“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” – Max Planck
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
“So my gift for playing video games should sustain my life? You nazi.”
Exactly! Thank you! 99% of people in the world have day jobs in order to support their hobbies. That’s the way the world works. Of course everyone would love to be able to support themselves through their hobbies: I wish I could make a living through blogging, or playing chess, or video games, watching TV, or solving logic puzzles. But I can’t. But I also don’t complain about it! It’s unreasonable to assume that I should be able to make a living doing whatever the hell I please, even if it isn’t marketable. The reality is, most musicians are hobbyists, not professionals. In the future, it might be harder to make a living through music, … But that’s not a bad thing!
He’s not making an absolute statement saying that all old people don’t know how to use computers he’s saying the majority of them don’t so please stop trashing this blog with “I’m 50 and know how to use a computer”, because the fact of the matter is the majority of you do.
On the other hand, the majority of us younger people do. Making everything free-sharing is not going to stop artists from doing their thing it will just mean that there will be other means to making the money they need to make…like advertising. Google is an enormously valuable company and they don’t charge you a cent for their service. By making everything free to share it will allow for innovation and the evolution of technology to be optimum while still allowing artists to make their money. If more old people knew how computers and technology works they would know this.
Yes, I really really am.
I’m 58, I know how to use a bit torrent client and I am with you. It’s not age, half of the baby boom grew up to be idiot republicans, the other half idiot liberals and almost none of them ever learned to think. I’m afraid you’ll find the same is true of your generation.
woody: WHAT. THE. FUCK.
PS: 99% of all statistics are plucked from the sky at the moment they are needed.
Without examining your link below too closely, I suspect this is just another cookie-cutter WordPress page.
Anyhoo, regarding the contents: speak for yourself.
At 69, I’m actually younger (at least in spirit) than some of my now-adult kids.
Baby boomers.. BAH! WTF does this mean, sonny?
See my latest website – still, still under development – http://www.medcannabis.ca ! Just speak to your doctor first.
Does this sound like an old babe-boomber fart?
-Percy
=====================
On 15 November 2010 20:40, Christian Z. zzaqqqa wrote:
Re: Hey, this guy is talking about us….old farts
http://www.philipbrocoum.com/?.....ure=repost
“So my gift for playing video games should sustain my life?”
no, because playing video games is recreation. being an artist is a calling, you’re born with a love, or you find it and it consumes your life. it is your purpose, your reason for living.. your gift to humanity.
to deny a human the time they need to fulfill their creative purpose and give back to the world is not only cruel, but a tragedy for all who would’ve been inspired by the work.
if video games is all you could come up with, i suggest you broaden your horizons.
When you spend 100 million dollars of your own money and commit over a year of your life to make a movie then post it for free on the internet only then will your opinion of file sharing will be worth anything. As for gay marriage and legalizing pot. I would go a step farther and say we need to the government out of marriage completely and legalize all drugs. It is your generation that elected Obama and continued this fantasy where the President is Santa Clause and is responsible for giving the people everything.
“no, because playing video games is recreation. being an artist is a calling”
You don’t find it even a LITTLE bit arrogant that YOU get to decide what is somebody’s “calling” and what isn’t?
http://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/.....president/
Man, if young people care about the future, why do so many of you smoke? (nicotine) And oh! so art should be free for the cloning, let’s just live with the ad-bots. Sorry, but unlike you, I don’t want my vision constantly bombarded by advertising. it’s not healthy for senile dudes like me.
And as long as I’m acting crotchy and old, you young kids know more about brands than history.
They’ve got you right where they want you and you don’t even see it.
At least we hippies know that we’ve failed to bring about the changes we hallucinated.
You guys are stuck in the Matrix so deep that only a reference to a reference to a real art moment means anything to you. Good luck, we’re still trying to make things work, straightening our trips out enuff to pay you guys into college, like our parents did us, feeling the energy and hormones drip away like sap from a tall tree. . . But it’s all good. Look out for young financiers.
To be honest I don’t think many young people can use the computer either. I can’t tell you how many times I had to fix younger peoples fuck ups with their computers over older folks. Also I know a many sysadmins and tech wiz that are in their 50s and 60s that can still doing all night hacking.
