Look, I’m the first to admit that we young people are dumb: we are sex-crazed, druggy rock ‘n roll freaks who love Family Guy and fart jokes, but at least we care about the future. For us, most of our lives lie in the future. For old people, most of their lives lie in the past. I think that might be why old people are so stuck in their ways.
If you haven’t heard, the people who run The Pirate Bay were found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison and fines of about $4 million. This is nothing more than the older generation trying to stop the future from happening. By the way, they weren’t even convicted of sharing files illegally, or even sharing information about illegal files, but simply linking to information about illegal files which “aids and abets” the downloading of illegal files. This is nothing more than censorship.
I really hate people who try to stop change. As I mentioned previously in my blog post on Star Trek and Intellectual Property, a world in which information is free is one step closer to utopia. It’s nothing to be afraid of. If history has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t stop innovation.
Now, I don’t know a single 20-something or younger person who believes filesharing to be wrong (or gay marriage, or marijuana). Hopefully, once our generation takes over things will change.
BEST COMMENT: d00d — “this post is great!
it manages to offend baby boomers who are offended when you call them old, now that they are old. they were once considered cutting edge, hip and trendy.
it offends people who have no idea how to dispassionately read a blog. “i disagree with you! i am going to sit here and shout at my cat while i type a witty/obscene response and then go to bed grinding my teeth in frustration b/c i am not able to disassociate myself from my reading.”
it offends ignorant people, because they are ignorant. “you want to legalize things that i think should be illegal? why don’t you just legalize murder and rape while you are at it, since i think those things should be illegal, too.”
it offends otherwise smart people, who attempt to hold the 300 year tradition of copyright up as though it has lasted eons, and that those who violate it should be physically imprisoned for committing information related meta-crimes in the virtual world.
and it offends me. because the reaction to this piece shows how many ignorant, self-centered and egotistical buffoons are still stubbornly part of the problem.”
EDIT: I’m fully aware that not all old people are conservative and not all young people are liberal. However, most stereotypes have some amount of truth to them. My comment about the old generation was actually specifically relating to the filesharing part: a generation which knows absolutely NOTHING about computers (and therefore NOTHING about filesharing) should not be making laws against things they know nothing about. Although the old generation probably knows more about drugs and marriage than us young people (who have only been doing drugs for a few years and aren’t yet married), don’t even try to pretend you guys understand computers or the Internet. And I repeat, anybody who is against filesharing really has to read my blog post on Star Trek and Intellectual Property. For the record, I’m 26 years old, I do have a job, and my company has just recently started open sourcing its projects.
Tags: bittorrent, filesharing, freedom, future, gay marriage, intellectual property, marijuana, The Pirate Bay
“They have just as much right for their money as all the other people do.”
This is the viewpoint that I want to smash into the ground. Nobody has a RIGHT to money. I’m sorry, but no matter how hard you work you cannot make money by selling something that has no value. For example, I could toil for 18 hours a day making breathable air… but I wouldn’t be able to sell it. Why? Because air is FREE. I don’t care how hard you work on your music or your art, it’s available for FREE, so you can’t expect to make money off of it. Life isn’t fair. Deal with it.
Philip, I’m not an artist, but your argument is complete BS. At the very minimum, artists need money for basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter, and (heaven forbid), they might want to make a little extra in order to pay for health care, retirement, and their kid’s college fund. I’m 28, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, and I’m getting a masters in non-profit management. My brother is gay, and I’m also a stoner.
With all that said, you’re an idiot, and your view of the world is simply rationalized narcissism and greed. Far from “liberating” art, you would completely destroy it. You know most artists go to college in order to deepen their knowledge of their profession, which in turn saddles them with mountains of student loan debt. But of course they aren’t real people, just abstract entities whom, unlike you, don’t require any of the basic necessities in life that you take for granted.
If their work has no “value,” then why do you want it? You really didn’t think that one through, did you? The fact that you want it shows that it has value. It’s just that you’re dishonest and unethical, but you try to convince yourself through claims of a BS “utopia” that you shouldn’t have to pay for it.
[...] bel post: Anybody else…. Ma questi non ne vogliono [...]
