How am I supposed to compete with someone giving away copies of my work for free?
You can't. Just like the rest of us who get downsized or outsourced you'll have to pick up the pieces and find something else.
you speak of taking away my rights to my work
You have a right to work just like anyone else who finds themself in the unemployment line. Start pounding pavement. A tip: No one will hire you if you're still whining about the unfairness of the world. It's a fact of life and the time of the media industry being exempt from it is over. I'm sorry about your situation and bear you no ill will but you have to do what everyone else does: pick up and move on.
I do that by defending my values and views, not stomping on other people's rights
No one's rights are being stomped except for the right of a consumer to own a product they bought. I'm sorry if your business model sucked. I'm sorry if you have 30 years in a with a business that failed. I hope you have enough banked to apply yourself to new gainful employment before you can't pay rent. I've seen chemists turned out by the thousands from work on a day's notice.
Living in this world is like being R2D2 out fixing the X-wing. Lasers are whizzing right past your ear and no one's going to miss you if you get hit. There are enemies. The only thing you can do is try to find a solid ground someplace.
The world owes me the right to decide who I work for and what kind of money
You've been misled. Tell that to the programmers who were outsourced. Tell that to people who invested their money in Betamax videocassettes or the 12" laser discs. Tell that to Tucker. Tell that to people who specialized in working on vacuum tube electronic devices. Tell that to anyone who has ever been displaced from their chosen profession and forced to take a desk job pushing paper for half the salary someplace. It happens all the time and has probably happened to more of the professional population than anyone cares to admit. The world owes you the right to cope with whatever happens and that's about it.
And while you're coping, the rest of us are coping too. Don't feel like the world's picking on you. Let's just say that the IP gravy train has ended.
My kid is starving, and you feel that it's somehow your god-given right to share my work with others
Pity plea. Welcome to real life. It is a God-given right to share. Did you consider that your work isn't worth what you think it is? Welcome to the real world dose of humility. Mother nature doesn't care about your work. There are scientists all over the world in places like Russia who could probably save mankind from a deadly plague if someone would just look after their rights for them. Guess what? No one does and they're starving every day, freezing in homes that have no heat or electricity because they couldn't pay the bills. Be happy you're not them. Cope.
Why the hell should I give a damn about your rights, then?
You shouldn't and you probably don't. I look after my work and give it only to the people who I must (my employer) or who I trust. If I sell my work, I set the price after weighing the potential for the customer to take my work and replicate it without paying me.
If I fix someone's computer I allow them the opportunity to watch me fix it. It's possible they may never call me again. It's possible they may start fixing other people's computers. That's my intellectual property but I know it might happen and I take it into consideration.
If I synthesize a complex molecule which takes 30 steps and write down the procedure I do so knowing that someone else might take it, might follow it, and I may be obsolete tomorrow. That's life. I hope I can still eat. No one's watching my back.
If I change someone's brakes they might watch me do it. They may change their own brakes next time. I know this full well ahead of time and set my asking price accordingly.
There's nothing sinister about learning or sharing the contents of other people's IP. It's the way of the world. I hope you either meditate or pray to a God or whatever because you need to learn peace of mind. The world does not owe you a living.
That 90 % of what is being shared is done so without permission and therefore illegally
The 90% figure is conjecture. As for sharing without permission: It was legally sold and bought. Refine the business model or cope.
What right do you have to harass the citizens of my nation with goons and lawsuits because you're a moron at running your business? Figure it out before the point of sale and quit whining about it afterwards.
Are you telling me I shouldn't sell my music, because someone who bought it might share it?
I'm telling you this is a big world. It's a live at your own risk world. Every other business in the world has considerations about marketing and ensuring product longevity and the vast majority do so without resorting to harassing the customers or coming up with legal schemes. What makes your business so special that you don't have to cope with reality?
It's fair.
