It was announced that the U.S. Government was going to change the anti-piracy notices on new DVDs and Blu-rays to include not one but two unskippable 10-second notices to further harangue the people who didn't steal the discs, telling them  not to steal.

Obviously, this is either a mistake or part of a larger scheme. Of all the people the studios and government might want to harass and shame, why pick on the only people still giving them money? Why make legal movies and TV shows even harder to watch, and pirated products (which have no notices, no commercials, no previews, no time-wasting menu graphics that are keeping you from watching the damn movie you paid for) even more attractive?

It's almost as absurd as the "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" video — also unskippable — before some movies, which, in a fit of almost crippling irony,  may be using music from Dutch composer Melchior Rietveldt without his permission. (Also? If I could click on the car and get one without taking yours away? And you keep yelling at me not to when I haven't? I just might, now.)

The studios can't be that stupid, so I assume the studios have decided that DVDs and Blu-rays are simply no longer cost-effective and streaming is the way to go and therefore they're going to lower the demand for discs by making them increasingly unwatchable. Future changes may include unskippable half-hour documentaries on how piracy leads to record profits for movie studios  the complete downfall of civilization into a brutal, post-apocalyptic wasteland, "Don't Steal, Dammit!" frames inserted every five minutes into movies, "shame placement" programs where anti-piracy diatribes are written into the actors' dialogue, and a point-of-sale rollout program where, after purchasing, an agent follows the customer from the register to their car yelling in their face the whole time, "You gonna steal that? Huh? You gonna pirate it? Answer me! I can shoot you, you know! I can totally shoot you, you legal owner, you!"

Later programs will instruct cashiers to physically rip purchased Blu-rays from the customers' hands and spit on them.

I wish them luck in their new, ineffectual effort. It'll give me more time to get some reading done.

Spoiler: There isn't much.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to stick Joss Whedon's Marvel's The Avengers at the top of my favorite based-on-a-comic-book movies or even at the #1 superhero movie spot (although it's damn near). It would have to share space with the first Superman movie (largely on Reeves' perfect nailing of Supes, and nostalgia), the second Spider-Man movie (great themes, the first perfect superhero movie fight scene, my love for Spidey), the second X-Men movie (better script, better acting, Nightcrawler), the first Iron Man movie (almost flawless) and Batman Begins (first version of Batman that villains might actually fear).

But it was far and away the most fun I've had in a movie theater in a very, very long time.

So why pick on it? Well, my love for Whedon is well-known. Many excellent reviews and essays have already been written — check FilmCriticHulk, and theonetrueb!X's look at sentiment as a theme — and I'm sure PopMatters is already gearing up for a collection. But I'm known for my amateur script-doctoring, so my self-appointed, unrequested task is to analyze this movie and see how it could have been improved, in my own unfair and uninformed way.

MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, probably, for those ten or twenty unfortunate people who were in a coma over the weekend and therefore did not see the movie. Doctors are, even now, feverishly working on ways to pipe The Avengers directly into their brains.

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It was announced today that Tor Books, the largest science fiction and fantasy publisher, will from this point on publish its ebooks without DRM restrictions. This means that once you buy the book, you can convert it and read it on any platform. Kindle, Nook, ebook app, whatever. This is a huge deal. It's also the direction the publishing world is going.

Baen Books, about which I have unabashedly gushed for decades, has been selling non-DRMed books since day one, in multiple formats. In many cases if you buy the hardback of a new series, you get a CD containing all the rest of the series. You can even get all those CDs for free here, by permission. And they've prospered.

What prompted a big company to do it? Couple things. One, I believe the saner heads — if not the upper management — wanted it and finally presented the case. DRM doesn't prevent piracy. Any book you want, you can find a pirated copy if you try. No, DRM only annoys the legitimate buyer, who just wants to read the book she paid for how she wants to. Two, there's a huge public outcry against DRM. Three, J. K. Rowling, who probably counts as a Big Six publisher all by herself, finally released the Potter books in ebook form and without DRM. Not much of a danger for her, since she has a built-in, worshipful audience who wants to shower her with money and because people willing to get pirated copies already got them the weekend after each book came out.

And four, and this is a big one: the publishers are fighting Amazon and Apple for control over pricing. And if they can't win that, the least they can do is take away either of those companies' monopolies on their products. Buy a Kindle book with DRM and you have to read it on a Kindle or Kindle app. But without DRM, you can read it wherever you like.

