Old Viewpoints.html

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  13     <h1>The Weak Must Die</h1>
  14    <div class="contents">
  15 <dl>
  16 <dt>
  17 <a href="#sec1">Misc</a>
  18 </dt>
  19 <dd>
  20 <dl>
  21 <dt>
  22 <a href="#sec2">Copyright Is Bad for Society</a>
  23 </dt>
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  29
  30 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>Intermediate forms of thought which have been refined.</p>
  31
  32 <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
  33 Misc</h2>
  34
  35 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
  36 Copyright Is Bad for Society</h3>
  37
  38 <p class="first">Copyright is a tool used to placate publishers who feel that they will
  39 make no money if things can be freely copied. Publishers, however,
  40 contribute <strong>nothing</strong> of worth to our culture; they are mere middlemen
  41 who print the creative work of others, and so their pleas should be
  42 ignored.</p>
  43
  44 <p>A short copyright term is acceptable, and worked in most of the world
  45 for a few hundred years. As it stands now we have perpetual copyrights
  46 (as in the Old World), and the cultural stagnation that affected
  47 Europe then is now occurring today in most of the world. There are
  48 many books published between 1917 and a few years ago that I would
  49 love to read, but am unable to because they have not been printed (for
  50 older books often in as long as 40 or 50 years). The albums of a few
  51 bands I like are out of print now and I will be long dead before I get
  52 a chance to purchase them (<em>if</em> copyright is not extended again, which
  53 experience tells me will happen soon) because the record labels have
  54 no interest in returning the masters to the band!</p>
  55
  56 <p>What point is there to allowing copyright to exist on works which are
  57 not being published? If their terms had expired there is a chance that
  58 they would be being published by public domain publishing houses who
  59 subsist on smaller margins. This would <a href="http://www.ippr.org/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=482">create real economic value</a>, and
  60 more importantly great <strong>social</strong> value. Allowing art to rot is a
  61 disrespect to human creativity and an immeasurable loss for all future
  62 humans.</p>
  63
  64 <p>I predict that in two or three hundred years there will be nearly no
  65 record of any literature or art produced in the twentieth century. As
  66 it stands today we have lost most of it with the exception of a few
  67 trashy works which have become popular to the masses.</p>
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  96
  97 <p class="cke-footer">&lt;RetroJ`&gt; here's something interesting about one of these chinese
  98           pop music videos I've found.. it illustrates the
  99           cultural barrier nicely.  this young female pop star is
 100           wearing a t-shirt with the confederate flag
 101 </p>
 102 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 103     March 13, 2008</p>
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