If I find it out, I'll hit you several times with a large iron bar and leave you lying in a puddle of your own blood and my urine
I speak of fairness, you speak of violence and degradation. Hopefully the laws will quit supporting people of your nature.
Because it is easy to tell how many copies an album will sell, beforehand.
Risk is part of life. Everyone has to grow up at some point. The world does not owe you magnificent profit just for running in circles. There's a reason why lemonade is still 5 cents/cup.
when over two thirds of current network traffic is people sharing stuff, I think it takes a tremendously selfish person to not see anything wrong with it
Is there something inherently wrong with sharing? What did I miss.
As for intellectual property: If it were really that valuable and that important it would be safeguarded before being released. If it were really that valuable and that important it wouldn't be sold to any teenager with $15.
I don't put my best code on open display at a large venue. Why not? I'm not worried about the the average websurfer copying it--I'm worried about competing coders (big companies) copying it, refining it, and beating me to the store shelves before I have a finished product. While politicians and lawyers have consumers fighting with each other about innocent sharing, their own companies are trolling universities and places like sf.net looking for product ideas that aren't protected. The same goes for the music industry.
And what's the RIAA doing about the internal dirty laundry in the industry? What's the RIAA doing to actually protect the original authors and inventors? Nothing. Because it's not profitable. It's much more profitable to harass innocent consumers.
Please. No more of these moral pleas about IP and sharing. They're false.
You sold it to me. Cope. You're a competent human being, right? Figure it out before the sale. What happens if I share it? Adjust the sale amount and the medium properly. When the sale amount becomes too large or the medium requires a proprietary player then we'll start to see just how important your product is. Maybe it'll be humbling for you. Again. Cope.
I could seriously argue that allowing media executives to live in my nation is compensation enough given the trash which they produce. What gives them the right to harass my citizens with their goons and lawsuits? I don't see the inalienable right to squeeze consumers for every dollar they're worth written down anywhere.
The courts, flatly, should tell the RIAA and anyone else who attempts to peddle IP to cope. Revise the business model, quit whining, face reality, go home.
they can continue to extort obscene profits from us for healthcare
Continuing on that thought...
There are about 3 major insurance companies in the world. Those three have dozens of subsidiaries. Those dozen subsidiaries have hundreds, maybe thousands, of corporations. What this means, however, is that the effect on profit margin anywhere can and will be compensated anywhere else. Consider the late 90s and into early 2000 when the bust happened. Those businesses were insured. Some investors, usually those closest to the top of the investment chain, recouped losses through business insurance. That was very costly for the insurance companies holding the policies. They can't be expected to take a loss, though, so they must recoup the losses somewhere.
It's no coincidence that the cost of health care began skyrocketing as the stock market tumbled. There's no coincidence that the cost of gasoline began skyrocketing as the stock market tumbled. It's little more than a pyramid scheme of recouping losses from one investment by raising the prices of another. Ultimately we, the American public paying car/home/health insurance, will pay to rebuild the vacation homes and posh resorts devastated by the earthquakes on the other side of the globe. I have no problem philanthropically helping people in need but I don't relish the idea of seeing my auto insurance rise on my paltry salary while a spoiled brat with a gigantic ego sips pina coladas in a beach chair that I (indirectly) bought.
A pub in my home area had a bumper sticker,"We screw the other guy to pass the savings on to you." Alan Greenspan, George Bush... they're just the figureheads for a group of people who are screwing the general populance in order to pass the savings on to themselves.
If one would write a computer simulation of the business world with our current taxation system, and another computer simulation of any two-bit MLM or pyramid scheme, the code would probably be indistinguishable.
If YOU ____ over Microsoft's copyrights, then what is their to stop Microsoft from ____ing over Linux developer's copyrights and incorporate it closed source into their own software?
Don't be naive. The number of lower employees that MS middle managers and upper managers have screwed over to get where they are is just the way things work. The number of smaller companies that MS has bought out or openly crushed with superior resources or a quicker route through the copyright/patent office is just the way things work. Do you really think the business world is fair just because that's the way you want the world to work?
