Friday, June 27, 2003

USDOJ: Environmentalists = Ticking Time Bombs Robert Dreyfus in  Mother Jones (7/2003):   Under a Justice Department training curriculum, police are taught to pay attention to citizens' political affiliations and to look out for "enemies in our own backyard." Police are directed to collect information on the "structure, philosophy, number of members [and] locations" of groups including "the Green movement," which is defined as "environmental activism that is aimed at political and social reform with the explicit attempt to develop environmentally friendly policy, law, and behavior."           Put down that Save the Whales poster and step away from the car! This whole passage is so horrifying I don't know where to begin. You get the feeling that the police are supposed to be showing restraint by only spying on people who are explicit environmentalists. Heaven forfend they  mistake someone who merely likes to wear Birkenstocks for a genuine, dangerous tree hugger! Their bizarre use of the word "friendly" probably speaks for itself.   In the same article, an attorney from the city of Chicago says that the city's newly reactivated Red Squad will monitor ACT UP, anti-abortion groups, and people who demonstrate against the World Trade Organization. You've been warned... Woody 7:43:11 PM    comment []

Those Nerds Won't Pay In an earlier post I opined that junk food lawsuits were the wave of the future. Here is another kind of lawsuit that will probably go nowhere: suing individuals who let people copy their MP3s. I will really have to wonder what these people are thinking. Certainly, file sharers will find these lawsuits a bit intimidating. But will the industry actually win any, after all? Is any jury really going to make some hapless geek pay damages because he/she theoretically deprived the recording industry of revenue? Where is this money going to come from anyway? Are the people who provide the files millionaires, or even hundred-thousandaires? Frankly, the record companies may be worse off if they win. Popular music is marketed on notions of rebellion and individuality. Nobody will want to buy allegedly subversive youth culture with a gun to their head. The real nightmare scenario for the record companies, and one that is fairly realistic, is if the downloaders they sue become folk heros who spawn thousands of imitators. They could spark a rebellion against the very idea of paying for recorded music. Then they would really be in deep doo-doo. Some will ask, but what if the recording industry goes bankrupt? Cry me a river. The function of the big record companies is to make everyone listen to the same crap. Fans will always support artists they like. Even if they didn't, there are worse scenarios than having to listen to music made by amateurs. AIDS, global warming, shuttered emergency rooms, these are things to fret about. The fate of the music industry is not. Woody     6:41:50 AM    comment []

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