Blogging and the like

Been trying to get my days more structured, which includes reading RSS first thing in the morning and writing blog posts. So rest assured that I do have an ISBW waiting for editing and posting, and it will go up today, but for now I am posting some interesting things I’ve found on the web.

Our guardian angel at Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss, investigated the US Copyright Registry email scam:

A few minutes on hold, and then he returned to tell me the good news–US Copyright Registry could indeed register copyright on my website! If I signed up today, I’d receive my certificate of registration from the Library of Congress within 6 to 8 weeks.

“Wait a sec,” I said. “Library of Congress? Your email said the US Patent and Trademark Office.”

“Oh,” he said, flustered, “well, you know, it’s both of them.”

“Both of them? You mean they both issue a certificate?”

“Uh, no, it’s just one certificate. But it comes from both offices.”

I decided not to torture him further. “So how much will registration cost me?”

“Based on your website’s size”–which he had no way of assessing, considering that all he’d done was access my Whois information–”it’ll be a total of $350.”

Read the full report at the Writer Beware blog.

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Locus Online reports that Minister Faust, a favorite interview here at ISBW, received a “special citation”