It's official. The October Beta Issue is a WIP, a Work In Progress.

One delay after another, one needless interruption, one missed deadline, then another, and finally, the last, when one of our neighbors stopped by in his side-by-side with two stray dogs sweltering in the cargo bin.

They were really nice dogs, very friendly, but obviously abandoned, and our neighbor couldn't figure out what to do except to dump them on us. Naturally, we obliged, taking pictures, and me chosen to take them to the local animal shelter. That was this past Friday, September 29. I had planned - and was just about to get started - on spending the weekend putting together the Beta Issue, which, in my mind, would be almost on schedule on Sunday, October 1st.

Instead, M___ and I ended up caring for a a couple of mixed breeds - a Pit and German Shepherd - when, to my dismay, I arrived at the animal shelter and saw the sign that ominously read, "Adoptions Only."

Immediately, I realized what that meant. The neighbor, who lied when he said he would accompany me to the shelter, said, as soon as the dogs were in my recently re-acquired Subaru, "I'm worn out," and scampered off in his side-by-side, down the hill and out of sight. Not that he was out of mind. More on that later.

The drive to and from the shelter was over an hour. The dogs, flea-bitten, hungry and thirsty, needed care and M___ was up to the task, washing them both down in my shower and applying flea control medication. M___ has four dogs of her own, so caring for an extra two was a burden she did not deserve, though she handled it like the true canine-lover she is. She also brought along bowls for feeding, two bags of food, chewies, medications, flea comb, and two dog beds. I have to admit, I could not have taken care of these pups (the Pit was probably 1 1/2 years old, the Shepherd, M___ figured, must have been less than six months.

Long story short, M___ applied meds and searched for a solution, on the phone, online, emailing neighbors and finally, by Sunday morning, she'd found a shelter she hoped would take them in. Another hours' drive (one way) and prayers were answered. The Shelter was open Sunday afternoon, and the dogs were out of our hands, though we both admitted that under different circumstances we would have kept them. They were very easy once the fleas were no longer an issue for them, sleeping most of the time, not having any accidents, not begging, generally lovable and affectionate.

The people who abandoned them should be in prison. Abandoning pets is a crime of animal cruelty. If you know of anybody who abandons a dog, cat, bird, horse, or even a turtle, report them to the proper authorities. As the economy turns more and more sour, people are making the poor choice of leaving their pets on the side of a road in some rural area (like where we are). It's shameful and criminal.

As for the neighbor, well, next time I see him, he's going to get a lecture and be banished from our property forever. So much for people you thought were your friends.

Now that the explanatory part of the program is over, on to the good stuff. This month's issue has been downsized to 12 13 pages with various segments that were planned - like an events calendar, more on BRICS, and an extended baseball playoff article - either scrapped or edited for brevity.

The feature, "Vicky Says NO" has been junked, though Vicky remains, now as an IdleGuy Advisor. Much in the manner of Playboy's monthly advisor feature, the plan for the IdleGuy Advisor is to do just that - advise - on topics ranging from bedroom to bazaar, from iPhones to igloos, and everything in between. You ask, IdleGuys Answer.

This month features more IdleGals. Three pages worth, and a bit of bawdiness from Frenchman Guy de Maupassant (Believe it or not, some website actually tried to copyright the Frenchman's 19th century work. Good luck with that.).

As mentioned, a baseball preview by Fearless Rick, and the second part of the interview with the publisher are also included. Over the next week or so (today is October 2) thre will be page upgrades, fixes and other enhancements to make this look more or less like what was originally envisaged to be the IdleGuy.com monthly magazine. A graphic artist is a major need!!!

From here, schedule-wise, the third test issue, Gamma, December, 2023, will be - hopefully - published before Thanksgiving, and the January, 2024 issue, the first actual Volume 1, Number 1 issue should roll out a week or two before Christmas.

There's more in the pipeline, but, as mentioned, we're already well past three deadlines, so... enjoy!

When the idea for a 21st century men's magazine was beginning to jell and take on a life of its own, a main concern was that of copyright, attribution, and trying not to get sued over infringement.

At the outset, I approached the matter with great trepidation, fearing that publishing photos of say, Tessa Fowler, reigning Big Tit Queen, might land me in hot water with TessaFowler.com or maybe even Score Magazine. Well, as it turns out, most of what's out there in the netherworld of "porn" on the internet is probably not subject to copyright protection, at least not according to the United States Circuit Courts in various rulings on matters concerning boobs bouncing across computer screens and cell phones around the world at lightning speed.

All you have to do is look around. Boobs, asses, various genitalia are everywhere. The very same pictures can be found on 10, 12, 20, or more different websites. The photographers - who remain mysteriously anonymous - aren't tracking down kids (or adults) in their parents' basements who put up websites or post on social media with questionable content, lifted from other pages of equally questionable content. Besides, some people are actually downloading pictures and videos onto their own hard drives. Imagine!

Bottom line, posting pictures of naked women - something idleguy.com plans on doing regularly - is not something that would be - as lawyers might say - tortious. Besides the obvious defense of "i lifted it from a web page, which lifted it from a web page, which lifted from another web page," there's the question of damages. How is Tessa Fowler or any other woman who wants to show off online being harmed? How much? Who's to determine? On closer inspection (which we all do), the naked lady's career might actually be enhanced.

A couple of articles on the subject, here lend further light on courtroom viewpoints, which are mixed.

So, if Tessa Fowler's tits and ass aren't protected by copyright laws, how about the rest of the stuff out there on the web?

For example, bloggers often copy large portions of articles from elsewhere and repost them. Usually, they give attribution, citing the author, the original website, sometimes, and usually a link. A curious case is the popular financial/political website, ZeroHedge, to which I will not link, because, seriously, they're a bunch of wankers with all the publishing skills of a dead goldfish. Plus, they've banned me from posting comments seven times now. Guess they can't handle competition. (I have plans for them.)

Anyhow, "the Hedge" publishes entire articles, some of which they put into their paid subscribers sections. The articles are published in whole, with attribution and a link or maybe more. Do they get permission? I'm guessing they probably do, and, since they publish the work of a handful of authors and writers, they probably have blanket permissions, so they don't have to ask over and over again, every time somebody writes something new.

Well, I've asked a couple of writers/websites for permission and they never got back to me, so, here's how I'm going to handle it: I'll ask once, nicely, for one-time republishing rights. If the author, editor, publisher doesn't respond, I'll consider that an OK and publish what I like.

Regular copyright laws haven't quite caught up to the internet, and it's likely that they never will. The courts, if everybody who's ever had anything they've written ripped off from a web page intends to sue, would be overloaded with cases amounting to a bag of bolts.

In this issue, there's an article on the BRICS, which I considered to be very well-written and quite provacative. I asked permission to republish, never got an answer. The article can be found on Page 10 I've tried my best to incorporate the graphics and formatting in the original style.

If, some day, when I'm a billionaire (h/t Bruno Mars), they want to sue, go right ahead and good luck proving how you were damaged and what the monetary award should be.

And then, there's Neil Gaiman's perspective: