Obama '08

My sister-in-law participated in a fantastic ad for the Obama campaign...enjoy.

No Signs of Intelligence here.

I got a wonderful response from Susannity about an earlier post I made on the topic of media reproducibility. It was a very common response,

"If someone creates intellectual property that can be copied easily, then why would folks pay money if there were no [ramifications?]"

I think people will pay for what they perceive as valuable, and I believe that currently our perceived value of some items is skewed. However, the very idea of "intellectual property" is silly. If you can show me an original idea, I will be very very surprised. I remember sitting watching a movie with my English major spouse who had gotten up early in the movie and said "You can keep watching, I'm not interested." I, of course, wondered why. She responded, "The brunette is going to die." I finished the movie, and my dear spouse explained how in literature there is a bit of formula, which she applied to the movie and identified the story type, and thus concluded the ending of the movie. So really, there are no original ideas, and thus "intellectual property" is bogus. It is a farce, a scam, a trick to keep money centralized.

What? You believe patents are to prevent someone from stealing your product and getting it to market first? I laugh at you. Don't be so naive. Large corporations have people who literally sit and write patents all year long to protect "ideas." Which I will point out are not patentable. I once came across a patent for a dog toy -- It was a stick of wood. I'm not kidding. That system is broken.

So, again, I'm not saying one should take someones movie and turn around and sell it for money. That would mean you are a fool for stealing. However, if I buy a $20 for a DVD, and copy it and give it to my friend, who intern gives it to a friend ... to the Nth. Well suffice it to say, I believe I was ripped off by at least $19 for that DVD, and should be able to give away -- no, "donate", my $20 copy of a DVD to my friends. If a movie were hard to get, if it required the producers of the DVD more than $0.01 per 1000 copies of a DVD, then maybe $20 would be worth it. These corporations are making billions, when they are only producing something that is worth pennies -- and you are being robbed. You are so used to being robbed you've accepted it as the price of entertainment.

"Piracy discounts everything - time, education, talent, and money - that goes into making a product."

This is probably true, but I also believe that piracy discounts the cost of things that are over priced. If you buy something that you know is stolen, you are doing so in part because you feel that the full price is not of value, or you believe the "knock-off" value is more appropriate. I said originally "How much would you pay for a blade of grass?" Maybe you'd respond that it depends on the quality of the grass?

If I steal your food, I'm a thief -- I've deprived you of your food. If you give me some seed and pollen so I can make my own food, will you starve? If I play your song you can still sing it and make money, you have not lost your voice. If I play it better, I will have earned the money I make from playing your song, but you are not deprived of your song or your ability.

As someone who works in technology, I believe what I provide is a service to my corporation and for those that I produce software. I am simply a story teller, retelling the story I learned, twisting the plot, changing the landscape, mixing stories together. I'm getting paid for retelling the story, not for the story itself. Once you've learned my story, feel free to tell it to your friends and your children. And please, put your pennies in my tin if I tell the story better than someone else.

A friend once said to me -- "Quit thinking outside of the box. We have enough boxes. Lets put something together with what we've got."

Dino Rossi is an Idiot

In my last post I mentioned that I think the GOP is more about "me" instead of "we" and/or "us." In today's Seattle Times, an interview with Dino Rossi has demonstrated the usual lack of fore thought we expect from the Repugnant Party. The article quotes Rossi as saying, "Our state is experiencing a transportation crisis that is impacting our quality of life and hindering economic growth... My vision for transportation is rooted in freedom and the ability of people to make good choices for themselves."

Now, I agree, I want freedom and the ability to make good choices for myself, but building a new Viaduct tunnel, widening I-405, and replacing the 520 is not a good choice for myself, nor does it give me the ability to make good choices. In fact, it isn't a good choice for any person in any county, including King, in Washington. With the money that they want to spend to do all those projects, they could put in a light rail system that runs the length of each of these highway systems and reduce the number of cars so new wider roads are not required. Not to mention that gas costs four dollars per gallon, or maybe you didn't notice. It costs me eight dollars each day to drive to and from work. Now I have no problem with gas costing so much money, but then we have the GOP who want to continue subsidies to the oil industry, with CEO's getting 40 million in bonuses.

We could, oh, I don't know, tax the windfall of these corporations and say, build a light rail system that connects up with Portland, and Vancouver B.C. It could probably even run from Seattle to Spokane. I am seriously disappointed that people are upset about $4 gas and they would even pause to consider voting Republican. I mean at $4 for gas, can you afford to drive on the new roads Rossi wants you to have so you can make choices freely?

We all know that when we are free to make choices for ourselves, we make the most selfish choice. That is why we have government "for the people and by the people," so we ensure that some choices are for the benefit of our community and our society.

Move on, yourself.

As you might have guessed by previous posts, I don't think too highly of the Repugnant Party as I find their politics more about "me" instead of "us" or "we." Every time I hear some moron say, "vote republican if you don't want your taxes to go up," I think "you, sir/madame, are a moron." I know some people who label themselves as republican, but when you speak with them you realize quickly they don't pay attention to politics because if they did they wouldn't be voting republican. The truth about the GOP is they are the party of disfigured truth. And I could go on, but I actually wanted to say something else.

I often get messages from different political groups. One is Move On.org which recently started a new campaign against McCain. And so here is that ad --


However, it is just a dumb ad. It isn't compelling. At least not to me. There are so many other things about why this man should not be president. Like his not following the rules of public financing, or his record on torture, or his record on choice, or his record on the war, and on and on.

Anyway, I don't find the video compelling at all...so there you have it, and you can make your own opinion.

I'll get back to the deception of the GOP in the future...I need to get back to my day job now.

Yes, I would steal your car.

You know that little blip at the start of a movie that says "You wouldn't steal a car...Buying Pirated Movies is Stealing." The question I have to ask is this -- If you could quickly, easily, copy the car you wanted from your neighbor and at the same time didn't deprive your neighbor of the vehicle or any functionality, have you stolen anything? More importantly, if your neighbor came out and saw you coping the car and said, "Hey, I paid good money for that car, stop copying it." Would you care? I'd probably look at my neighbor and think he was a fool for spending so much money on something that is so readily available and copyable. How much would you pay for a blade of grass?

I have been told that I'm drawing an arbitrary moral boundary. I think that if I can pull TV off an antenna and watch my show at any time, I can also take a copy of that show, and hand it off to my neighbor. And further more, my neighbor should be able to take the copy received from me and give it to another neighbor. I should identify that I think "antenna" is a broad term. I don't mean just off the roof top, but also over cable, or satellite, or even ethernet/WiFi.

Now, I have heard the argument that this is stealing from some company here or there, but what has been deprive to them? Money? They broadcast it over the air waves, so what if you got it off cable or satellite?

In fact, they should be paying you money because you have given a copy of their show to someone who might not otherwise have even seen their presentation.

Now, you might think I condone taking something/anything without permission. I do not. My point is simple. In our current economy I think it is vitally important that we re-evaluate what is important and how much we are willing to pay for "things." As a society we will pay billions of dollars for things we don't need, and at the same time we complain that our roads are poor, our gas costs too much, there isn't enough time in the day, etc. Do you think the $60 a month you are paying for television is worth it? Market demands that you stop being stupid, and you evaluate the value of your television (or other crap you spend your money on besides food and shelter,) and demand that price be reasonable and affordable.

Capitalism without conscience is simply greed.

Everybody loves Robin Hood, and he was a pirate.