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Apr. 5th, 2004 01:13 amThe US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said protesters had "crossed the line and moved to violence".
Funny he should say that, because it seems like an accurate depiction of what his 'superiors' did when they gave up on the UN and invaded Iraq just over a year ago.
Funny he should say that, because it seems like an accurate depiction of what his 'superiors' did when they gave up on the UN and invaded Iraq just over a year ago.
Piracy is progressive taxation
'Music sharing doesn't kill CD sales', study says
I find this all quite interesting. As someone whose 3 only significant talents (music, computer programming, writing) involve the production of intellectual property, in theory I should be against file-sharing as it tramples on the rights of those who 'own' the intellectual property. And I do complain at my friends when they boast about having downloaded some band's new album 3 days before it even hits the shops.
But to cut a long story short, I think free internet distribution may well be a very good thing in general, that helps bands (and other types of artist) compete in terms of quality instead of promotion. The downside is that they may have to accept that only 1% of the people who own your album have paid you for it... even though that 1% is larger than the number of people who would have bought it without file sharing. I'd expect to see commercial benefits for most quality artists at the expense of control. Is it time to give up the moral right to control every single copy of the material? One of the undeniable benefits of the computer and the internet is the ability to duplicate and distribute information almost for free. I think that needs to be worked with, rather than against.
'Music sharing doesn't kill CD sales', study says
I find this all quite interesting. As someone whose 3 only significant talents (music, computer programming, writing) involve the production of intellectual property, in theory I should be against file-sharing as it tramples on the rights of those who 'own' the intellectual property. And I do complain at my friends when they boast about having downloaded some band's new album 3 days before it even hits the shops.
But to cut a long story short, I think free internet distribution may well be a very good thing in general, that helps bands (and other types of artist) compete in terms of quality instead of promotion. The downside is that they may have to accept that only 1% of the people who own your album have paid you for it... even though that 1% is larger than the number of people who would have bought it without file sharing. I'd expect to see commercial benefits for most quality artists at the expense of control. Is it time to give up the moral right to control every single copy of the material? One of the undeniable benefits of the computer and the internet is the ability to duplicate and distribute information almost for free. I think that needs to be worked with, rather than against.
April Fools Day saw lots and lots of very boring jokes, possibly the lamest of which was the 'Phil Anselmo found dead of brown sugar overdose' one. In particular, on the forum I moderate at GameDev.net the owners changed our status from 'Moderators' to 'Gestapo' for the day, as a response to the 'u r teh Hitlar!' type of abuse we get for closing stupid threads. Sadly one of the other moderators was really offended by this and demanded an apology. He got an apology, which is fair enough if it caused real upset, but everybody else saw the funny side. I thought this guy's reaction was a real shame.
As a species, we need to be able to take a joke. Despite what some people seem to believe, tolerance isn't about never saying anything at all that might possibly offend someone. It's about being able to accept that people will say and do things that you may not like, but being mature enough to not overreact to them.
As a species, we need to be able to take a joke. Despite what some people seem to believe, tolerance isn't about never saying anything at all that might possibly offend someone. It's about being able to accept that people will say and do things that you may not like, but being mature enough to not overreact to them.
