"Please Fix My Country" is a running commentary on views I've expressed on my site. Generally, the newest commentaries are at the top of the page. There are many things just plain wrong in our world. We can't fix everyone's problems, but we can fix our country's problems, and that would be a good start.
We can fix our country.
I am an author of two books and currently (2009) under contract to write my third. Obviously, I have good reason to be interested in copyright law.
Recently, I ran into an article on copyfraud. Specifically, the article detailed the theft of public domain works by private companies. They sell the public property under their own copyright, and claim ownership of the works which are not theirs. In some cases, they go as far as to force the public domain copies to be removed from the public's view by claiming copyright.
Isn't this a form of piracy? Is anything being done to stop this theft?
It seems to me that if I go on to public land and take a piece of history with me when I leave, then I am breaking federal law and will be prosecuted. It seems that if a company steals from the public, they should be held accountable, too.
Is there even one federal officer (even one employee) assigned full-time to protecting the public from this theft? As far as I can tell, no.
Here is the article I mentioned above:
Copyfraud: Poisoning the public domain
Please write your congressman and senators.
Your heart began beating 22 days after you were conceived. Traditionally, when a human heart stops beating, we say that person is dead. No one says, "My fetus is two months along." No one says, "Do you know if your fetus is a boy or a girl?"
I for one am glad you are reading this, and your heart did not stop beating before you where nine months along. I am glad no one exercised their "choice" and killed you.
HDTV is about to be forced upon the American public. For years and years, our government has put off the switch to HDTV and the broadcast industry has failed to get users to switch. Now the government is mandating a switch.
Why has the HDTV switch failed for so long that the government now is stepping in to force an unwanted change? There is no compelling reason to switch. The HDTV technology just does NOT produce a visibly better picture on an average size TV. Also, now it becomes easier for broadcasters to prevent viewers who missed TV shows from recording them to watch later.
The manditory switch to HDTV being forced on America is irresponsible government. Market forces would have killed old style analog TV just like market forces killed black and white TV and silent movies, if HDTV were desired by the purchasers. The switch should not be mandated.
My wife and I will not switch by the switch date of January 1, 2009. We have 100s of purchased movies and the internet for entertainment and news. The kids' video games will still work fine. Why switch, when we can conveniently vote against the switch with our pocket book? Eventually, we will likely switch, but not yet.
The 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony was broadcast by an American company on TV and the internet. It sounds exciting to watch and join in this world wide event. I have taken the time to watch many Opening Ceremonies over the years.
After the broadcasts, I started hearing strange reports. One report was that the fireworks display that was part of the ceremony broadcast was digitally created. If that is vague, substitute the word "faked", and you'd be pretty close to target. Oh, yes there were really fireworks, but not the ones that were on the broadcasts.
Also, I heard another report that the ordering of countries entering the stadium was also spliced and diced to improve ratings. I am told that at one point before the USA team enters the stadium, they are actually already shown on the field.
I consider the broadcast of the Olympics as an act of journalism. I think most Amercans, if they stopped to think about it, would agree that broadcasting any sporting event is journalism. What are the ramifications of altering the broadcast, and misrepresenting what actually happened, not by accident, but to improve ratings?
I call into question the journalistic integrity of any broadcaster that lies intentionally to improve ratings. People often warn about potential 1984 style media manipulation by governments, but in reality that kind of manipulation is done by big business all the time.
I have mentioned before, as a small business owner in the technology sector, that the current patent system is my greatest concern. I have mentioned that I feel that it retards innovation by allowing lawsuits against too many innovators that don't have huge financial reserves to pay for large numbers of vague patents to protect them from competitors.
I would like to bring to your attention this article in the Wall Street journal, that expresses similar sentiments. Quoting: "Our patent system [is] a disincentive at a time when we expect software and other technology companies to be the growth engine of the economy."
Here's the link. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121599469382949593.html
I do spend a lot of effort thinking about improvements that can be made to my country, the USA. However, as an article I recently ran into points out, there is plenty going right. Check out the link below for some of the things going right with America.
"What's right with America? Plenty"
Since as far back as anyone can remember there has been a French Canadian movement to split Canada into two countries. Two languages, two countries. It is not uncommon to hear English Canadians echo the desire with a little bit of resentment in their tone, "Good riddance." I have often wondered how any patriotic Canadian could want their country dissolved or split up. America fought one of it's bloodiest wars to prevent such a split.
I believe the division comes from multiple first languages spoken, not among minorities, but among two majorities. Anyone who speaks even a little of a second language understands the great division of thought and expressions that come from different languages. Thoughts that are expressed in one language often cannot be translated completely into a second language such as English. I saw this first hand in my limited study of Spanish and Japanese.
Language defines a nation. Even if cultures within a society vary greatly, common language defines the society's thoughts, views and expressions. People speaking two different languages are never going to fully understand or appreciate each other. This seems even silly to have to mention, but there are many people who will violently disagree, so let me state it again. Two people speaking different languages will never fully understand each other. Period.
Splitting nations by their language boundaries is an ancient concept. In Biblical times, the story of the Tower of Babel speaks of God using language to divide (not bring together) people. It can be pointed out that the Roman Empire spoke many languages, but a quick look into the extreme violence required to keep that nation together should dissuade most from using that nation as an ideal.