You are aware of the role of universities, aren't you? It's a way for businesses to come upon the newest and hottest ideas in a forum where the originators have no legally enforceable rights on those ideas. Some researchers and major research groups have resources and the experience to navigate the legal labyrinth of IP but they're in the vast population minority. It's just the way things work.
There are several factors which prevent MS from openly stealing Linux. Mostly it's PR and the fact that you can't develop a product for a decade and then expect to turn a multibillion dollar company on a dime to work on something completely different. IP is a token factor and a minor consideration. There probably are a few dozen MS employees working on *nix type clones in a back room, waiting for the time when the PR is favorable. IP will be the last thing they buy out before they ship it out the door. IP is little more than crossing Ts and dotting Is.
If YOU ____ over the RIAA's copyrights, then what respect should the RIAA show for Artist's copyrights when the distribute using the creative commons?
Do you really think the RIAA would give a flying squirrel's tail about the Artist's copyright if there wasn't profit in it for them first?
That's just a sophmoric justification for immoral behavior and is silly.
To act like the upper echelons of society and business are completely moral, philanthropic, and honest in their business dealings is equally silly. The only difference is the availability of resources to mount the subsequent lawsuit. A middle manager, for example, will never screw over a subordinate who has wealth, federal protection (sex,race,religion,age,disability), or friends who are attorneys. A middle manager won't even think twice about happily taking credit for the ideas of a subordinate who has no protection or resources. That's what Dilbert and most political comics are all about.
How can you possibly expect the general populance to be perfect angels when the example is set by campaigns such as MS vs. Netscape? Or when MS can openly cut and paste MacOS, restructure the code, call it Win95, and rely on political power and hush money to negate any chance of a successful lawsuit?
You're on the side of unfettered theft of other people's hard work and original ideas
Please step away from the soap box and take your pouting someplace else.
Reality: If you don't want someone to share something then don't give it to them.
If that means you can't Get Rich Quick then find a better business model or cope.
It's impossible to steal an idea. You can't rip it out of someone's head. It's possible to extort hard work or ideas from someone in a fashion similar to indentured servitude (eg. employee agreements which blanket IP). I honestly doubt that consumers are extorting the media industry.
As always, I'd like to point out that our Federal Government is far outside of its Constitutionally granted powers, roles, and responsibilities. I support a strict reading of the Constitution with the 9th and 10th Amendments intact. Congress likes to legitimize its right to do whatever it pleases by invoking its power to regulate interstate commerce. I'd like to point out that the 9th and 10th Amendments specifically address this political trick in the verbage "...the enumeration of the Constitution shall not...".
For those who wish to argue I ask,"Where does it end?" If you don't support a strict interpretation of the Constitution then what can't be legitimized by the enumeration of the power to regulate interstate commerce?
Face it. The USA as a democratically elected Constitutional Republic is a fraud. The document exists, but the institution quit playing by the rules as of the first meeting of Congress. What we have is a democratically elected banana republic which has no true charter. There is no existing document which legitimately grants our current federal government the scope of powers that it currently exercises.
I guess that makes it a democratically elected fascist state functioning no differently from the corrupt implementations of communism and socialism that dominate Eastern Europe.
Usually I'll ask if the person's eyes get tired, etc. and fix it for them.
Wrong spin. The person's eyes have adjusted to by in sync with the 60 Hz refresh and they are not bothered by it. Your eyes, for some reason, never figured out how to sync.
I'd say it's a business like any other. The seller assumes all risk. The seller has an obligation to screen potential clients. Pick the wrong clients and the seller gets screwed. Everyone else in the world has to deal with this possibility. Cope.
a return to the days when artists were sponsored by wealthy patrons
And this differs from the current system of big music clearinghouses and production agencies how?
You're not being clear, and I can't understand you
You're being a troll, as usual. Purposely playing ignorant to justify your casual insults.
