Slashdot Mirror
Disney Wins, Eldred (and everyone else) Loses
hondo77 writes "In a 7-2 decision, The Supreme Court gave Disney what they wanted. Story just broke, no details yet." They're talking about the Eldred case, recently argued before the Supreme Court and mentioned on Slashdot many times. The upshot is that no works produced in the United States after the 1920's will ever go out of copyright. Opinions: Majority opinion, Stevens' dissent, Breyer's dissent.
I was... Now I'm just going to have to declare war against the current regime...but I lack resources...Hmm... Anyone need a soldier, anyone that is NOT associated with Bin Laden...Just because he is fighting the current regime, does not mean he is my friend.
This is how it is. And this is what make the system work (in the US). It's not going to change. This applies to everything in the gov't right now.
If we explain tax cuts in some very basic terms, it might go something like
this:
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for lunch. The bill for all ten comes to $100. But, instead of dividing it up equally, they decide the bill should be paid based on who can afford. So, its decided that the first four men -- the poorest -- will pay nothing; the fifth will pay $1, the sixth $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18,and the tenth man -- the richest - will pay $59.
The ten men eat lunch in the same restaurant every day and seem happy with the arrangement -- until one day, the owner throws them a curve (in tax language a tax cut). "Since you are such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily lunch by $20."
So now dinner for the ten only costs $80.00. The group still wanted to pay the bill based on who is the wealthiest... the way we pay our taxes. The first four men were unaffected, they still would eat for free. But the "problem" came when the other six -- the paying customers - tried to figure out how to divvy up the $20 "tax windfall" so that everyone would get his "fair share".
At first, the six men tried dividing up the $20, which came to $3.33 saved by each. But, when they subtracted that from everybody's share, the fifth and the sixth man ended up being PAID to eat their meal!!! That didn't seem right, so they asked the restaurant owner for an alternate plan and he suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill roughly in proportion to what they had been paying. He suggested that the fifth man along with the first four, would now pay nothing. The sixth would pay about $2, the seventh about $5, the eighth $9, the ninth $12. This would leave the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of the $59 he had been paying.
Each of the six was better off than before [the first four were already eating for free]. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He then pointed to the tenth man, "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man who now was getting a free meal, "I too only saved a dollar... it's unfair that the wealthy man got seven times more than I did."
That's true!" shouted the seventh man, why should he get $7 back when I only get $2 back. The wealthy get all the breaks!" Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men proceeded to surround the tenth man and began to beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. However, when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered... a little late... that the tenth wealthy man was very important to THEIR well-being. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill!
And that is how the tax system works... the people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table again.
"Time is long and life is short, so begin to live while you still can." -EV
No, he used "upshot" correctly. The word either means 1) The final result; the outcome. or 2) The central idea or point; gist.
What do you think the word means?
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Can someone tell me who in the United States even gives a shit about Mickey Mouse? All the kids I'm around could care less about Mickey Mouse. He's a LOSER! They want someone with guns, web-shooters, or a fast car. They don't even know what a steamboat is.. nor do they think Disney is cool. It's old and smells like puke (at least in FL).
When I was a kid, we had to walk to school in the snow uphill, both ways! And we didn't need no copyright mumbo-jumbo. If somebody wanted to sing a song I wrote, I just punched them in the nose!
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
In soviet russia...
copyright extends YOU!