Hello, more than 10 thousand members of dekeOnline! That’s right. At approximately 8pm Pacific time Monday night, we once few-but-proud dekeOneers swelled to 10,000 members. We are now officially a Greater Metropolitan Web Site!

What to do with our amazing numbers? At first we were thinking, raid a neighboring imaging site and plunder their pixels. But then we figured, why bother? Better (don’t you think?) to kick back, pour ourselves a few thousand cocktails, take off our 20,000 shoes, and bask in the warm glow of the increasingly crowded but ever inviting dekeLounge.

You would think Deke in particular would be basking in the glow of his direct relationship with so many potential admirers. But strangely, this week finds Deke in a scrappy mood. We start this week’s Martini Hour by trying to answer an earnest question from one of our beloved listeners, Andy from St. Louis (aka Remiss63). But barely a few sentences into things, Deke goes off on a bender about copyright law and how it’s been abused and manipulated to suit the needs of, not our beloved creative professionals—for whom copyright was originally intended—but The Man himself (and you know how Deke feels about The Man)....

We start out earnestly trying to answer Andy’s question, but it quickly turns into…

Pet Peeve: Copyright Law Usurped to Benefit the Man

To hear Deke tell it (and here I do my best to paraphrase), copyright was originally envisioned to protect the lone artist or creative collective so he, she, or they could enjoy the fruits of their labors for a reasonable period of time without some vapid wannabe from stealing them blind. (How am I doing so far?) But it has transformed into the tool of intellectual property consumers, those vast corporations that treat artistic labors as commodities to be acquired and sold. Deke seems to suggest that an equitable copyright law might have protected the interests of Ub Iwerks, the original designer of Mickey Mouse. But as it stands, copyright protects The Mouse as a brand so that Disney stockholders might enjoy its incumbent profits for as long as the corporation might live.

Question of the Week: How to Smooth Away Dots in a Scanned Halftone

And what of Andy’s original question? That gets answered in the fullness of time, once Deke has calmed down. Learn about how to “melt” the CMYK dots together dekeStyle, so that your image has smoother transitions. Learn how to throw the robot inside of Photoshop a curve so that it helps you with your artistic vision. But only after Deke’s ascention into a righteous rant, which really is the pleasure of the piece (as far as Deke’s concerned).

Toast of the Week

This week, we raise our glasses to the work (and website) of Austin Kleon, talented writer, artist, and all around great guy. Talent, generosity, and attitude…one of our favorite combinations. Cheers, Austin.

Interested? How could you not be? Here’s the regular-quality (192kbps) audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save.

For you rant-loving audiophiles out there, here’s the high-quality (320kbps) file. Definitely download this one (as opposed to streaming it).

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Got a question you’d like us to rant about on the show? Call 1-888-dekepod. (That’s 1-888-335-3763.) Practice, be charming, and ask us something really intriguing. Or just ask a really sincere question with great earnestness.

Otherwise, enjoy the rant. You sweetly swelling army of the righteous dekeNation.