I thought maybe the President would get something out of a small businessman's perspective for once in his life, so I wrote this.
It was with dismay that I learned tonight of the White House's decision to support Big Business in the question of the whole Napster/RIAA issue. Granted, I'm not a lawyer (although recent events have nearly convinced me that I should become one if I wish my country to remain free). So maybe the letter of the Home Recording Act isn't a valid defense -- but to maintain that that Act applies only to hardware means of copying, and that software is excluded from that protection? That's sophistry.
We're headed down a very dangerous path, whereby decision after decision is made, law after law passed, telling us that the time-tested principles of American freedom don't apply to new technology. I am frankly worried for an America in which law can be bought so easily, and I'm worried about a future in which an America become an Old World has no New World to which its innovators can turn.
Fortunately, people who buy medical books are hopefully educated enough to act in their best interests.
Come on. People who buy medical books will take any chance they have to reduce costs so they can maybe afford to eat this week. Students are a completely captive audience -- they have to live day-by-day.
Speaking as a sole proprietor, I have to say that today is hands-down the most small-business-friendly time since the Second World War. My business is 100% online, using email to communicate with my customers -- there is no way I could manage the lifestyle I'm leading without the Internet. The big corporations haven't won, not yet, and hopefully they won't.
I would counter that cooperation does not make more sense, as proven that collective societies cannot compete with competitive societies by the fall of the collectively based governments in Eastern Europe.
A common misconception. There was no cooperation in Eastern Europe; instead there was the most bloodthirsty possible kind of competition: don't threaten me politically or I'll kill you. There is far, far more cooperation in "competitive" America than there was in the old Bloc.
I'm also a resident of Indiana (although I spend a month each year in Budapest -- a long story.) I see a lot of people not born and raised here complain about it -- but I like Indiana. Our list of dumb laws is shorter than most states. After all, we don't have the DMCA on the docket. Ten Commandments? Pfft! So what? Public display of Holy Writ isn't going to affect my livelihood, but enforced EULAs, now that would be fish kettle of a different color... Although I will grant you that the northwest corner of Indiana contains some of the most hate-filled people on the planet. I think it's that whole Steel Belt thing. I suggest you either leave the state entirely or at least come down to Bloomington. But dude. Get over it. Indiana's a nice place to live and work.
Slashdot Mirror
Come on. People who buy medical books will take any chance they have to reduce costs so they can maybe afford to eat this week. Students are a completely captive audience -- they have to live day-by-day.
Speaking as a sole proprietor, I have to say that today is hands-down the most small-business-friendly time since the Second World War. My business is 100% online, using email to communicate with my customers -- there is no way I could manage the lifestyle I'm leading without the Internet. The big corporations haven't won, not yet, and hopefully they won't.
I'm also a resident of Indiana (although I spend a month each year in Budapest -- a long story.) I see a lot of people not born and raised here complain about it -- but I like Indiana. Our list of dumb laws is shorter than most states. After all, we don't have the DMCA on the docket. Ten Commandments? Pfft! So what? Public display of Holy Writ isn't going to affect my livelihood, but enforced EULAs, now that would be fish kettle of a different color... Although I will grant you that the northwest corner of Indiana contains some of the most hate-filled people on the planet. I think it's that whole Steel Belt thing. I suggest you either leave the state entirely or at least come down to Bloomington. But dude. Get over it. Indiana's a nice place to live and work.