Copyright not only protects your intellectual property from imitators and copycats, but it also protects your ability to sell your IP. For instance, a person can’t print off their own Pretty Jeff minicomic and sell it at conventions – that is illegal. However, the First-Sale Doctrine states that the right to sell IP only applies to the first sale, and that subsequent sales can be made by anyone. So someone could buy a Pretty Jeff minicomic from me and then resell it to someone else – that is perfectly legal. I received payment for my minicomic and I’ll be able to afford lunch, and the buyer is happy because he made a few bucks off a minicomic. Everyone wins. So it makes perfect sense that the MPAA and the RIAA would want to ruin this law in favor of an insane doctrine that only benefits them.

The Supreme Court will soon be hearing a case that will determine whether or not to overturn the First-Sale Doctrine and prohibit consumers from reselling their products. This includes basically everything – from iPods and computers to houses and wristwatches. Anything that has a company logo on it would have new restrictions on resale if the Court overturns the First-Sale Doctrine. The consumer would have to seek permission from the company to resell their product. Since my phone has logos for Google, Virgin Mobile, and LG Electronics on it, I would have to contact all three if I wanted to sell my phone and use the money to buy an iPhone.

As insane as this sounds, the courts could rule in favor of the manufacturers and copyright holders. Lower courts have ruled that the First-Sale Doctrine doesn’t apply to products made outside of the US (keep in mind that copyright law extends internationally). The lower courts figured that if things got out of hand, Congress could sort it out later. You know, the same Congress that seriously considered passing SOPA and PIPA.

I don’t think I need to say anything else – it’s pretty clear that this is a bad idea. So instead, here are some links. Here’s an article about the case, where I got a lot of my information from. Here’s the big petition site to tell lawmakers that this is a bad idea. And since we’ve been talking about buying my comics, here’s a link to my store. Y’know, just in case you want to help feed this copyright holder. And don’t worry, even if things go south, you’ll always have my permission to resell my comics.

With the whole Internet protest going on today, I figured maybe I should throw in my two cents. If you still don’t believe that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or it’s evil twin brother Protect IP Act (PIPA) will become a tool for censorship, then you should at least know that these bills will give even more copyright power to media corporations who already wield too much copyright control.

Copyright law in the United States is messed up, favoring media corporations because they’ve been lobbying for years to get these laws passed. SOPA and PIPA are just the most recent (and probably most insane) examples. It’s a crazy system, made only worse by additional laws and further restrictions. That Disney Vault picture above? I put that picture up there because that is where all old movies go to decay. A corporation like Disney only needs to endlessly extend the copyright on properties like Mickey Mouse, but other, lesser known properties also get extended as a result. Because Disney can’t make a profit remaking or re-releasing these old properties, they end up rotting away in the Disney Vault. And Disney is fine with this, because restricting access to old properties creates a demand for the newer properties. This isn’t just Disney – every media corporation has a bunch of old movies that they keep locked away. This is one of the reasons I love sites like Network Awesome – they save these old films and videos and let everyone see them. Sure, some of them are bad, but that’s no reason to lock them away forever.

Still not appalled? How about how Nina Paley, an independent filmmaker, was originally charged $220,000 for the usage of 11 songs in her film Sita Sings the Blues, a film that didn’t even cost that much to make. And how these songs were from 1920s singer Annette Hanshaw, and how the recordings were in the public domain, but the compositions, the actual sheet music, were not. She managed to get her cost down to $50,000, but with so many strings attached, she could be sued at any time for illegally distributing the songs. Even though she gives the movie away for free, she could be accused of selling the songs for zero dollars.

Still haven’t thrown up in disgust? What’s wrong with you?! Throw up! Right now! All over your computer! Okay, how about how Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer behind the Obama HOPE poster, was sued in 2009 by the Associated Press for copyright infringement because he used one of their pictures as reference, even though Fairey’s usage should have fallen under Fair Use, because last time I checked, Obama’s skin is not red, white, and blue.

Still not quaking in your boots? Okay, well here’s something that should scare all the media corporations that don’t view my site – before The Hangover II was released, tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill sued Warner Bros. for copyright infringement because Ed Helms had a tattoo that was similar to the one he created for Mike Tyson. If it was taken to court, there was a good chance that Whitmill could have stopped the distribution of the film. But of course, Warner Bros. settled, because you’re not going to risk losing several million dollars.