I should also add another comment. Just people you know how to use Google and log on Facebook doesn’t mean you know shit about the Internet or computers.
Here, Churchill said something like the following….
A young conservative has no heart and an old liberal has no brains.
It has nothing to do with age and everything to do with profit.
The government does the bidding of corporations that prey on the weak and helpless.
The only way to stop it is to create a citizenry that is capable of standing up and fighting back. If you’re not willing to do that because you’re afraid of looking “extreme” than stop complaining and get used to the government telling you what to do.
If you think freedom will come about just because a new generation doesn’t care about anything but pleasure you’re a moron. Freedom comes when the working class people rise up and fight back with a vengeance.
Baby boomers? George Carlin said this 10-20 years ago:
The Baby Boomers: whiny, narcissistic, self-indulgent people with a simple philosophy: “Gimme that! It’s mine!” These people were given everything, everything was handed to them, and they took it all, sold it all; sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, and they stayed loaded for twenty years and had a free ride. But now they’re staring down the barrel of middle-age burnout, and they don’t like it. They don’t like it, so they’ve become self-righteous, and they wanna make things hard for young people. They tell em abstain from sex, say no to drugs. As for rock ‘n’ roll, they sold that for television commercials a long time ago so they can buy pasta machines and StairMasters and soybean futures. You know something? They’re cold, bloodless people. It’s in their slogans, it’s in their rhetoric: “No pain, no gain,” “Just do it,” “Life is short, play hard,” “Shit happens, deal with it,” “Get a life.” These people went from “Do your own thing” to “Just say no!” They went from “Love is all you need” to “Whoever winds up with the most toys, wins”, and they went from cocaine to Rogaine. And you know something? They’re still counting grams, only now it’s fat grams. And the worst of it is we have to watch the commercials on TV for Levi’s loose-fitting jeans and fat-ass Docker pants because these degenerate, yuppie, Boomer cocksuckers couldn’t keep their hands off the croissants and the Häägen-Dasz and their big fat asses have spread all over and they have to wear fat-ass Docker pants. Fuck these Boomers, fuck these yuppies… and fuck everyone, now that I think of it.
Bunny said it best
“You don’t find it even a LITTLE bit arrogant that YOU get to decide what is somebody’s “calling” and what isn’t?”
you’re vastly missing the point here. there’s a huge difference between playing video games (ie: consuming) and CREATING video games. if you love video games and use that love to pursue a career designing game worlds to share with others, you’re an ARTIST in your craft. but simply sitting back on the couch and appreciating the end product of someone else’s work makes you a consumer, simply.
i’m simply addressing the false comparison brought up earlier that you echoed that somehow, sitting back playing video games is equivalent to what an artist does. which is downright insulting to anyone who knows firsthand how much life and soul the NEED to create can occupy when you’re an artist (truly a blessing and a curse).
as someone who worked a 9-6 job for 7+ years i know how it feels. you’re left with no creative energy at the end of the day and it leaves you wholly unfulfilled. very few artists can live that way and be happy. it’s not that they think they
“shouldn’t have to”, but more like they’re left completely drained and miserable, whereas some folks enjoy office life. each person is different in their needs in this life.
As an artist, I am expected to allow people to use what I do for a living for free? How about artists should be allowed to garnish the wages of people who steal from them if work isn’t important anymore in your “utopian society?”
this was one of the best thins i have read all day thank you.
You are completely wrong in all your conclusions.
Star Trek and intellectual property:
Your premise is based on a fictional device that we have no idea how does it cope with limited energy/matter. Your argument would be valid if there was an infinite amount of energy/matter to draw from. Intellectual property is meaningless in a world with infinite resources, because no matter how many copies one makes, the author can still live happily. But in reality, resources are limited, and therefore intellectual property is a valid source of profit.
Marijuana:
The problem is not Marijuana itself that may or may not be harmful (that’s up to debate). The real problem is why you are not happy without using substances.
I can reverse your Star Trek argument with this: in Star Trek, people do not use substances of any kind to stay happy. In TNG, there is an episode where that is explained: society has solve its problems and therefore people no longer need substances to feel happiness.
The real problem is emptiness. It’s emptiness that make people use drugs.
