Monday, July 18, 2011

Weird Amazonian discovery!

No, folks, this isn't going to be a cryptozoology entry. It deals with a very curious discovery on Amazon.com: digital copies of my old interview with Charles Mudede about the films Police Beat and Zoo are being sold online for $9.95. I have just written the following Amazon review for this piece - I'll be curious to see if they publish it unedited:

Most amusing. I'm the guy who interviewed Mr. Mudede for this particular article. It's one I'm quite proud of. We talk at some length about two films he wrote with director Robinson Devor, Police Beat (dealing with social disorder in Seattle from the point of view of a conservative African bicycle cop, who finds himself - as his relationship disintegrates and his partner makes ever-worse choices involving a prostitute - plunged into a "heart of whiteness") and the documentary Zoo, about an infamous Enumclaw bestiality case, also written about for The Stranger by Mudede under the title "The Animal In You" (- a most piquant and provocative article, which can be found online). They're both fascinating films, and admirers of them will find this article quite enlightening; Mudede is a most articulate and amusing interview.

What I'm somewhat curious about, however, is how this article ends up being sold on Amazon. I signed no agreements giving anyone the right to resell this article in perpetuity; I received only a token one-time payment from Cineaction, when it was published, and was never in any way contacted for permission to sell this work, of which I am the author. And yet here it is, for sale for $9.95. Of which I receive...
absolutely nothing. How exactly does that work?

I might add: if anyone wants to buy it off me, I'll undercut Amazon by half - Paypal me $5 and I'll email the thing to you!

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