Gimlé

This is a bit of a political awareness post, so if you’re not in the mood for that sort of stuff (I know I wasn’t, yesterday), feel free to disregard.

It seems that I’m not the only one writing about inane copyright laws these days because Adam C. Engst talks about the effect the DMCA might have on the Apple Mac platform (found via Boing Boing.

Tom Coates is also writing about “Apple and the Pirate Everyman” which states that “copyrighted material and intellectual property are endangered and cornered beasts”. He claims this despite the fact that the film/DVD industry has never done better, CD sales have only dropped around ten per cent despite a global economic downturn and hideous mismanagement and Microsoft and others continue to earn truckloads of money through software and OS sales.

That’s not even counting the ridiculous patent bonanza which seems to see “innovations” left, right and center.

Nothing so far has convinced me that software and content copyright infringement is having anything but a negligable effect on the financial viability of the content and copyright markets.

And that is despite the fact that most of these industries churn out little other than vile rubbish.

Any drop in sales at this point has to be blamed on a slowdown in consumer spending in general, not on armies of evil pirates out to rape and pillage the poor impoverished executives in Hollywood, zit-faced teenagers armed to the teeth, out to loot the defenseless homes of helpless content providers.

The moneymakers in the States simply want somebody to blame so that they won’t have to face the consequences of their own mismanagement.

Copyright infringement is an unequivocal wrong, for sure, but copyright is in no danger. It’s grip on society is, from a legal perspective, stronger than ever before in history.

The second issue on the agenda is Link and Think. They say it best on their website:

Each December 1, World AIDS Day, the creative community observes A Day With(out) Art, in memory of all those the AIDS pandemic has taken from us, and in recognition of the many artists, actors, writers, dancers and others who continue to create and live with HIV and AIDS.

I’ll be posting a short, personal note here on the subject on December 1 and it might not be a bad idea for you to do the same on your site, weblog or favourite message board.

Anyway, I’m knackered. Been a busy two days.

Baldur,
Clifton, Bristol.