[GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
John Thielking
pagesincolor at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 19 10:55:54 PST 2014
I didn't want to get too deep into the question of promoting a club with my lawyer as they are not authorized to give opinions about nonprofit orgs, mainly they give advice about for profit businesses. I'm satisfied that advertising a movie showing to a wider audience than just your friends is considered to be a commercial venture for purposes of copyright infringement even if the movie is shown at a private residence. Al Gore may have made an exception to this for Inconvenient Truth, but that is not required of other copyright holders. I have been uncomfortable with supporting movie showings at the Peace Center of movies where it was obvious to me that fees of $100 or more should be paid to the copyright holder and yet we were making a net profit off the movie showing with only 10-15 people attending. I'm not going to participate in that kind of thing in the future. Like I said before I have had access to other movies that we could have shown or did
show where there was no fee requested by the copyright holder or where I paid something like $250 for a copy that could be publicly shown indefinitely. Media Education Foundation is one source for documentaries that cost $200 or so for copies that can be shown publicly.
John Thielking
________________________________
From: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com>
To: John Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com>; Caroline Yacoub <carolineyacoub at att.net>; "perrysandy at aol.com" <perrysandy at aol.com>; "sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org" <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
What constitutes "promoting a club"?
It would seem to me that one primary distinction would be
whether the invitation was extended to the general public or only
a list of individuals you more or less already know and have
invited by name. If the former, it's a public event. In the
latter case, I have two further questions regarding what you
wrote:
1. At what point are you showing the movie on your
own behalf vs. on behalf of the Green Party? Probably if you
request donations, that could create a problem using a home
viewing license. If you offer literature on the Green Party,
invite them to a meeting or ask them to register Green, it may
depend on how much you push the Green Party: If the event is
primarily social, and mentioning the Green Party is just one of
the things you do and believe in, I wouldn't know.
2. Then there is the question of getting caught and
enforcement: If you invite a Tea Party radical, who would happily
see you imprisoned as a Terrorist, you could be reported and then
sued for copyright infringement. The mainstream commercial media
has successfully used SLAPP (Strategic lawsuit against public
participation) lawsuits to reduce competition [Wikipedia, "Free
Culture (book)", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_(book)].
Spencer
On 2/18/2014 11:14 AM, John Thielking wrote:
Bad news: I just now got off the phone with my lawyer and he says that showing a movie at a private home to promote a club is not covered under the noncommercial license that comes with most movies for home viewing. So we really should get explicit permissions to show all of the movies that we show on behalf of the Green Party, wherever it is that we show them.
>
>John Thielking
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>________________________________
> From: John Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com>
>To: John Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com>; Caroline Yacoub <carolineyacoub at att.net>; "perrysandy at aol.com" <perrysandy at aol.com>; "sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org" <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>
>Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 7:35 PM
>Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
>
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>
>As I recall I was only required to pay the $150 for showing Inconveinent Truth because I was showing it at my store. If I were doing one of the other house parties where I was showing it at a private residence, I was not required to get a public viewing license. Presumably the people running the house parties were also NOT collecting donations. So if you want to be 100% legit on movie night and show mainstream movies without permission you could try showing them at a private residence. I'd have to get back to you after I talk to my lawyer about asking for donations in that situation.
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>John Thielking
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>________________________________
> From: John Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com>
>To: Caroline Yacoub <carolineyacoub at att.net>; Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com>; "perrysandy at aol.com" <perrysandy at aol.com>; "sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org" <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>
>Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 7:23 PM
>Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
>
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>As far as movie night goes, the movies that I brought to the table were always with the appropriate permissions to show them publicly. However, I have in the past had to pay up to $150 per showing to get the proper license for a mainstream movie such as Inconveinent Truth (shown at my fair trade crafts store in 2006 or 7). I don't think we were doing that type of dotting the i's and crossing the t's when we ran movie night before. So if we want to be 100% legit and still take in a net positive on donations, we should aim for getting activist pieces that we can get low or zero cost permissions to show publicly, such as Genetic Roulette. As for organizing anything, don't look to me to start something and then leave town in June.
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>John Thielking
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>________________________________
> From: Caroline Yacoub <carolineyacoub at att.net>
>To: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com>; "perrysandy at aol.com" <perrysandy at aol.com>; "sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org" <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>
>Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 6:41 PM
>Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
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>As to numbers 2.2 and 3, almost everyone belongs to at least two other groups. If we all try to bring people from our other groups, we ought to be able to fill the Peace Center easily.
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>As to number 2.1, Attaboy!
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>Caroline
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>From: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com>
>To: perrysandy at aol.com; sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 5:55 PM
>Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] recruiting volunteers for Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections & Greens County Council
>
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>Hi, Sandy:
>
>
> 1.
Thanks for
offering to
serve on the
County
Council.
Someone needs
to check the
rules on
procedure so
we can make it
official.
>
>
> 2. I'd
be open to
changing the
format of our
monthly
meeting. For
example, we
could start at
7 PM with a
guest
presentation
or a movie
followed by a
discussion
that would run
until 9 PM
followed by a
half hour
general
business
meeting with
agenda
organized by
the County
Council.
>
>
>
2.1. However,
a change like
this would
require
someone taking
the lead to
organize
this. The
obvious lead
organizers
should, I
think, be
people most
concerned
about our
major foci.
These are
currently
environment
and universal
health care.
Those are
important, but
I'm more
concerned
about
government
secrecy and
democracy.
Regarding the
latter, I've
recently
attended
regular
meetings of
the Santa
Clara County
Citizens'
Advisory
Commission on
Elections and
the League of
Women Voters.
I've already
been able to
restart
stalled
discussions on
getting
Instant Runoff
Voting here in
Santa Clara
County.
>
>
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2.2. Is
anyone
interested in
helping
organize a
showing of
"Inequality
for All"?
Just over an
hour ago, I
finally
received word
that we can
now show
"Inequality
for All" on
reasonable
terms -- after
having had
tentative
showing
canceled twice
because of
misinformation
about
licensing.
Dream Menders
will meet next
Wednesday and
discuss
showing this
at the Peace
Center,
presumably
2-4:30 PM on a
Sunday like
March 16, 23,
or 30. Any
preferences?
>
>
> 3. Some
will remember
that Merriam
Kathleen,
Caroline
Yacoub and
others (John
Thielking?)
organized a
Green Movie
night at the
Peace Center
for 2 years.
The results
from that were
OK but not
adequate to
justify the
level of
effort
required to
keep it
going. Before
we change how
we manage our
monthly
meeting(s), we
need to ask
Caroline and
others what we
should do to
try to obtain
greater
success.
>
>
> Spencer
>
>
>On 2/11/2014
5:34 PM, perrysandy at aol.com wrote:
>
>
>>Hi Spencer,
>>
>>I would be willing to serve on the County Council, but only as a last resort, after we have taken serious steps to recruit minority candidates and women. Otherwise, I am afraid our County Council will dwindle further, from three to two, two to one, etc. until we are on the verge of disappearing - just at the very time the situation for the Green Party is getting riper than ever.
>>
>>I also believe we should consider a suggestion made by Drew a while ago: to grow the Green Party in small local committees as we are attempting to do with some small success at De Anza. To have the main (tedious) business of the Party handled by the County Council in a separate meeting (open to any member). To have our monthly membership meeting be an educational or organizing event geared toward new members and prospective members, with films, lectures, or actions, and broadly publicized.
>>
>>With all due respect, I am tired of long discussions about whether or not we should endorse a long list of projects, while in the meantime we are growing so small that people care less and less whether we endorse their activity or not.
>>
>>Sandy
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Spencer
Graves mailto:spencer.graves at structuremonitoring.com
>>To: GPSCC mailto:sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>>Sent: Thu, Feb
6, 2014 9:03
pm
>>Subject:
[GPSCC-chat]
recruiting
volunteers for
Citizens'
Advisory
Commission on
Elections
& Greens
County Council
>>
>>
>>Hello, All: 1. COUNTY COUNCIL: Our official County Council is supposed to have 7.
After John Thielking leaves in June, we will be down to 3 (Jim Doyle,
Betsy and me). The duties are simple: Respond to an occasional email or
phone call to help decide an issue that we prefer not wait for the next
monthly meeting. Other requirements: Live in Santa Clara County and have
been registered Green for at least a year. It's not necessary to come to
meetings. 2. SANTA CLARA COUNTY CITIZENS' ADVISORY COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS: This
Commission meets the first Tuesday of each month except on election
days. It helps the Board of Supervisors manage the Registrar of Voters.
They currently have a vacancy in Supervisorial District 2
(http://www.sccgov.org/sites/bos/bnc/CABODocs/MaddyReport.html#CITIZENS%E2%80%99 ADVISORY COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS). ** This is a key post from which to advance instant runoff voting (IRV)
and increasing the volume of information available to the public
including about campaign finance. I've been attending their meetings
since last September. If we had had 1 or 2 people actively attending
these meetings for the past decade and pushing gently for IRV, we would
likely have gotten it 5 years ago or so, shortly after San Francisco and
Alameda Counties started using IRV. One of the current Commissioners is
a Peace & Freedom party member (Dave Kadlecek), which indicates that you
don't have to be a Democrat or a Republican to be appointed to this
board. Two of the current board members asked me to apply.
Unfortunately, I'm not eligible, because I do not live in Supervisorial
District 2. This is an unpaid position. I'd be pleased to talk with anyone who might be interested either in
serving in trying to find someone to serve in either of these capacities. Best Wishes,
Spencer
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--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
web: www.structuremonitoring.com
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