they had seen the scene before in some or other tourist brochure, all of them oblivious of copyright issues.
There is reason to believe that the reaction of any sensible person on the Clapham bus would be that there cannot be any copyright in a photo of such a mundane scene and, in any event, unless one copies a photograph for instance by photocopying, one cannot infringe copyright. It is also unlikely that the poor tourist, turning around and photographing the statue of Mr Mandela on Parliament Square, would give a thought to the fact that he was infringing the copyright of the sculptor, at least under South African law.1 A shot of General Smuts, though, will not cause any complication under our law, considering that the sculptor, Jacob Epstein, died in 1959 and that we have not yet succumbed to the life plus 70-regime.
The example of the red bus in London instead of a minibus taxi (or for that matter, a black Mercedes-Benz with tinted windows and no number plates) passing the Union Buildings in Pretoria is chosen not because of affectation but because of the judgment in the England and Wales Patents County Court in Temple Island Collections Ltd v New English Teas Ltd,2 which dealt with a photo of a red bus passing those particular Houses. By the way, there are sculptures of both General Smuts and Mr Mandela in front of the Union Buildings.
To set the stage for the discussion it might be useful to relate at the outset the salient facts of the case (to which reference will be made as Red Bus) of His Honour Judge Birss QC who has since been appointed to the High Court. The claimant claimed to be the owner of copyright in a photograph of a red bus travelling across Westminster Bridge. The photographer stood where many tourists stand with their cameras. He knew he would be able to capture the bus heading to the south side of the river and thus show the front of the vehicle. He could ensure that other landmarks, i.e., Parliament, Westminster Bridge, and the river, were included and he would have a strong skyline. He then manipulated the photo on his computer using the standard Photoshop software. The result was an image in black and white, with the Houses of Parliament and the bridge shown in grey. The sky is white. A bright red London bus stands out on the bridge. The red colour of the bus was strengthened and the sky was removed.
The alleged infringer saw the photo and thought of producing something similar but sufficiently different so as not to infringe. He took four photographs. Three were of different aspects of the Houses of Parliament and the fourth was one of a red bus while it was stationary on the Strand. The images3 were combined and manipulated, the bus was resized to fit and the road marks were changed to be consistent.
The similarities and differences between the two photos appear from the reproductions. The court found that the first photo was entitled to copyright and that the second infringed that copyright. The judgment raised some respectful eyebrows, not in regard to its legal exposition but rather for the factual conclusion.4
This note is not a critique of the judgment; rather it is to indicate that the result of a case such as this depends on one's approach to copyright; that, once again, copyright has taken on a life of its own; that as long as the United Kingdom (UK) forms part of the European Union (EU), judgments with that provenance on copyright are dangerous precedents; and that our copyright law is in more than one respect caught in a time capsule.5
There is, unexpectedly, no local case law that is of assistance for the present discussion.6 As a result it is necessary to consider how foreign courts approach such matters and try to draw conclusions that might be valid in the legal context of South Africa.
The basic problem with photographs is that they are produced mechanically and more often than not without any effort or mental input. A minute number are taken for anything but personal use and in the digital age they tend to have a high degree of mobility and are also ephemeral and without any commercial value. It is accordingly difficult to justify in general terms copyright protection for them. This is not a novel insight. One of the pioneers in the field of photography who went under the name of Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (6 April 1820 - 23 March 1910)) believed that there is no such a thing as artistic photography because in photography, as in all things, there are people who can see and others who cannot even look.7 He believed (considering the age in which he wrote) that 'the theory of photography could be learnt in an hour and its techniques in a day'; but, he said, 'what couldn't be taught were a sense of light, a grasp of the moral intelligence of the sitter, and "the psychological side of photography - the word doesn't seem too ambitious to me''.8
The two main issues in this context are (a) the criteria for originality and (b) the meaning of the reproduction of a photograph, and the discussion that follows will concentrate on them.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886, which applies to literary and artistic works in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, did not in its original version deal with photographs as a class of protected works in spite of the fact that the technology had already reached puberty.9 The UK Fine Arts Copyright Act of 1862 recognised that a photograph was entitled to copyright protection, although not in the same manner and to the same extent as other works. It was only with the Brussels revision in 1948 of the Berne Convention that photographic (and cinematographic) works were finally added to the list of literary and artistic "works"10 and photography appears on the list of the 1971 Paris version of Berne, which is binding under the TRIPS agreement on members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).11
In spite of this belated acceptance of photographs as copyrightable works by Berne, South African legislation, following developments in the UK, adopted the approach that they are artistic works and are consequently entitled to copyright protection. The Union of SA Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Copyright Act 9 of 1916 defined copyright as the sole right to 'produce or reproduce' a work12 and defined an artistic work to include a photograph. It defined a photograph to include a photo-lithograph and any work produced by any process analogous to photography.13 The term of copyright was fifty years from the making of the original negative from which the photograph was directly or indirectly derived; and the owner of the negative at the time of its making and not the photographer was deemed to be the author.14 In this regard it treated copyright in photographs in the same manner as that in films.
Although a photograph is by its very nature a technical work akin to cinematography, the Copyright Act 98 of 1978 also classifies it as an artistic work, ie, an author's work theoretically on the same level as a painting, drawing, sculpture and the like.15 The term is defined to mean any product of photography or of any process analogous to photography, not including any part of a cinematograph film. The "author", in relation to a photograph, means the person who is responsible for the composition of the photograph but where a person commissions the taking of a photograph and pays or agrees to pay for it in money or money's worth, and the work is made in pursuance of that commission, that person is the first owner of its copyright.16
A photograph, provided it is original and irrespective of its artistic merit, is eligible for copyright.17 (It is unnecessary for present purposes to discuss the criteria of eligibility for protection.) Copyright is infringed if someone other than the owner, without licence, in the Republic performs any act which the owner has the exclusive right to do or to authorise.18 There are a few exceptions.19 The important exclusive rights attaching to artistic works like photographs are the right of reproducing the work in any manner or form and the right of making an adaptation of the work.20
Burying Graves' Case,21 as did Laddie, Prescott and Vitoria,22 the only English judgment dealing with the originality of photographs that is of real assistance is Antiquesportfo/io.Com Plc v Rodney Fitch & Company Ltd,23 a judgment of Neuberger J. The case, to the extent relevant for this discussion, was concerned with the question whether photographs of individual antique items could be original in the copyright sense. Neuberger J quoted the following from Laddie, Prescott and Vitoria with approval:24
Originality presupposes the exercise of substantial independence, skill, labour, judgment and so forth. For this reason it is submitted that a person makes a photograph merely by placing a drawing or painting on the glass of a photocopying machine and pressing the button gets no copyright at all ... It will be evident that in photography there is room for originality in three respects. First, there may be originality which does not depend on creation of the scene or object to be photographed, or anything remarkable about its capture, and which resides in such specialities as angle of shot, light and shade, exposure, effects achieved by means of filters, developing techniques... Secondly, there may be creation of the scene or subject to be photographed ... Thirdly, a person may create a worthwhile photograph by being at the right place at the right time. Here his merit consists of capturing and recording a scene unlikely to recur ...
In the case of photographs of a three-dimensional object, according to the learned judge,
it can be said that the positioning of the object (unless it is a sphere), the angle at which it is taken, the lighting and the focus, and matters such as that, could all be matters of aesthetic or even commercial judgment, albeit in most cases at a very basic level.
In the present case, he said,
the instant photographs appear to have been taken with a view to exhibiting particular qualities, including the colour (in the case of some items), their features (e.g. the glaze in pottery) and, in the case of almost all the items, the details. It may well be that, in those circumstances, some degree of skill was involved in the lighting, angling and judging the positioning.
Considering that photographs as artistic works need not have any artistic quality25 but only some artistic pretensions,26 one senses that Neuberger J was somewhat uncomfortable about applying the stock sweat- of- the- brow test for originality.
The sweat-of-the-brow test for originality, which our courts follow, requires a substantial (or not trivial) degree of skill, judgment or labour in the creation of the work.27 Some jurisdictions have developed a degree of unease about this mundane level, especially if one has regard to the consequences. For instance, the copyright in the song "Happy birthday to you", published by two sisters in the 19th Century, which now vests in TimeWarner, has not yet lapsed, at least not in the United States of America (US).28
In Feist Publications Inc v Rural Telephone Service Co29 the US Supreme Court revisited the requirement of originality without specific reference to photographs (the case dealt with a compilation) and concluded that the sweat- of- the- brow test did not suffice. It held, per O'Connor J, that "original, as the term is used in copyright, means only that the work was independently created by the author (as opposed to copied from other works), and that it possesses at least some minimal degree of creativity."
The application of Feist to photographs appears from the judgment of Kaplan J in Bridgeman Art Library Ltd v Corel Corp30 He held that colour transparencies of paintings, which themselves are in the public domain, are not original works. He concluded as follows:
There is little doubt that many photographs, probably the overwhelming majority, reflect at least the modest amount of originality required for copyright protection. "Elements of originality . . . may include posing the subjects, lighting, angle, selection of film and camera, evoking the desired expression, and almost any other variant involved." But "slavish copying", although doubtless requiring technical skill and effort, does not qualify. As the Supreme Court indicated in Feist, 'sweat of the brow' alone is not the "creative spark" which is the sine qua non of originality. [Citations omitted.]
In CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada31 the Canadian Supreme Court, although of the view that the sweat- of- the- brow test is too low a threshold, felt that the spark of creativity requirement set by Feist was too high and opted for an intermediate position in the words of McLachlin CJ at para 16:
For a work to be "original" within the meaning of the Copyright Act, it must be more than a mere copy of another work. At the same time, it need not be creative, in the sense of being novel or unique. What is required to attract copyright protection in the expression of an idea is an exercise of skill and judgment. By skill, I mean the use of one's knowledge, developed aptitude or practised ability in producing the work. By judgment, I mean the use of one's capacity for discernment or ability to form an opinion or evaluation by comparing different possible options in producing the work. This exercise of skill and judgment will necessarily involve intellectual effort. The exercise of skill and judgment required to produce the work must not be so trivial that it could be characterized as a purely mechanical exercise. For example, any skill and judgment that might be involved in simply changing the font of a work to produce 'another' work would be too trivial to merit copyright protection as an 'original' work.
Vaver is of the view that since Canadian courts have in the light of this judgment held that such items as simple word and design trade-marks, the outline for a talent contest, the repackaged version of a children's game, payroll books, and a commonplace floor plan for a mass-produced house are not original, "one could suspect that routine photographs taken on cell phones, tweets and texted messages, short letters, e-mails, and shopping lists may now more readily be treated as trivial or mechanical work than they may have been in the past."32
The court in Red Bus was required to interpret English law in such a manner that it did not conflict with EU law, more particularly, as expounded in a leading judgment by the Court of Justice of the EU in Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening33
EU law obliges member states to provide for the exclusive right for authors to authorise or prohibit direct or indirect, temporary or permanent reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part, of their works.34
Photographs "which are original in the sense that they are the author's own intellectual creation" have to be protected as copyright works without the addition of any criteria to determine their eligibility for protection. Rather oddly, from a Southern perspective, member states may also provide for the protection of "other photographs', ie, those that do not require 'the author's own intellectual creation".35
The same criterion of originality, namely that the work must be the author's own intellectual creation, applies in EU law to computer programmes and databases. But it does not lay down any such requirement for other copyrightable works. However, the court in Infopaq reasoned that having regard to the explicit requirement in respect of photographs, computer programmes and databases and to the fact that it is "apparent from the general scheme of the Berne Convention . . . that the protection of certain subject-matters as artistic or literary works presupposes that they are intellectual creations', concluded that to be a copyrightable 'work' it must be the author's 'own intellectual creation".
Parts of a work, the court said, should not be treated any differently from the work as a whole and are protected by copyright since they share the originality of the whole work. In other words, the various parts of a work enjoy protection provided that they contain elements which are the expression of the intellectual creation of the author of the work.
The case did not concern photographs but news headlines and snippets, although it dealt with general principles. In this regard the court found that although words in themselves do not constitute elements covered by copyright protection (ie, they are in our terminology not "works"), isolated sentences, or even certain parts of sentences, may be regarded as the intellectual creation of the author of the article and, as such, be entitled to copyright protection.
