Some visionaries are also robber barons. Rossetto's libertarian futurism can be a Trojan horse for the injustices of the unregulated marketplace. Would Orrick and Rasky be so kind as to analyze Wired's standard contributor's agreement? (For that matter, would they take a gander at SF Weekly's?) This is not a regime promising the end of intellectual property (a naive concept to begin with); it is one of "IP for me but not for thee."
Since Orrick and Rasky are so fond of egg-omelet metaphors with respect to cyberspace, let's take a quick tour of the National Writers Union's own digital diary. It includes support of a landmark federal lawsuit to affirm writers' electronic rights; an innovative collective-licensing agency, Publication Rights Clearinghouse; and our participation in the Digital Future Coalition, which opposes censorship and advocates subsidies for the underprivileged in commercial products in new media.
If the digital revolution proves real, we submit that it will belong to creators who marshal technology to scramble the traditional creator-publisher paradigm -- not to publishers who discover a new way to turn a fast buck.
Irvin Muchnick, Assistant Director
National Writers Union
Oakland
Wait a Minute
I'm not much of a writer, but I will do my best. The review my restaurant, Rocco's Cafe, received from Paul Reidinger ("Are You Being Served?" Eat, Oct. 16) was not right or wrong, just not professional. There's a difference between opinions and facts. Fact one: bad service. Yes, that's true. But there are no pictures of Joe Alioto or Frank Sinatra, as Reidinger said. And I have no waiters. Also, there is no fennel in my sausage, or hot pepper.
This is a breakfast, lunch, casual seven-days-a-week restaurant in South of Market. You will never see four raviolis, even on side dishes. Try talking about the other food. How about breakfast, my mainstay? How about explaining why we're open two nights a week because we are also full-time caterers?
He made no mention that we have a patio. Reidinger talks about me being professional. I work 80 hours a week. I don't advertise in newspapers, I just work my ass off. Fortunately, my business is good. My response to his review was even good; it gives people something to talk about.
Don Dial, Owner
Rocco's Cafe
SOMA
Paul Reidinger replies: Dial concedes my main point at the outset of his letter: that lunch service at Rocco's Cafe can be iffy. I don't know where he obtains his sausage or what's in it, but it certainly had a pleasant bite of anise when I tasted it. I assume that when Dial claims to have "no waiters," he means no male waiters. I try not to use the word, but according to my dictionary (Webster's New Collegiate), "waiter" is sex-neutral. And yes, there were four ravioli on the plate -- a first-course special.
