Our Constitution begin used against ourselves

Well if you have been following my posts you will notice that my comments are purely my own opinion and I write what's on top of my head.
The topics I write about are things that really make me mad, or disappointed, or things that make absolutely no common sense. Unfortunately it would seem that common sense is something that this Country and the rest of the world is missing a great deal of.
To quote a page from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense", a pamphlet of which I highly recommend reading, "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom."

So how do I tie that in with what I am writing? Simple really. The latest buzz on the Internet is about a women from Minnesota who file shared nearly 1702 tracks, but only 24 were targeted. Now, I think that we all know that downloading copyrighted material is indeed against the law and know all about pirating. However, this is where common sense has flown the coop.
Jammie Thomas, who happens to be a 31 year mother, had been tried for a copyright infringement case back in 2007 and was charged with a total of $222,000 in fines. She appealed and now it's 2 years later and the fines were multiplied by nearly 8.5% for total of 1.92 million dollars.
Say What?
So for a case that targeted only 24 songs, she is being charged $80000. Yeah that's FIVE zeros.
Now I know that she may have been found guilty of infringement and should be punished, but for a total of $80000 a song?!?

There's very few people who even make that amount in span of four years, but assuming she could make $80000 in four years and didn't make any other payments on anything...including necessities such as rent, electricity, FOOD, KIDS... It would take her 96 years to pay it off.

Take some time to think that over. 96 years. In less time than that our world went from riding in horse and buggies to landing a man on the moon.
Can our society have evolved at such a rapid pace that we have forgotten common sense? Is it possible that in the day and age of instant satisfaction, that things that we knew were wrong have been overlooked and now have become such a common occurrence as to make it right?

This case definitely shows how twisted our courts have become. I use the term twisted, because I cannot definitively say corrupt, though I would highly suggest that term.
The fight over any form of produced media has become so convoluted that the courts have become agreeable to the whims of the media moguls. By moguls I am referring to recording companies, movie companies, and even book companies. These are the ones that stand to loose profit by having their products spread out into the ether that is the Internet. Since they have no way to stop a person from going to the store and buying a DVD or CD and then taking the songs or movies from that media and making it available for sharing to others from their own computers, they have sought to make examples out of those that they can catch doing it.

Problem is that by doing so, only angers those who already do it, and creates doubt in those who don't understand it, and righteous vigilance for those who have never done it and feel that those who have should be punished to the fullest extent possible.

Yet here we are, looking at this poor woman and her fate of 96 years of lining the pockets of....Who?

Either way, the war is on. The problem is the war on whom? Those who download against those who don't? How do you prove that someone has downloaded something that they do not already own?

I will end this one by saying that yeah, I too have downloaded songs and movies, and other material. Though here's where I want you to think. What if I already owned some of those works that I downloaded and couldn't find my originals for some reason? What would you think if that by downloading something that I went out and purchased it because I thought it was so good that I wanted a "Legal" copy of it, would that make the download still "illegal" since I purchased the right to play it how I wished? Then again, what would you think if I had some form of media that I have had for years and was starting to fade and generally become unusable? Do I then have to go back to the store and purchase it again? I though I already purchased the rights to use that media, why do I have to buy it again?
You can see that just in these questions alone that the courts have gone too far with this sentencing. It's just common sense.

Thanks for the support

So I've been paying attention to the recent suit against MS and other such changes to how the interwebz is being controlled. Some seriouz crazy business goin on out there in the real world, though I hazard a guess that most of the politicians don't live in the same world as you or I.

Anyways, I just read an article this morning about Apple's recent pot shots they took at Windows at the WWDC09.
Now, I really don't care which OS a person uses, after it's their damned choice. What I do have a problem with is when a company gets on one band wagon and stays there, and as a pitiful side effect breeds blind fools that will follow that company to the end of the circuit board.
That's exactly what Apple has been doing these last few years. Instead of actually talking about their products abilities, well I should say mostly, the majority of their advertising is based on a bash windows system. If people think that Windows is failing or is seriously dangerous for people to use and not secure, then they will come and buy from us.
I understand that this is a free market society and I encourage that, people's choice will decide the outcome, always had and always will.
Apple does indeed have some fantastic products that are leaders in their market niche, however when it what said that Win7 is just another version of Vista and that "still has to deal with DLLs, the registry, disk defragmenter, and so on"...I find that highly distateful to users in general. Most users don't even know that those items even exist, much less know what they are.
The comment about it being another version of Vista is also ridiculous, after with Apple working on Snow Leopard, their next release, isn't that just another verison of Leopard?

The bashing of products really needs to cease, on both sides. I say sides since the leaders here are MS and Apple. Though a good majority of Linux users also bash MS.
The only way that a product will improve is when there is a demand for it, or if there is competition. Now for these companies, competition is rated in revenue, or as we lamens call it. Paychecks.