Now, although I personally DO pirate music among other things, I also understand the reasoning between attempting to curb it. You see, the Invisible Hand effect has kept the production of media alive, with producers of said media aiming to make money off of their product. We are, by every single meaning of the word, stealing from them. Acquiring something that would ordinarily cost money, for free. If budding music producers see that their music will simply be pirated, there is a chance they will be less motivated to produce, which would negatively affect the consumer. As for the other topics, I agree that those are simply old people attempting to prevent the future, but piracy is just that; pirating. Stealing from people. I hardly see how curbing thievery in todays society is an “attempt to prevent the future from happening.” It seems that people who pirate and think it should be legal are simply greedy, wanting something that takes other people time and money to make for free. I’m a thieving greedy bastard, but at least I admit it.
Pirating is attractive because it’s easier than the paid alternatives.
iTunes works (somewhat) because it’s easy for consumers.
Also, most students don’t have disposable income so we are getting things we otherwise wouldn’t be able to purchase, which I think artists would appreciate that we get to hear them (even though it’s technically stealing). When I was younger I got every old Metallica album for free, then I went out and bought St. Anger when it was released. The disappointment I felt for finally supporting them and finding out the album was trash has not been matched.
The closest thing I’ve seen to a good business model was the Zune’s monthly fee for downloading any music you wanted. Make a filesharing site such as rapidshare which acquires licenses for media (ANY KIND), charges a subscription fee, and pays out the copyright holder and you are on your way to converting people.
Trying to stop piracy through brute force just creates more disdain for corporations and the government which will result in more bypassing of legal measures (which is what piracy is in the first place.)
I don’t really agree with all this post but I do agree that when the older generation dies it will be easier to progress.
I’ve gotta say, Piracy is not really on the same level as gay marriage or marijuana. I’m an artist – for a LIVING – and sometimes it’s tight. Very tight. I’m on an indie label which means I actually get to pocket the majority of the money that comes in when someone buys my record. (And when I say “pocket” I mean “spend on student loan payments.”) So someone choosing to just download my music and not pay for it as a very real and very direct effect on my ability to make my payments and have some left over. John Mayer may not miss his $.04 when you burn his CD, but I get 60% of the sticker price sent to my bank account, and I spend 100% of that on my expenses.
How to fight it? I don’t know. I use YouTube and twitter to connect with fans and show them that I am a real person and not just a creator of MP3′s to fill their iPod. Because they’re (mostly) personally invested, they actually (mostly) pay for my music. I don’t think the Pirate Bay people should be sitting in jail for a year, or paying millions of dollars, but I definitely do not think downloading music is a responsible way to enjoy music, because you’re stacking the odds against the people who created it, and making it harder for them to be able to continue creating it.
Don’t knock the Baby Boomer Generation.
They got us to the moon and gave us computers.
Whhhhy are you advertising propaganda (drugfreeworld.org) banner ads, if you don’t mind me asking..
I’m waiting for all the generations that believe that political authority is EVER legitimate or that the very concept of \legal vs. illegal\ has ANY valid meaning or that voting is anything other than the advocacy and support of violence to die off.
What about the renaissance? How much did Galileo, Newton etc get paid for their research and discoveries? Profit is not the only reason to create. What about van Gogh? One of the worlds greatest painters who created because he wanted to and was only recognized after his death. To think that people will not create if they do not get paid is ridiculous and ignores human nature.
I’m 45 and I’ve been thinking the same thing my whole life.
I’m not sure if it gets better… it’s gradually getting round to the point where people running the place are the same age as me – and they’re just as stupid (and by that I mean conservative) as the generation before.
So um… There’s not point in waiting. It’s got to be now. It’s got to be you. Or us.
Marinetti would be proud of us. Fuck old people.
It’ll start happening when my generation takes over. At age 54, we are just now starting to come into the height of our political power. Well, not me, I’m just a programmer, but the average age of congress people is at little over 60, and it will probably stay that way with older ones leaving and younger ones coming in.
But people my age, even people in positions of responsibility, are not so much against all these things, and most people think laws against marijuana and gay marriage in particular are pretty stupid. Marijuana is going to be legalized in California in November, assuming the people for it get out and vote. There will still be a battle with the Federal government, and that could take a couple of years.
So within a few years you’ll be able to smoke a joint in California, but you won’t be able to get married to someone unless they are the opposite sex.
Digital “piracy” will probably be the last of these issues to go away, because people are still making money off the old model, and will continue to do so as long as people buy into it. And who are the people who most enabling of this? Young people, of course!
And stay off my lawn, ya whippersnappers!
30 years ago as a young adult my generation thought the same thing. The problem is people learn to be very comfortable living with their own hypocrisy. For example, in my highschool (200 students) in the late 1970s I recall maybe 3-5 people who did not smoke pot, and of those who did, 75% were regulars.