Gay marriage:
Why do you want it so badly? what purpose will it serve you? even if it is legalized, do you think that people will regard gays as normal? they will not, because people tend to think being gay is not normal. Why can’t you go on with your life, live happily with your partner? why do you want to change the others?
And then there is the problem of children. In my humble opinion, it will not be good for a child to have two parents of the same gender. Children need a male and a female, because both genders have different things to offer tho children. I really doubt that a child with two men as parents, for example, will get to know the affection of a female parent that has had the child in her womb for 9 months. It’s just not the same.
Conclusion:
Reading between the lines, one sees that you are desperate for some approval of your actions. Deep down, you know you are wrong, but just like many others of your generation that have had their egos hyped up by mass media, you just want to feel good about your actions.
Read ‘The structure of scientific revolution’
You arrogant punk! Who the fuck do you think started people thinking about changing things? Not you! You hadn’t even been thought of when we started things back in the late ’50′s!
Maybe if you had an education you might be less of an ass!
Only young people still imagine everybody doing what they do for love, not money. Somebody used Google as the example of giving it away and still making money from it. Google chose that business model, like OTA TV. Artists invest a lot of time and money into producing good art. All those who would choose to do it for free are already giving it away. Stop paying for it and then watch most of it go away. You’re only screwing yourself. We old people already see some of the quality leaving music b/c musicians can’t pay the bills with recordings – CDs are just advertising to get people to go to concerts.
Free stuff, like TV and Google, are not free but paid for by advertisers. Once you have your way and get everything for free (or by ‘sharing’), no one will make any money on anything, can’t afford to advertise… surely you can see where this is going – you’re so young and consequently so smart.
Just keep on demanding to get it for free. Especially if you really don’t want to get it anymore.
the fact that you just posted that whole thing achilleas is beyond me. i can clearly counter your argument to pot with the example of alcohol, why is alcohol legal? it does the same basic thing pot does? does it not? alcohol kills your liver, do we care? no. pot can cause lung cancer…no it cannot, smoking paper can cause lung cancer, pot, the drug itself when smoked through a bong, or a vape, can cause no such thing. but yet you argue that pot just fills an emptiness in ourselves?
now on the whole file sharing ordeal, I believe musicians should be for it, look at Dave Grohl, the guy is 42 years old and has said time and time again that “illegally” downloading music shows just as much support for the band if not MORE then buying music off of iTunes whom take a majority of the profit.
and as for your gay marriage argument, you sound like a complete fool. it effects my life greatly; growing up and knowing that I’m allowed to get married but my best friend isn’t because he likes men does not leave a nice taste on my pallet. you think that by calling us young and uneducated, that it will make us think that you may be right, but in actuality you bring nothing to the table but negative energy.
I do side with whomever said we rely too much on our president though, we as a people need to take control of what we want and start fighting back,instead of sitting on our asses. it’s the only way we will ever get anything done.
I think a lot of people aren’t seeing this in a very good light. You’re all thinking about it in the sense “I can smoke Marijuana, I can download free stuff and my gay best friend will be accepted” but each to their own, they have pro’s and con’s. As a young person myself, struggling in the music business I believe filesharing is wrong and right, I can’t afford 4 grand pieces of software, nor can I afford a lifestyle if my music isn’t receiving royalties for downloads, but how would I progress far enough without free downloading?
Gay people will never be accepted, even our generation are homophobic and the next generation probably will be too. It goes without saying that Gay Marriage may be legalised but it wont actually stop homophobia…it may just outline people and ’cause discrimination. Though it may be a step in the right direction to gay people becoming more accepted in society. (Personally I find gay people extremely fun and interesting people)
Marijuana has a brilliant economy, introduce it into natural life and we may well be pushing ourself into the black again. Which obviously would be brilliant in our country and might give David Cuntron a thing or two to think about on the budget cuts, then again Marijuana causes apathy…how will we be able to sustain a good working wage if we’re all to apathetic to get out of our houses, more people on benefits, back into the red we go.
There’s pro’s and con’s to everything but it’s all a matter of opinion. Legalise it all, we might progress to a brighter future, or maybe a worse one, we’ll never know until we do something about it.
Hi it’s me again, I was reading through the comments.
