All I can say is, Ben Stein FREAKING rocks!
Thanks, Dan!
Tag: liberty
Michael links to Tim O’Reilly’s treatment of piracy and online distribution. This is in the vein of fair use and copyright noted yesterday with Dan Knight’s article. As an author, content provider, and publisher, Tim’s views reflect the concerns of all sides, and offers common-sense solutions for the music industry in particular, and other content providers/publishers in general.
So I’m a little behind in my LEM reading, but Dan Knight published an outstanding article on copyright and fair use. If you ever needed a simple overview of the issue, this is it. Dan also offers some common sense changes to current copyright law that would continue to benefit copyright holders as well as the public good.
My only suggestion would be that Dan’s recommendations for length of the copyright is too long, even with the suggested registration fees. As a copyright holder myself, and an aspiring author, this is an area of great interest to me. I am, however, a consumer as well, and therefore would like to see less restrictive copyright lengths. My own proposal would be an initial copyright of 25 years, with a maximum renewal of another 25.
Think of this; with that kind of copyright time length, Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October, and Red Storm Rising, considered seminal fiction works of the Cold War, would enter the public domain in 2034 and 2036, respectively. Clancy will have more than made enough money off of those two tomes (which seem to get republished every time he releases another book) to pass on to his progeny. He would be 87 when the copyright on Red October would run out.
If I published a book right now, I would be 82 when the copyright, under my proposed rules, runs out in 2052. I think that’s long enough for me to make some dough off my work, don’t you?
“A liberal is a man who will give away everything he doesn’t own.” —Frank Dane
“Every day you meet a delegation going to some convention to try and change the way of somebody else’s life.” —Will Rogers
Digital “rights” management company Macrovision has completed its acquisition of Israeli-based Midbar Technologies, and will now take its copy-protection experience into the audio space. For those of you who may not have paid attention to any DRM stuff to this point, this is a bad thing. Fellow ATPM staffer Eric Blair, during a staff discussion, summed up my sentiments perfectly:
“The music industry continually finds new and interesting (or, in this case, warmed over and old hat) ways to shoot itself in the foot. It just kills me to watch the record companies take steps that actively push people towards piracy.
“…If the record companies actually look at the source of their problems, they’d see that costs are too high and most of the crap out there is, well, crap.
“…Honestly, I think the only solution is to embrace the Internet. Make the CDs reasonably priced. Make singles available for download at a small cost. Accept the fact that some people are never going to pay for what you’re selling if they don’t have to, but the majority of people will if you’re not actively trying to hose them.”
(Thanks, Lee)
For all of you who think the federal government doesn’t focus enough on domestic issues:
“[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore…never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.” –Thomas Jefferson
Proving once again that they don’t get it and do not deserve the benches they sit upon, a three-judge panel of the left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the 2d Amendment is not an individual right, but a state right.
Gee, I guess that the framers of the Constitution, oh so concerned with individual rights, would have made 9 of the 10 amendments listed in the Bill of Rights specific individual rights, but mark down number 2 as a state right? Please.
And as for Mr. Lockyer’s statement, the 2d Amendment has never been about hunting or target shooting. It has been from its publication about defense; of one’s person and property, and of one’s country. Do your homework, Mr. Lockyer, Mr. Nosanchuk, 9th Circuit judges. See what the Founding Fathers each had to say about firearms and the government beyond what they wrote in the Constitution. Not once do they mention hunting. Not once do they mention “sports shooting.” Defense, defense, defense. Of one’s person, of one’s property, of one’s nation.
And just because something looks like one thing, doesn’t make it that thing. In other words, just because a firearm looks like the same kind of firearm used by the military or police does not make it the same firearm used by the military or police.
This week’s “Keen Sense of the Obvious” Award: “The Bush administration often seems to be completely engrossed with the campaign against terrorism.” —Peter Jennings, ABC News (from The Federalist)
Ummmm. . .yeah. Could it be, Peter, because the primary responsibility of the federal government as set forth in the Constitution of the United States of America is defense of the nation from enemies foreign and domestic? That’s right, contrary to what the Left would have you believe, the federal government’s primary duty is not to provide free or discounted health care, prescription drug benefits, prop up the stock market, or finance late-night urban basketball leagues. Your tax dollars should be spent building the strongest military and finest intelligence services in the world. And can we please stop listening to whiny, leftist Canadians? (With apologies to the non-whiny, non-leftist Canadians I call friends. If only there were more of you.)
And on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Great War ended with an armistice. November 11th was officially honored as Armistice Day from 1926 to 1954 in the United States. In 1954, the holiday was changed to Veterans Day, and we honor all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have served and sacrificed.
A special thank-you to my dad and my uncle for their service in the Navy and Army, respectively, during the Vietnam Conflict. Thankfully, neither had to serve in the Southeast Asia theater of operations.
So if you live next door to, work with, go to church with, or simply just know of, a veteran, take a moment today to shake their hand and thank them for serving their country.
“Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.” –John 15:13
“To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” –George Washington, First Annual Address, January 8, 1790
Veterans Day is Monday, November 11th, and this is National Military Appreciation Month. The Department of Defense has set up a web site where you can go and digitally sign a big thank-you to our men and women in uniform. The message, with names, will be distributed at the end of the month. These soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are at the forefront of preserving our national security and defending our liberty. Let them know you appreciate it. (Thanks, Dad!)
Update: Congress approved May as National Military Appreciation Month in May 1999. Looks like my original fact was incorrect.