So hooray for Tor! Now we just need to work on all the other problems. As someone who has been reading ebooks since they existed, and someone who has paid my actual cash for the thousands of books on my iPhone and Kindle and computer, I have only a few requests.

Pricing: I don't expect ebook prices to be absurdly low. You're a business, you have to cover your overhead, and successful books need to help cover the losses from less successful books. I get that. But don't expect me to pay hardcover prices, especially when no major retailer sells hardcovers at full price. Personally I'm comfortable at the $9.99 – $12.99 level for new releases. Remember, that seems low to you, but I'm paying for something that costs you nothing to replace, whereas I can't resell it myself. Procuring and editing and presentation still may be a substantial percentage of an ebook, but there is no print run. You can't tell me the 20,000th ebook sold cost you as much to produce as the first. You get a bestseller and ebook sales quickly become all profit.

Also, drop the price as soon as the paperback comes out. When the paperback has been out for months and the ebook is still hardcover price, it makes you look either incompetent, greedy, or contemptuous of ebook readers. Pay attention.

Quality: Proofread the damn things. The number of typos I've found in New York Times Bestseller books is staggering, much less the midlist books.Sir Terry Pratchett's "Snuff" was rife with errors. This month's "Sacre Bleu" by Christopher Moore has a duplicated page. The retailers can't fix them, only the publishers can, and unless there's an embarrassing outcry, for the most part you don't. You don't want to be in the position where the pirated copy is more attractive and dependable than the retail one. Yes, there's extra copyediting and that's another non-profitable position you have to fill, but reputation is important for a publisher.

Availability: Get me the ebooks when the printed book is published. Mostly this happens but occasionally there's a lag. The novelization for "The Cabin in the Woods," available in paperback last week, was available as an ebook in the U.K at the same time but not in the U.S., where it still shows a June 19 release date. I'm assuming this is a clerical error — and Titan, usually a company I quite like, is looking into it — but it's annoying. A few years ago Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperColins and Hachette announced they'd be delaying their ebooks for four months after the print release, undoubtedly pleasing book pirates everywhere. How is that working out for them? (Oh, right, it's part of a price-fixing lawsuit against them now [PDF]).

The regional problem is a bigger one. If a book is released in the U.S., it might not be available overseas, even though the Internet goes everywhere. This gets really frustrating for readers who want to hand you fistfuls of money, but can't. However, regional rights are both more complicated and a significant source of income for authors, and existing contract can't be changed, but maybe you could look into speeding up the sales of those rights so a book can drop worldwide on the same day?

See? I'm not asking for much. I want a fair price for a quality product I can read on any device I like, when I want to read it.

Tor's off to a good start.

So, I like the books. Not great literature, but fun and quick, addictive reads and just enough social commentary to add some weight and, most importantly, they are the perfect antidote for the Twilight series. And the movie trailers looked good and Jennifer Lawrence was a great choice for Katniss and I was excited to see what they had done. So much so that I braved the crowds to see a movie on opening night, something I do maybe twice a year.

And… I don't know. There were exciting scenes and moments I got misty and times I felt like cheering and when the credits rolled I felt mostly disappointed.

Spoilers abound so I'll put the rest after the jump. Guard your eyes!

(Photo: Lionsgate)

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Jane Espenson's hysterical webseries "Husbands," staring Cheeks, Sean Hemeon, and Alessandra Torresani, was one of the best things about 2011, and they've started up a Kickstarter to raise $50K for a second season. Since it's only a few hours old and they're already halfway there, I'm going to go ahead and call it now: more Husbands is guaranteed.

Which is a good thing. Their 11 2-minute shorts combine into the funniest sitcom pilot I've seen in a long time, easily better than just about any shows currently on the air. (Watch 'em all here!)

But you might want to get in on the fundraiser anyway, since they've giving away cool goodies such as autographed pics, screen credits, an appearance, lunch with Jane and Cheeks and more. Go get in bed with them, quick!

Jon-Smile, originally uploaded by CABridges.

My wife will be spending today reflecting on your life, the concept that it's now or never, and the declaration that you do not wish to live forever. Also she'll be updating her shrine, and performing her annual ceremony with candles and the stereo turned up until the neighbors' windows vibrate.

The video above was from Marian Call's 2010 concert in Winter Park, Fl, part of her 50-state tour. It was taken at The Geek Easy, a cool little geek-friendly gaming room stashed in the back of A Comic Shop. And if you missed seeing her then, you've got another chance this Wednesday night.