This, to an outsider, appears to be in conflict with the approach of Oliver LJ in Exxon Corp. v Exxon Insurance Consultants Ltd.36 The question there was if the invented and therefore original word 'Exxon' qualified for copyright protection as a literary work. He said that
'original literary work', as used in the statute, is a composite expression, and for my part I do not think that the right way to apply a composite expression is, or at any rate is necessarily, to ascertain whether a particular subject matter falls within the meaning of each of the constituent parts, and then to say that the whole expression is merely the sum total of the constituent parts. In my judgment it is not necessary, in construing a statutory expression, to take leave of one's common sense... [T]hat for which protection is sought in the instant case does not appear to me to have any of the qualities which common-sense would demand.
It is true that he was concerned with a word, which Infopaq excluded, but his statement would also apply, one would have thought, to isolated sentences and parts of sentences.37 Our Copyright Act does not use the same composite expression but, nevertheless, to consider them as substantial literary works requires one to take leave of one's common sense, accepting that common sense is one's own sense which others are supposed to agree with.
The effect of Infopaq appears first to be that anything that can be called an intellectual creation is a copyrightable work and that works are deemed to be original if they are the author's own intellectual creation. In other words, whether something is a 'work' and whether it is "original" depends on the answer to the same question. This appears to amount to circuitous reasoning. As Arnold J observed, it may now be arguable that it is not a fatal objection to a claim that copyright subsists in a particular work that the work is not one of the kinds of work listed and defined in the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988, as long as it falls within the meaning of "literary or artistic work' in the Berne Convention, while recognising that although it 'is expansive and open-ended, it is not unlimited".38 Such an approach would, in a local context, be completely at odds with our statute because the Berne Convention is not part of our municipal law.39
The second result appears to be that anything in a work that is identifiable as an intellectual creation is a work in its own right. This means that any work consists of a multitude of min-works, the reproduction of which could amount to copyright infringement.40 In other words, to determine infringement one no longer asks whether the work or a substantial part has been taken but whether the part taken was an intellectual creation. This, too, is at odds with the prior English position and our understanding of the position.41
That brings one to the meaning of "the author's own intellectual creation". The Chancellor (Morritt LJ), in Meltwater,42 had to deal with an application of the Ifopaq principles to newspaper headlines. He said that to be entitled to copyright a headline must be "a work" and both "original" and "literary" and continued:
A headline is plainly literary as it consists of words. The word 'original' does not connote novelty but that it originated with the author. This test was clearly established in the domestic law of England ...
He did not refer to the dictum of Lord Oliver quoted above to support the first sentence. In any event, referring to Infopaq, he said that although it referred to "intellectual creation" he did not understand the decision to have qualified the "longstanding test" in England for originality.43 He may have been mistaken, at least as far as photographs are concerned, if regard is had to the European court's subsequent judgment in Painer v Standard Verlags GmbH.44
Painer concerned portrait photographs, a member of a species of what the court referred to as "realistic photographs".45 The court restated that copyright is available only in relation to a subject-matter, such as a photograph, "which is original in the sense that it is its author's own intellectual creation and that an intellectual creation is an author's own if it reflects the author's personality" and further:
As regards a portrait photograph, the photographer can make free and creative choices in several ways and at various points in its production. In the preparation phase, the photographer can choose the background, the subject's pose and the lighting. When taking a portrait photograph, he can choose the framing, the angle of view and the atmosphere created. Finally, when selecting the snapshot, the photographer may choose from a variety of developing techniques the one he wishes to adopt or, where appropriate, use computer software. By making those various choices, the author of a portrait photograph can stamp the work created with his "personal touch".46
It added that copyright protection in respect of a portrait photograph "cannot be inferior to that enjoyed by other works, including other photographic works".47
This approach is in line with Continental national jurisprudence, namely that a photograph is protectable under copyright only to the extent that it is the result of a creative effort and does not aim solely to reproduce, as faithfully as possible, a pre-existing object.48
The claimant's photograph49 in the Red Bus case is on any test original but what this excursus shows is that, as least as far as photographs are concerned, the idea that authorship and originality are correlatives is not necessarily correct. The approach adopted by Neuberger J in Antiquesportfolio.Com and followed in Red Bus50 gave special meaning to the sweat of the brow concept for photographs by introducing an element of creativity, and it is difficult to discern the practical differences between the different approaches discussed. In other words, the statement that 'the author need not be creative, so long as she perspires'51 is not entirely appropriate, also for our law in this regard.
The defendant's work in Red Bus is also original and in its own right entitled to copyright but that does not mean that it was not infringing.52 In this regard it is similar to an improvement patent which may infringe the patent it improves. The test for originality of a reproduction as proposed by Sir Robin Jacob in Hyperion Records Ltd v Sawkins53 is significant: I think the true position is that one has to consider the extent to which the 'copyist' is a mere copyist - merely performing an easy mechanical function. The more that is so, the less is his contribution likely to be taken as "original". Ginsberg puts it this way:54 "Reproductions requiring great talent and technical skill may qualify as protectable works of authorship, even if they are copies of pre-existing works. This would be the case for photographic and other high quality replicas of works of art." In the end the question is one of degree - how much skill, labour and judgment in the making of the copy is that of the creator of that copy? Both individual creative input and sweat- of- brow may be involved and will be factors in the overall evaluation.
The idea of creativity also lurks in South African law because authorship of a photograph vests in the person responsible for its "composition", a pregnant word. The Chancellor, it is suggested, might have been closer to the mark if his remark about the effect of Infopaq on English law had been limited to photographs.
The more difficult question relates to infringement. In other words, when is a photograph "reproduced"? The other exclusive acts are not contentious.
The first issue in this regard is whether one "copies" a photograph by photographing the same object or scene or by drawing it. The idea that every photograph of the Union Buildings is a reproduction of any earlier photograph tends to rattle the senses. Most scenes have an optimum point for photographing. For Table Mountain it is the view from across the bay with the clouds moving over. Every photographer has seen a prior photo of the scene and to suggest that when trying to catch a similar moment on film or in digital form the earlier photograph is being reproduced does simply not appear to be right. Every visitor to the Kruger Park has probably experienced that someone, having spotted a lion lying in the grass, would manoeuvre his vehicle to get the best view of the animal. Courtesy demands that the next visitor gets access to the same spot. Crazy copyright apparently holds that the second photograph infringes the first.
In ordinary parlance, it is submitted, this cannot amount to a 'reproduction' of the photograph. Obviously, if the first photograph were to be reproduced in the ordinary sense of the word - which is not limited to photocopying but would include a change of medium, for instance the making of a drawing of the photograph - there would be copyright infringement.55
The justification for the extended meaning of 'reproduction' appears to be the assumption that once there is a causal connection between two photographs and they are similar, the second is a reproduction of the first.56 The problem arises due to looseness of terminology. The fact that one work inspires another and that the two are in that sense causally connected does not mean at the same time that the second, independently created, is a reproduction.
Richard Arnold QC (now Arnold J) dealt with the anomaly produced by the extensive meaning of "reproduction" in an incisive and refreshingly brief discussion on the subject, albeit written from the point of view of law reform.57 He indicated that copyrights in broadcasts, films and sound recordings are 'medium' or 'signal' copyrights, that is to say
, they are copyrights in the medium or signal in question (and not in the content carried by that medium or signal). An important consequence of this is that such copyrights are only infringed if the medium or signal itself is copied. Thus sound recording copyright is only infringed if there has been copying of part of the recording itself, and it is not an infringement to reproduce the sound content of the recording without copying the recording. Similarly, film copyright is only infringed if there has been "photographic" copying of part of the film, and it is not an infringement to reproduce the content of the film by "non-photographic" copying. The same would be true of a broadcast.
He then questions with reason why the same does not apply to photographs which, as mentioned earlier, are considered by the Act to be authors' (artistic) works instead of technical works.
The approach of US courts in determining infringement is the following: they first dissect the plaintiff's work to identify the expressive choices in the work that qualify as original. They then consider whether, focusing solely on those original elements, the defendant's work is substantially similar to the plaintiff's.58 In essence according to their jurisprudence they distinguish between protected expression and unprotected ideas.59
If all that is taken is the idea of the first photograph then there will be no infringement. This is a difficult concept when considering photographs as often the idea and the expression are so closely connected as to be inseparable. Broadly speaking, if the second photograph copies not just the idea but the exact expression of the first photograph (or a substantial part of the exact expression), there will be infringement unless the exact expression is either (a) unoriginal, or (b) the only way of expressing that particular idea. This approach has been adopted in the USA and it has been held that we have an idea for a photograph is capable of expression in 'countless different layouts' but the exact layout of the claimant's photograph has been copied, a contention that the idea and expression are indistinguishable will fail stop in reality, there are probably very few instances when it can genuinely be said a particular image is the only way of expressing the idea containing the photograph. In many cases there will be options as to lighting, angle, choice of background, etc.
The approach can best be explained with reference to an example. It is of photographs of a gate in the touristy French Quarter of New Orleans.60 The black and white one was taken by Sahuc and the other by Tucker. Tucker took his after having seen Sahuc's. Causation was accordingly not an issue. The court found for the defendant, Tucker.
Anyone with half an eye would immediately realise that if this approach had been followed in Red Bus the result would have been different. As pointed out by Rahmatian:61
[t]he decision might have been different if more attention had been given to the aspect of 'composition' of the photograph and to the idea-expression dichotomy. Contrary to what the court held in Temple Island, the recreation of a scene that is then independently photographed does not infringe the copyright in the earlier photograph, as was clearly said in Creation Records,62 a case strangely not referred to in Temple Island: two works created from a common source do not by reason of that fact involve copying one or the other, however similar they are.
The "expression versus idea" dichotomy is inherent in copyright law. It also appears from the TRIPS agreement which states that ideas may not be protected by copyright. There are, however, those who doubt its validity.63
In the context of recognising or conferring copyright, Lord Hoffmann identified two quite distinct propositions in relation to the dichotomy:64 The first is that a copyright work may express certain ideas which are not protected because they have no connection with the literary, dramatic, musical or artistic nature of the work; and the second is that certain ideas expressed by a copyright work may not be protected because, although they are ideas of a literary, dramatic or artistic nature, they are not original, or are so commonplace as not to form a substantial part of the work.
I would have thought that the correct proposition was that copyright protects the form in which an idea is cast and not the idea itself. However, when considering whether a work infringes copyright the distinction is vital even if it is often difficult to apply, as appears from the important judgment of Wunsch J in Rapid Phase Entertainment CC v SABC.65 The defendant produced an advertising strip based on the underlying concept in the well-known cartoon strip Madam and Eve. Although the idea was copied, the expression of the idea in the original was not copied, and the court, correctly in my submission, held that there was no infringement.
US law, in addition, has an expansive doctrine of fair use which was originally judge-made but has since been codified. It differs from the fair dealing provisions in the Copyright Act because it is based on principle and is not casuistic and it gives courts rather wide latitude in reaching fair conclusions. US courts refer to it as an open- ended and context-sensitive inquiry. Infringement cases are often decided on this basis because, I suspect, it obviates a focussed analysis of the infringement issue, which is inherently subjective.
An example of fair use is parody. The classical case is the well-known photograph of a highly pregnant Demi Moore taken by Annie Leibovitz and published on the front page of the periodical Vanity Fair.66 Moore was depicted nude, in profile, with her right hand and arm covering her breasts and her left hand supporting her distended stomach, a pose evocative of Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Her facial expression is serious, without a trace of a smile. To advertise the motion picture Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult the defendant commissioned a photograph in which the lead actor's face was to be super-imposed on a body of a pregnant woman similar to that of Moore. The pictures tell the story. The court upheld the defence of parodic use.
