Blogging Again

Well... it's really quite dusty in here.

If there's anyone who still checks this, I'll be returning to the keyboard once more. I make no promise as to the frequency of my posting, but only that I will be writing more and more, and would like to create an area for discussion.

If you're an reader of my past "work", expect the same fire, but not with the same, say, passionate language of a young mind. While I may extend myself into the profanities as I see fit, I have matured a bit in the past two years, and feel I can better get my point across, to a broader audience, if I tone the language down. Don't worry, I'm still swearing in my head.

So, on that note, I'm going to start gathering sources for my first topic.

-Nate

"[It is] the people, to whom all authority belongs." --Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1821. ME 15:328

The Official Language Debate

There is no need to make English the official language of the United States.

I thought I would just come right out and give you the point of my position first and save you the time of sifting through my well-reasoned and firey rhetoric to get to the crux of my argument. So chew on that for awhile, whilst I begin doing that voodoo that I do.

First of all, allow me to state that I despise using the term "American" to describe anything that is distinctly from the United States. However, in this conversation, I will describe a few things as "American" simply to save both space and the sanity of you, dear reader. (If you would like to know more about why I passionately dislike American as a descriptor, send me a message.)

American-English is an odd duck. It is an ever-changing, continually evolving language, rife with constantly changing linguistic constructs and definitions, along with pronunciations. It is an incredibly hard language to master, as popular culture and the South continually remind us. Against all odds, however, people who immigrate to the United States generally gain a cursory, working knowledge of the language, and sometimes even gain a mastery of it beyond that of it's native speakers. American-English is truly, as the kids say, a bitch. To look at the language simply as an enigma, however, is to deny not only the etymological roots of the language, but also the history of the country in which it was forged.

I could go on a diatribe here about American History, but I will keep that subject for another day, and simply assume that you, dear reader, have a passing knowledge of the birth of this great country. All the immigrants that came over to this great land came with a dream... and not a unifying language. Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Italians, Irish... they all came, and they all spoke their own native tounges (and perhaps a few others). After months, years, or sometimes a generation, they adapted and learned the language of the land, but not without leaving their mark. American-English is a smorgasbord of languages: from the Germans we get dollar, muffin and quartz; from those that speak Portugese we took breeze, flamingo and marmalade; even from Farsi we borrowed checkmate, lemon, shawl and tambourine. (Smorgasbord, by the way, is Swedish.) The language that we call English is a vertiable whore, sleeping about with everyone, if you will pardon the metaphor.

But Nate, I hear you scream, where are you going with this maddening display of etymological prowess? Well, everyone has been getting up in arms recently about English becoming the offical national language. I think this is a very poor idea, for the simple idea that I was sketching above, but never fully materialized in that paragraph: American-English is an amalgam of other languages, forged by the folks who came here and didn't know how to speak it. It is constantly changing and evolving (or devolving, depending on who you ask), and making it the offical language would be a meaningless waste of time. Not only would it not change a damn thing except for educational funding, which by the way, needs to RAISED, not lowered, it would also put more pressure on the poor immigrants.

Oh boo hoo for the immigrants some say. If they want to live here, they should blah blah blah. Well, yes, everyone can say that with a straight face, but no one seems to remember that comment when they go visit their Uncle Joe, who came here from Italy when he was 15, stowed away on a freighter, and worked for 30 years at the docks to feed his family. They never remember the anti-immigrant pablum when they talk to their Henry, who came here legally, but still had to change his name in the 40s from Hienrich because he was worried about being killed, but who never once flagged in his loyalty for his new home. People continually forget that this country lives because of the immigrants who came here, and continue to come here, simply so that they can have a shot at a decent life, free from persecution. If the immigrants stop coming here, I can only speculate what would happen to this fine country, and the speculation is not good at all.

So, please, at least consider the fact that in this wonderful land of the free, anyone can say what they want, when they want, to whom they want, and in whatever language they please. To have it any other way wouldn't simply be a travesty, it would be Un-American.

A Return, A Bill and A Gas Out

Well holy hell, I've been away for a bit. I'd love nothing else than to tell some fantastic story about my rock-and-roll stardom becoming a reality, and my music taking me to all ends of the globe, where I made audiences foam at the mouth in sonic aniticipation, all while being lustily chased by lovely ladies who want nothing more than to screw my ever-loving brains out. Sadly, this is only partly the case. Hopefully the full dream will be realized soon. Now, where did we leave off...? Ah yes... me being angry.

Congress has a bill in committee right now that is looking to strengthen the grip of Hollywood on the balls (and ovaries) of the American citizenry. Dubbed the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006, this wonderful bit ammends the DMCA in various ways, mostly changing small bits of language. One wonderous addition would make it a federal crime to simply attempt copyright infringement. Even if you fail at this task, you still could be sentenced up to 10 years in jail. For each "offense". Now, while it's true that charges exist for attempted murder, or attempted arson, I've never heard of a charge like "attempted copyright infringement". It almost sounds like being ticketed for "attempted speeding". I have yet to pour through the entire bill (although section 17 sets up a new unit in the FBI for investigating copyright infringement), but I will soon. It looks like another wonderful attempt by the **AA to continue terrorizing the American public for their own failed business model. You can find a link to the bill here [Link], or check the end of this article. Here also is a list of the Congress-critters in Washington [Link]. Please call their office and register your disapproval with this bill. E-mails only langour in their respective inboxes, while phone-calls have to be at least heard to be ignored. I'll be calling my Senators when I'm through here.

