Those Busy Bastards.
Apparently, now that every road under the Bush Administration leads to Theocratic Totalitarian Dictatorship anyway, the Supreme Court has seen fit to just start pissing all over the Constitution. Don't believe me? Well here are some links that should get you started on a road to frustration.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/27/scotus.reporters.ap/index.html
and
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-06-27T192554Z_01_N27697531_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-COURT-GROKSTER-DC.XML
Link #2.
It seems that the Supreme Court has ruled that, since P2P software makers didin't do anything to prevent the distribution of copyrighted material, they can be sued for damages by the makers of Movies and Music. I supposed they will be able to sue the makers of blank DVDs and CDs as well. Microsoft doesn't stop anyone from distributing music or from storing and burning illegally gotten material. Why not sue them too. Screw personal repsonsibility altogether. Why not sue ISPs. Why don't they sue themselves for making catchy brainless tripe formulated to appeal to mass audiences and then marketing it adnauseum? Aren't they attempting to make people need their product but then deliberatly keeping the prices high? Remember when new CDs were $9.99 and then the RIAA went after Best Buy and other retailers for refusing to step up to thier price fixing scam? CD prices have been $15 to $18 ever since. The music and movie industry revenues have gone up every single year since 1974. It's not like they are losing money on this. So some record company sells 1.48 million copies of an album instead of 1.5 million copies. Boo Hoo. The artist that made the music only gets pennies for every album anyhow. Here's an idea. Go download an album off Limewire and send the artist $3 directly. It's a better system.
On to link #1.
The Supreme court has refused to hear the case of Time magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller who are each facing up to 1.5 years in jail for refusing to reveal the source who comprimised the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. The source is widely speculated to be someone within the White House and for that reason many people really want them to cough up what they know. It seems many people would absolutely love to stick it to Bubba Bush and the V.I.P.E.R. assassin squad he keeps around him. Anyone who knows me knows that I am about as much a fan of GW as I am of venereal disease but my hatred for him does not prompt me to ignore the Rights of the Free Press! If jounalists cannot assure their sources that secrecy will be maintained there will be no more sources. No more secret sources means no more investigative journalism. No more investigative journalism mean s carte blanche for politicians and corporations to just bend you over and fuck you right in the butt.
They handed down a bunch of other rulings today both bad and maybe bad. As bad as this current iteration of the court is imagine how much worse it would be if any of them croak or retire and Bush gets to try and replace them. I think I'm going to throw up.
Addendum!
This is another story brought to my attention by Doordolt. I didn't want to make a new post about it so I added it to this one. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect. http://www.freenation.tv/hotellostliberty2.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/27/scotus.reporters.ap/index.html
and
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-06-27T192554Z_01_N27697531_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-COURT-GROKSTER-DC.XML
Link #2.
It seems that the Supreme Court has ruled that, since P2P software makers didin't do anything to prevent the distribution of copyrighted material, they can be sued for damages by the makers of Movies and Music. I supposed they will be able to sue the makers of blank DVDs and CDs as well. Microsoft doesn't stop anyone from distributing music or from storing and burning illegally gotten material. Why not sue them too. Screw personal repsonsibility altogether. Why not sue ISPs. Why don't they sue themselves for making catchy brainless tripe formulated to appeal to mass audiences and then marketing it adnauseum? Aren't they attempting to make people need their product but then deliberatly keeping the prices high? Remember when new CDs were $9.99 and then the RIAA went after Best Buy and other retailers for refusing to step up to thier price fixing scam? CD prices have been $15 to $18 ever since. The music and movie industry revenues have gone up every single year since 1974. It's not like they are losing money on this. So some record company sells 1.48 million copies of an album instead of 1.5 million copies. Boo Hoo. The artist that made the music only gets pennies for every album anyhow. Here's an idea. Go download an album off Limewire and send the artist $3 directly. It's a better system.
On to link #1.
The Supreme court has refused to hear the case of Time magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller who are each facing up to 1.5 years in jail for refusing to reveal the source who comprimised the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. The source is widely speculated to be someone within the White House and for that reason many people really want them to cough up what they know. It seems many people would absolutely love to stick it to Bubba Bush and the V.I.P.E.R. assassin squad he keeps around him. Anyone who knows me knows that I am about as much a fan of GW as I am of venereal disease but my hatred for him does not prompt me to ignore the Rights of the Free Press! If jounalists cannot assure their sources that secrecy will be maintained there will be no more sources. No more secret sources means no more investigative journalism. No more investigative journalism mean s carte blanche for politicians and corporations to just bend you over and fuck you right in the butt.
They handed down a bunch of other rulings today both bad and maybe bad. As bad as this current iteration of the court is imagine how much worse it would be if any of them croak or retire and Bush gets to try and replace them. I think I'm going to throw up.
Addendum!
This is another story brought to my attention by Doordolt. I didn't want to make a new post about it so I added it to this one. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect. http://www.freenation.tv/hotellostliberty2.html
posted by Unknown at 3:49 PM
1 Comments:
So, if I don't lock my car and then somebody steals it and uses it to run illegal dvds and cds across the border can I be sued for not doing anything to stop them?
Post a Comment
<< Home