It is not hereby suggested that Red Bus could have been decided on this basis but that it could have been decided on another manifestation of fair use, namely transformative use, is clear. Transformative works lie at the heart of the fair use doctrine's guarantee of providing breathing space. A recent example is Patrick Cariou v Richard Prince.67 Prince, the defendant, is an appropriation artist, ie, someone who directly takes over into a work of art a real object or even an existing work of art. His work involves taking photographs and other images that others have produced and incorporating them into paintings and collages that he then presents, in a different context, as his own. In this case he used with little or no changes photographs taken by Cariou in the course of six years living among Rastafarians in Jamaica. The result is not important for this discussion; the principle is.
In determining if a work is transformative, the court asks if it adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning, or message. Images with a different character that give the original photographs a new expression and employ new aesthetics with creative and communicative results make fair use of the original and are not infringing.
In conclusion: The question is constantly being raised as to whether intellectual property rights can be justified. One could likewise pose the same question in relation to virtually any other economic right. On analysis it seems that the issue is not so much the justification for the right; it is rather the justification for the scope of the right that requires attention. Greed, one of the seven deadly sins, kills as it recently led to the demise in many parts of the world of ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).
For us the question is what the appropriate level of copyright protection in a developing country should be. We do not have a constitutional measure, as has the US, against which to test the scope of copyright and its protection. Other developing countries do not provide any leads, and although some of the developments in the developed world are to be welcomed, others are not.
It is apparent that the traditional test for originality does not withstand scrutiny and it is not possible to justify a higher level of protection in a country with a lower level of commercial sophistication.68 It is difficult to understand why locally a database, photograph, computer programme or any other work should be entitled to a life plus 50 years' protection simply because it was the result of some supposed sweat worked up in an air-conditioned office and irrespective of merit. What this means is that a mundane German database, for instance, will have copyright in South Africa but not in Germany.
It is generally accepted that our copyright law is outdated, more specifically if regard is had to the fact that the Act has not been amended to accommodate the internet age - considering that the World Wide Web is now twenty years old. It is particularly disconcerting that the Draft National Policy on Intellectual Property, 2013, contains no proposals about amending the Act.69 In particular, one would have assumed that it would at least also have dealt with fair use and fair dealing where I prefer the US approach even if it might arguably not be in accordance with the three-stage test in the Berne Convention and the TRIPS agreement. If the US can get away with it, we can too. The Australians and Hong Kong are also moving in that direction and the Canadian Supreme Court now recognises the right of the public (instead of copyright exceptions) which has to be balanced against that of the author.70
In this regard I can do no better than to quote Pallante, the head of the US Copyright Office, testifying before Congress during March 2013, who is of the view that the law is showing the strain of its age and requires reconsideration:
A central equation for Congress to consider is what does and does not belong under a copyright owner's control in the digital age. I do not believe that the control of copyright owners should be absolute, but it needs to be meaningful. People around the world increasingly are accessing content on mobile devices and fewer and fewer of them will need or desire the physical copies that were so central to the 19th and 20th century copyright laws.
Arnold R "Copyright in photographs: a case for reform" 2005 EIPR 303-305 [ Links ]
Barnes J Levels of Life (Alfred A Knopf New York 2013) [ Links ]
Garnett K et al Copinger and Skone James on Copyright 14th ed (Sweet & Maxwell London 1999) [ Links ]
Ginsberg JC "The concept of authorship in comparative copyright law" 2003 DePaul L Rev 1063-1092 [ Links ]
Jones RH "The Myth of the Idea/Expression Dichotomy in Copyright Law" 1990 Pace L Rev 551-607 [ Links ]
Laddie H, Prescott P and Vitoria M The Modern Law of Copyright and Designs 2nd ed (Butterworths London 1995) [ Links ]
Lee YH "Photographs and the standard of originality in Europe" 2012 EIPR 290-293 [ Links ]
Michalos C The Law of Photography and Digital Images (Sweet & Maxwell Londong 2004) [ Links ]
Moran C "How much is too much?" 2011 Wash J L Tech & Arts 247-258 [ Links ]
Rahmatian A "Temple Island Collections v New English Teas: an incorrect decision based on the right law?" 2012 EIPR 796-799 [ Links ]
Ricketson S and Ginsburg JC International Copyright and Neighbouring Rights: The Berne Convention and Beyond 2nd ed (Butterworths London 2006) [ Links ]
Rosati E "Case Comment: Harney v Sony Pictures Television 2013 JIPLP 356 [ Links ]
Vaver D Intellectual Property Law 2nd ed (Irwin Law Toronto 2011) [ Links ]
Vaver D "Harmless Copying" 2012 IPJ 19-28 [ Links ]
Register of cases
Annie Leibovitz v Paramount Pictures Corp 137 F 3d 109
Antiquesportfolio Com Plc v Rodney Fitch & Company Ltd 2001 ECDR 5
Appleton v Harnischfeger Corporation 1995]2 All SA 693 (A)
Argus Printing and Publishing Co Ltd v Perskorporasie van Suid-Afrika Bpk 1975 4 SA 668 (A)
Bauman v Fussel 1978 RPC 485
Bridgeman Art Library Ltd v Corel Corp 36 F Supp 2d 191 (SDNY 1999)
CCH Canadian Ltd. v Law Society of Upper Canada 2004 SCC 13
Creation Records Ltd v News Group Newspapers Ltd 1997 EWHC Ch 370
Designer Guild Limited v Russell Williams (Textiles) Limited 2001 1 All ER 700
Eldred v Ashcroft 537 US 186
Eva-Maria Painer v Standard Verlags GmbH C-145/10, 1 December 2011 (CJEU)
Exxon Corp v Exxon Insurance Consultants Ltd 1982 Ch 119
Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd 2010 FCA 984
Feist Publications Inc v Rural Telephone Service C 499 US 340 (1991)
Francis Day and Hunter Ltd v Twentieth Century Fox Corporation Ltd 1940 AC 112 (PC)
Galago Publishers (Pty) Ltd v Erasmus 1989 1 SA 276 (A)
Graves' Cast 1869 LR 4 QB 715
Harney v Sony Pictures Television Inc LLC US Court of Appeal First Circuit No. 11 1760, 7 January 2013
Haupt /a Softcopy v Brewers Marketing Intelligence (Pty) Ltd 2006 4 SA 458 (SCA)
Hyperion Records Ltd v Sawkins 2005 EWCA Civ 565
Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening 2009 EUECJ C-5/08
Klep Valves (Pty) Ltd v Saunders Valve Co Ltd 1987 2 SA 1 (A)
Krisarts SA v Briarfine Limited 1977 FSR 557
Ladbroke Football Ltd v William Hill Football Ltd 1964 1 WLR 273
Laubscher v Vos 3 JOC (W)
Lucasfilm Ltd v Ainsworth 2009 EWCA Civ 1328
Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd & Ors v Meltwater Holding BV & Ors 2011 EWCA Civ 890
Patrick Cariou v Richard Prince US Court of Appeal (2d Circ) 25 April 2013, Doc 11-1197cv
Prinsloo v RPC Media Ltd t/a Rapport 2003 4 SA 456 (T)
Progress Office Machines v SARS 2007 SCA 118
Public Relations Consultants Association Limited v The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited 2013 UKSC 18
Rapid Phase Entertainment CC v SABC 1997 JOL 393 (W)
Rogers v Koons 960 F 2d 301 (2d Cir 1992)
Rudolph Jan Romme v Van Dale Lexicografie BV Hoge Raad, 4 January 1991, Nr. 14 449
Sahuc v Tucker 300 F Supp 2d 461 (EDLA 2004)
SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd 2013 EWHC 69 (Ch)
Stranex Judgments on Copyright 597 1997 JOL 393 (W)
Tempee Island Collections Ltd v New English Teas Ltd 2012 EWPCC 1
Waylite Diary CC v First National Bank Ltd 1995 1 SA 645 (A)
Register of legislation
Copyright Act 63 of 1965
Copyright Act 98 of 1978
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 (UK)
Fine Arts Copyright Act of 1862 (UK)
Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Copyright Act 9 of 1916
Register of international instruments
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (1994) (TRIPS Agreement)
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (2011) (ACTA)
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)
Berne Convention - Brussels revision (1948)
Berne Convention - Paris version (1971)
Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights OJ L372/12, modi-ied by Directive 2011/77/EU, OJ L265/1
Register of internet sources
Concorde Photographs Case 2012 Tribunal de grande instance de Paris 3ème chambre, 4ème section Jugement du 20 décembre 2012 www.legalis.net/spip.php?page=jurisprudence-decision&id_article=3578 [date of use 11 Apr 2013] [ Links ]
Greenspun P 1999 History of Photography Timeline photo.net/learn/history/timeline [date of use 11 Apr 2013] [ Links ]
Nadar Date Unknown Quotes www.photoquotes.com/showquotes. aspx?id=281&name=Nadar [date of use 1 May 2013] [ Links ]
Picture Archive Academy of America Date Unknown Presentation: Copyright and Copywrong www.pacaoffice.org/copyrightInfo/PACAcopEd.ppt [date of use 1 May 2013] [ Links ]
List of abbreviations
DePaul L Rev DePaul Law Review
EIPR European Intellectual Property Review
IPJ Intellectual Property Journal
JIPLP Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice
Pace L Rev Pace Law Review
Wash J L Tech & Arts Washington Journal of Law, Technology and Arts
1 Further explanation to follow below.
2 Temple Island Collections Ltd v New Engilsh Teas Ltd 2012 EWPCC 1.
3 The reproductions of the photographs inserted here are to be found in the judgment referenced in fn 2.
4 Eg Rahmatian 2012 EIPR 796.
5 Krisarts SA vBriarfine Limited 1977 FSR 557 dealt with similar issues in relations to drawings. Since the case was decided at an interlocutory stage no further reference will be made to it.
6 The only case of any relevance is Laubscher v Vos 3 JOC (W), a judgment by Nicholas J in the WLD.
7 Nadar Date Unknown www.photoquotes.com.
8 Barnes Levels of Life 16.
9 For a timeline (and much more): Michalos Law of Photography, Greenspun 1999 photo.net.
10 For the full history: Ricketson and Ginsburg International Copyright paras 8.48-8.58.
11 Agreement on Trade-Re/ated Aspects of Intel/ectual Property Rights (1994) (TRIPS Agreement).
12 Schedule 3 art 1 of the Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Copyright Act 9 of 1916.
13 Schedule 3 art 35 of the Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Copyright Act 9 of 1916.
14 Schedule 3 art 21 of the Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Copyright Act 9 of 1916.
15 The Copyright Act 63 of 1965 is bypassed.
16 The definitions appear in s 1 and ownership is dealt with in s 21. The issue arose tangentially in Prinsloo v RPC Media Ltd t/a Rapport 2003 4 SA 456 (T).
17 Section 2(1) of the Copyright Act 98 of 1978.
18 Section 23(1) of the Copyright Act 98 of 1978.
19 The exception in s 10 (2) of the Copyright Act 63 of 1965 and the subject of Argus Printing and Publishing Co Ltd v Perskorporasie van Suid-Afrika Bpk 1975 4 SA 668 (A) relating to photographs of artistic work on view in a public place or in premises open to the public in the Republic has been omitted from the current Act. A similar exclusion is to be found in respect of cinematograph films in s 15(3) of the current Act.
20 Sections 7(a) and (e). Both concepts are defined in s 1 but the definitions do not affect the argument.
21 Graves' Case 1869 LR 4 QB 715.
22 Laddie, Prescott and Vitoria Modern Law of Copyright para 3.56.
23 Antiquesportfoiio Com Pcc v Rodney Fttch & Company Ltd 2001 ECDR 5.
24 Antiquesportfolio Com Plc v Rodney Fitch & Company Ltd 2001 ECDR 5. He also quoted, as far as English authorities are concerned, Garnett Copinger andSkone James on Copyright
para 3.104, which is to a similar effect.
25 Keep Valves (Pty) Ltd vSaunders Valve Co Ltd 1987 2 SA 1 (A).
26 Lucasfilm Ltd v Annsworth 2009 EWCA Civ 1328 para 54.
27 Appleton v Harnischfeger Corporation 1995 2 All SA 693 (A); Haupt t/a Softcopy v Brewers Marketing Inteligence (Pty) Ltd 2006 4 SA 458 (SCA).
28 Eldred v. Ashcroft537 US 186 per Breyer J (dissenting).
29 Fesst Pubiications Inc v Rural Teeephone Service Co 499 US 340 (1991).
30 Bridgeman Art Library Ltd v Corel Corp 36 F Supp 2d 191 (SDNY 1999). See also Rogers v. Koons 960 F 2d 301 (2d Cir 1992).
31 CCH Canadian Ltd. v Law Society of Upper Canada 2004 SCC 13.
32 Vaver Intellectual Property Law 101.
33 Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forennng 2009 EUECJ C-5/08.
34A 2(a) of Directive 2001/29/EC.
35 Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights OJ L372/12, modified by Directive 2011/77/EU, OJ L265/1.
36 Exxon Corp v Exxon Insurance Consuttants Ltd 1982 Ch 119.
37 Francis Day and Hunter Ltd v Twentieth Century Fox Corporation Ltd 1940 AC 112 (PC); Ladbroke Football Ltd v Wlliaam Hill Football Ltd 1964 1 WLR 273 (per Lord Reid); Wayitte
Diary CC v First National Bank Ltd 1995 1 SA 645 (A).
38 SAS Institute Inc v WorldProgramming Ltd 2013 EWHC 69 (Ch) para 27.
39 Compare the analysis in Progress Office Machines v SARS 2007 SCA 118 paras 5-6.
40 Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd & Ors v Meltwater Holding BV & Ors 2011 EWCA Civ 890; Moran 2011 Wash J L Tech & Arts.
41 Based on Ladbroke Football Ltd v William Hill Football Ltd 1964 1 WLR 273 (per Lord Reid).
42 Ladbroke Football Ltd v Wlliaam Hill Football Ltd 1964 1 WLR 273. Other issues arising from the judgment have been referred to the European Court by the UK Supreme Court: Public
Relations Consultants Association Limited v The Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited 2013 UKSC 18.
43 But see Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Reed International Books A ustralia Pty Ltd 2010 FCA 984 for what appears to be a different approach.
44 Eva-Maria Painer v Standard Verlags GmbH C-145/10, 1 December 2011 (CJEU).
45 For a case note: Lee 2012 EIPR 290.
46 Eva-Maria Painer vStandard Ver/ags GmbHC-145/10, 1 December 2011 (CJEU) paras 90-92.
47 Eva-Maria Panner v Standard Ver/ags GmbH C-145/10, 1 December 2011 (CJEu) paras 99.
48 For the Netherlands: Rudolph Jan Romme v Van Dale Lexicografie BVHoge Raad, 4 January 1991, Nr. 14 449, dealing with lemmas; and for France: Concorde Photographs Case 2012
www.legalis.net, dealing with photographs of the Concorde airplane.
49 Whether especially the infringing photograph was in fact a photograph and not some or other innominate artistic work is an open question. The difference might be of moment in
relation to the term of copyright as well as to original ownership under our law.
50 Antiquesportfolio Com Plc v Rodney Fttch & Company Ltd 2001 ECDR 5 para 22.
51 Ginsberg 2003 DePaulL Rev 1063.
52 Section 2(3) of the current Act. Haupt t/a Softcopy v Brewers Marketing Intelligence (Pty) Ltd 2006 4 SA 458 (SCA).
53 Hyperion Records Ltd v Sawkins 2005 EWCA Civ 565 para 83. The court held that copyright subsists in modern performing editions of the out-of-copyright music of Michel-Richard
de Lalande, the principal court composer at the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV.
54 Hyperion Records Ltd v Sawkins 2005 EWCA Civ 565 para 83.
55 Bauman v. Fussel 1978 RPC 485.
56 As to causal connection: Galago Publishers (Pty) Ltd v Erasmus 1989 1 SA 276 (A); Creation Records Ltd v News Group Newspapers Ltd 1997 EWHC Ch 370.
57 Arnold 2005 EIPR 303.
58 Harney v Sony Pictures Television Inc LLC US Court of Appeal First Circuit No. 11-1760, 7 January 2013. For a case comment: Rosati 2013 JIPLP 356.
59 Michalos Law of Photography para 2-139.
60 See Sahuc v Tucker 300 F Supp 2d 461 (EDLA 2004). The reproductions of the photographs inserted here were obtained from http://media.csusa.org/caw/caw_2006_teachers_articles_visual_art.htm (accessed 12 February 2014).
61 Noted earlier: Rahmatian 2012 EIPR 796-799.
62 Noted earlier: Creation Records Ltd v News Group Newspapers Ltd 1997 EWHC Ch 370.
63 For instance Jones 1990 Pace L Rev 551.
64 Designer GulldLimited v. Russell Wiliaams (Textiles) Limited2001 1 All ER 700.
65 Rapid Phase Entertainment CC v SABC 1997 JOL 393 (W).
66 Annie Lebovitz v Paramount Pictures Corp 137 F 3d 109. The reproductions of the photographs inserted here were obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibovitzv.ParamountPicturesCorp (accessed 12 February 2014).
67 Patrick Cariou v Richard Prince US Court of Appeal (2d Circ) 25 April 2013, Doc 11-1197cv.
68 Vaver 2012 IPJ 19.
69 Notice 918/2013, Government Gazette 36816 of 4 September 2013.
70 Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) 2012 SCC 37.