I've been receiving an e-mail which dictates the starting of a "Gas War". If you have not had this lovely bit of pablum, allow me to lay out a brief synopsis. "If we boycott purchasing gasoline from Exxon/Mobil, the largest oil company in the States, they will be forced to lower prices, as demand is decreasing. Purchase your gas anywhere but from Exxon/Mobil held companies." Now then... everyone take a breath. Ahh yes. How the hell does that make any sense at all? Look, oil (and petrol) is a commodity driven almost exclusively by supply and demand. If demand slackens everywhere, then supply goes up and prices come down. The opposite is also true. However, with this plan, you are doing neither. You are simply shifting demand from one portion of the market to the other, creating an artificial shortage in that portion of the market, and an artificial surplus in the other. In other words, non-Exxon/Mobil companies will be faced with a shortage of oil as consumers flock to them like the salmon of Capistrano. They will then raise prices due to their dwindling supply. There are two things that could happen next. One, the (deceivingly) low prices of Exxon/Mobil stations will lure customers back. (The prices wouldn't actually have lowered any, they would just seem low against the artificially inflated prices of other stations.) In the second situation, Exxon/Mobil would sell their supply of oil to the non-Exxon/Mobil companies for an inflated price. Since the other companies are making money hand-over-fist due to the protest, they wouldn't mind paying the inflated price, and raise prices at the pump to compensate. This could conceivably keep going, but the low price of (pre-protest) Exxon/Mobil gas would eventually lure customers back, resulting in nothing but putting more money in Big Oil's pocket. So, in conclusion, the only way to lower oil prices at this point is to use less of it. Less demand = more supply. More supply = lower prices (generally). We could also stop pissing off oil-producing countries, but that still won't alleviate the problem entirely. Alternate fuel research needs to be stepped up and cars which are *much* more fuel-effecient need to be introduced. No "arm-chair" activism is going to help win this fight. So, in conclusion, stop sending me these e-mails. The only serve to further my drinking hobby.

-Doc

Links

The Bill Hollywood Cartels Don't Want You To See
http://ipaction.org/blog/2006/04/bill-hollywood-cartels-dont-want-you_24.html

Congress Readies Broad New Digital Copyright Bill
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6064016.html?part=rss&tag=6064016&subj=news

Draft of the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006
http://ipaction.org/media/Draft_DOJ_IP_bill.pdf

U.S. Code on Criminal Infringement of Copyright
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002319----000-.html

Don't Be Surprised...

I've said it before, time and time again. The system is breaking, and may already be so damaged as to be irreparable. The cracks that once only existed in the facade of our great democratic republic have begun to deepen and widen, hairlines quickly becoming vast fissures, across which none may stand. The damage has been done by the contently apathetic many and the greedy few. Those who should be held accountable for their actions against the world continue to slip through the ever atrophying arm of justice, spreading a chaff of lies in their wake. If the apathy of the masses continues, they will never be held responsible for their crimes, great or small.

The blurring of the lines that had been set out by the framers of our Constitution has been slowly building for years, and has been especially active in the last four years, with the rather expedient accumulation of power inside the Executive branch. With the building towards an eventual dictatorial government, how soon will the populace of The United States of America sit up and take notice? Will the veil of an undeclared war on an ethos, and idea, be enough to convince the people that they need a king rather than an elected representative? Will we willingly give up all the liberties we have enjoyed for so many years to enable an all-powerful leader to rise above the law in a half-hearted attempt to protect the people?

Or will we fight? Will we allow all the blood shed by the defenders of our country and our way of life be in vain? Will we allow the government of the people, by the people, for the people to be taken away and replaced with a government of fear, repression and reprisal? Or will we fight? Will people eventually forget the injustices of today, just as they have forgotten the injustices of the past, and allow themselves to be lulled into a flagrantly false sense of security by our government? When will those who have lingered so long in the background step forth and scream for a cease to the descent of this country into the pit of criminal abuses that have been purveyed by our government?

Don't be surprised when the revolution comes.

Response to RJB: Clearing It Up

For those of you who may have missed it, here's a comment left by my buddy Ryan on Punish Sony Using the DMCA posting [Link].

I'm not a lawyer, but posts like yours make me wish I had some legal background. I found a logical disconnect.

Software licensing (including the GPL family) and copyrighting long predate the DMCA (1998). The LGPL, as I understand it, is little more than a copyright claim.

Why would we, the people of the United States, need the DMCA to prosecute this case? Stronger punishments? Intellectual property complications? As I see it, if copyright-restricted material is found in Sony's code, they're busted - DMCA or not.

If I'm oversimplifying or misunderstanding the issues at hand, please correct me.

Aye, yer right on some accounts, lad.