But right now I can't even disagree with you because I don't know what you're trying to tell me.
The Constitution calls for securing rights to authors and inventors. This allowance was made to defend individuals from the overwhelming force of the Crown which could use any number of methods (buyouts, forceful coercion, slash and burn, whathaveyou) to wrest the legal rights from the originator and into the holdings of the Crown.
Current US IP law allows for the same thing. Take pharmaceutical scientists for example. Our companies buy our patent rights from us for $1 and this is considered legal due to our employment contracts. How is IP law fulfilling the Constitution and securing the rights to us, the individual authors and creators?
I'd like to dump the copyright law we have now and reform it significantly
Like maybe get back to protecting authors and inventors and ditching the protections for anyone who manages to back the author or inventor into a corner and give them a choice: accept a $1 buyout or get the crap kicked out of you.
What's the point of protecting authors or inventors if it's legal for King George to buy the rights? We all know that King George is a master at extortion, death squads, and has more money than he knows what to do with.
the credit card companies may have finally found a way to turn all their unsecured debt into debt secured by Uncle Sam's new bankruptcy laws
They're running out of new and novel ways to cook the books. Now they need some real measures to boost revenue.
Aren't we still paying the interest on the WW-II debt to the Federal Reserve? At some point the Feds should just send a few tanks to Greenspans house and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that the US gov't is defaulting. Then we could slash taxes to nearly zilch and all of us consumers could pay our credit cards off properly rather than trying to play catch up on a 60 year old loan.
Blame that one on the media and the politicians who wish to obfuscate their crimes against the 9th and 10th Amendments.
Specifically, the United States was to be a Republic (as defined in the Constitution) with democratically elected representatives. It's anyone's guess as to why the entire nation thinks we're a democracy as if democracy were a form of government (it's not). Democracy is a method of making a decision. Nothing more, nothing less.
The roots are probably from the 50s and 60s when the media may have wanted to mark a clear delineation between the USA and the Soviet Socialist Republics, or the People's Republic of China. Most major governments are a republic. Just what form of republic and what powers the government purports to hold are defined in their individual charters (or constitutions).
Back to my original point. The United States has a charter. It's called the Constitution. Without the Constitution our democratically elected government is little more than a bully cartel (mafia). Once again I'd like to reiterate that our federal politicians and federal judges violate the 9th and 10th Amendments on nearly a daily basis. In violation of the Constitution, they should no longer legally be entitled to the powers given to them by the Constitution. Of course, rules never stopped anyone--especially not power hungry politicians or corporate executives consumed by greed.
It's interesting that you bring up the Pledge of Allegiance. I said that every day growing up while facing the flag, and I still proudly say it today. It's not my fault that the true Republic for which the flag stands is long since dead.
Honestly... I don't recognize the legitimacy of our current Federal Government except to note that, in real life, might does make right and they have bigger lawyers, bigger guns, and more police than the proper Republic for which the flag stands.
With Tax and Spend you owe the government. With Borrow and Spend your government owes a foreign government. Personally I would rather have the first.
Really it's all borrow and spend. The Federal Government borrows the money from an elite group of bankers who call themselves The Federal Reserve. Essentially we've been reduced to indentured servants on their land.
Inflation is not an economic number, contrary to what you'll learn in most economics classes. Inflation is a percentage set to keep the Americna public in debt. The prime interest rates are not set according to any economic variables. The prime interest rates are set to guarantee that the US Federal Government will never be able to wholly pay off its debt to The Federal Reserve. Again, this system ensures that we, the American taxpayers, are mere indentured servants with the US Federal Government as our local landlord and The Federal Reserve as the owner.
It's sick, really. The politicians know that the debt will never be repaid. The game now is for themselves and their business partners to cash in on the largest chunk of the tax collection before it goes to make the monthly payment to The Federal Reserve.
