Posted by Aaron Springer on April 17, 2009 under Technology | 
Like Napster before them, the founders of Pirate Bay have found that providing technology that can be used for illicit purposes is the same as breaking the law.
You know, like making guns is the same as shooting people with them. That makes perfect sense.
Here’s the story.
What gets me about this case is that it does nothing to stem the tide of illegal file sharing. This is a posturing move on the part of the music and film industry. Let’s prove it, shall we?
Let’s say that the founders are, hmm, 10% responsible for all the files listed on the site. As of the publication of this article, there are 1,656,372 torrents on thepiratebay.org. In Sweden, there are no specific limits or guidelines to fines. In the US, willful infringement carries up to $300,000 per work. Let’s say we have a compassionate judge who rules for a third of that. Let’s also say, very conservatively, that only half the torrents are “infringed work.”
So, 1656372 x 50% x 100000 x 10% = $8,281,860,000. That’s 8 billion dollars, kitties. Let’s say the judge is not compassionate and throws the book at them. It’s not unheard of. In Lowry’s Reports, Inc. v. Legg Mason Inc., the judge awarded $20 million for copying a newsletter for use in house. That would be $496,911,600,000. That’s more than half of the stimulus package.
My point is that a year and $2.4 million is small potatoes. It’s not going to stop filesharing: I dare say there will be little if any effect.
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 15, 2009 under General |
I am still sufering the effects of depression after my untimely end of employment. My wife is worried about me, but I am doing what I need to do to get back into the swing of things. She has shown some support for the idea of making a go of my writing, something no one has done seriously before.
So, I will continue to write, apply for jobs, work on school work, and try desperately to get out of this haze I have been in. Working on a story about suspended animation and family…
Posted by Aaron Springer on April 8, 2009 under General |
It’s been more than a month since my last post, and the time has come to break my silence.
On March 2nd, I lost my job.
I will not go into additional details, for a variety of reasons. Those who know, know, and those that don’t, don’t need to. Time to move on.
It took me a month to get my tail from between my legs and be ready to get back on the horse, and that time was spent in a variety of ways. Also, not that important.
Currently, I am sitting at mo’joe Coffee House in downtown, Indianapolis. I have class in about two hours, Introduction to Digital Film, although the teacher has turned it into a crash course in film making. Oh well, I’m doing okay in it, so I guess I can’t complain. Oh, wait, yes I can.
I feel as if most of the past four years of my academic life have been an almost complete waste. I have learned very little that will or has helped me, but I guess that is the nature of college these days. To be sure, I enjoyed most of my classes, and am glad I finally bit the bullet and went back to school; nevertheless, I have gained little but a bunch of loans and find that, most likely, my degree will be worth little in my chosen field.
Who is to blame for this? Well, I could point at the department I am in, and say that they don’t know what they are doing. Although true, I can give them the benefit of the doubt, as New Media is a new field and few people really do understand the scope of it. I could point at the president of the university, but he has his hands full dealing with egos, politics, and trying to deal with the monumental task of running IU. Those that can affect change either don’t know what needs to be changed, or are buried in red tape, paperwork, and the Inertia of Plumbing.
Maybe I should explain that phrase. A former lover once noticed a plumbing supply store while we were driving. It sparked a `onversation in which she described the idea that perhaps each generation of people for whom the store was named were caught in the inertia of keeping the place open, hence, the Inertia of Plumbing. It’s a phrase that has stuck with me over the years, and it has come to mean the combination of apathy, comfort in a rut, and sheer force of history involved in changing an establishment.
Maybe it is a comment that the plumbing supply store has since closed. Perhaps the most recent generation decided to join a rock band or write novels or something. Good on ya, whomever you are.
I myself have suffered from a form of inertia recently, and have found that the only solution was to finish the task to which I found myself committed. But, that is a story for tomorrow…
