There is this vision of the future that the content providers see, and it is one with huge bags of money all over the place. They are only waiting for the technology to come that can enable their vision to become reality.
No, I’m not talking about protecting their copyrights with filters and low tech crap like that. They are secretly planning the end to what they have been working on for years: comprehensive protection of their copyrights! Yes, they finally get their way. You only get to listen to a song once, or see a TV show once, or a movie once, and then you have to pay to see it again, PERIOD.
Nonsense you say. Let’s peer into the future 50 or 100 years from now. Thanks to giant leaps in investment towards the biotech industries, we have unraveled the human brain. We can fix many problems, increase lifespans, and generally lead better lives. We can also tap into our memories! Now be careful, the RIAA and MPAA really salivate over your memories. After all, they are illegal copies of their content. Sure, they many not be perfect, but remembering that Friends episode probably doesn’t make you want to watch it again. Memory is the enemy! The entertainment industry wants you to need to watch shows again, they want you to buy the dvds, buy the cds. How can they accomplish this in the future?
Bob walks into the newest movie in 2075, Future Movie V : It Sucks, but All the Other Ideas Were Taken, and pays his $500 (inflation). He mortgages his house and then proceeds to buy a bag of popcorn ($1,000). He watches the movie. He liked it better than Future Movie IV: Real Footage of Filesharers Getting Lethal Injections but he probably doesn’t want to see the DVD. Unfortunately for Bob, in the future the studios retain full control of their copyrights (for 1,000 years if we follow the current extension trend). Bob steps through the DFWBB (Don’t Fuck With Big Business) machine which immediately erases his memory of the last 2.2 hours of movie watching.
Bob looks back and remembers that movie he wanted to see, Future Movie V, and is sure he had enjoyment watching it, but he will have to buy the DVD now (or see the movie again!). Bob 0, Movie Industry $192,843,847,383 (and growing). You say it won’t happen, I say we are approaching 1982 type stuff here. Follow the logic of the studios to it’s end and they want this kind of control.
So when I am sued for downloading my personal copy of the newest Lost, which is available for “free” over the airwaves, because my HDTV tuner on my computer has a “flag” that prevents me from copying anything worth copying, then I can smile and figure I was among the first to say I told you so.
Category P2P |
This post is actually something that I wrote over a year ago. I am clearing out my saved posts in WordPress and found this one and many others. Of all the little snippets of posts that are not finished, this one looks mostly complete, so I figured I would publish it. It is still interesting to think about.
I can play video games for hours, I can read a book for hours, I can watch movies for hours, watch a good television show for hours, and generally get caught up in worlds which are not real at all for hours at a time with little thought of reality around me. Normally, and throughout my life, I haven’t given it a single thought … but while trying to create a comprehensive philosophy for myself, I arrive at a paradox of sorts.
See, there is some common sense to realizing that living in a fantasy world is bad for you. Medical professionals sometimes call it a “peter pan complex” and it can get quite serious. The most extreme examples are highly mentally unstable, creating entire worlds within their own minds as illusions. Most of us can say, well that will never be me. However, upon closer inspection of our lives we run into a problem.
If I play a computer game for 6 hours a day, everyday, for months, that is pretty extreme. A large portion of my day would be in a fantasy world outside of reality (for the most part). Most contemporary critics would say this is bad for you. Hell, China is actually making it political policy to limit playing of online games. Now, not to turn this into a “games vs. tv” debate, right now it may be more socially acceptable to watch 6 hours of TV a day, but it is still the same kind of escape. Either way our minds are engrossed in a fantasy world for entertainment. These might be extreme examples, but add up the time you spend each day and you may be surprised.
I have read articles by people saying we need to limit this kind of behavior. It makes sense if you don’t really think about it in depth. Just kill the bad and ignore the why, after all it’s the American way. Just think, however, where the bulk of the average American’s time goes. To work. You work 8 hours a day, usually close to 10 hours with travel and preparation time. Are you in the real world while you are working? Surely you aren’t being entertained … so it must be the real world, and the real world is good, right? Not exactly, on both counts. You work 8 hours a day to provide for yourself, your family, to “get ahead” like every American thinks is their destiny to do. Every generation must do better than the last! Where does it end? Has anyone really thought it through? Just what the hell is real anyway? Where do you draw the line? The experts say that escapism is bad, and that it keeps us away from the real world, the world that is important and right, the world that makes sense.