There are plenty of legal and ethical reasons to track down information that may be considered to be confidential. Maybe he does background checks for employment, or is in law enforcement, or a private investigator to name a few
Let's put it this way: if someone I don't know engages in business (ie. for profit) to dig up confidential information about me without my knowledge, their industry is unethical. They should be put down like a rabid dog.
I don't go digging around on others.
Law enforcement and employment are, arguably, not running background checks for profit. Private investigators, however, sit right next to lawyers.
Slashdot Mirror
You have a right to work just like anyone else who finds themself in the unemployment line. Start pounding pavement. A tip: No one will hire you if you're still whining about the unfairness of the world. It's a fact of life and the time of the media industry being exempt from it is over. I'm sorry about your situation and bear you no ill will but you have to do what everyone else does: pick up and move on.
No one's rights are being stomped except for the right of a consumer to own a product they bought. I'm sorry if your business model sucked. I'm sorry if you have 30 years in a with a business that failed. I hope you have enough banked to apply yourself to new gainful employment before you can't pay rent. I've seen chemists turned out by the thousands from work on a day's notice.
Living in this world is like being R2D2 out fixing the X-wing. Lasers are whizzing right past your ear and no one's going to miss you if you get hit. There are enemies. The only thing you can do is try to find a solid ground someplace.
You've been misled. Tell that to the programmers who were outsourced. Tell that to people who invested their money in Betamax videocassettes or the 12" laser discs. Tell that to Tucker. Tell that to people who specialized in working on vacuum tube electronic devices. Tell that to anyone who has ever been displaced from their chosen profession and forced to take a desk job pushing paper for half the salary someplace. It happens all the time and has probably happened to more of the professional population than anyone cares to admit. The world owes you the right to cope with whatever happens and that's about it.
And while you're coping, the rest of us are coping too. Don't feel like the world's picking on you. Let's just say that the IP gravy train has ended.
You shouldn't and you probably don't. I look after my work and give it only to the people who I must (my employer) or who I trust. If I sell my work, I set the price after weighing the potential for the customer to take my work and replicate it without paying me.
If I fix someone's computer I allow them the opportunity to watch me fix it. It's possible they may never call me again. It's possible they may start fixing other people's computers. That's my intellectual property but I know it might happen and I take it into consideration.
If I synthesize a complex molecule which takes 30 steps and write down the procedure I do so knowing that someone else might take it, might follow it, and I may be obsolete tomorrow. That's life. I hope I can still eat. No one's watching my back.
If I change someone's brakes they might watch me do it. They may change their own brakes next time. I know this full well ahead of time and set my asking price accordingly.
There's nothing sinister about learning or sharing the contents of other people's IP. It's the way of the world. I hope you either meditate or pray to a God or whatever because you need to learn peace of mind. The world does not owe you a living.
What right do you have to harass the citizens of my nation with goons and lawsuits because you're a moron at running your business? Figure it out before the point of sale and quit whining about it afterwards.
It's fair.
I speak of fairness, you speak of violence and degradation. Hopefully the laws will quit supporting people of your nature.
Risk is part of life. Everyone has to grow up at some point. The world does not owe you magnificent profit just for running in circles. There's a reason why lemonade is still 5 cents/cup.
As for intellectual property: If it were really that valuable and that important it would be safeguarded before being released. If it were really that valuable and that important it wouldn't be sold to any teenager with $15.
I don't put my best code on open display at a large venue. Why not? I'm not worried about the the average websurfer copying it--I'm worried about competing coders (big companies) copying it, refining it, and beating me to the store shelves before I have a finished product. While politicians and lawyers have consumers fighting with each other about innocent sharing, their own companies are trolling universities and places like sf.net looking for product ideas that aren't protected. The same goes for the music industry.
And what's the RIAA doing about the internal dirty laundry in the industry? What's the RIAA doing to actually protect the original authors and inventors? Nothing. Because it's not profitable. It's much more profitable to harass innocent consumers.