So what happened? Propaganda, mostly, and supported by the fear of losing their comfortable way of life.
I wish your generation well, as mine has been a bitter disappointment.
It’s not that easy. They tried this throughout the 60′s and 70′s and all that happened was that people didn’t change fundamentally, but they changed expressively. As media evolved and Andy Warhol’s sentiments about everyone having their 15 minutes of fame became true, people of all ideologies are now able to make their opinions widely clear to the masses. I blame the media for the liberal/conservative conundrum, and for political bias ever becoming apparent on a mass level. Look back to the 50′s when everyone was the same, everyone was robotic, except the beatniks, who were considered freaks by most.
George says:
Don’t knock the Baby Boomer Generation.
You know your wrong… Go back and look who those people where they are from the generation before the baby boomers.. Everything the babyboomer claimed they did was from the generation before them.
Don’t believe the Boomer Bullshit.
faggots are disgusting creatures, I hope you choke on a dick and die
Try being in the middle
TLDR; Hurry up and die, old people!
George said:
“Don’t knock the Baby Boomer Generation.
They got us to the moon and gave us computers.”
No they didn’t. The generation BEFORE the baby boomers gave us the moon and computers. The oldest baby boomers were about 25 when the moon landings started – hardly old enough to be involved beyond spectating.
Computers came out of second world war and early cold war encryption/decryption and ballistics computation efforts.
Let’s make sure credit is really given where it’s due.
Or live in Canada/Britain. Gay marriage is legal here.
I’m 45…and you are 100% correct!!
I’m sorry…but he’s right.
Excuse me now, I have to finish watching Matlock and then go to bed. It’s almost 9:00pm.
Jesus, I didn’t realize Philip was such a douchebag:
Anybody else waiting for the old generation to die so that we can legalize filesharing, marijuana, gay marriage, etc. and then get on with our lives?”
I have a couple of clues for you, Philip, since you so obviously need them. EVERY human generation on this earth has been frustrated with people who resist change. And I have two things to say about that:
(1) Change merely for the sake of change is NOT a good thing, because change always comes at a cost. If the benefits of the change are not clearly and demonstrably greater than the cost, then it’s probably not a good change.
(2) Why are you “waiting”? See, THAT is the real goddamned problem. You — your generation — are supposed to MAKE the change, not “wait” until stodgy old people get out of your way.
You’re a pussy, and you’re complaining about it. Get off your ass and make it happen or get stuffed.
I really should add one more thing. You see this problem as acute (partly because of your own failure to do anything about it), but you also have to take into account that the rate of growth of knowledge has been accelerating. And YOUR generation is going to be required to be more tolerant of change than any who came before.
So not only do you have to get off your ass and MAKE your desired changes happen, you are going to have to step out of the way for those who come after you who will make THEIR changes, at an even earlier age (say 5-10 years) than those who came before you. Very likely even before you are able to profit from your own changes. Are you prepared to do that?
If yes, then go for it. If no, then STFU because you’re a hypocrite and even worse than the people you are criticizing.
Don’t look now, but when the older generation dies off, you will be older. Are the opinions you hold today the same as they’ve always been?
Hey Genius,
I’m 52 and when I was 18 I thought almost all the same things you currently do (we didn’t have torrents then), when all the people my age took over from the old farts the world would be a much better place.
Since then I’ve seen a significant number of my generation turn into total flaming asswipes who are much worse than the fogies I wanted out of the way. The people I know in a 20 year band around my age (say 42 to 62) are much bigger assholes than the people who were old when I was in your place.
I really hope that what I’ve seen happen to my generation was a fluke and that you will have a wonderful magic kingdom descend upon you when we keel over, but I think if you want that to happen you better get off your ass and do something more than blogging, or you’ll wind up where I am wondering what happened to all the cool people you knew and that dream world you were supposed to inherit.
Just dont use the files/music/movies from old generation after they die.
Yeup. It will all improve me thinks, given they don’t drive us into the ground before then. Policy makers learn off the generation above them, so it will take a generation or two till law and public opinion start to coincide. Makes sense when you realise how hard the children of the 60′s were crushed by the leaders of the time.
Also, another little point I’d like to throw in; These policy makers still think young masses are idiots, wrong, it’s just hard to be passionate about idiots we probably know better than themselves. They also don’t realise that literally every little thing they say is being recorded, discussed, debunked and debated online. Which gives us all the more reason to dislike them, being a politician is like being a banker, you just have to work hard to get to the next level and kiss the asses of your co workers what having a flashy appeal, you don’t even have to agree or know what your selling, it’s just more money, more power, more respect (sometimes) and looking after your own interests.