However, here's the deal. IANAL myself, but here it goes. The Copyright Law of the United States of America, Chapter 5,[Link] has a damages section where it lays out how much each infringment costs (in a "Damages" ruling) plus the profits made off of said infringement. Damages, as the document linked above states, should be not less than $750 and not more than $30,000, excepting cases where the court proves that the infringement was willfull, wherein the maximum amount of the damage award increases to $150,000.

"The copyright owner is entitled to recover the actual damages suffered by him or her as a result of the infringement, and any profits of the infringer that are attributable to the infringement and are not taken into account in computing the actual damages."

Now, that all sounds like a fine deal, but the DMCA's section on criminal violation of copyright (which this is, as profit was gained in the violation of copyright) beats the hell out of this with a gigantic 4x4. [Link] Chapter 12, section 1204, deals with the criminal offenses and penalties, defined below:

"(a) IN GENERAL- Any person who violates section 1201 or 1202 willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain--

`(1) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense; and

`(2) shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both, for any subsequent offense."

Now remember, the DMCA was passed to amended title 17 of the US Code to extend the reach of copyright. Which means not only are they in violation of U.S. Copyright law, they are under violation of the DMCA, a special section of copyright law dealing with technology. Thanks to Sony's screw-up, we can use the law they helped push through to tighten their grip on their copyright against them. All because they violated a simple LGPL agreement.

I won't even go into the fact that when they started releasing a "fix" for the rootkit they were in violation of the DMCA for circumventing a copyright device, or that by having auto-run disabled on your CD-ROM and placing one of the infected CDs in your computer, you would also be in violation of the DMCA for circumventing a copyright device. {Think I'm kidding? I'm not... when you get a spare minute, read the DMCA [Secondary Link], it's scary as hell.)

So, to boil it all down to a quick, edible bite, they are in violation of copyright, and as Ryan correctly pointed out, copyright is much older than the DMCA. However, the DMCA covers just this sort of copyright violation, and is, in fact, an addendum to the US Copyright Law, and as such, is highly viable for use against Sony. The best part is the irony, though. Sweet, sweet irony.

Comments or questions anyone?

Punish Sony Under the DMCA

You regular readers know I'm not a huge fan of the DMCA, in as much as I think it's a draconian bit of law that should be wiped from the books. However, I am a huge fan of poetic justice, and I think our "pals" at Sony could use a bit of that right now. If the RIAA wants to hide behind the DMCA while suing the pants of it's customers, I think we, the people, should use the DMCA to put a hurtin' to Sony, as the kids say. Picked up from BoingBoing.net [Link]:

"Indications are that Sony has included the LAME music encoder, which is licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which requires that those who use it attribute the original software and publish some of the code they write to use the library. Sony has done none of this."

Right then. According to the research that I have done on the DMCA, and the paper I did on it [Link], Sony could be punished under the DMCA and fined no more than $500,000 for the first offense and no more than $1,000,000 for each subsequent offense. (Criminal cases only, which this qualifies as.) Sony stated that slightly more than 2,000,000 (2 million) CDs with the offending software are in consumers hands right now. Lets see... some quick math brings the total amount Sony could be penalized for to right around $1,999,999,500,000... Nearly two trillion dollars. Not quite a sensible amount, I'll admit, but it would come down quite a bit on appeal. All of this thanks to a law that Sony helped push through in the late 20th century. Nice going, douche-nozzles.

The only thing that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth is actually using the DMCA. I understand, from a certain aspect, that yes, it's a law, so it should be used. However, I decry the usage of it by them against us, so I become a hypocrite by advocating it's usage against one of the RIAA members. All-in-all, though, the bitter taste of depending on the DMCA is washed clean by the sweet, sweet irony.

Seriously, someone should get on this. Nail those bastards.

Sony: Asshats extraordinaire.

Alright, I would apologize for the sporradic posting schedule, but most of you who read this blog know me very well, and you know what my schedule is like. Anyway, for those of you who aren't hip to the recent shit, here's what Sony has been in the news for of recent:

A technical dissection by the mighty Mark Russinovich of Sony's rootkit-based DRM. Sony uses genuine black-hat techniques to install a rootkit, even choosing a Windows-sounding name for a service just like your favourite backdoor, and about as easy to detect or remove. Basically, Sony puts the sort of malware on its customers' PCs that the rest of the world spends alot of money fighting.
(from BoingBoing.net[Link])

There you have it. I have been asked many times why I prefer the shadier methods of aquiring music when I, as a musician, see the plight of "my people," I often have to respond with a soft sigh, and a concise "...because the musicians aren't making money off their albums. The record companies are." They are (and have been for some time) screwing the artists, and now, thanks to Sony's blatant move, show that they are trying (and have been for some time) to screw you, the consumer.

The EFF has released a list of CDs that contain the machine-crippling rootkit, and it's a damn shame, because there are a few albums that I would have bought. [Link] How long will the members of the RIAA use the wonderfully successful business model of "screw everyone" before they realize that people are starting to open their eyes and close their wallets? This whole mess makes me want to fire up Azureus [Link] and start the downloading... 'Cause fuck 'em, that's why.