Perhaps we as humans are to precise in our notion of what forms of life any included in our circle of respect. In historical times, anybody who was not part of your particular village or tribe was not consider equal. Even today the remenants of segragation are around, from deciding that other races and ethnicity of people were not equal. Perhaps the next boundry is for a concept of rights that does not force the holder of those rights to be human. Organizations like the Great Apes Project(http://www.greatapeproject.org/) are pushing for similar moral and legal protections for large primates. I see such issues moving to the forefront in the coming century as more people come to discover philosophical that is is very difficult to logicaly construct an idea of equality in which small infants, children, or possibly even fetuses are covered as being "human" or "close enough to human to be given basic rights and protections", yet not extend those same ideas to other living forms of high ability. Unless one accepts the religous view that our own species is "in gods image" or is more unique and special in other ways that reduce animals to having no rights at all. If humans are so special, then aliens should not have rights. If there is some level of reasoning, intellegence, emotion or whatever we decide the guidelines for recieving rights should be, then we should have to test that judgement against the abilities and knowledge of other species.
I have to agree with you the real problem for the RIAA is the fact that a certain segment of the population has come to relize that they can put together a vast music collection with little or no monetary investment. I admit to having a little over ten thousand mp3 songs from my days of living in a dorm room with ethernet. Hell, I admit that everytime I walk into a record store these day I think back to my collection of mp3 albums I have never even had the time to listen to. I still do buy some albums, like many other people have posted mp3s have "exposed" me to new bands I hadn't heard of, however these new bands are normally on very small indie labels at cheaper rates(5-10 bucks) than the big labels, so even then my money doesn't end up going to any RIAA members. It is my opinion that in another 3-4 years it will be rather average for teenagers to have these gigantic music collections. The big record companies need to either find a way to to influence the government into trying to slow down progress or else find another way of marketing music at a vastly cheaper price so that people can legitimately build up huge collections of music. Frankly I'm just glad I don't have a job in the record industry.
While the Federal government may have justification to move into the area of prescriptions now that segments of the industry are involved in inter-state comerce, I think the real question is should me have a system of Prescription Drugs at all. Are we all truely better off because we have to go to a doctor in order to recieve a drug to treat an ailment. In this age of information where I can research my symptoms through medical web sites and books why can I not also choose to treat myself with the medication I require. Prescriptions are simply a way to force more people to contribute money to the medical establishment. Sure going to a doctor is normally a good thing to require, but I don't feel the state should be in the postion of a nanny. Medical Care should be a option, yes you can, and often should go get the advise of a Doctor before taking a drug, but requiring such a thing resticts my right to choose how exactly I wish to treat my own body.
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Perhaps we as humans are to precise in our notion of what forms of life any included in our circle of respect. In historical times, anybody who was not part of your particular village or tribe was not consider equal. Even today the remenants of segragation are around, from deciding that other races and ethnicity of people were not equal. Perhaps the next boundry is for a concept of rights that does not force the holder of those rights to be human. Organizations like the Great Apes Project(http://www.greatapeproject.org/) are pushing for similar moral and legal protections for large primates. I see such issues moving to the forefront in the coming century as more people come to discover philosophical that is is very difficult to logicaly construct an idea of equality in which small infants, children, or possibly even fetuses are covered as being "human" or "close enough to human to be given basic rights and protections", yet not extend those same ideas to other living forms of high ability. Unless one accepts the religous view that our own species is "in gods image" or is more unique and special in other ways that reduce animals to having no rights at all. If humans are so special, then aliens should not have rights. If there is some level of reasoning, intellegence, emotion or whatever we decide the guidelines for recieving rights should be, then we should have to test that judgement against the abilities and knowledge of other species.
I have to agree with you the real problem for the RIAA is the fact that a certain segment of the population has come to relize that they can put together a vast music collection with little or no monetary investment. I admit to having a little over ten thousand mp3 songs from my days of living in a dorm room with ethernet. Hell, I admit that everytime I walk into a record store these day I think back to my collection of mp3 albums I have never even had the time to listen to. I still do buy some albums, like many other people have posted mp3s have "exposed" me to new bands I hadn't heard of, however these new bands are normally on very small indie labels at cheaper rates(5-10 bucks) than the big labels, so even then my money doesn't end up going to any RIAA members. It is my opinion that in another 3-4 years it will be rather average for teenagers to have these gigantic music collections. The big record companies need to either find a way to to influence the government into trying to slow down progress or else find another way of marketing music at a vastly cheaper price so that people can legitimately build up huge collections of music. Frankly I'm just glad I don't have a job in the record industry.
While the Federal government may have justification to move into the area of prescriptions now that segments of the industry are involved in inter-state comerce, I think the real question is should me have a system of Prescription Drugs at all. Are we all truely better off because we have to go to a doctor in order to recieve a drug to treat an ailment. In this age of information where I can research my symptoms through medical web sites and books why can I not also choose to treat myself with the medication I require. Prescriptions are simply a way to force more people to contribute money to the medical establishment. Sure going to a doctor is normally a good thing to require, but I don't feel the state should be in the postion of a nanny. Medical Care should be a option, yes you can, and often should go get the advise of a Doctor before taking a drug, but requiring such a thing resticts my right to choose how exactly I wish to treat my own body.