You’re all acting like broody teenagers. Like I said, pro’s and con’s! It’s your opinion fair enough but flaming the poor guy/girl is wrong. They’ve given a very vaild point and as for your comment ‘Dan Law’
If you are going to call someone an ‘arrogant punk’ with ‘no education’ I would expect you to at least throw an educated insult out there. Not calling the words ‘ass’ and ‘punk’. There are many more ways for people of YOUR AGE to insult a younger person, it seems you are the one with the lack of education. I’m 16 years old and it appears I am far more capable of telling you off without using any graphic language toward you. Also it seems I’m not the one pointing the finger at my generating expecting you to believe that we changed things. Things were changing far before the 50′s sir, I would’ve expected you to know this, far more greater things were at work before you were around.
I hope that comment was an eye opener, not all of the younger generation are ‘punks’.
As someone I knew once said,
“You weak-minded fool”
you put in the same bucket several things that have nothing in common and cannot be handled as one:
1. gay marriage – that is human rights thing
2. marijuana – this is a medical problem that you obviously no nothing about (and in 30 years you will probably think differently about it)
3. filesharing – this is violation of property rights of others. this is the opposite of human rights: you suggest to allow stealing things that other worked hard to build.
I think you are quite childish and have not really thought this through. As I said – you will most probably mature one day, like most people, and then you will see things differently. I was like you too when I was 12 years old.
Not quit accurate….I know plenty of people our generation who don’t believe in gay marriage. And I know plenty of older adults who are quite well versed in technology. What you’ve got here is a blatant generalization.
Aside from that, our generation will probably be just as annoying when we’re the old ones. You do realize that the “older generation” is the one that ushered in rock and roll, popularized drug use in the media, and ended legal segregation based on race?
First I would like to say that the reading so far has been refreshing. I would like to thank everybody for contributing. Secondly I would like to say that “no one person knows absolutely everything”, and anybody that claims to be an expert to the detriment of their own learning and enlightenment, is a poor man indeed(both in spirit and in knowledge).
On the subject of file-sharing and its supposed advantages and disadvantages I have to say that first of all, being that current economic theory is just that, theory, I would like to point out their is no unifying theory between macro and micro economics as their is none for quantum and traditional physics.
Secondly, the egotistical assholes that represent their respective record labels are (as competitors) teaming up to solve their perceived common problems, but what it really boils down too is who’s gonna do their worst to granny and her Shirley temple songs and sonny and Cher hits, or mister missed my tweens wannabe hacker/script-kiddy/leecher/mule/scene whore. By focusing on these problems these businesses are all investing resources away from building true value in their companies by strengthening and re-enforcing brands.
Ultimately these companies have got to realize that their structures just wont work anymore, their efforts have to be invested in identifying procedures and operations that could be accomplished cheaper by a specialty provider. Identifying different sectors of markets and their financial data and fine tuning business processes, capitalizing on strengths, limiting weaknesses, and last but not least…. WORKING WITH THE CREATIVE PROCESS!!!!
The biggest arguments you can make to these businesses is that its cheaper to transform and re-invent your business models than it is to slowly turn customers into the enemy.
For all those that say they were/are the ones changing things, change occurs naturally, ask any biologist, sociologist, linguist, historian, cosmologist, psychiatrist, doctor… and any number of scientists and professionals of all walks of life. and nature created you… by proxy.
For those that dream of a world where everything is free and all is good in the world, your more steps away from that than any mathematician would care to count. Democratic countries with globally active free market economies are about as good as it gets. People seem to forget that governments, corporations and entire countries are made up of just people, and that systemic problems can only be solved by the parts of those systems recognizing those problems, proposing solutions and volunteering implementation. You say that money is the root of all evil, I say money is as technology, their potential for good or evil are only realized by those that possess them… Like the death ray
Money is the best incentive system we have next to fearing omnipotent and vengeful gods. If you dare to dream of a world free of such limitations and go so far as to voice those opinions, prepare to be met with opposition. The psychology of money is both fascinating and world-shattering… and it is exactly that, psychology. A psychological scalable representation of value through which various products and services can be obtained, and traditionally can only be obtained by providing/creating products/services.