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I'll begin by saying that I think the meeting overall was positive, with very strong support for a hotel on the Doctors Hospital site. Further, I believe the meeting removed any impression that there is broad sentiment in the neighborhood for saving the Doctors Hospital building or any part of it. The meeting was at times difficult, but people came out and spoke their minds, and the "Hyde Park Establishment" did not dominate the meeting.
I'm glad to say that those who spoke in favor of the hotel project (and did not object to the demolition of the old building) behaved themselves, and kept their remarks brief and to the point. The speech making, irrelevancies, non sequiturs, interruptions, and one major attempt at disruption, came from naysayers, die hard "preservationists", people who dislike the U of C, and people with political agendas. That noisy, time-consuming stuff clearly irritated Alderman Hairston, who ran the meeting, and she was able to cut it off most times.
Throughout the one-hour, forty minute meeting, Alderman Hairston did a good job of walking the tightrope between letting people vent and keeping the meeting on track. Several times, she made it clear that this is a private project, and most decisions are up to the developer (White Lodging).
It was standing-room-only by the time the meeting started at 6:15PM. About 200 people were seated in the Bret Harte Elementary School gym, and dozens more lined the walls or stood in the corridor outside the room. At least 20 people in red t-shirts reading UNITE HERE were in the room, occupying as many seats at the front of the room.
Alderman Hairston opened the meeting with a background statement, saying the meeting follows on earlier input from the community. She said that earlier input told her that the community does not want the Doctors Hospital building to remain dormant, nor does the community want it bulldozed. She said she wanted White Lodging to listen and take ideas back with them. She said a concern is to ensure fair labor practices. Finally, she said she wants the community to feel good about what happens with the site.
The first question that came to my mind was, when did "the community" determine it doesn't want the building taken down?
Scott Travis of White Lodging presented the company's plan for a 390-room hotel/15,000 sq. ft. function room with a $60-70 million investment. Then the mike was passed around for Q&A.
Yes, all the usual issues came up: parking, "congestion", design compatible with "the community," the U of C controls it all, let's make the building a nursing home, and let's have more "master planning" and more studies and more meetings, and how do we know that the construction work won't damage Vista Homes? That stuff pretty much didn't seem to fly with Hairston.
White Lodging was accused of having a poor record on fair labor practices; I heard nothing to substantiate that. The red shirts, who apparently have some labor affiliation did some "union" chanting. One of the red-shirted people demanded that Travis say yes or no, right then and there, to a union shop at the hotel, then they chanted "yes or no, yes or no." Hairston stopped them after a minute and told them this was not their meeting and that they were being disrespectful of everyone else, and, if nothing else, premature. She was applauded for this. They were quiet for the rest of the meeting.
Then, there was the "threat of alcohol being served on the premises" and how it would endanger children who would somehow get hold of the stuff, and one man stood up and said alcohol would surely be a threat, because there would be Bar Mitzvahs in the function room. The poor fellow tried to backtrack but just dug himself in deeper. Hairston, who appeared both amused and disgusted by this, said there weren't going to be people in the hotel plying elementary school children with "gin and juice."
Many people spoke of the need for amenities in the neighborhood, particularly this hotel. An MSI representative said they would probably book 300 rooms a year in the hotel. I think the meeting's strongest message to the Alderman was that the project is sorely needed and will be good for the neighborhood.
Rev. Leon Finney spoke, reminding everyone that the project will have to comply with the planning and lakefront protection ordinances, so all the fear mongering should stop. He said the hospital is a blight. He stopped some of the preservationists in their tracks when he noted that for most of its history the hospital had been Illinois Central Hospital and would not serve nor employ African-Americans. He asked why anyone would want to preserve a reminder of that. Finally, in response to all the ideas about doing something else with the property, he said, "If not a hotel, then what?" He said let's move forward and he applauded the alderman for calling the meeting.
Hairston said the next step would be for White Lodging to make a presentation in a few weeks, responding to concerns raised at the meeting, possibly around the end of September.
I don't know who said it, but I have in my meeting notes that someone accused White Lodging of "trying to pound their square peg into Hyde Park's round hole." I will stop here and let the reader ponder that assertion.

