It was good while it lasted, folks.
“tumblr’s”? ”sissy’s”?
One semester my writing professor spent an entire class teaching us how to appropriately use an apostrophe. Those of us who understood possessive versus plural groaned and listened to her lecture anyway, those who didn’t hopefully learned something that day. I guess Ms Cardashien could have used this lesson also.
+ It’s a waste of time. Isn’t the Big Thing about the Internets that there’s no real way to police it? Isn’t that the issue? Sure IP addresses and all that and you can trace back to a source, but you can’t know for sure who has done what on a wireless network (and, seriously, how many people aren’t working off a wireless network these days?).
- Also, it’s a waste of Congress’s time. There are much larger, more pressing issues than what snot-nosed teenager has downloaded Jay Z’s newest album and that college kid who downloaded Breaking Dawn part I. Cracking down on sites like YouTube because someone posted a video they made of themselves playing a cover of a Jason Mraz song is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s got to be the dumbest thing Congress has ever talked about and debated.
What about poverty, health care, the military presence in the Middle East, North Korea, famine? Right now “over 50 million Americans — including 17 million children — are struggling with hunger” according to The Hunger Site. Why isn’t Congress doing more to make sure that our nation’s children are being fed and getting proper nutrition (Oh, wait, that’s right, pizza is a fucking vegetable); why aren’t they doing more to ensure that parents can provide for their children? Why are we focusing on what TV show JoeShmoe obtained via the Internets?
Oh, wait, because Disney and Viacom and Comcast and Warner Bros and Fox and Sony are pushing this bill. These heavy hitters are wasting using their money and influence to push this shit around Congress and waste our time. They’re so annoyed that they’re making slightly fewer billion dollars than they would if people didn’t engage in illegal downloading. These corporations could be using the staggering amount of money they make in a year to help out humanitarian efforts and keep their customers safe and fed and warm instead of using it to push a bill through Congress that is only going to cripple the Great Information Exchange.
People think everyone is all up in arms and making noise on the Internets because we don’t want this bill to be passed because we are all downloading fiends — and while that may be true for some people, I’m going to let you in on a couple of secrets: most people just repost YouTube videos on Facebook or Tumblr for the amusement of their friends, they don’t download entire music catalogues and sell them on the black market. Also: people who download music and TV and movies still buy music and TV and movies. They still contribute to the market. They all have iTunes and purchase DVDs and CDs from legitimate stores.
But, in this economy, who has the money to purchase music and movies legitimately all the time? $15 - $30 for a New Release? You’ve got to be kidding me, Target! For just $15 a few aisles over I can pick up a 25 pack of blank DVDs, go online, download twenty five films and burn them — for only $15. A mite extreme, sure, but think about it logically for a moment: for half the cost of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 on Blu-ray, 25 movies could be obtained.
Is it really the public’s fault that the music and movie industry is ripping us off? Is it really the public’s fault that they are sick of taking their corporate greed? Is it really worth the effort to push a bill through Congress so a bunch of college kids can’t download Adele and Lady Gaga and Japanamation porn in their dorm rooms? Is Disney really hurting? I mean, come on, in 2010 Disney’s Net Income “increased 20 percent to $3.96 billion on a 5 percent rise in revenue to $38 billion”, so stated in their Annual Financial Report; and they’re working on yet another theme-park in Shanghai, China because of the 1.3 billion population and the “rising affluence” of the country. I don’t pretend to understand much about how to run a billion-dollar business, but if your net income has increased since the previous fiscal year, how much does it really matter if you’re not making that $250 billion the FBI estimates you’re not making due to counterfeiting (as cited by Stephen Colbert)?
Before anyone gets on my case, I’m not trying to promote or condone illegal downloading, I am simply trying to say that the entire existence of SOPA is one of the silliest things our government has done since trying to rename them “Freedom Fries”. I believe that our elected officials would be better off spending their time discussing and deciding on things that actually affect the people, not trying to protect a faceless, souless corporation. The world would still exist without Warner Bros and Viacom, but people are struggling to find jobs so they can pay their bills and feed their families. SOPA should be the least of our government’s worry. Hard working and honest people can’t put a roof over their heads or dinner on the table. The cost of living has definitely increased despite the recession and a family of four is spending $196 - $235 on food for a week when eleven years ago they were spending $136 - $164. And the food they’re buying has been processed and pasteurized to the point of low/no-nutrition and people are getting sick in ways they wouldn’t if they had the proper nutrients for their bodies to absorb. But they can’t pay for medical treatment because they can’t afford insurance and a doctor’s visit can cost hundreds of dollars for the uninsured.
But by all means, let’s gripe about the Internets.