Please. No more of these moral pleas about IP and sharing. They're false.
You sold it to me. Cope. You're a competent human being, right? Figure it out before the sale. What happens if I share it? Adjust the sale amount and the medium properly. When the sale amount becomes too large or the medium requires a proprietary player then we'll start to see just how important your product is. Maybe it'll be humbling for you. Again. Cope.
Stealing... taking without just compensation.
I could seriously argue that allowing media executives to live in my nation is compensation enough given the trash which they produce. What gives them the right to harass my citizens with their goons and lawsuits? I don't see the inalienable right to squeeze consumers for every dollar they're worth written down anywhere.
The courts, flatly, should tell the RIAA and anyone else who attempts to peddle IP to cope. Revise the business model, quit whining, face reality, go home.
There are about 3 major insurance companies in the world. Those three have dozens of subsidiaries. Those dozen subsidiaries have hundreds, maybe thousands, of corporations. What this means, however, is that the effect on profit margin anywhere can and will be compensated anywhere else. Consider the late 90s and into early 2000 when the bust happened. Those businesses were insured. Some investors, usually those closest to the top of the investment chain, recouped losses through business insurance. That was very costly for the insurance companies holding the policies. They can't be expected to take a loss, though, so they must recoup the losses somewhere.
It's no coincidence that the cost of health care began skyrocketing as the stock market tumbled. There's no coincidence that the cost of gasoline began skyrocketing as the stock market tumbled. It's little more than a pyramid scheme of recouping losses from one investment by raising the prices of another. Ultimately we, the American public paying car/home/health insurance, will pay to rebuild the vacation homes and posh resorts devastated by the earthquakes on the other side of the globe. I have no problem philanthropically helping people in need but I don't relish the idea of seeing my auto insurance rise on my paltry salary while a spoiled brat with a gigantic ego sips pina coladas in a beach chair that I (indirectly) bought.
A pub in my home area had a bumper sticker,"We screw the other guy to pass the savings on to you." Alan Greenspan, George Bush... they're just the figureheads for a group of people who are screwing the general populance in order to pass the savings on to themselves.
If one would write a computer simulation of the business world with our current taxation system, and another computer simulation of any two-bit MLM or pyramid scheme, the code would probably be indistinguishable.
Don't be naive. The number of lower employees that MS middle managers and upper managers have screwed over to get where they are is just the way things work. The number of smaller companies that MS has bought out or openly crushed with superior resources or a quicker route through the copyright/patent office is just the way things work. Do you really think the business world is fair just because that's the way you want the world to work?
You are aware of the role of universities, aren't you? It's a way for businesses to come upon the newest and hottest ideas in a forum where the originators have no legally enforceable rights on those ideas. Some researchers and major research groups have resources and the experience to navigate the legal labyrinth of IP but they're in the vast population minority. It's just the way things work.
There are several factors which prevent MS from openly stealing Linux. Mostly it's PR and the fact that you can't develop a product for a decade and then expect to turn a multibillion dollar company on a dime to work on something completely different. IP is a token factor and a minor consideration. There probably are a few dozen MS employees working on *nix type clones in a back room, waiting for the time when the PR is favorable. IP will be the last thing they buy out before they ship it out the door. IP is little more than crossing Ts and dotting Is.
Do you really think the RIAA would give a flying squirrel's tail about the Artist's copyright if there wasn't profit in it for them first?
To act like the upper echelons of society and business are completely moral, philanthropic, and honest in their business dealings is equally silly. The only difference is the availability of resources to mount the subsequent lawsuit. A middle manager, for example, will never screw over a subordinate who has wealth, federal protection (sex,race,religion,age,disability), or friends who are attorneys. A middle manager won't even think twice about happily taking credit for the ideas of a subordinate who has no protection or resources. That's what Dilbert and most political comics are all about.