subset: commoncrawl


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Morocco | Brussels, 22 April 2013
EU and Morocco start negotiations for closer trade ties
The EU and Morocco today started the first round of negotiations for an EU-Morocco Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), after European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane officially launched the negotiations on 1 March 2013 in Rabat.
The objective is to upgrade the existing association agreement which since 2000 has already guaranteed tariff-free trade for many products. Meeting in Rabat, negotiators will be starting talks on an agreement that is expected to deepen existing trade relations in a host of areas not yet covered, such as services and public procurement, as well as to bring better protection for investments and new commitments on competition and intellectual property rights. To make the existing free trade provisions more effective, the negotiators will also be looking to simplify customs procedures and reduce trade barriers caused by incompatible or unnecessarily burdensome industrial standards and food safety requirements. A sustainable development chapter will ensure that trade liberalisation does not negatively affect environmental or social standards.
'I hope the negotiations with Morocco will progress quickly and encourage other partners in the Southern Mediterranean region to start similar talks very soon,' said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.' These negotiations show the EU's strong commitment to further developing its trade and investment ties with Southern Mediterranean partners who are committed to political and economic reforms.'
The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) will be an important step towards gradually integrating the Moroccan economy into the EU single market, removing obstacles to trade both at the border and behind the border. It will 'deepen' the integration by bringing Moroccan trade-related requirements, industrial standards, technical regulations and animal and plant health measures closer to EU legislation and cover a 'comprehensive' range of areas that are fundamental to a modern, transparent and predictable trade and investment regime.
The European Commission got the green light to launch negotiations towards Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia in December 2011, as part of the EU's response to the important political changes across the Arab world.
Morocco is the first of the four countries to come to the negotiating table, following preparatory discussions last year and announcement by President Barroso and Moroccan Prime Minister Benkirane launching negotiations on 1 March 2013.
The EU is Morocco's biggest trading partner, accounting for around 50% of country's total trade. EU-Morocco trade in goods has continued to grow in recent years, reaching more than €26 billion in 2012. Trade in services are worth €7 billion according to the latest available figures. The total bilateral direct investment stocks approach €29 billion.
The second negotiating round is scheduled for end June in Brussels.