Hmm… when Boomers were young, they would have said the same thing.
However, with age people turn conservative and hypocritical.
I am in my mid-thirties, and I can see how many friends of mine who were superb humans in their early twenties are gradually turning into sheeple, debt slaves and parrots of some party’s ideological line. The process is not fully completed, but it’s on its way.
Sad but true. Our biggest enemy is ourselves. Don’t give in. It is hard. Very few of us will make it as humans with decent souls all the way to old age.
You rant about file sharing but keep full copyright on the contents of your site.
Why?
FILE SHARING SHOULD STAY ILLEGAL CUZ IT’S STEALING SO THAT SHOULD NOT CHANGE. Pay for music and art.
Terrorism is an excellent distraction.
See, current efforts to decriminalize fileshareing, joints or my fag behaviour are futile. The world is full with self-righteous havealls, who due to lack of real problems try to minimize the rights of other people. And they will continue to do so unless you give them better hobbies.
The big bad terrorism pseudo threat card already had some impact. US people (okay to some extend warrented) are all up in arms against Islam*. And this new enemy picture brought enough distraction for the eternal yesterdayish to sneak in marihuana legalization. Bring on more distractions for the conservative, and you’ll achieve progress quicker.
Way to generalize, in fact I was actually considering to waste my time to make you look like a fool… but what’s the point in scolding the ignorant?
As someone a hair under the old gen x limit, I would like to share my views on your post:
Rock and roll has evolved and divided to the point that the term no longer has any meaning without specifying genre.
“I hate people who…” is a very closed minded and obtuse statement. “I hate when people…” shows much more of the tolerance you claim to represent.
I feel history has shown us that if the right people obtain power, innovation can indeed be stopped, or at least slowed. Electric cars, hyper efficient cars, forward thinking political views, and anything that nay help society in the long run, but immediately costs (or lowers the profit of) those in “power” are all prime examples.
I personally know many under 20 who strictly adhere to the laws thrust at them, mentally and physically, because they trust only that their “elders” are infallible.
I pretty much agree with everything else you said…
I’m waiting for the plague that kills off only the two-faced christians the it will be fun time.
The vast majority of money you pay for mainstream works goes to support the existing oppressive power structure that both robs and censors artists.
It is immoral to support such structures.
The vast majority of money you pay for taxes goes to support the existing oppressive power structure that both robs and murders people.
It is immoral to support such structures.
i do filesharing a lot (and its not stealing since i do not remove anything i copy .. anyways) and i don’t care about legal mambojambo
let them legalise marijuana .. i smoked pot when i was younger (28 now)
in my country we have gay marriage and i do have male and female married friends
but my grandparents (80+) smoked pot, have nothing against gay marriage
i think its just the generations between
btw: fuck all (yea you too christians) religious people .. please go somewhere and blow yourself up (the 1% sane religious people can stay home)
Yea…
you’re kinda forgetting that there will always be Christians and Jews and Muslims who will always manage to fuck something up and stop the so called “innovation towards utopia”.
I completely agree with this. Copyright WAS a great idea to get people to innovate. However I believe this should only be extended to acts which required great investment ie. The Dysan Dual Cyclone. Does anybody remember Jonas Salk? He discovered the vaccine for Polio. When asked who owns the patent to the vaccine he replied “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” Imagine how different the world could have been today without this selfless man.
See “How the music died” for an informed opinion on copyright today. It isn’t what it was 60 years ago.
While we in the west continue our bean counting the east is happily laughing at us and continuing their ascent to power.
Fuck you and your gay marriage, you fag.
Shawn said:
“With all that said, you’re an idiot, and your view of the world is simply rationalized narcissism and greed. Far from “liberating” art, you would completely destroy it. You know most artists go to college in order to deepen their knowledge of their profession, which in turn saddles them with mountains of student loan debt. But of course they aren’t real people, just abstract entities whom, unlike you, don’t require any of the basic necessities in life that you take for granted.
If their work has no “value,” then why do you want it? You really didn’t think that one through, did you? The fact that you want it shows that it has value. It’s just that you’re dishonest and unethical, but you try to convince yourself through claims of a BS “utopia” that you shouldn’t have to pay for it.”
That is completely incorrect and your arguments is mostly BS strawmen. Here is why:
There is more than 6 billion people. More than one billion of them are currently on the internet and more is coming every day. If you’re not a good enough artist to find a sufficient number of people willing to donate sufficient amount of money in order for you to pay your living expenses you will probably never make it as an artist anyway.
