Craig Black, the founder and CEO of Blackstone audio has today reported, on the Blackstone audio blog, the death of audio dramatist Yuri Rasovsky. Black calls Rasovsky “the greatest audio dramatist of our modern age.”
Among American audio dramatists of the last thirty years he was absolutely preeminent.
Posted by Jesse Willis
An upcoming episode of The SFFaudio Podcast will be a discussion of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow |READ OUR REVIEW|. The audiobook is available from Random House Audio (not through audible).
I reviewed it back in 2008 but in listening to it again it seems even more relevant today than it was then.
And while we’re on the subject this stage play adaptation, it opened last week in San Fransisco, looks really terrific!
Posted by Jesse Willis
After watching this mightily impressive video pitch, by the guy who did Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, I hardly think I need to see the forthcoming Disney adaptation!
If you’re interested in reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter stories be sure to check out David Steifel’s new audiobook website BurroughsGuy.com where the first five Barsoom audiobooks are now available for purchase.
David, who talked to us about the first book in the series for SFFaudio Podcast #137, writes:
Princess [A Princess Of Mars] goes into retirement Feb. 7, 2012
On February 7, 2012, A Princess of Mars, will be retired from this site. After that, listeners may listen to the first two episodes here free of charge, but will need to purchase it to hear the remainder. It may be purchased at http://www.burroughsguy.com.
This action is being taken to help generate revenues to allow me to continue podcasting more of these novels.
In a recent podcast David suggested we treat his audiobooks as shareware. That is, buy them if you can, listen to the podcast episodes if you can’t afford it.
So, if you’re poor, snap up A Princess Of Mars via the podcast feed now, or if you’re able to afford the shareware pricing of $12.99 USD send David some cash, he’s got a great voice, terrific pronunciation of all those Barsoomian names and the acting chops to deliver all the story, action, and drama right and proper.
[via SFSignal.com]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Nicolas writes in to ask:
“Could you tell me the difference between “PUBLIC DOMAIN” and “LIKELY PUBLIC DOMAIN”? And do I have to request publishing rights to Philip K. Dick Trust?”
Nicolas’s question refers to my Philip K. Dick’s PUBLIC DOMAIN short stories, novelettes and novellas post which is my way of cataloging of all of PKD’s short fiction that is PUBLIC DOMAIN. “LIKELY PUBLIC DOMAIN” is just my way of saying – “this story needs more investigation.” As I find evidence for the falsification of a copyright renewal, a lack of a renewal, and such, I post the evidence that supports PUBLIC DOMAIN status.
You do not have to request rights from the Philip K. Dick estate for anything that is PD. In fact doing so is probably more likely to get you sued (if THIS case is anything to go by).
Let’s take for example Philip K. Dick’s Beyond The Door, a very short story that we talked about in SFFaudio Podcast #122. This story is PUBLIC DOMAIN, available on Gutenberg, LibriVox and I’ve seen a short film version up on YouTube.
You can do anything you like with Beyond The Door, because it is PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Human Is by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Here is the |ETEXT| (but I should point out the incorrect copyright date there – it should be 1954 not 1955).
This short story was published in the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories (which came out and was copyrighted in 1954).
The story’s copyright was not properly renewed. In fact, a falsified renewal was attempted in 1983!
Have a look at this:
Here is the full page:
As you can see by the following scans the claimed original publication above, for Human Is, was falsified:
Startling Stories, Winter 1955 – table of contents (includes Human Is by Philip K. Dick):
Startling Stories, Fall 1955 table of contents (note the absence of PKD):
I know that most people won’t see the point of all this, so let me lay it out for you.
By 1983, the time of the renewal attempt, the agent for the Philip K. Dick Testamentary Trust, could not legally renew stories published in 1954. By 1983 any stories from 1954 would have already become PUBLIC DOMAIN. So when the renewal form was submitted the publication dates for many Philip K. Dick stories (including Human Is) were changed to make them seem eligible for renewal. The Fall 1955 issue of Startling Stories would have had a story eligible for renewal (had it been in there) because it was published in 1955. But the actual issue that the story was really published in, the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories, would not have had an eligible story because it was published in 1954.
The renewal was bullshit and Human Is, by Philip K. Dick, is therefore PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Posted by Jesse Willis
One piece of criticism I like about this 1954 animated film adaptation of Animal Farm is from an IMDB reviewer named “bob the moo” who wrote: “the narration-heavy delivery makes it more like an audio book than a film.”
I can’t quite agree, it is a movie, but it does certainly leans heavily on the narration.
Most reviewers seem to think it’s a pretty good adaptation, Leonard Maltin gave it four stars, and it is fairly faithful to the novel’s plot. Despite being one of Britian’s first animated features it was apparently funded by the CIA.
[via OpenCulture.com]
Posted by Jesse Willis