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text: For their series Geolocation, Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman mined for Tweets with publicly available GPS coordinates. They then traveled to and photographed those data-suggested locations and present their photographs with said Tweets as captions. The results are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and successful in exposing perhaps how little people think of what data they are putting out into the world and how easily it can be appropriated.


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Alumni Resources
Welcome to the Alumni pages! As a McKendree graduate you have access to our resources,
and we encourage you to visit the links on this page to view what is available. In
addition to the online information, we offer individual career counseling, resume/cover
letter critiques, and mock interviews.
By connecting with College Central Network, your resume will be available online to employers seeking to fill their job vacancies, and you can view job openings. In addition, Career Services hosts/co-hosts several job fairs and other networking events throughout the year that all alumni are welcome to attend.
Please contact us if you need any assistance!
(618) 537-6806
Assistant Director
(618) 537-6805


text: Power into deeper waters like never before with the beautiful design of the 370 FX. This is where the energy of our Super Sport and Sun Sport models meets the sophistication and sleek lines of our FAS3Tech crafts. Like all models in the FX series, the 370 FX brings added luxury and performance to the already remarkable Formula brand. This is your Formula for ultra-luxurious water sporting.


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As an endurance athlete, running in the Boston marathon is an experience I will always cherish, and as a blood recipient/donor/volunteer it meant so much to be able to run the race for the Red Cross. Due to the heat, close to 90 degrees, it was repeatedly said that it was one of the most difficult races in the 116 years of the Boston marathon. From my training regime, I was hoping to run a personal best of around 3:20, but I couldn't believe how much I started to sweat within the first mile so I knew from the beginning it was going to be a rough day.
Near the Newton Hills is where the energy was just completely zapped due to the heat, and it was the downhill section that affected me more than going up because the cramps set it in my legs. After Heartbreak Hill, I focused on just enjoying the race and getting to the finish line safely so I stopped and chatted with the Red Cross volunteers for about 15 minutes near mile 24 and just soaked in the experience of running Boston – it truly was an amazing day.
When I sat down after crossing the finish line (4:04) amongst the large crowds of people, a runner standing next to me fainted and I hurried to catch him and shield is head before hitting the ground. After 20 seconds or so, he started to regain consciousness when the medics rushed to him, so it took me by surprise that not only did I run the race for the Red Cross but I had to step in and put my volunteer cap on as well.
It was an honor to run on the Red Cross Team in the Boston Marathon and I'm so proud of all 21 members of the team. We were able to go above our fundraising goal and bring in over $80,000 for the Red Cross.
The Boston marathon was a very challenging race, but I enjoyed every second of it. A marathon may be run alone, but in no way is it an individual effort. This race is for my blood donors, the Red Cross and for all the people who have been a part of my journey back to life. This finisher's medal is a token of my appreciation for the gift you have given me, and I thank you all so much for believing in me and for all the encouragement and support over the years.


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Competitive board games started as a pastime for the elite, spreading to Europe during Roman conquest, according to a new study published in Antiquity.
Board games likely originated in Egypt around 3500BC, spreading around the Mediterranean before reaching the Roman Empire. It was Rome that brought games, along with literacy and wine, to the rest of Europe.
"Many of the first board games appear to have been diplomatic gifts to signify status," study co-author Mark Hall told Discovery News. "We have early examples of quite splendid playing pieces belonging to elite, privileged people."
And other kids used to mock me for playing D&D. I always knew I was privileged.
BOARD GAMES ORIGINATED AS ELITE PASTIME [Discovery News]


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Ocean conservation should not be a matter of partisan division. Unfortunately, to a greater rather than lesser degree, it is. The Democrats line up on the side of government-sponsored global protectionism, the Republicans favoring Laissez-Faire capitalism and non-interference from government regulation of private business. Despite the philosophical chasm, there has been a meeting of divergent minds, specifically in American politics, on issues vital to oceanic welfare.
Friday night in Laguna Beach, citizens whose political fortunes land on both sides of the aisle came together to raise $1 million for an organization called Oceana. It was the third annual SeaChange, held at the estate of Karen and Bruce Cahill that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.
"We are proud to share that our efforts have helped put a stop to the inhumane slaughter of sharks," Oceana Board of Directors Chairman Keith Addis said, explaining to the audience that uncontrolled over fishing of sharks, specifically for the harvest of fins to satisfy a worldwide demand for shark fin soup, had created a significant natural imbalance in the ocean's food chain. "Fisherman catch the sharks, cut off their fins, then throw them back into the ocean where they sink to the bottom and drown."
Such inhumane practice is unacceptable to any decent human being, regardless of political affiliation. Clearly, without some important governmental supervision, not just on the part of the United States, but in cooperation with other nations, mankind's reckless nature in pursuit of a buck will eventually create irreversible damage to the oceans and then to mankind itself.
SeaChange Oceana in general attracts major celebrity support. Those taking a cynical view might claim that the attendance of such famous faces as Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Ted Danson, Sam Waterston, Morgan Freeman, Diane Lane, Mark Paul Gosselaar, Eric Balfour and Kristin Bauer, all front and center Friday evening for Oceana, are just window dressing.
The celebrity support is far more important than simple sizzle to attract the public.
"We invited January Jones, the co-star of the popular television series 'Mad Men' to Washington D.C. to attend a conference on the work of Oceana," Addis said. "Jones was so moved by what she experienced that she told me it had been one of the most important days in her life."
Addis said that he requested a meeting between Jones and Sen. John McCain. An eight-minute slot had been set aside in the senator's schedule to meet with her and hear about Oceana. Addis told the crowd that more than an hour later Jones had made a serious impression on McCain. From that seemingly insignificant celebrity connection, one of America's most prominent Republican leaders became involved in the cause of ocean preservation helping to bridge the political gap in an effort to find a reasonable balance between doing what is decent and humane to protect the sea, while still enabling the millions of people who make their living off the ocean to do so.
It is a delicate balance, not without great challenge. On this one Friday evening on the California coast, the challenges were put aside while the message was indeed loud and clear. The Hollywood crowd mixed with generous local patrons brought together by glamorous Chairwomen Valarie Whiting and Eve Kornyei, both attired in "ocean blue" summer frocks in keeping with the party theme.
Among the generous were Marsha and Darrel Anderson, Tricia and Michael Berns, Leslie and Dino Cancellieri, Nadine and Robert Hall, Karen and Jack Swickard, Hal Harley, Maralou and Jerry Harrington, Susan and David Rockefeller, and Jennifer and Anton Segerstrom.
Also supporting Oceana were Sue and Ralph Stern, Diana Martin, Nancy and L.D. Christiano, Gail and Ron Soderling, Idit and Moti Ferder, Beverly Factor, Lilly and Paul Merage, Joyce and Tom Tucker, and Valaree and Robert Wahler.
The evening began with a sunset cocktail reception where the celebrities greeted the local patrons. A fabulous served dinner followed on the expansive lawn of the Cahill estate. Auction items were literally "world-class" culminating in a vacation stay at a European villa owned by Sting and Trudie Styler. The "priceless" item sold in excess of $100,000. Auction co-chairs deserving significant praise were Slane Holland Lightburne and Barbara Hughes.
Bridges, co-host of the event and recent Academy Award winner for his leading role in "Crazy Heart" entertained the crowd on his guitar with a full blown 45-minute performance. Also entertaining the crowd was Graham Phillips, a Broadway voice, joining Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown. Finally deserving mention, Oceana Chief Executive Andrew Sharpless, in from Oceana's Washington, D.C., global headquarters, delivered an eloquent thank you to the crowd while impressing the donors with the importance of the work to be accomplished. Sharpless reminded his rapt audience of the fact that the majority of our Earth is ocean, and from the sea, all life is sustained on Earth. Human beings do not have the right to take this for granted. Our very survival depends on our responsible stewardship.
THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays. B.W. Cook is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.


