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Mike Tinney’s deposition in the White Wolf v. Sony case is mildly interesting, if only for the following paragraph:

White Wolf has been in discussions with Sony Online about it creating a massively multi-player Internet game based on White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse and World of Darkness.

It also sets out the course of events which led to the lawsuit. On April 21st, 2003, Tinney sent Andy Zaffron (a contact of his over at Sony, presumably for the EverQuest pen and paper adaptation) email asking for help getting in touch with Sony Pictures:

“I’ve taken a look at a trailer for an upcoming film called Underworld that is to be distributed by Sony Pictures this coming Fall. It looks (from the trailer) as though it borrows fairly heavily from our World of Darkness IP.”

In a subsequent email on the same day, Tinney said:

“When a film like the Underworld comes across our radar, detailing Vampires and Werewolves, who live in secret societies and fight each other, we immediately begin looking for IP similarities. At an initial glance we’re not excited about what were [sic] seeing. Our initial concerns are that the movie looks like it uses themes and elements from our world, character concepts, points of conflict. We’ve crafted a unique and distinctive IP, one that’s a rich blend of old world monster legends with a modern, gen X updated feel and cosmology.”

Which, I suppose, tells us how high the bar for White Wolf IP concern is.

Tinney got a call from Sony, and on May 8th he sent another email to Zaffron thanking him for his help. He never heard back from Sony Pictures after that.

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The MacArthur Foundation announced its 2003 MacArthur Fellows today. It’s such a great concept: $100,000 a year for five years so that you don’t have to worry about anything but your work. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

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I can’t quote just part of this. Here. Have the whole thing.

It’s going to happen someday. We’re going to win the world series someday. You know it. I know it. We all know it. And somewhere buried deep within all of us is the tiniest sliver of the joy that is that someday. And that joy is boundless. If it were a mountain it would stub it’s toe on Mount Everest. If it were an ocean, it would consider the Atlantic a puddle of rainwater. If it were a painting it would make the Sistine Chapel, the Mona Lisa, and all the works of all the greatest artists in all the great museums of the world look like the fingerpaints of a two year old. In its depth, breadth, and sheer beauty, the world has not seen its like. Perhaps that’s why it has been too long, because the world is terrified what might happen if that joy is released. Breaking the atom has nothing on this.

bq. And we’ve each got a little bit of that inside us so when we take the field Saturday night our world will be filled with joy. And should we lose, our world will be filled with joy cunningly disguised as anguish, fury, and utter disappointment but only for the moment. Once that moment has passed the crowd will rise as one and cheer for the team, for the joy we’ve had in watching them, and for the knowledge that someday it will be our day.

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Notes to self:

ECS EZ-Buddie Barebone case, $200. Celeron 1.7 GHz CPU, $57. A 256 MB RAM stick, $44. Linksys WMP11 wireless PCI card, $50. 80 GB Maxtor HD, $83. Total is under $450, and it makes a nice quiet little wireless MP3 jukebox.