This can work with all mediums; music, games (just look at Dwarf fortress, that guy have been living on donations for years and your probably never heard about that game before), movies, books, you name it.
It will break the stranglehold the industry have had for years.
and when it comes to your idiotic comment on worth; yes its worthless. Worth comes from demand and supply. There is a limited demand but an endless suply. I can dowload a piece of music as many times I want. The only limit on suply is the artificial one created by the industry
I’m a boomer. I have been worried about my generation for decades. I admit that people my age have F’ed up the world from hell to breakfast but I’d like to point out a couple of things.
We were the ones who embraced Rock and Roll and started smoking pot when a single joint was a felony and could get one 3 to 5 years in prison. We stopped the Vietnam War, were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, protested nuclear power because of the radioactive pollution, supported the Women’s Rights Movement, and protested the invasion of Iraq.
We were the ones who rebelled against the unbelievable conformity we were raised with in the 50′s. I don’t remember how many threats I endured because I grew my hair long and wore bellbottoms.
I’m not asking for thanks from people my son’s age but there are those among us who fought the good fight. Without our rebelliousness the young people of today would still be protesting the Vietnam War, black people would still be eating in the alley ways behind restraunts and we might be glowing in the dark. We didn’t make the world a perfect place but we gave it a good fight. Yes, we’re old, too old to fight like we did 40 years ago.
Don’t judge all of my generation by the actions of the few in power now. They were jerks when we were young, they’re still jerks now. There’s still fighting to be done. Like another boomer sang, “Everybody’s got to fight to be free.”
The law is broken, i say we all resort to anarchy and let the strong survive. Darwin’s theory bitches.
try spending an entire year writing a computer program, putting it up for sale on the internet, then finding a cracked and free version available on pirate bay a few days later. that happened to me and destroyed my ability to make money from my program.
Yeah, I guess I’m waiting for the old generation to die… When you get to a certain age, you sort of realize that you’ve done your lot and the things you enjoy become less and less meaningful. A whole lot just doesn’t matter anymore. I look at the grandkids, and I love them and admire them. I look at the kids, their parents, and remember their own youth, and can see and compare similarities and differences in the behaviour I remember of theirs and the behaviour I see in the grandkids (and great-grandkids). Sometimes the activities I see are so different they are hard to understand. Sometimes a well-thrown or well-hit baseball brings a deep and familiar feeling to me, right in the gut. I grew up in the last century, about half way through it. Smoking pot and sex of all kinds and even file-sharing aren’t new to me. I used to fix and program mainframe computers, and make them do physical things. I own files so old there’s nothing to play them on.
I can see the eyes drifting on of you grandkids. The old guy is rattling on. So I’ll say, yeah, I’m tired. When I get old enough that I can’t wipe my own ass anymore, will anybody else care to do that? Cause you know, First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down. And it’ll all happen to every born one of us. God bless, kids.
ManoftheNorth
satan…really? what was your programs name? was it any good? was it REALLY expensive? most “normal”(read non geeks) folks don’t like FREE it has connotations of “cheap or shoddy” and they would rather pay a fair amount for their software
I think having children is what causes people to leave all their ideological beliefs behind as they age. Once one has children dependent on them, the fear begins to grow inside them. If they are maintaining, they’ll accept the status quo. They start seeing everything as a threat. I’m 46 and possibly more radical than when I was young, but I never had children. That and the fact that the ruling elite co-opt the younger generation as they come out of college.
Wow! It’s true! 26 is the new 16. I remember spouting the same crap, with the exception of file sharing (I didn’t understand it until 1976), when I was 16 in 1970. Grow up!
The problem in a nutshell is really, that while technology has grown by leaps and bounds, the majority of humans still act like they just fell out of the tree, and are ultimately just looking out for themselves. As you get older, your ability to adapt will decline, your options will dwindle, and your responsibilities will continue to mount. At that point, your ideology will be sacrificed in favor of protecting what you have.
This is why the baby-boomers have shifted gears (politically and financially) and are now actively fucking everyone except themselves.
Guess what? The majority of the assholes you call your contemporaries (and probably you too) will start doing the same shit as soon as they end up with a mortgage and a couple of kids they have to feed.
Humans are fucked. Unless we find another frontier, or embrace genetic modification to rid ourselves of this biological imperative to procreate, and/or lift the average intelligence quotient tens of points to an average above 120, we’re going to suck the life out of this planet.
TLDR; Kill old people.