Posts tagged “congress love hollywood”

Paying for music online? You are a sucker.

Cory over at BoingBoing has a crystal clear example why you should never, ever pay for music that contains DRM:

Hey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they’re repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you’ve changed email addresses or if you’re not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th.

But don’t worry, this will never ever happen to all those other DRM companies — unlike little fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations like Wal*Mart, the DRM companies are rock-ribbed veterans of commerce and industry, sure to be here for a thousand years…They are as solid and permanent as Commodore, Atari, the Soviet Union, the American credit system and the Roman Empire. Cory Doctorow
Happy Mutant

It is a good thing Congress created a new cabinet-level Copyright Czar on Friday to make sure we, the pesky consumers of content, don’t start demanding silly things like access to the goods we have purchased. What’s that you say? You thought Congress was meeting on Friday with singular focus to solve the “impending doom” (clears throat, screams Bullshit!) that is the Wall St. meltdown? Damn, you really are a sucker.

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I agree with the White House. I’m scared. Hold me!

It has been a very long time since I agreed with the White House on anything. So long, in fact, that I cannot recall the last time I did agree with anything that sullied institution has done. But today, credit is due to someone operating in the Executive branch and I will give them their due.

The Bush administration is opposing sweeping legislation that has sailed through the Hollywood rubber stamp known as the U.S. Congress. Included in it is the ability (and impetus) for the Department of Justice to prosecute civil cases of copyright infringement via a cabinet-level Copyright Czar. That’s right, it would remake the DOJ into Hollywood’s in-house council.

I have nothing to add to that to make it any more absurd.

So, kudos to the Executive branch for having a modicum of sense.

Check out this Wired article for more details and to figure out which Congressional jackasses need to get an earful for this fiasco.

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