So how does this relate to SOPA and PIPA? These are essentially copyright bills, designed to protect copyright by getting rid of online piracy through shutting down entire sites and cutting off their funds. The messed up thing is, even if the bill is passed, it won’t stop online piracy. There are simple workarounds to the proposed DNS blocking (sound familiar? That’s because China and Iran use DNS blocking). To use a Star Wars metaphor, this is basically the Death Star of copyright protection, where the lowest setting on the laser is “Destroy Internet.”

That’s all I got to say right now. Go call your Senators.

This would be a great strip to explain why I haven’t updated much this week, except that in this case, it wouldn’t be true. Around the holidays, though, this is the reason I don’t update much – I tend to visit family members that don’t have internet access.  So remember this comic the next time you visit Pretty Jeff and there hasn’t been an update in a week.

So in lieu of an actual update, I’ve decided to make another Hoops post and make fun of my younger self.

For the uninitiated, Hoops was a comic that I drew while I was in junior high and my freshman year of high school. It is about a stupid person named Hoops with a basketball for a head who travels across America and has crazy adventures with his friends. At one point, I tried to submit it to my local newspaper, The Toledo Blade, and was rejected in the gentlest way possible, considering the material at hand. You can read previous blog posts about Hoops here, here, and here. Click on the images for a slightly larger and less distorted view.

For those of you who have read the previous Hoops posts, you’ll know that Hoops has a bizarre habit of blowing himself up. His dedication to being consumed in large explosions is almost masochistic. But instead of delving into the psyche of Hoops and revealing the madness behind its creator, let’s look at some old comics instead.

Now, you may be thinking “This guy is an asshole.” But keep in mind that the character that blew up Hoops was Bomb, the character who has a bomb for a head. Due to the combustive nature of his head and Hoops’ obsession with blowing things up, the two don’t get along.

Now that you know a little backstory about Hoops and Bomb, you’re probably thinking “This guy Bomb is an asshole.” And you’d be right. But as we’ve seen in the world of Hoops, explosions don’t seem to be that big of a deal.

My dad is like this, so maybe that’s where I got the inspiration for this strip. “Which character?” you ask? Both of them. Seriously, my dad can be incredibly cheap, but if he feels like he’s found a good deal, he’ll jump on it and spend some serious dough. I have no idea why.

I was hoping that Hoops would die in the last panel, but it seems that my younger self disappointed me. Seriously, there are several storylines where Hoops dies but comes back to life with little trouble, as if to say “Hoops can never die.” Oddly enough, this aspect of the comic has carried over to Pretty Jeff, since I just got done with a storyline about Jeff going to Hell and another storyline where Jeff dies and becomes a ghost. And before that, there was a storyline where Jeff dies in a roller coaster accident but comes back to life. Spooky.

Nothing too special here. Basically, I wrote the same punchline for these two strips – fireworks will hunt you down and blow you to pieces.

And that apparently ends the Fourth of July story arc. Huh, that was actually pretty short. Well, I guess I’ll throw in a couple other strips to lengthen the blog post.

This one is actually autobiographical; another precursor to Pretty Jeff, if you will. One time, when I was a kid, I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I was too tired to make it back to bed, so I went back to sleep in the bathtub. My dad, however, had to use the bathroom, and after a half hour of waiting, started knocking on the door to either wake me up or tell me to stop hogging the bathroom.

But Hoops isn’t a cute little kid, and as a result, the strip is a little weird.

Okay, this is probably a better conclusion to the Fourth of July storyline. Hoops’ brother, Foul (get it?), comes over to beat up Hoops for…blowing up his house? I don’t remember exactly, and I definitely don’t want to go through all these comics to find out.

Also, if you’re wondering about the helmet, Foul was in the Iraq War and apparently decided to keep his helmet on while he’s home. Yeah…not sure where I was going with that character trait.

Back to the fireworks, though. Hoops decides that the best way for him to get rid of his brother, who is pounding away at the door with all kinds of sibling aggression, would be to blow up the only barrier between him and Foul.

Funnily enough, it works.

Well, that’s enough Hoops for now. I’m not sure if I’ll do another post about Hoops anytime soon, since it’s sort of difficult to maintain interest in my old, lousy comics. But until then, consider the above comic as the last Hoops comic I ever drew, with Hoops buried beneath the smoldering rubble while his brother walks off into the night, never looking back.