Schlafly on Copyright

WildJoeWild writes "Copyright extremists are working to control as much information as possible. Almost every week we see a new example of how they are thwarting the free flow of information. Read the rest of the article here."

Comments

Re:With Friends Like These...

[legLess]

Quoth the poster:

With friends like Phyllis Schlafly, who needs enemies?

Just as well say, "With enemies like Phyllis Schlafly, who needs friends?" It's bloody stupid to cast people who don't agree with you on some issues as "enemies." This is a big, complicated issue in a big, complicated world, and there are plenty of opinions to go around.

Orrin Hatch, for instance, is a fairly conservative and very Christian man. We disagree on many important issues, but we do agree that citizens have fair-use rights to copyrighted material. Orrin's a musician, so he sees this issue from a very different side than most conservatives.

If Phyllis writes an editorial with which you agree, send her mail and say, "You and I disagree about many issues, but we're on the same wavelength here. Thanks!" Take help where you can find it, folks.

Off-topic rant: one of the most insidious and dangerous intellectual crutches many people use is this false dichotomy of "good" or "bad" people or ideas. No person, and precious few ideas, are wholly good or bad - most are some sort of compromise. Hitler instigated some of the most horrible acts ever seen on this planet, but word has it he was good to his dog.

Using this crutch is easy and tempting, but it immediately requires you to build up all sorts of mental walls. Instead, see both sides of an issue. See the ideas with which you disagree are formed, how they propogate, and why people espouse them - then attack the root, not the manifestation.

Mr. Senator from Disney doesn't kiss the Mouse's ass because he's evil, but because the ass is gold-plated and some of it rubs off on him. And our political system requires those at the highest level (e.g. U.S. Congress) to gather and spend truly stunning amounts of money to stay in power.

You can call people "evil" or "enemies" and thus shut yourself out of the system, you can work within the system to defeat those people (or more to the point, their ideas), or you can change the system. The latter two options require the ability to see both sides of an issue, and the causes of a person's behavior.

People's actions have good or evil consequences (often both); ideas have good or evil implementations. Get beyond the juvenile labels and to the root causes and you'll be a lot better off.