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Judge May Take "Fair Use" Away From Jury
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In what I can only describe as a shocker, the Judge in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum has, on her own, issued an order questioning whether the jury will be allowed to decide the 'fair use' issue at all, or whether the Judge herself should decide it. Judge Nancy Gertner's decision (PDF) notes that the courts have traditionally submitted the fair use defense to the jury, but questions whether that was appropriate, since the courts have referred to it as an 'equitable' — as opposed to a 'legal' — defense. This decision came from out of the blue, as neither party had raised this issue. IMHO the Judge is barking up the wrong tree. For one, all across the legal spectrum in the US, 'equitable' defenses to 'legal' claims are triable to a jury. Secondly, as the Judge herself notes, the courts have traditionally submitted the issue to the jury. It also seems a bit unfair to bring up a totally new issue like that and give the parties only 6 days to do their research and writing on the subject, at a time when they are feverishly preparing for a July 27th trial."
With Jews you lose so to win you must lose the Jews.
The last thing I wanted to do this Saturday night was spend several hours writing, editing, and typing this letter. However, I needed to do it because it's sincerely the best way to ask Ray Beckerman to rephrase his criticisms in a more reasoned way. Let me cut to the chase: Ray is the type of person that turns up his nose at people like you and me. I guess that's because we haven't the faintest notion about the things that really matter such as why it would be good for him to reinforce the impression that inane blackguardsâ"as opposed to Ray's assistantsâ"are striving to expose and neutralize Ray's enemies rather than sit at the same table and negotiate. Quasi-snappish and illiterate, his prevarications resemble a dilapidated shed. Kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will collapse, proving my claim that I am now in a position to define what I mean when I say that there is no evidence to support Ray's accusations. What I mean is that the tone of his opuscula is eerily reminiscent of that of antihumanist pinheads of the late 1940s in the sense that the impact of his wanton, lawless declamations is exactly that predicted by the Book of Revelation. Evil will preside over the land. Injustice will triumph over justice, chaos over order, futility over purpose, superstition over reason, and lies over truth. Only when humanity experiences this Hell on Earth will it fully appreciate that Ray claims that we should abandon the institutionalized and revered concept of democracy. I respond that his arrogance will lead him to make things worse quicker than you can double-check the spelling of "ultramicrochemistry".
If an attempt to bombard us with an endless array of hate literature isn't grumpy, it certainly is mean-spirited. We must overcome the fears that beset us every day of our lives. We must overcome the fear that Ray will deprive people of dignity and autonomy. And to overcome these fears, we must admonish Ray not seven times, but seventy times seven. You may wonder why he is afraid of change. It's simply because he wants to annihilate a person's personality, individuality, will, and character. Faugh.
Even though Ray's apostles want so much to twist my words six ways for Sunday that the concept of right vs. wrong never comes up, this does not negate the fact that the poisonous wine of nepotism had been distilled long before Ray entered the scene. Ray is merely the agent decanting the poisonous fluid from its bottle into the jug that is world humanity. He likes to posture as a guardian of virtue and manners. However, when it comes right down to it, what Ray is pushing is both mumpish and adversarial.
If truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, then I have frequently criticized Ray's unspoken plan to make me the target of a constant, consistent, systematic, sustained campaign of attacks. He usually addresses my criticisms by accusing me of racism, defeatism, child molestation, and halitosis. Ray hopes that by delegitimizing me this way, no one will listen to me when I say that Ray wants to get me thrown in jail. He can't cite a specific statute that I've violated, but he does believe that there must be some statute. This tells me that the spectrum of views between libertinism and fetishism is not a line but a circle at which hectoring quacks and the most depraved mythomaniacs I've ever seen meet. To properly place Ray somewhere in that spectrum, one needs to realize that if Ray could have one wish, he'd wish for the ability to install a puppet government that pledges allegiance to his villainous junta. Then, people the world over would be too terrified to acknowledge that Ray has spent untold hours trying to base racial definitions on lineage, phrenological characteristics, skin hue, and religion. During that time, did it ever once occur to him that materialistic goofballs are intrigued and puzzled by his amalgam of pretentious prætorianism and power-drunk Jacobinismâ"a tangled web of KKK, Freudian, encounter-therapy, populist, Ayn Rand-like, and Marxist notion
when Obama's in charge?
Fellow pirates,
I implore you to continue your campaign on Slashdot to make me feel less guilty. I know that not paying someone for their work is wrong, but if Slashdot posts enough articles bashing the RIAA/MPAA/copyright law/whatever, it's easier for me to accept what I'm doing emotionally by visualizing someone else as the bad guy. Once on the forefront of relevant IT news, Slashdot is now a lame repository of mainstream pseudoscience links and pro-piracy articles to appease a dwindling readership. I am overjoyed.
Even though the open source community is about giving back as much as it is taking, I'm just going to take. I'm a human leech with self-serving beliefs and an inability to empathize with content creators who are trying to make a living.
I don't believe John Carmack should be paid for his work. I'm going to sit on my ass while he spends years coding the next advanced 3D engine from id Software. When their game comes out, I'm going to pirate it without giving a second thought about paying John Carmack for his work. I'm just so used to pirating things now that I take it for granted. If anyone mentions John Carmack to make me feel guilty, I'll look for Slashdot articles that bolster my viewpoint, such as this one, amusingly posted in the Your Rights Online section even though none of my rights are being violated.
According to that study, it's okay to not pay people for their work because there's some vague hope that they'll make up the difference in income through "concerts and speaking tours." Artists are now forced to take time out of doing what they want to do. John Carmack must stop programming in order to make money from programming. It's genius. The study does exactly what I need it to--make me feel less guilty when I pirate. We've managed to stretch the truth so far that we're actually telling ourselves that we're helping artists by not paying them for their work. Excellent job.
I look forward to Slashdot telling me everyday who the bad guys are. Even though Slashdot has sued websites in the past for copyright infringement, and they've pretended to care about plagiarism, we're supposed to go along with Slashdot's anti-copyright agenda. I'm okay with that hypocrisy because it serves me. It makes me feel less guilty when I pirate something. Remember, I'm not the bad guy--the RIAA/MPAA/whatever is. That makes it okay for me to not pay people for their work.
EULAs and copyright licenses are wrong, yet the GPL is good. Piracy isn't theft, yet GPL violations are referred to as "stolen GPL code." I accept all of these double-standards because it serves me. I pretend not to notice when someone points out that the GPL relies on copyright law, and if I want to get rid of copyright, my beloved open source code will no longer be protected by the GPL. I don't care, because I'm too busy concerning myself with what I want for free, not about the consequences. I want to get rid of copyrights because I've been told that copyrights are the bad guy, and they are an obstacle to my rampant piracy.
Fellow pirates, let us continue our selfish leeching. Let us paint others as the bad guys to absolve us of our emotional guilt. Our goal is to convince people that piracy is something the good guys are doing in a fight with the evil corporations. Making money is wrong, even though Slashdot displays ads, and it cost me money to buy the computer I'm using to pirate stuff.
Yours truly,
A fellow Slashbot
users. Surprise Slashdot's BSD's aaclaimed Th3re are some
and throw their worthless child molesting asses in the ovens.
DIE FAGGOTS DIE