What a bunch of bullshit. Does anyone think about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and where it is all going? I have, and really when you think about the real world, escapism doesn’t sound too bad. How do you change a government that never seems to get it? How do you get all the countries of the world to actually accomplish global tasks that must be done? How do you stop capitalism from widening the gap between poor and rich, impoverishing millions every year across the globe? How do you stop murder, genocide, crime, disease, famine, terrorism, etc, etc on a global scale? Every year it does get worse, even though many don’t see it on the micro level, it happens on a macro level, globally.
What’s the point of all this? You can’t fix it. We have seen hundreds of movies and books on government corruption and big business, yet it still happens. We have seen countless studies on the links of race, gender, etc on income levels, and yet the problem remains. We see thousands of animal and plant species go extinct every year, and the people that can do something do not care. There are reasons none of these things get fixed, and it usually boils down to money. I am not saying they are even fixable, as if they were not so complicated, they would be fixed by now. However, human beings have a nasty habit of waiting until we hit that wall at full speed until something is done. Then it becomes a “crisis” or a “disaster” and everyone says, “how did this happen?” and people like me can say, “I told you so.”
There are two primary types of people. People that escape reality because they want to, and people who escape reality without knowing it. The former person asks “why?” at every opportunity and makes a decision to escape because they want to escape a life where the “why?” is endless. The latter person never asks “why?” and follows the herd in a life they have never even attempted to understand.
Category Games, Philosophy |
The French are good at a few things, wine, cheese, surrendering, and of course insulting other nations, especially America. We have always admired the French for their ability to insult us with a mind boggling superiority complex and snooty attitude. However, insulting another country usually requires that the insult not be shared by yourself. If you say America is yellow, you better not be yellow yourself, for example.
Now, I am sad to say the French suck at another thing, insults. From the NYTimes story A French Lesson: Taunts About Race Can Boomerang we see that when France says we have terrible racism and France itself is a beacon of hope for equality, they actually mean they are full of le shit.
France has long boasted of itself as the cradle of human rights and a bulwark against racism. It regularly denounced racism in the United States
The census in France does not list people by race … The European Union finances programs for minorities but not in France, because of its refusal to recognize minorities at all.
There are virtually no black people in corporate France, and blacks have almost no political representation. No black person sits in the National Assembly or in a regional parliament.
The French like to say, ‘Blacks are a social problem, not racial.’
Does any of this sound familiar? The French are that alcoholic that refuses to admit he has a problem. How an entire country can be so diluted is beyond me. I guess France’s solution to problems they can’t surrender to is to just ignore that they even exist. Their census doesn’t even count race? Haha. Now after fires in impoverished areas of Paris killed 48 people, who all happened to be black, the French are finally seeing reality.
How does it feel France?
French, Racism, Inequality
Category Politics |
This article, while slightly amusing being a man, is quite disturbing as far as trends go. This article in the New York Times basically outlines how women in top Universities (we are talking Ivy League here) are more frequently planning to stop working upon having children or never working at all and being a stay at home mom.
Come on you lazy bitches! You talk about honoring your mothers choice to do the same? What about the countless women before you who have fought so hard against gender discrimination? Is it hard for a modern women to have children and work? Yes. Can it be done? YES. Does it take more effort than these women want to put out? Probably. Which is surprising because they are supposed to be the cream of the crop.
“I think it’s really great,” said one male student. Another said, “I think it’s sexy to be a stay at home mom.”
Are you girls buying this? Come on! At least make it challenging for us guys to oppress you. I mean come on, we think you have been gaining ground for the past 50 years only to see you throw in the towel now? Give me a break.
Before you think, “hey it’s their choice to do this,” yes I realize that its their choice. Choices in society are not made in a vacuum though. It’s obvious that some social force is turning the tide and it is quite disturbing to me. I wish I was smart enough to link this with the rest of the “conservative” oriented thinking going on in schools (reference the poll that said a majority of highschool students said it was actually alright if the government censored the media).