One of the next logical steps is to devise a system devoid of the representation of value by way of paper money/precious metals and rather be based on the abilities of all persons involved, thereby having an inherent limiting factor in any individuals ability to potentially gaining of wealth and ensuing influence(along the lines of barter, but with subsystems and processes to cater for social welfare and progress in academia/industry). This system would have draw backs like any other. Societies with relatively rapid evolutionary tendencies in culture/s will be more susceptible to trends that are adversely negative to the whole of society.
Most populations are way to diverse for any system that requires absolute individual voluntary compliance. The only way for it to occur at all is for all those that desire such change, to be the change they want to see in the world, through their actions, and their derived benefits, inspire others to join in, participate and communicate with others effectively.
Now as for legalising pot, its more a number of steps than just one. Let me pose this as a series of questions.
If you don’t even consider legalizing pot and/or loosening red tape to access resources, even for scientific testing, how can you ascertain any possible positive or negative effects on humans due to the lack of ongoing study?
If your not as honest and un-biased as scientifically possible, how can their be any true/significant progress on the matter one way or the other?
If your not going to consider the other side of the equation for example existing industry with indirect consequences, ie pharmaceutical companies, timber, textiles, energy suppliers, security, law enforcement, corrective services, perishables, fresh produce, etc… and prepared to quantify and articulate the adverse effects these industries are going to experience then one has to ask, are you just considering yourself?
If your not prepared to hear rational debate from the opposition are you expecting them to be reciprocal?
If you accept the fact that drugs enhance or numb aspects of physical experience, why is it so hard to think that maybe drugs also enhance/amplify and numb aspects of someones personality?
If your not going to lead or follow why don’t you get the F@#K out of the way?
Now onto gay marriage
I once had a big problem with homosexuals, the sight of them prancing about would often be met with derision and sarcastic prose. but after a lot of soul searching I found it wasn’t them I dis-liked. Purely and simply it was jealousy, not because im homosexual, but because they had obviously done their own soul searching, broken out of their own comfort-zone and come to be comfortable and love who they are and found others that accepted them for who they were and vice-versa, both a lifestyle and a culture that is both diverse and welcoming. After really being honest with my self I realised that (as others have expressed as “emptiness”) could only really be filled by seeking out and finding my own place to belong among kindred spirit. My love however is in the technical, spiritual and um… Herbal
I am what the informed would call a hacker, the less informed would call a hardware hacker and the completely clueless would call an inventor. My oath is to the persuit of knowledge, my creed is to teach what I have learnt, my aim is to converse with the like-minded, my desire is to keep my interpretations and perceptions open to adjustment and my purpose is to create in order for others to learn and create.
That emptiness in me has not bothered me for along time, wherever I go, wherever I am and whatever I do that feeling is always with me. That profound knowledge that I am totally and utterly insignificant in the scope of the universe but my not existing would cause profound difference, and so the existence of anyone of any shape or form, creed or colour deserves as much right as the other to exist, their inalienable rights and respect for being brave enough to be who they are despite whatever opposition they may face.
I feel the debate cannot make progress until those on both sides that hold grudges and misconceptions, recognise their own biases and other limiting factors to a civil and well informed debate.
I personally know someone my age who was one of the first IVF babies born to a female same sex couple in Australia, who’s just gotten married and in a very happy hetero-sexual relationship. Having said that I personally dont know any girl born to either maler or female same-sex couple nor boy of a male same-sex couple so mine isnt exactly a broad and all encompassing view.
To the old timers that were there, that did it, that fought the good fight, you should be happy that so much more information is available, that so many young people (as you have done so) are even more selfless as to think of generations ahead, its these people that will go onto to inspire others and to prepare the way for the next generation, to provide and improve the tools they need to survive and cope with all of lifes trials and tribulations and the environment that man has created for itself and will continue to alter and change. For all those moments you showed courage in the face of adversity and steadfastness in opposition of your ideals I humbly thankyou. But bringing negative and feelings of uselesness to the table will do no-one any good, your experiences and insights might not be as worthless as you thought. For those that have since had their”eyes opened” to the “real world”. Please remember that that reality is only manifested by certain peoples desires and others compliance.
I would like to end this with a Chinese proverb I picked up along my travels, it goes a little something like this;
Heaven is much like Hell. In both their is a long table that seats many people, each person, as the person across from him has and will always have a very large and cumbersome pair of chopsticks.