If you've been to this site before, you know of Marian. If not, you really, really should. An angel-voiced musician who started off with (excellent) genre-themed ballads and moved on to writing and singing more complex, more layered pieces — still excellent — Marian is building an amazing career, right in front of our eyes.

Also? She gives good concert, complete with feather boa and typewriter as percussion instrument.

Her show starts at 7:30 p.m., followed by a set from DJ HexWarrior. $10-15 suggested donation. See you there.

Find out more about Marian Call… well, here, and on her site, and her Twitter feed, and her Facebook page.

Crix! Congratulations Crix, and thanks everyone for playing. Firefly trivia is fun, huh? Oh, if only there was a way to keep playing, maybe at home, with your own family and friends!

The answers, for those who care to know and didn't blurt them out involuntarily upon hearing them, are:

1. What does River think she is holding when she finds a gun on the cargo bay floor?

A branch or stick. Some folks got more specific, explaining the scene and even naming the type of tree. Good on all of you.

2. In which of the Serenity graphic novels published by Dark Horse does Badger make an appearance?

"Serenity – Those Left Behind"

3. What two words did Tim Minear say to Joss Whedon that ultimately inspired Whedon to write the episode "Objects in Space"?

Boba Fett. Several different spellings. Many entrants also took pains to explain that Minear pronounced it wrong.

Many thanks to everyone who entered. If you didn't win, please consider picking up  "The Big Damn Firefly and Serenity Trivia Book" anyway (read my review here).

So, two things happened.

One, I noticed how long it's been since I did a SerenityStuff-type review or gave anything away. And two, Kris Barton contacted me and said he had a signed copy of his new book, The Big Damn Firefly and Serenity Trivia Book, available for such a thing if I was interested.

OK, they didn't happen in that order. But it still means you've got a shot at winning, and all you'll need is an insane knowledge of big damn trivia. Fortunately, that covers most of my readership. Let's look at what you're playing for.

It would be relatively easy to whomp up a list of trivia questions about the 'verse. Only 14 TV episodes and a movie, just skim through the scripts, read a few interviews and start primping for your author photo. But, like the Browncoat he is, Barton had to do it the tough way.

For one thing, he assumed most of the people buying the book already knew the easy stuff, and he wanted to make it challenging. But he also wanted to bring out some of the joy of the show itself. "The cast and crew went to great lengths to ensure that the fans would truly enjoy learning about these characters and the process involved with bringing them to life," he says in his forward.  So many of the questions aren't so much the gotcha kind of obscure factoids as they are "hey, did you know this cool thing?"

There's also a bit more in the book than just questions. The intro by "Jaynestown" director Marita Grabiak adds some more insider info about that episode I had never heard before, with some descriptions of the ingenious solutions they came up with to meet their location and budget restrictions. Each chapter begins with the bio of one of the main actors, Joss Whedon and Tim Minear.

The questions themselves — all 1,050 of them — are split up into logical chapters such as Places in the 'Verse, Time, Weapons, Episodes, Behind the Scenes, etc. They're from the episodes and the movie, sure, but they're also pulled from the comics, the DVD commentaries, Titan's companion books, and other sources. There are technical questions, questions about the inspirations for the show, and questions about the broadcasts. There are even questions about the fan movements and charity works.  I'll admit that some of them stumped me at first and I'm as obsessive a Firefly fan as you're likely to find, but more than a few made me smile and after the first few pages I really wanted to go watch the shows again.

Which, I think, was kinda the idea.

So let's give one away. Below you'll find three questions, chosen at random from the book. Send the answers to cabridges@gmail.com with the subject line "Big Damn Trivia Contest" and I'll draw a winner from the correct responses. Please include your name and a valid email address so I can contact you (your info will not be kept or used for any other purpose). You must have a US or Canada mailing address, or be willing to pay for shipping outside continental North America. One submission per person. You must have correctly answered all three questions to be considered. You've got a week: contest ends at 11:59 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. The winner will be announced by midnight Thursday night. If I don't hear back from the winner within 24 hours, another winner will be drawn. No purchase necessary to win. We good?

The prize: A copy of The Big Damn Firefly and Serenity Trivia Book, signed by the author, Kristin M. Barton.

The questions:

1. What does River think she is holding when she finds a gun on the cargo bay floor?

2. In which of the Serenity graphic novels published by Dark Horse does Badger make an appearance?

3. What two words did Tim Minear say to Joss Whedon that ultimately inspired Whedon to write the episode "Objects in Space"?

Good luck, travelers.