“I accept things how they are,” she said. “I don’t mind the status quo. I don’t see why I have to go against it.”
This from a woman in a top university. Let me just say … oh … my … God … what in the hell is going on here. I’m seriously confused how any woman can not realize that equality is far, far, far from reached. Hello! It is still a man’s world. There are so many statistics to back this statement up it isn’t even funny. Hell, a bunch of my classes here have discussed this very issue and from what I hear from women who discuss in class .. I thought you girls would fight the good fight for the foreseeable future. Obviously the “smarter” you are intellectually, the easier you are manipulated. That is just sad.
Note that staying at home is a noble decision to make as a women, yet a rising trend indicating that young women are accepting traditional roles that have been fought by other women for 50 years is disturbing. I am all for a women’s choice to stay home and raise children, and although the economics of it are increasingly difficult, it definately can benefit the children in the long run. However, more disturbing is the percentage of women who decided never to work at all and the growing trend that seems to indicate young women are returning to a pre-60′s and 70′s frame of mind where you are Mrs. Insert Husbands Name Here who is required to serve him in any domestic capacity he wants. While this certainly has appeal to me as a man (haha), as a jerk who questions most everything about society in general it is disappointing that progress is not being made on the gender equality front.
gender roles, women, inequality
Category Philosophy, Politics |
“As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality,” Bush said at the cathedral.
Because inequality is only located in New Orleans. Because inequality is an easy problem to fix. Right …
Ok, say we gave every single poor person $30,000 dollars this year to bring them from the poverty line, suppose we did this for 5 or 10 years or some stupid amount of time. This is the epitome of government outlook. No forward thinking AT ALL. Never find cures for things, only band-aides. Throw money at a problem, if it persists keep throwing money at it, even if it grows bigger. Unless the solution is written in the stars or in the bible, ignore finding roots of any problem and criticize those that do. These are the golden rules of politics.
Fuck politics. Seriously, I am a political science major and I am saying this. You know why? It is messed up. Serious political reform needs to happen and serious reallocation of political capital. You want to stop inequality for good? Make every single school equal and equipped to teach children of the 21st century. Force kids to learn, make it undeniably clear that those who choose not to learn will not be saved. When you see most of your classmates going off to college, or getting an education that lets them make enough money to live comfortably then kids who want nothing to do with school may get the picture. Schools need to be strengthened across the board, from elementary all the way to universities. There is no way to cure inequalities, as far as economics, when schools themselves, giving the knowledge needed to succeed in the future, are grossly unequal.
Is this obvious to anyone else? How many problems could be solved if education as a whole were enhanced greatly? How many benefits to society would this reap, both directly and indirectly over time? Problems have roots, and you have to tear at the roots to make any progress in killing them. Doing anything else is just piss in the wind.
politics, bush, education, inequality
Category Politics |
As I am sure you can tell, I am a big fan of HBO’s new series Rome. It is an incredible show with a great story and even greater atmosphere. However, since the first episode there has been one thing that has bothered me. Everytime I see Octavia I think she looks exactly like Elijah Wood and it just makes me think Frodo Baggins.
Lets examine here, some quick pictoral evidence. I might be able to get a more convincing comparison if I say took a shot from the DVD of Frodo when he was pale white and when Octavia was pale white in that episode. But since I am very lazy, I just took a quick screen cap of Rome and searched Google for pictures of Frodo.
Can you see the similarities? I sure can, I am sure someone else has noticed this! Next time you watch you just be thinking Frodo. It will change the whole experience.
Lord of the Rings, Frodo, Elijah Wood, Rome, Kerry Condon
Category Television |
Brought up on Bill Maher the other night was whether the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will overturn the Roe v. Wade decision with the addition of the Bush appointees. Of course Bill had a funny little skit about it and he thinks they absolutely will.
What needs to be realized is that there are two appointments to be made. Traditionally there have been 3 judges that have, time and time again, said that the Roe decision was outright WRONG. Those were Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas. Kennedy, Souter and Stevens all have upheld abortions generally, with dissent on specific issues such as partial birth and parent notification. Breyer and Ginsburg of course support abortion. Keep in mind that Kennedy can flip in reference to partial birth abortions, but he has explicitly stated that abortions according to Roe and cases deciding abortion until now should stand.
