Are Books Printed With Disappearing Ink Really The Best Way To Make People Read Them?

As Techdirt has noted, the main threat to artists is not piracy, but obscurity -- the fact that few know they are creating interesting stuff. As passive consumers increasingly become creators themselves, and the competition increases, that's even more of an issue. For writers, there's a double problem: not only do people need to hear about a work, they also have to find the time to explore it once acquired, and that's often a challenge in our over-filled, stressed-out lives -- unless we're talking about haiku. Here's an unusual approach to encouraging people to find that time to read books: 

On Techdirt.

13 AE 01 56 46 3C 13 30 2E 9E CA 2B 13 30 FE 14

No, it's not that number, it's my number:

First, we generate a fresh pseudorandom integer, just for you. Then we use your integer to encrypt a copyrighted haiku, thereby transforming your integer into a circumvention device capable of decrypting the haiku without your permission. We then give you all of our rights to decrypt the haiku using your integer. The DMCA does the rest.

The haiku is copyright 2007 by Edward W. Felten:

We own integers,
Says AACS LA.
You can own one too.

Here is your very own 128-bit integer, which we hereby deed to you:

13 AE 01 56 46 3C 13 30 2E 9E CA 2B 13 30 FE 14

Slaiku

When SL is down
We are virtually certain
To find strange beauty

Web 2.0 Start-ups as Haiku

Web 2.0:
Surely we've all had enough?
Maybe not, like this.

Open Access... as Haiku

If you don't have time to read through Peter Suber's full explanation of open access, you could always try his haiku version (this isn't new, but I've only just come across it). A sample:

I love print, paper.
But I love searching, linking,
using, sharing more.

...

They don't pay authors,
editors or referees.
Then they want the rights.

...

Sure, change copyright
and peer review. But OA
doesn't have to wait.

Google Googlied by Spaiku Adages

Today was a black day in the annals of my Gmail account: I received my first piece of spam. You might think I should be rejoicing that I've only ever received one piece of spam, but bear in mind that this is a relatively new account, and one that I've not used much. Moreover, Gmail comes with spam filtering as standard: you might hope that Google's vast computing engines would be able consistently to spot spam.

So far they have: the spam bucket of my account lists some 42 spam messages that Google caught. The question is: why did Google get googlied by this one? It's not particularly cunning: it has the usual obfuscated product names (it's one of those), with some random characters and the usual poetic signoff.

Actually, now that I come to check, this turns out to be slightly special:

Work first and then rest.
Actions speak louder than words.
Old head and young hand.

Maybe this is Gmail's Achille's Heel: it is defenceless in the face of spam haiku (spaiku?) adages.