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This 12" Louvre Ventilator will finish off your air vent just beautifully. As it can be made in over 20 different finishes you are sure to find one that will match in with your room perfectly.
Beautifully handcrafted in the West Midlands to create real quality furniture. The base metal is either solid brass or real bronze and is available in a range of natural finishes, hand applied finishes or plated finishes. See images below.
Sold Individually and supplied with matching fixings. Always make a small pilot drill hole and use a manual screw driver to avoid damaging screws and finish.
12" Louvre Ventilator Dimensions
- Overall Length - 305mm
- Overall Height - 76mm
All measurements are approximate and should be used as a guide only, this is due to the handcrafted nature of the products.
Most of the finishes available are Made to Order with a lead time of approximately 4 - 6 weeks, please contact us if you would like us to check stock before you order.
We aim to process orders within the first 24 hours and have your items dispatched within 1 – 2 days, providing items are in stock.
For made to order or bespoke items these need to be created so the time varies. Find out more on our Delivery Information page.
Delivery Costs
- £5.95 – UK Mainland (not including Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or other UK offshore locations)
- £12.50 – Channel Islands and Isle of Wight
- £16.50 – Scottish Highlands and Scottish Islands
- £19.00 – Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Isles of Scilly
- from £22.00 – European Union Destinations - depending on Zone See EU Delivery Zones >
Please contact us for Non-European Union and Worldwide quotes.
Care Instructions
In order to keep your products in peak condition, it's important that they're cared for properly. More information on how to look after your purchase, please see our Care Instructions page.
Atmospheric Conditions and Coastal Areas
Harsh environmental conditions and the salt in sea air will cause finishes to deteriorate prematurely. Read our Care Instructions on how to look after your purchase, and for our guide to which finishes are more suited to these conditions.
Commercial Environments
As with atmospheric conditions, high use, commercial environments will also cause finishes to deteriorate prematurely. Read our Care Instructions for details on how to look after your products in these environments.
Available Finishes
This product is available in the following finishes:


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All items > Knives > Folding Knives > Buck (Folding) > Buck Bantam 285 BLW
- Overall Length:7.50"
- Blade Length:3.125"
- Blade Thickness:0.12"
- Blade Material:420HC
- Blade Style:Drop Point
- Blade Grind:Hollow
- Finish:Satin
- Edge Type:Plain
- Handle Length:4.375"
- Handle Thickness:0.52"
- Handle Material:GFN
- Color:Tan Camo
- Weight:2.40 oz.
- User:Right Hand
- Pocket Clip:Tip-Down
- Knife Type:Manual
- Opener:Thumb Stud
- Lock Type:Lockback
- Brand:Buck
- Model:Bantam BLW
- Model Number:0285CMS
- Country of Origin:USA
- Best Use:Camp/Hike, Everyday Carry
- Product Type:Knife
The Bantam BLW is slightly larger than the BBW. Easy handling and lightweight, the Bantam BLW features a pocket clip for tip-down carry. The Bantam is built with durable 420HC blade steel and a stylish Mossy Oak Break-up camo handle with a textured surface for a sure grip. It locks open for safety and closes using a mid-lockback design. The contoured handle makes this knife easy and safe to use for daily cutting applications.


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This Time I've Got It!
Watch the Video on YouTube
Mad Scientist Tomsoni invents a formula to woo the girl of his desires, featuring award winning magician John Thompson, special guest stars Penn & Teller, Randell & Schippers, Las Vegas 'Jersey Boys' cast members, Pam Thompson, actress and Tomsoni's award winning partner, and actress Joelle Righetti.
read more
The Johnny Carson Great American Comedy Festival
The Great Tomsoni & Co recently performed at Great American Comedy Festival, along with Mac King and emcee Dick Cavett.
"Tomsoni is to magic what Victor Borge is to music... Simply hilarious!"
— Jim Parker, Las Vegas Revue Mirror
The Great Tomsoni & Co. are versatile performers with a background of music, magic, comedy and drama.
"When we need inspiration, we call Johnny. Nobody makes us prouder to be magicians. His technique is so subtle that you can't admire the moves; it doesn't look like there are any moves -- it looks like magic. Fortunately, Johnny's not just one of the most skilled (and funniest) men alive; he's also a great teacher. He's mined the best material and refined it over decades of performance under all conditions in theatres, night clubs, cruises, trade shows, and TV. When Johnny shows you how to do something, you know you're learning from the real deal."
— Penn & Teller


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tonychall needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 107 designs submitted by 51 freelance designers.
We are looking for a logo for a new company that is about to launch. The company will be creating websites, blogs, podcasting and live streaming video.
Terrivus is actually two words in greek. Ter, meaning 3 or 3 components and Rivus meaning stream. The company will be created 3 types of information streams...blogs, podcasting and live streaming video. The design could have the name as one word...Terrivus, 2 words....Ter Rivus a combination...TerRivus. We will consider all three. The design itself does not have to contain references to blogs, podcasting or livestreaming.
- Item 1...Classical designs are very welcome. As are more edgey designs. The design should include an logo with the name and an icon. I will also need designs with the name and icon seperate. I high contrast, square version of the icon will also be needed so it can be turned into a favicon for the company website. I am looking for a design that is memorable and easy to read.
- Item 1...large, super flashy designs with alot of colors. I prefer a more classic design. A modern, take on a classic look would be excellent. I don't want a design that is hard to read. It must be a quick read.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Brady, Mathew. Abraham Lincoln. U.S. National Archives. Series: Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes, (Record Group 111) . Ca. 1860-1865.
I was amazed by the program. It probably helps that it was narrated by Tom Hanks. And that I have been fascinated by the Lincoln assassination since I was eight-years-old. In fact, my parents made a special detour during our visit to Washington, D.C. to take me to Ford's Theater. I've been there three or four times since then as well. I'm not sure what spurred my interest in this event. It could have been an issue of the children's history magazine Cobblestone. It is hard to say. But I've been studying this assassination for years.
Up until I watched Killing Lincoln, however, the assassination was just a story on paper. I knew all the facts and no new knowledge came from the show. But the program made the characters in this terrible drama seem real. I can still hear the cries of Mary Todd Lincoln after her husband was shot. It became not just a story about a distant president, but a story of the family man and friend. Perhaps this new realization stems from having a family of my own and being able to more accurately put myself in Mary or Robert Lincoln's shoes. Killing Lincoln humanized this drama creating a new layer to an already fascinating story.
The National Geographic Channel has also created a great interactive website to explore the assassination. It includes maps and photos and walks you through the conspiracy, the assassination and the aftermath. I spent a good hour looking through all of the information. They also have a special page with more information on the show itself which has some great videos from the actors.
|A great tool on the Killing Lincoln website includes a slider showing the present-day condition of buildings involved in the conspiracy.