On these tables are a kings feast, of everything their hearts desire, the only difference in heaven as opposed to hell is everyone in heaven is plump and jolly, while everyone in hell is skinny and miserable, simply because everyone in heaven feeds the person across the table from them with their giant chopstick while everyone in hell is busy trying to feed themselves.
“Ive said it before and Ill say it again, we need more buzz words like emotional intelligence and collective intelligence….. SCIENCE DAMNIT!!!”
RogueSch0lar
I hate to tell you, but by the time baby boomers die, YOU will be the new “old generation”. As a group, your values will change, you’ll become more conservative and set in your ways, and the young generation after you will be waiting for you to die. Study history, and you’ll know I’m right.
Im well aware of the irony in that paradox, but the only thing I can do is lead by example and hope and pray to any god that will hear it that, in my old age I don’t become so conservative that dog food becomes a mainstay item in my diet
but thanks for validating my rant
Excellent post. I also like Percy’s George Carlin quote.
@Achilleas Margaritis
You’re silly.
Intellectual property is meaningless, period. It’s a social construct. People produce art out of raw materials that don’t belong to anybody, and when they’re done they still don’t, either. We only get to buy and sell them because our civilization endorses ideas like “currency” and “property”. Other cultures have done without and so could we.
The question isn’t even about being a valid source of profit. It’s about being an ethical source of profit.
Cannabis
There’s do debate about grass outside of busybody political or religious conservatives that can’t keep their noses out of other people’s business.
Gay Marriage
There’s do debate about gay marriage outside of busybody political or religious conservatives that can’t keep their noses out of other people’s business.
Conclusion
Reading between the lines, one sees that you are desperate to validate your views on a world you don’t understand by being more “right” than the author of this column, irregardless of the truths of the world around you. Deep down, you know you are wrong, but like many others of your generation you just don’t have the guts to take a long look at yourself in the mirror.
You don’t seem to realize we all felt that way when we were college kids. You will change your perceptions about a lot of things change when you get older.
file “stealing” is a perfect example of why utopia is impossible. As long as there is someone out there with something, there is gonna be someone else out there trying to figure out how to steal it from them
I’m afraid they said the same thing when they were our age. Just fill in the three blanks with civil rights, women’s lib, etc…
Achilleas Margaritis wrote:
The problem is not Marijuana itself that may or may not be harmful (that’s up to debate). The real problem is why you are not happy without using substances.
And the way to make people happy enough to stop using drugs is to fine them, put them into jail, take their kids away, make them jump through ridiculous hoops, make them second-class citizens and create a practically kafkaesque control and surveillance system while making sure that dope is dealt only by the most unscrupulous and violent people..
Do you see what the REAL problem is?
Time has the effect of changing the way one looks at pretty much everything. Should you maintain your current stance, rest assured there will be room found for you in a care facility for the mentally infirm when you are old and gray.
The, ‘we can change the world’ attitudes presented by a ‘hope and change’ manifesto are now proving themselves to be neither. When J.J. Abrams stated, “This isn’t you fathers Star Trek”, I am sure he didn’t expect it to tank at the box office, but it did.
So before you throw your fist into air and wave it all about while ranting on about this or that. You might want to toil at life for a few decades, harvesting what those before have gained while becoming wrinkled, old and gray; ‘experience’.
You’re absolutely right: the new Star Trek movie only grossed $385,494,555 worldwide. Talk about tanking.
File sharing is enabled by digitizing information. This process is inherently open – I’m not talking morals here, I’m talking bout what it is – beyond draconian measures (see the pirate bay information), that suspend basic human liberties there is no way to keep digitized information secure enough to keep it from being copied.
Or to put it another way, it’s just ones and zeros. You can’t secure it without shooting someone through the head.
Pot – none of my business what you smoke.
Gay – none of my business who you fuck.
The idea that this is an age issue, where generally young people are liberal and older are conservative, is absurd on the face of it (IMHO).
However, younger people have grown up with digitized information and would therefore have generally have a better understanding of it, which I think may have been the author’s point.
Now. Who is up for Pizza?
Jaakko Mäki -
Your comment is so cool, it makes me want to cry.
