A fan based site for the TV show Stargate SG1 has had charges filed against it with a little help from our friend the Patriot Act. Just when I thought we couldn’t get any lower with respect to how we treat Intellectual Property law in this country, along comes the Feds with the Patriot Act. Don’t these clowns realize how much fan based sites help the show. Just how stupid does the MPAA gotta be before it finally realizes that this is cutting off your nose to spite your face!
Jul
26
I came across another great article about the INDUCE Act that the Senate is trying to push through. The article is on Salon.com and you will have to watch a paid ad to read it for free. The article is worth putting up with the ad. This piece of legislation will be one of the single most damaging pieces to the digital age if it is passed.
Jul
16
Does this mean we will finally see some balance on DVD copyright issues in which the consumer actually gets ‘fair use’ like the law implies?
Jul
15
With this being such a hot topic it seems unavoidable that I would put in my two cents.
I’m sure many of you have head the news this morning that the proposed amendment to the constitution banning gay marriage was shot down by the Senate. This, imho, is good news. Why you ask? Well, here’s my three biggest reasons:
- I’m a libertarian and quite frankly I just don’t care what gay people do, and I think they should be able to do as they please as long as it does not hurt anyone else.
- I feel there is a strong economic reason to allow gay marriage. Over the last few years there has been a big push to make it illegal for employers to discriminate between domestic partnerships and marriages. Some states have already enacted such laws an no doubt a few more will cave on this issue soon. I am dead set against treating domestic partnerships like marriages. Why? Simple, if every employer had to give domestic partners all of the benefits that individual or married couples get they would soon find expenses going out of control and thus cut back on EVERYONE’s benefits. This is especially true of health insurance as it is the biggest benefit cost of most employers. And I feel, again imho, that more people would form domestic partnerships just to get these benefits than would if there was nothing to gain by it. Also, domestic partnerships and marriages DO NOT have the same level of commitment to them legally. In a divorce you can get hurt much more than in a domestic partnership breakup.
Because of this, I feel that it would be better to let gay marriages occur and continue to deny domestic partners all of the same benefits of married couples. Only those willing to commit to a marriage and the legal responsibilities that go with it should gain the benefits of marriage. And if you allow gay marriage it provides a better argument for not allowing domestic partnerships and the problems that come with them.
- The only reason they can come up with for denying gay marriage is a religious moral reason. Last I checked we practiced many religions in this country, some with completely different moral stances. Our constitution, and the laws built on it, are based more on ethics than morals. And I cannot find any ethical reason why gay people shouldn’t marry. At least one Republican still gets it, and Senator McCain is one of the few Republicans I can still admire (personally, I think he should have been in the White House and NOT Bush).
Well, that’s my humble opinion on the subject, take it for what it’s worth. I’m sure it will make a few people hate me, but that wouldn’t be the first time.
Jul
14
I received my copy of the new Rush album yesterday from Amazon.com. I wasn’t really sure what to think of this album since it was all cover tunes, the first time Rush has ever done so. It seems I may have been right to question the value of this album.
For the most part the cover tunes are played well. However, if it wasn’t for Geddy Lees voice I’d never have known this was Rush playing. Take away Geddy and it could be any garage band playing. The songs just don’t have any real Rush qualities in them. I guess when I hear that a band like Rush is going to do some cover tunes I expect them to put their own unique spin on them. That just doesn’t happen on ‘Feedback‘. The excitement I usually get with every new Rush album fizzled on this one. It could be that others have felt the same way since there are already 43 used copies available on Amazon.com. This is what it must have felt like when ‘Caress of Steel’ came out.
In the end, being the Rush fan that I am, it was worth getting just to have a complete CD collection, but I doubt it will get very much play. I hope that when the 30th Anniversary tour is over they finally get to work on some new material. I’m starved for new Rush, so starved I bought ‘Feedback‘.
On a positive note, Neil Peart has a new book coming out called ‘Traveling Music: Playing Back The Soundtrack To My Life And Times‘. I have always enjoyed his writing.
Jul
9
My computer experience started with a Commodore Vic20, and later a Commodore 64. I got to play with some Apple IIe computers in programming class in high school, but back then BASIC programming was pretty much the same on both. My next computer wasn’t until some time later, well after I graduated from high school, and it was a Pentium 75 by Digital Equipment Corporation. It came with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. And ever since then I’ve had some sort of PC, some with windows, and now more recently with Linux; Suse Linux 9.0-9.1 to be specific.
I’ve never really gotten into Macs, and the biggest reason why is price. With today’s PC prices I can put together a Linux box that is just as powerful as its Mac counterpart for a third of the price. I’ve never been able to justify the cost for a Mac. Now someone has stepped forward to tell Steve Jobs exactly why his Macs don’t sell well. Read Alex Salkever’s Open Letter to Steve Jobs. He has hit it right on the mark.
The only thing I can add to this is to keep yourself involved in the Open Source community as well. The smartest move Apple ever made was switching to a Unix type kernel. Lower the price and work with the Open Source community to get their apps working on Macs and you’ll have people switching in droves. You might even get me to buy one.
Jul
8
Peer to Peer networks have been pointed at as the cause of the Music industries woes for some time now. Now the Software industry is complaining about the same thing. The apparently took a $29 billion hit in 2003. While I would not be surprised to find this accurate, maybe the software industry should stop by Eric Raymond’s site and have him show them the way to enlightenment, the reason why their business model for closed software fails to meet real market needs.
And the issue with peer to peer networks does not stop there. Now Congress is looking to pass a bill called the Induce Act. This bill would make it illegal for anyone to produce a peer to peer network client that *might* be used to download copyrighted material. This means the people who write software like Kazaa can be held liable if you use their software to do the illegal downloading. Think this sounds like a solution to the problem? Think again!
The bill is written in such broad terms that it says that anyone who produces anything that induces someone else to break copyright law is liable. Hmmm, I see many VCR manufacturers going to court, probably a few makers of CD writers too; and hey, what about TiVo? I bet Apple could get sued for illegal MP3’s on people’s iPods as well. There are so many things we use in our daily lives that could fall under this category it’s not funny. This is the stupidity of senators like Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (between this guy and Bush I’m gonna start voting Democrat by default, at least until the Libertarians have viable candidates), who introduced the bill. Just how dumb do you have to be to get a seat in Congress. Remember, this is the Senator who got busted with illegal software on his web server after he first started saying he wanted to give the RIAA the ability to fry the computer of anyone who was sharing files.
So now everyone is responsible for everyone elses actions? Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
When this mess is finally over it will be the real innovators, those who figure out how to use the digital medium without taking away all of the consumers rights that win. Apple and Magnatune seem to be leading the way into the new digital business model.
This whole business about trying to strip away all of the customers rights is going to end up backfiring someday.
For a good dose of reasoned thought on this subject read Lawrence Lessig’s blog.
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