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Posted by Aaron on 09/07/06 12:21
Modemac wrote:
>>From our friends at Boing Boing:
>
> http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/22/riaa_propaganda_movi.html
>
> You can download a free propaganda film about how downloading
> copyrighted movies makes you an EVIL TERRORIST WHO WILL BE TRACKED DOWN
> AND CAPTURED BY THE GLORIOUS SOLDIERS OF THE GOVERNMENT! What's more,
> you can order a high-quality copy of the film on DVD, for free!
>
> --
> The High Weirdness Project
> http://www.modemac.com
I love that trailer they're putting at the beginning of some DVDs now
with the kids downloading movies on their computer and there is some
song in the background and it flashes "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR," blah
blah blah, "DON'T STEAL MOVIES."
That rationalization is so played out. Okay, I'm not saying that people
SHOULD steal music or movies, but it's just not the same THING, people!
If I steal your car, you can't drive it anymore. Yet, if I copy your
movie, we BOTH can watch it... At the same TIME, even. In DIFFERENT
places! If I could wave a magic wand and make a total duplicate of your
car and drive away in it, would that bother you? You still have YOURS,
right?
The only person bothered by that idea is the CAR MANUFACTURER who has
now been denied the ability to sell you that car from HIS factory. The
funny thing about this metaphor is that, if you want to stretch it the
whole way, the car manufacturer is using almost the same magic wand to
make his cars, it's just that he invented them so he deserves to profit
from its copies. That's what copyright is SUPPOSED to protect.
I'm getting all riled up now, I think I'll take it a step further. What
actually happens is that the factory owner gets mad at you for copying
the car because he is legally entitled to the profits from said copies,
even though he makes them the same way, but the car itself was invented
by someone else who may or may not care that you are making copies of
it, and what's more, the person who invented the car can't modify it or
copy it themselves because the factory owner now has all the rights to
it.
The music industry is fucked up.
Digital media has transformed the way we, as a citizenship, think about
possession. Unfortunately, those who govern over us and those who set
the legal parameters of possession haven't transformed their perceptions
yet.
--
Aaron
"Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems
good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the
rest." -- John Stuart Mill
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