Nice one.
So much hate, selfishness and lack of empathy on both sides of this ‘debate’.
cannabinol does not wait for the future, the is no such thing
=)
there is no such thing as ‘old’ either…
there is fluency, we just hope everyone could see that!
but we see your point and understand what you said.
kisses
As a computer science major, I hope to be writing much of the software that you will be using in the future. While the big music and movie producers can take a hit to the wallet, and very much deserve to do so, software programmers are already middle class. I think everyone is in agreement that copyright laws are in serious need of reform, but how do you tell me that the programs I produce should be given away freely. Programs that others might use for production of money themselves, or pleasure. They are demanding a product that I am producing, yet I will not be paid for my efforts. I will have no means with which to sustain myself. The software industry will suffer greatly. Do not point to Open sourced software as a viable model, there are very few open sourced programs that actually pay their programmers, and almost none that pull a profit from adds on their website.
@Michael, as a programmer, you certainly can’t complain. Real median household income in the United States in 2009 was $49,777 [1]. I’m a programmer as well, at the low end of the spectrum, I might add, and I make more than the average family. That means I’m rich compared to most people. Furthermore, programmers are and will be for the foreseeable future in incredibly high demand; computers and the internet are unbelievably important and they aren’t going anywhere. You can’t ask for a much better job than programming these days. Programmers are upper middle-class at worst.
I hate this argument that people are demanding free stuff. No we aren’t. You want to know something? If musicians really think that sharing is such a big problem then they should STOP MAKING MUSIC. In reality, of course, musicians are making more music than ever, but even in your weird world of music disappearing it should be simple enough to fix: stop making music until you get paid for it. Then we’ll see what the real price of music is, if anything. Right now, it appears that the price of music is approaching zero because of the free market.
The same exact thing is happening with software. Virtually all paid software has a free alternative that’s better. The entire internet, literally, runs on free software: LAMP — Linux Apache MySQL and PHP. In fact, the internet wouldn’t exist without open source software. You missed something: open source is not a viable BUSINESS model, but it’s an extremely successful and viable MODEL.
But wait, if there is so much free software out there, how are programmers making money??? Easy: people commission programmers to write NEW software.
Let’s go back to the art analogy: people always say that art requires money and that Leonardo da Vinci, for example, wouldn’t have created all of his amazing art if he wasn’t paid by kings and things. Of course, but he wasn’t paid to copy one painting onto another; he was paid to create NEW paintings. That’s why it’s so silly to pay for something that can be copied for free. Likewise, if Hollywood wants good music in their movies, they commission John Williams to write the music. You can’t pirate music that doesn’t yet exist.
It’s the same thing with software. Nobody should pay a programmer to write blogging software because there’s already a million free blogging platforms out there. However, programmers are paid to write NEW software that doesn’t yet exist. My company, for example, sells press release distribution software. Even if people got their hands on the source code, it wouldn’t do them any good because they would have to run their own servers, get their own databases, maintain their own facilities, fix their own bugs, etc. Instead, they pay us to do it. Programming is a SERVICE, not a PRODUCT. Just as it is and should be with art and music.
In fact, all the free software out there makes it EASIER for me to make money as a programmer because I don’t have to write my own web servers, or my own blogging platforms, or my own languages, or my own databases, or my own operating systems. All that free software out there frees up my time to do more important things, new things, better things! Things that people pay me for!
[1] http://www.census.gov/newsroom.....0-144.html
No, don’t legalize any drugs that alter one’s state of mind. Stupid humans.
@Philip
Thanks for responding, I had forgotten about commission work. It totally slipped my mind.
It’s a difficult topic, and most people are too close minded to think of either way as being a possible solution.
I am an artist too, and well… having your art being used without your permission kind of sucks. But I never expect anybody to pay me for what I love doing, it never feels right. Perhaps if downloading came at some other cost other than your wallet…? Permission? Who knows! But artists and musicians alike should be at least acknowledged and asked beyond all.
As with drugs, and gay marriage, and all this lar-di-dar crap…
eh.
I don’t care, I have no opinion of it. Drugs can really stupidify people, but also make them a little bit more smart. As with many people say above myself, it has pros and cons. EVERYTHING DOES~