...but when MS controls 85% of the country's desktops, Ashcroft is pushing for greater intrusion into our private lives, corporations are being pressed to provide any and all information they have on citizens to the DOJ (and are doing so -- viz. JetBlue), and the Supremes simply override the Constitution at whim, I'm afraid it's not time for "ho-hum".
Unless you're incredibly comfortable with Reich Emergency Protection Act ---- oops, make that the "Patriot" Act ---- it IS the apocalypse, and it's time to wise up and push back.
I'm sorry you smashed your VCR, and before you hammer your cassette deck, know that they're both legal. The MPAA gets a royalty for every blank video cassette sold, and the RIAA gets its dues for every blank cassette and DAT sold. The law operates under the assumption that the criminal class (us) wouldn't respect the copyrights of Hollywood, so you pay every time you buy a BLANK tape. The fight over the royalty for each new recording technology is time consuming -- which explains why these technologies are on the street in Japan and Europe generally a year or two in advance of the U.S. What's interesting to me is that DVDs aren't about recording and copyright violations -- just general exercise of political muscle. Any wonder why Hollywood is such a great source of campaign funds? Any question why we need campaign funding reform? Or why we'll have to get off our collective rumps and start voting for it?
I suggest that you try to work "ipso facto" into your next post on this thread. It will add piquancy and style to your argument, yet not detract from its completely existential pointlessness.
MOSR starts rumors, finds others who quote them, and cites the quotes as confirmation. I've seen it with my own rheumy eyes. Of course, if someone had told me a week ago that MetaCreations was going to willingly self-destruct, I'd have written it off as another MOSR fantasy...
Slashdot Mirror
...but when MS controls 85% of the country's desktops, Ashcroft is pushing for greater intrusion into our private lives, corporations are being pressed to provide any and all information they have on citizens to the DOJ (and are doing so -- viz. JetBlue), and the Supremes simply override the Constitution at whim, I'm afraid it's not time for "ho-hum".
Unless you're incredibly comfortable with Reich Emergency Protection Act ---- oops, make that the "Patriot" Act ---- it IS the apocalypse, and it's time to wise up and push back.
I'm sorry you smashed your VCR, and before you hammer your cassette deck, know that they're both legal. The MPAA gets a royalty for every blank video cassette sold, and the RIAA gets its dues for every blank cassette and DAT sold. The law operates under the assumption that the criminal class (us) wouldn't respect the copyrights of Hollywood, so you pay every time you buy a BLANK tape. The fight over the royalty for each new recording technology is time consuming -- which explains why these technologies are on the street in Japan and Europe generally a year or two in advance of the U.S. What's interesting to me is that DVDs aren't about recording and copyright violations -- just general exercise of political muscle. Any wonder why Hollywood is such a great source of campaign funds? Any question why we need campaign funding reform? Or why we'll have to get off our collective rumps and start voting for it?
I suggest that you try to work "ipso facto" into your next post on this thread. It will add piquancy and style to your argument, yet not detract from its completely existential pointlessness.
MOSR starts rumors, finds others who quote them, and cites the quotes as confirmation. I've seen it with my own rheumy eyes. Of course, if someone had told me a week ago that MetaCreations was going to willingly self-destruct, I'd have written it off as another MOSR fantasy...