How can you possibly expect the general populance to be perfect angels when the example is set by campaigns such as MS vs. Netscape? Or when MS can openly cut and paste MacOS, restructure the code, call it Win95, and rely on political power and hush money to negate any chance of a successful lawsuit?
Reality: If you don't want someone to share something then don't give it to them.
If that means you can't Get Rich Quick then find a better business model or cope.
It's impossible to steal an idea. You can't rip it out of someone's head. It's possible to extort hard work or ideas from someone in a fashion similar to indentured servitude (eg. employee agreements which blanket IP). I honestly doubt that consumers are extorting the media industry.
Sharing is not wrong.
Stealing is wrong.
If you sell something to me, and I share it with my friend, no one has stolen anything.
Splitting hairs by writing volumes of legal jargon about it doesn't change that.
As always, I'd like to point out that our Federal Government is far outside of its Constitutionally granted powers, roles, and responsibilities. I support a strict reading of the Constitution with the 9th and 10th Amendments intact. Congress likes to legitimize its right to do whatever it pleases by invoking its power to regulate interstate commerce. I'd like to point out that the 9th and 10th Amendments specifically address this political trick in the verbage "...the enumeration of the Constitution shall not...".
For those who wish to argue I ask,"Where does it end?" If you don't support a strict interpretation of the Constitution then what can't be legitimized by the enumeration of the power to regulate interstate commerce?
Face it. The USA as a democratically elected Constitutional Republic is a fraud. The document exists, but the institution quit playing by the rules as of the first meeting of Congress. What we have is a democratically elected banana republic which has no true charter. There is no existing document which legitimately grants our current federal government the scope of powers that it currently exercises.
I guess that makes it a democratically elected fascist state functioning no differently from the corrupt implementations of communism and socialism that dominate Eastern Europe.
What does that mean if every monitor I look at has a perfect picture but sometimes it's the rest of the world which seems to be flickering?
What's the refresh rate on life?
Usually I'll ask if the person's eyes get tired, etc. and fix it for them.
Wrong spin. The person's eyes have adjusted to by in sync with the 60 Hz refresh and they are not bothered by it. Your eyes, for some reason, never figured out how to sync.
My eyes sync at whatever refresh is available.
I'd say it's a business like any other. The seller assumes all risk. The seller has an obligation to screen potential clients. Pick the wrong clients and the seller gets screwed. Everyone else in the world has to deal with this possibility. Cope.
a return to the days when artists were sponsored by wealthy patrons
And this differs from the current system of big music clearinghouses and production agencies how?
You're not being clear, and I can't understand you
You're being a troll, as usual. Purposely playing ignorant to justify your casual insults.
But right now I can't even disagree with you because I don't know what you're trying to tell me.
The Constitution calls for securing rights to authors and inventors. This allowance was made to defend individuals from the overwhelming force of the Crown which could use any number of methods (buyouts, forceful coercion, slash and burn, whathaveyou) to wrest the legal rights from the originator and into the holdings of the Crown.
Current US IP law allows for the same thing. Take pharmaceutical scientists for example. Our companies buy our patent rights from us for $1 and this is considered legal due to our employment contracts. How is IP law fulfilling the Constitution and securing the rights to us, the individual authors and creators?
It's not. Maybe you should work on that.
all the frothing at the mouth
Quit drinking the Kool-Aid.
Read the Constitution.
In addendum...
We hate giving our money to asshats and screw ups.
To execs and CEOs.
We hate funding Joe Moron's lifestyle and his family's lifestyle
Alan Greenspan and his extended corporate family
perpetuating his bullshit ways and dilution of the gene pool.
Absentee landlordism, rent-seeking... and definitely dilution of the gene pool. Have you seen the people on Wall Street lately?
Sound hostile and extreme? You're damn right. I'm sick of these people
Agreed.
I'd like to dump the copyright law we have now and reform it significantly
Like maybe get back to protecting authors and inventors and ditching the protections for anyone who manages to back the author or inventor into a corner and give them a choice: accept a $1 buyout or get the crap kicked out of you.
