9:04 AM
Well the RIAA had a major legal setback today. This
story has hit all the news wires today and declares that they can't have the
names of the people they are trying to sue. I feel bad for the people that already
settled their lawsuits.
In other music news, I bought a ton of new music yesterday. New albums from Death
Cab for Cutie, The Rapture, The Stills, The Shins, IMA Robot, and The Decemberists.
I haven't given them all a critical listen yet, but so far I'm impressed. It makes
me happy that the new hip music is mid 80's Brit Rock since it's always been one of
my favorite genres.
Stay tuned, I will be having my top 5's of the year soon. I know you've all been
waiting at the edge of your seats.
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11:02 AM
I'm not usually a fan of the Washington Post, but they ran a story near and dear to
my heart; and they agree with me. Here
is there story on our broken patent and IP law system.
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8:53 AM
As if I needed another reason to hate Orrin, he goes and gives me one. Are the
citizens of Utah really that dumb? How does any of the legislation he proposes help
them? Take a look at this
bill. Why should the RIAA and MPAA be exempt from antitrust legislation?
Hmmm... maybe because they are both involved in antitrust suits they have a good
chance of loosing and they're worried? It must be nice to have a senator in your
pocket. Read more about it at The Register.
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12:29 PM
Does this
scare the shit out of everyone else, or is it just me? Why isn't this front page
news? People should be outraged.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty or safety...
-Benjamin Franklin
I couldn't agree more with that statement.
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4:15 PM
Kathrine got mad yesterday when I said I would smile when Jack Valenti died, so I dug
up this quote of his.
I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the
American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.
--Jack Valenti
He said this during the Home Recordings of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783
et al. Before the Subcommittee on Courts of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 97th
Cong. 8 (1982).
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8:52 PM
Just when I make a huge point about copyright and patent law and how fucked up they
are. AT&T
has to go and prove my point. This patent covers "Mediation of transactions by
a communications system." Which if you read the entire
patent would cover e-Voting, e-Auctions, e-Gifts, e-Donations, e-Wishlists and
e-Referrals. You should not be able to patent something just by putting electronic
on the front of it. The interent is not fundamentally different than the telephone
or walking in to the store. Guess the patent office is too stupid to realize that.
Of course Penny-Arcade
has almost as high an opinion of AT&T as I do.
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9:42 AM
I'd like to clear up my thoughts on copyright for anyone who's interested. I'm also
probably going to touch on patent law a bit as well. Earlier I wasn't saying we
should do away with copyright. I was just making the point that Ms. Hamilton seemed
to imply that copyright law favors the people and not the wealthy, when in fact the
opposite is true. Right now the majority of the copyrights in this country are held
by wealthy individuals or corporations, not your average writer or musician.
I can see a need for copyright in certain instances. Books are the biggest need of
copyright because they are trivial to copy. It's not easy to copy a movie or a
piece of music and maintain quality, but with books it's pretty easy. However, is
there any reason why the copyright should be life of the author plus 80 years?
According to Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution:
The Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of
science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the
exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
The key word is limited.
... ( more... )
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12:47 PM
Just when they started to make you think they were all evil, three
republicans do the right thing. I would like to take this oppertunity to thank
Tom Davis of Virginia, Christopher Shays of Connecticut and New Hampshire's Charles
Bass for not being complete neo-con puppets.
In other news. I'm thinking of tying individual comments to a specific news item on
the frontpage. This will be similar to how moveable type opperates. The regular
comments page will become sort of a guest book. I don't see it as being very hard
to implement, so look for it in the near future.
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10:57 AM
Funny quote I read today by IP lawyer Marci Hamilton:
In a culture without copyright, only the rich, or the
government-sponsored, could be this culture's full-time creators. Poor artists like
Loretta Lynn would have to flip burgers long into their music careers - and might
even give up on music entirely.
That strikes me as odd. It seems to me the only full time creators in this culture
are the rich or the government sponsered. Quick name anyone who produces music,
film, literature, TV, etc. full time that is not either doing so using grants from
the government or is not excedingly wealthy. Can't do it? Neither can I. I was
under the impression that artists, film makers, musicians, and writers struggled in
dead in day jobs while trying to become successfull enough, by way of government
grants or corporate backing, to do their art full time.
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12:54 PM
I read an interesting quote today, thought everyone should read it:
All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce
the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger, it works the
same in any country
-Hermann Goering
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