If you want them to improve it, then don't buy it. If the company truly cares about innovation and improving technology, then they will improve upon their product or create a new one to bring back a consumer base.

Anyways, I've digressed. I just wanted to say a thank you to all the Mac Users out there that have had it with the way that Apple has been treating Windows and appreciate it that even if for just a moment you say that this calling of names has gone too far and there needs to be a break.

A day of thought

Shout out to all who'll read this though this is just for me to vent...

I just had a double tooth extraction 2 days ago, damn my wisdom teeth, and I am now having phantom pains. I really don't see why the human body even has wisdom teeth, what the hell are they good for except making the lives of people who don't have dental insurance a nightmare.
I'm on a tight budget, like most people these days I reckon, so when it comes to insurance I usually sulk away. I figure if I ain't broken or bleedin to death then I'm fine. Hopefully there will be some serious medical reform coming soon, not some frontal facade to trick people into believing something different.

There's another thing that I have been thinking about today that doesn't have anything to do with my personal hygiene or health care. I've been giving some thought to the current anti-trust case that the European Commission has against Microsoft. Now before I go any further with my thoughts I just want to say that if you are a fanatic with no open mind then please redirect yourselves now.
Just a little background: The EC has filed anti-trust suits against Microsoft several years ago because MS was bundling Windows Media Player with Windows, and they believed that it was monopolistic and stifling other competitors.
So back to current events. Now the European Commission is filing suit against MS once more, except this time it's about Internet Explorer. It is their belief that with bundling I.E. with the Windows OS that it is giving MS an unfair advantage and once again becoming a monopoly and stifling competitors. This recent suit came about after a complaint from the Norwegian company Opera.

Now here's my stance. Do I believe that MS should open some of it's source so that other companies can provide workable alternatives to MS's own programs? Yes, to a degree. The Windows OS is a major player in the OS world, and thus should be allowed it's privacy. If you open too much source then you will have fanatics chomping at the bit to introduce more worms and viruses to cause nothing more than mere chaos. Then again you will also have those who would wish to introduce hidden loggers into your OS so that they can efficiently steal your credentials and thus your life. This is why a closed source can be a good thing, it provides security. To those who would point out that Ubuntu, or any Linux based OS is secure, I would say not entirely. It's just that why would you bother with just a handful of people that use these OS's when you can design something that would effect millions.

Also, when it comes to browsers, I hate to say it, but Opera just ain't what it used to be. There are only four main Browsers right now duking it out.
1. Internet Explorer: Provided by Microsoft
2. FireFox: Provided by Mozilla
3. Safari: Provided by Apple
4. Chrome: Provided by Google

If you look at Browser leadership, Opera is a dying breed. Yes, it's true that I.E. holds a majority over the other browsers, and yes that's because it is bundled with Windows. However, the gap between browsers is closing. That's because people who actually care about what they use are making pro-active choice of which browser they want to use.

I personally have used all of the above browsers including Opera at one point. My personal favorite is Chrome, though I am not using it at the moment because there are a few features that cannot be implemented just yet and those features are key points for me. So for the time being I use I.E. 8.

Now MS has offered to unbundle I.E. from it's near release of Windows 7 from the European Release, however, the EC isn't happy with this and they want to go further. They would have MS actually come with other browsers bundled with Windows so that users could choose which they would want to use.
Are you kidding me??? Since when does forcing a company to not only offer, but advertise a competitors program become a fair advantage to all? This recent stance from the EC is nothing more than a "Because I said so" routine and smells rather peculiar with the fact that the regulation against Windows Media Player has come to an end, at least with a constant review against MS, as well as the complaint from a rather low key browser company.
The sad thing is that other companies are jumping on this bandwagon, including Google and FireFox, as well as Safari if I recall correctly. More like buzzards to a corpse, though I highly doubt that MS is a corpse, or will be any time in the near Future.

If companies truly feel that Microsoft is a monopoly then I suggest that they develop a program that has appeal for all. Either that or get off their asses and actually do some real work to improve their product instead of passing of the crap that they say is competitive.

EC's case does nothing more that stifle a Free Market society, a place where the consumer decides the outcome of businesses and products. Where is the case against other companies and OS's to force them to abide by the same rules as Microsoft?

Since my ranting a raving is coming to an end, I just want to say, that if you don't like what you are seeing with the way Government is handling things....Then get out there and bitch, vote, write letters, form petitions, do anything that can get your voice and choice heard. If you choose to sit idly back and let Government make your choices for you and essentially let them live your life, then I say that you have no rights and no voice that SHOULD be heard.

well that's all i can type for now, me poor wittle fingers is bleeding lol