text: On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, balamurugan wrote: >> gettimeofday() is definitely a very good suggestion. > 5. There was no errors or warnings during compilation and the executable ran > successfully, but the result was not the one expected to be produced and had > negative values. I understand from analysis that the there could be a problem > in linking the c file and the fortran code. > 6. Is there any way to get around this problem. gettimeofday() without the RTSC typically has a precision of only around 2 usec (yes, I measured) for all that it has nsec-level fields in its returned struct. However, I'm pretty sure that gettimeofday now works on top of the RTSC automatically if it is there at the library level, where it STILL returns nsec but now they are accurate to somewhere in the 20-100 nsec range -- in other words, I don't believe that you will get nsec resolution from any clock available on the system without using ntp-like call latency predictor/corrector algorithms in the timing, but sub-usec timings are definitely possible. However, this sounds like a "bug" and not something that should be (or maybe even "can be") worked around at the userspace level. It will only get worse as number of CPUs increases, as well -- it is GOOD to have cycle counters, but either they need to synchronize at the hardware level at boot time (so there is just one value of the counter across the systems, even though each CPU tracks its own) or there needs to be some way of forcing processor affinity for the cycle counter call, possibly only for the cycle counter call itself (since real applications you are benchmarking may be multiprocessor or free to migrate by intention) and taking any latency hits on obtaining the value if the task has migrated. Ugly and likely highly error prone. Of these two, it is pretty clear that forcing cycle counter identity across all running CPUs is by far the desireable course of action, but that is ideally a preboot task for the AMD engineers and not something that anybody should have to do in software (if one CAN do anything in software). I'm looking to see if one can WRITE to the TSC post boot -- if one can then it might be a fix for the kernel team -- install an ntp-like handshaking/sync process at a controlled point in the boot so that all CPUs emerge from a linux boot with their counters in sync. Assuming the most basic and necessary synchronization (one that almost certainly has to be there anyway for the CPUs to be able to function together) then a call to any of the TSC's would return the same value regardless of whether the task has migrated. Ultimately, as I think it was Greg that pointed out, benchmarking isn't for the faint of heart -- it isn't easy to get really accurate benchmarks, especially microbenchmarks. I'll have to look into this stuff myself to see how it impacts my own microbenchmark code -- I haven't observed any problem with it so far on dual opterons, but my microbenchmarks are probably relatively unlikely to migrate between processors once started so it isn't clear that I would. I would also EXPECT that the difference in cycle counter value between the processors would be fairly small depending on how the counters come alive at boot time -- but that's really an empirical thing. rgb -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Andray Blatche
Vines From China: Blatche and Crawford Defeat a Panda's Friend
►Kyle Weidie | Nov 3, 2014
You haven't lived until you've watched Chinese Basketball Association basketball featuring Andray Blatche and Jordan Crawford over the Internet before 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Breathe deep, you can almost...
Drew Gooden for Team Finland at the FIBA World Cup? Plus Other Wizards and Ex-Wizards
►Kyle Weidie | Aug 4, 2014
[UPDATE: Aug. 21, 2014, 11:07 am — Per an article from Finnish outlet svenska.yle.fi, it seems that Drew Gooden might not be on Finland's final submitted roster of the 12 players who...
Thanks For the Empty Pixels: Putting the 2004-10 Wizards in Your Rearview Mirror
►Sean Fagan | Apr 22, 2014
Sometimes, you don't know how bad a thing is until it's gone. There is a strong chance that during your brief tenure on this blue and white orb we call Earth...
NBA MATES: Andray Blatche and Kevin Garnett To Unite; 'Dray Still Making Wizards Money ($7.5 million)
►Kyle Weidie | Jul 2, 2013
The life and times of Andray Blatche and Kevin Garnett, now united as teammates in Brooklyn.
Revisiting Boo Birds for Blatche
►Kyle Weidie | Feb 11, 2013
Should people think twice about booing Andray Blatche? Or is it another one of life's inevitables?
Our Friend Andray Blatche Visits; 'Anybody seen how the Wizards are doing?'
►Kyle Weidie | Feb 8, 2013
So how are the Wizards doing? How is Andray Blatche doing? It's all in the same game, isn't it?
Blatche Knows Exactly When He Wants to Talk New Contract: 'after we win the championship'
►Kyle Weidie | Dec 6, 2012
Why Andray Blatche's eventual new contract aspirations could help Ted Leonsis' shaking money-maker.
Andray Blatche Trolls The Washington Wizards
►Kyle Weidie | Nov 27, 2012
Andray Blatche decided to troll the winless Washington Wizards on Monday night, both to the media and on Twitter. Here's what he had to say.
New Brooklyn? New Dray? Ye Olde Andray Blatche Masterpiece Theater
►Adam McGinnis | Oct 15, 2012
The life and times of Andray Blatche with the Wizards... Video notables and quotables from his last three seasons in Washington.... He's new in Brooklyn, but it's Ye Olde Andray Blatche...
#WizardsRank: Ranking Washington Wizards from the Last Five Seasons (Nos. 26 to 22)
►Kyle Weidie | Sep 19, 2012
Truth About It.net will turn a whole five years old at the end of this October. Hard to believe/interesting. Nonetheless, over the life of the site from the 2007-08 season to...
Where Brooklyn At? Because Andray Blatche is on the way
►Kyle Weidie | Sep 8, 2012
"It doesn't really matter where you start it's where you finish," tweeted former Washington Wizard Andray Blatche just before 1 p.m. last Saturday. After workout with the Brooklyn Nets soon thereafter,...
ShareBullets: New Wizards Coaching Possibles, Destination Blatche & Recent Departures
►Kyle Weidie | Aug 6, 2012
A run down of Wizards departures, possible destinations for Andray Blatche, Kevin Seraphin/John Wall highlights, a new potential assistant coach for the Wiz, and the possibility of a former coach making...
FAQ: The Amnesty of Andray Blatche
►Kyle Weidie | Jul 23, 2012
After seven seasons, 7-Day 'Dray is no longer a Washington Wizard, cast away by means of the amnesty provision on July 17. Some are still celebrating, some are still contemplating… the...
Should the Wizards Amnesty Andray Blatche?
►Dan Diamond | Jul 12, 2012
Within the next six days, we'll find out if 7-Day 'Dray is here to stay. (Well,...
ShareBullets: Judging Sprite Dunkers, Trade Links & Andray Blatche's Tweets
►Kyle Weidie | Jun 22, 2012
ShareBullets… links and random relevance… First off, news… TAI's Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) will be a judge at the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown this Saturday at the National Capital Barbecue...
26 Games With Andray Blatche In A Lockout-Shortened Season: Is This The End?
►Kyle Weidie | May 18, 2012
[NOTE: Truth About It.net 2011-12 Player Reviews continue, where we take a look at the past, present and future of those players who have touched the Wizards franchise during the 2011-12...
Last Day Dray? Andray Blatche Speaks Before The Final Game of The Season
►Kyle Weidie | Apr 26, 2012
Criticism of Andray Blatche has been unabashed, perhaps filled with too much vitriol at times, and I'm including myself in this pack, obviously. That being said,...
The Villain of Washington Fans: Not Andray Blatche, Not LeBron James
►Adam McGinnis | Apr 10, 2012
The shutting down of Andray Blatche for "conditioning" meant less jeers being thrown about the Verizon Center, as the power forward has been infamously booed...
ShareBullets: Blatche's Shape, Positive Feelings About Nene & Kobe's Thoughts On The Rebuild In Washington
►Kyle Weidie | Mar 21, 2012
ShareBullets… a run-down of commentary on recent Wizards subjects, and links… Kobe on the Rebuild in Washington. The below video is a bit old… it's from the Los Angeles Lakers locker...
Pre-Game Quotes: John Wall On Life Without Andray Blatche
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 30, 2012
Andray Blatche is out 3-5 weeks with a strained left calf muscle, Washington Wizards coach Randy Wittman announced prior to tonight's game. In the locker room a couple hours before facing...
BOO! An Andray Blatche Confessional
►John Converse Townsend | Jan 27, 2012
I have a confession to make: I have booed Andray Blatche. I'm not proud of it, but it happened. It was a Friday night, and the Washington Wizards, coming off an...
Trading Andray Blatche, A Hypothetical Exchange Between Team Representatives
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 25, 2012
This won't be any easier for you than it is for us. What you are about to read is a hypothetical conversation between a representative of the player personnel management of...
Doc Rivers on the Wizards, Limiting JaVale McGee & The Booing of Andray Blatche
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 22, 2012
Before today's game, I asked Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers about what differences he's seen in this...
The Wizards Said WHAT? Pt. 2: On Booing Blatche, Inspiration From Marines & Help From Tupac
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 19, 2012
Home fans didn't even let Andray Blatche take the floor, miss a long jumper or two, before they started booing him last night. They let loose on him during pre-game introductions and...
The Wizards Said WHAT? Pt. 1: Andray Blatche: 'I'm Still Here'
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 19, 2012
An unusual post-game locker room indeed, after a big 105-102 Washington Wizards win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night at the Verizon Center. It was a release of coping...


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"Helix," which begins Friday on Syfy, arrives under the flag of executive producer Ronald D. Moore, the re-creator of "Battlestar Galactica."
It's a step back for the network toward Moore's dark and deep drama from the semi-comical fantasies, C-movies and fairy-tale variations that have defined its slate of late; that is to say, it's a step forward. And if it doesn't match "Battlestar" for ambition or poetry or sparkling dialogue — to judge by the three hours available for review — it's well-made, solidly scary and disturbing all the same.
Still-boyish Billy Campbell is Dr. Alan Farragut, a big cheese at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enlisted to investigate a strange virus that has infected three researchers at the remote polar research facility of a giant pharmaceutical company. (They are hard to swallow, those giant pharmaceuticals.) One of the afflicted is his brother, Peter (Neil Napier), who really does look terrible — though not as bad as his dead colleagues, reduced to bones and black muck.
WINTER TV PREVIEW: Full coverage of the season's shows
"I've been around some nasty hot agents," Farragut declares. "But I've never seen anything like this."
Created by Cameron Porsandeh (with Steven Maeda, who served on "Lost" and "Pan Am" as show runner), it's a classic terror-in-isolation tale whose snowbound setting echoes "The Thing," though it also resembles endless other films in which victims-in-waiting are stuck out in a cabin, or a space ship, or an island, to be menaced by shadowy creatures and their own poor judgment and communication skills.
Claustrophobia, cabin fever and not knowing whom to trust are the standard features. There are strains of "The Andromeda Strain," Michael Crichton's tale of microbes gone wild, and as a story of spreading infection, it also has a little zombie in its black blood and mucus.
BEST TV OF 2013 Lloyd | McNamara
Indeed, to the degree that it pulls out the old tropes and sends us into the expected dark corridors or air ducts, it is just that much more suspenseful precisely because we've been there before. Just so, when a character says, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise," you know what that promise is worth, just as you know that a body laid out on a table, nearly comatose, is likely to pop up and raise a ruckus. We don't jump any less high for knowing this in advance
Accompanying Farragut on his mission are plucky young virologist Dr. Sarah Jordan (Jordan Hayes), who says she doesn't have a thing for Farragut, which means she probably does; snarky veterinary pathologist Dr. Doreen Boyle (Catherine Lemieux); Army liaison Maj. Sergio Balleseros (Mark Ghanime); and Farragut's ex-wife, Dr. Julia Walker (Kyra Zagorsky), who, some time earlier, was sleeping with his brother.
When Walker first appears, breaking in on Alan giving a pep talk to a new crop of field agents ("You will witness horrors others cannot imagine"), she shoots him a look that says, "We were together once and have been apart but now something important is happening and we are going to have to get over whatever it was and work together, for the good of mankind if not ourselves."
PHOTOS: Faces to watch 2014 | TV
In the confines of the research station, they meet Dr. Hiroshi Hatake (Hiroyuki Sanada) — accurately described in the media-information book as "strikingly handsome" — who is in charge if not in control. He is not the only character who is clearly not telling the whole truth, and nothing but.
The fact is, as familiar as the elements of the story are, it remains hard to tell just how they're going to fall out, as one apparent plotline supplants another. The hint of an answer around the bend keeps you moving, fearfully, from corner to corner.
Where: Syfy
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)
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