What's the point of protecting authors or inventors if it's legal for King George to buy the rights? We all know that King George is a master at extortion, death squads, and has more money than he knows what to do with.
the credit card companies may have finally found a way to turn all their unsecured debt into debt secured by Uncle Sam's new bankruptcy laws
They're running out of new and novel ways to cook the books. Now they need some real measures to boost revenue.
Aren't we still paying the interest on the WW-II debt to the Federal Reserve? At some point the Feds should just send a few tanks to Greenspans house and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that the US gov't is defaulting. Then we could slash taxes to nearly zilch and all of us consumers could pay our credit cards off properly rather than trying to play catch up on a 60 year old loan.
what about "gained revenue" from people who just use P2P as a 'try-before-you-buy'
All logical presentations will be summarily ignored in the interest of feeding the authoritarian regime.
Your place, citizen, is not to think. Your place is to comply.
Blame that one on the media and the politicians who wish to obfuscate their crimes against the 9th and 10th Amendments.
Specifically, the United States was to be a Republic (as defined in the Constitution) with democratically elected representatives. It's anyone's guess as to why the entire nation thinks we're a democracy as if democracy were a form of government (it's not). Democracy is a method of making a decision. Nothing more, nothing less.
The roots are probably from the 50s and 60s when the media may have wanted to mark a clear delineation between the USA and the Soviet Socialist Republics, or the People's Republic of China. Most major governments are a republic. Just what form of republic and what powers the government purports to hold are defined in their individual charters (or constitutions).
Back to my original point. The United States has a charter. It's called the Constitution. Without the Constitution our democratically elected government is little more than a bully cartel (mafia). Once again I'd like to reiterate that our federal politicians and federal judges violate the 9th and 10th Amendments on nearly a daily basis. In violation of the Constitution, they should no longer legally be entitled to the powers given to them by the Constitution. Of course, rules never stopped anyone--especially not power hungry politicians or corporate executives consumed by greed.
It's interesting that you bring up the Pledge of Allegiance. I said that every day growing up while facing the flag, and I still proudly say it today. It's not my fault that the true Republic for which the flag stands is long since dead.
Honestly... I don't recognize the legitimacy of our current Federal Government except to note that, in real life, might does make right and they have bigger lawyers, bigger guns, and more police than the proper Republic for which the flag stands.
With Tax and Spend you owe the government. With Borrow and Spend your government owes a foreign government. Personally I would rather have the first.
Really it's all borrow and spend. The Federal Government borrows the money from an elite group of bankers who call themselves The Federal Reserve. Essentially we've been reduced to indentured servants on their land.
Inflation is not an economic number, contrary to what you'll learn in most economics classes. Inflation is a percentage set to keep the Americna public in debt. The prime interest rates are not set according to any economic variables. The prime interest rates are set to guarantee that the US Federal Government will never be able to wholly pay off its debt to The Federal Reserve. Again, this system ensures that we, the American taxpayers, are mere indentured servants with the US Federal Government as our local landlord and The Federal Reserve as the owner.
It's sick, really. The politicians know that the debt will never be repaid. The game now is for themselves and their business partners to cash in on the largest chunk of the tax collection before it goes to make the monthly payment to The Federal Reserve.
There are plenty of legal and ethical reasons to track down information that may be considered to be confidential. Maybe he does background checks for employment, or is in law enforcement, or a private investigator to name a few
Let's put it this way: if someone I don't know engages in business (ie. for profit) to dig up confidential information about me without my knowledge, their industry is unethical. They should be put down like a rabid dog.
I don't go digging around on others.
Law enforcement and employment are, arguably, not running background checks for profit. Private investigators, however, sit right next to lawyers.
OSS being a comunist model
OSS is not a communist model. OSS is a laissez-faire model, which is the farthest thing from communist.
Please shut your pie-hole.