Languages define nations. One nation that wants to remain one nation, indivisible, must speak one language. That is why I feel the US government should use caution when turning its back on English as the only official language. Many ethnocentric intellectuals don't think America could become divided permanently because of language. I on the other hand wonder if any patriotic American would be willing to risk it.
Many are offended by Christ and his gospel. It is easier than accepting his teachings. Humility is required by him. When we hear something we don't like, our first response may be to get angry, but humility would cause our first response to seek understanding.
When a woman from Canaan came to Christ asking for her daughter to be healed, Christ ignored her. She kept begging for help from him and his disciples until finally the disciples asked Jesus to get her to leave.
Jesus told her, It is not good to "take the children's [food], and to cast it to dogs."
Now think about this for a moment. The children refers to the Jews, and she was not a Jew, but from Canaan. He just called her a dog. In today's terms, what he said was racist and extremely offensive. Of course, he didn't feel this way. He loved her and her daughter, so don't think for a moment that hatred was ever intended.
The seemingly racist remark was God's test of her humility.
She, however, was humble. In humility, she did not get offended, but answered, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."
Because of her humility Christ healed her daughter. Our world is full of hate, violence and corruption. Essentially, we all have need of healing in a spiritual sense. Humbly accepting Christ's teachings is the first step to ending the problems in the world we live in.
I wanted to bring your attention to the following article over at c/net "MPAA: Linking college funding, piracy is 'perfectly legitimate'". (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9820200-7.html) The title says it all.
Obviously this article bothers me. Schools never have enough money to provide all the educational opportunities they desire to give students, so legislation threatening schools that don't spend less money on providing a good education bothers me greatly. I say less money, because such laws would require money to be spent playing Big Brother instead of on teaching and research.
Organizations like the MPAA and RIAA already control virtually unrestrained monopoly like powers due to control of traditional distribution channels, and receive massive government hand outs in such forms as the Audio Home Recording Act. Please see that the language threatening colleges and universities is removed from funding legislation.
Please contact your senator or congressman! Remember, these guys ignore you if you don't take the time to registar to vote.
I noticed a while ago this Washington Post article:
Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use
The article has since been "updated" to make the RIAA sound more consumer friendly. 1984 was about an author that did this kind of updating of news articles for a living. The problem is, even with the update to the article, you only have to look at the back of ANY legally purchased CD to see an FBI warning implying that CD ripping for use on MP3 players is illegal!
The points that disturbed me involve the RIAA suit that claims making backup copies of personal CDs for personal use is illegal. The article also implies that most of the new and soon to be new voters would say such a suit should not be allowed, however what law prevents this kind of suit?
For two generations now it has been commonly accepted that users may make copies of their purchased music and videos for personal use. We need laws to back this up. The RIAA should not be allowed to force users to buy MP3 versions of all our CDs.
I am an artist myself. Thousands of people read my stories and download my software every month, however, I have to side with the consumer on this issue. We need much stronger consumer protection for fair use by regular people. There needs to be a consumer rights law that makes it obvious that a consumer can use his/her own legally purchased products, and preserve copies in any format they choose, if it is not for re-distribution.
Please contact your senator or congressman! Remember, these guys ignore you if you don't take the time to registar to vote.
If you prefer to speak with your pocket book, purchase DRM free music such as at Amazon, iTunes or CDs from small recording artists that don't use RIAA sponsoring companies to distribute their music.
Recently, my family lost a good doctor. He didn't die. He didn't move. He didn't retire.
He was shut down by the cost of malpractice insurance.
Malpractice lawsuits are destroying our health system. The cost of malpractice insurance makes it impossible for many private doctors to even deliver babies. The cost of malpractice insurance makes even being a doctor financially a bad choice. Smart Americans are going to universities and shying away from medicine because they know that after 12 years of hard work, they won't be able to make enough money to justify the pain they went through.
I read an article on CNN not too long ago about doctors that are actually becoming nurses because it pays more than being a doctor. Fixing the the health care system is constantly in the news in the US. There are many changes that need to be made, but the biggest is malpractice.
Sick people don't always get better. Sometimes, people die young. Some babies don't make it. Don't treat tragedy as a sweepstakes. It cheapens the lives of those that have loss. It is also destroying one of the most honored professions our country has.
Sometimes mistakes are made, but most mistakes are not intentional. Reviews of how patients felt about their doctor's work should be as easy to find as a product review on Amazon.com. Then the market would adjust itself and drive downright unskilled doctors out of the market.
Kill malpractice. If you want to see the biggest effect on improving our healthcare, just end malpractice. If there has been criminal behavior let the police handle it, but in all other cases - end malpractice.
Good art sells. Corporations hurt good art by sponsoring crap. Give the people access to good art, and they will buy it. I own thousands of dollars of LEGAL CDs, because I was introduced to new artists through mix tapes. The music industry failed these artists. Luckily, their fans didn't.
Good art sells.
As you can see from the copyright notice on my story and poem pages, I believe in legal fair use of art. DRM is one of my pet peives. Companies like Sony use to receive a good chunk of my paycheck. I actually went out of my way to by CDs from Sony (yes, for real), until they started intentionally putting spyware (root kits) on their CDs. Even if they change their ways, I will likely never buy music I know came from Sony ever again, and now avoid all Sony products. I don't trust Sony. My consumer confidence in Sony is gone, probably forever. I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone buy a product from a company that intentional harms their customers.