So, for abortion as a fundamental right, we have 5-2 as of right now with the death of the Chief Justice and O’Connor’s resignation. Assuming Bush puts in two people that are very dead-set against Roe v. Wade then we have 5-4 and the decision stands. However, assuming a Kennedy switch, partial birth abortions would go away. Likely, parental notifications would also be allowed. However, Roe would stand.
If Bush is allowed one more appointee in addition to his two already in the next 4 years, assuming that all of his people are against Roe v. Wade, then abortion is in danger of being entirely outlawed.
However, even right wing justices have noted that Roe v. Wade is so prolific on the minds of the people that it should not be overturned. Will this notion, that abortion as a fundamental right is already assumed by much of the population, sway justices to rule for Roe? Only time will tell. I, for one, am hoping 2 is all that Bush gets …
abortion, rights, supreme court, roe v. wade
Category Politics |
So I was watching Bill Maher this weekend and they got onto the topic of poverty and how this “new” issue is what is responsible for the poor African Americans who could not escape New Orleans. New issue?
Excuse me while I throw up while the political left throws blame on the political right for the blight of the poor in America. Anyone who thinks that poverty and economic inequality is a new issue deserves to be killed to death with a blunt instrument because they have been living in a cave for the past 300+ years.
I will give all you people a clue. Capitalism *is* inequality. There are poor, there are rich. We can ignore the problem in America, after all as a whole we are richer than everyone. Sure we have the poor in the cities and countryside, but luckily we export most of our poverty with the help of multinational corporations. We don’t have to go downtown and see those thousands of factory workers making our clothes for cents on the dollar, making just enough money to survive until the next day they can work. We don’t see that because they are in India, Indonesia, China, etc.
Do people have their head so far up their ass as to recognize this? With each passing year the gap between the rich and the poor grows wider. With each year the middle class shrinks, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is not related to politics, it is a function of capitalism. Case in point, China has a similar income inequality rating as the United States. See for yourself at wikipedia.
Notice the countries with the least inequality are those in Europe. These social democracies are what the United States needs to aspire to, although extended the social safety net can only accomplish so much. The root of the problem is that poor people simply cannot succeed in a system that puts so much against them. It starts when they fall out of their mothers womb and continues for the rest of their life in most regards. Sure people can get out of the cycle, but it requires work and primarily education.
This problem will continue to get worse until we start looking for a cure, not ridiculous treatments that prop people up for 18 years while they are “innocent children” and then lets them down as “guilty adults”. Education is the key and it will the topic of a future article.
poverty,inequality,bill maher,gini,poor
Category Politics |
Yes, I downloaded my first iTunes song the other day. It cost 99 cents and it was painful, but I had a song in my head and, being prerelease, I could not find a way to illegally download it.
Why did the experience suck? Because the stupid file was protected. No copying it to a CD, no converting to an MP3. Its like ordering a burger and looking at it until you arent hungry anymore. Totally unfullfilling. Anyway, being that I dont like to be stopped from doing anything on my computer, especially to something that I bought with MONEY … I just looped the playback from iTunes to a recorder bundled with my sound card. Problem solved. Sound wasnt bad either, pretty much a perfect copy.
Then, due to my increasing rage over actually giving in to the “new wave” of buying music online through iTunes only to find that it sucks, I decided to immediately share the file on the free networks. Take that iTunes and recording industry! By the way, the song is located on this domain somewhere .. if you can guess the directory and filename you get a cookie and a song!
Category P2P |
So, I just have to write my weekly comments on HBO Rome because the show is totally awesome. Episode 3 was a let down kind of for me, only because it left me wanting more. Before the show my roomate was swearing that a certain wife was the mother of a certain (illegitimate) child, but I thought he was just crazy … and asian, but I was wrong. I hope they do a proper Roman punishment, which would probably be something like the husband murdering his whole family and throwing them in the river is sacks. Now thats entertainment!
By the way, if you dont have HBO I wouldnt want you to miss this great show, so download it and piss off everyone who cares! Download it at mininova or another suitable bittorrent place (BT rocks in case you have been living in a cave).
Category Television |
