these people have dedicated their lives to advancing the engineering and life sciences
I have nothing but the deepest respect for anyone who serves a cause that is bigger than themselves, at the cost of their lives.
We see this sort of stuff in movies so much we forget the courage that it really takes. Often I wish I could be half the man that our nations astronauts and service men are. Astraunots who perish in space deserve our undying respect and remembrance. May they rest in peace.
And further to say "The law assumes guilt that everyone who buys a blank tape or CD is pirating music - but anyone who uses CDs for data storage, for instance, knows that's not true!"
Remember how people used to have to pass a literacy test to vote? People in Congresses/Parliaments should be required to know something about what they're passing laws about. I mean honestly, this law is ridiculous.
Similarly, in this system, you are paying the RIAA for the continued service of providing music. Like it or not, everything musical you purchase has an association with the RIAA; if the RIAA goes bankrupt from the rampant internet piracy of their intellectual property, the whole world will suffer, because all sources of music will dry up.
I don't want to beat a dead horse (i.e. you) but the RIAA does not provide music. Artists provide music. There was music before the RIAA, there will be music if the RIAA disappears.
As for the world suffering because of music drying up, let me give you a little lesson in economics. In the most efficient society, there is perfect competition. In other words, under optimal efficiency, the RIAA would not exist, because the RIAA effectively colludes and acts like a cartel. Economic theory also says that cartels cannot last because individual firms will break from the cartel and sell at the correct, market driven value (i.e. indy artists who sell their stuff for $10).
So...the collapse of the RIAA would be ensured under normal economic theory, if only Congress is smart enough not to protect them.
I find it hard to give artists the benefit of the doubt. Most of the ones who sell through the RIAA have agents who give them checks every week and tell them when they're supposed to be someplace.
I mean, how many time have I watched "Behind the music" and learned about band X that had no idea about how much money they did/didn't have?
Copying music is legally wrong. It is probably morally and ethically wrong
Indeed. But the RIAA's big mistake is that what they are doing (this stupid idea, as well as their worms, etc) is also morally and ethically wrong, and some of it is potentially illegal. Ergo, they lose their "moral high ground". They don't deserve our money, they deserve our contempt.
I have to say that no matter what program you are a part of or where you go to school, the most important thing is how much you try and get into it yourself.
I'm a CS major at an Ivy League college, and there are people here who waltz through the courses without learning anything. Just cause there are good instructors and equipment doesn't mean you learn a lot if you don't try.
Hell, Bill Gates went here and dropped out, and as much has we all hate him, he's done pretty well for himself.
-Typhon
Slashdot Mirror
-typhon
-Typhon
I have nothing but the deepest respect for anyone who serves a cause that is bigger than themselves, at the cost of their lives.
We see this sort of stuff in movies so much we forget the courage that it really takes. Often I wish I could be half the man that our nations astronauts and service men are. Astraunots who perish in space deserve our undying respect and remembrance. May they rest in peace.
-Typhon
-Typhon
As for the world suffering because of music drying up, let me give you a little lesson in economics. In the most efficient society, there is perfect competition. In other words, under optimal efficiency, the RIAA would not exist, because the RIAA effectively colludes and acts like a cartel. Economic theory also says that cartels cannot last because individual firms will break from the cartel and sell at the correct, market driven value (i.e. indy artists who sell their stuff for $10).
So...the collapse of the RIAA would be ensured under normal economic theory, if only Congress is smart enough not to protect them.
-Typhon
I find it hard to give artists the benefit of the doubt. Most of the ones who sell through the RIAA have agents who give them checks every week and tell them when they're supposed to be someplace.
I mean, how many time have I watched "Behind the music" and learned about band X that had no idea about how much money they did/didn't have?
-Typhon
-Typhon
I have to say that no matter what program you are a part of or where you go to school, the most important thing is how much you try and get into it yourself.
I'm a CS major at an Ivy League college, and there are people here who waltz through the courses without learning anything. Just cause there are good instructors and equipment doesn't mean you learn a lot if you don't try.
Hell, Bill Gates went here and dropped out, and as much has we all hate him, he's done pretty well for himself.
-Typhon