posted on Dec, 18 2011 @ 04:53 PM
reply to post by Springer
Um, I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to talk about that, nor the smuggled Roman candle IR flare launchers and party-popper radar chaff dispensers.
Wait... did I just say that?
Hearkening back to the censorship thing, it's not surprising to see ham-fisted responses from the U.S. Congress to just about everything. Legislation
is a notoriously blunt and haphazard instrument known for frequently causing more problems than it solves.
Politicians are being squeezed by content producers who are tired of seeing their work stolen and sold for profit by thieves, and there's big money
and lobbying behind that. Unfortunately, the injured parties are often drawn to "solutions" that really won't solve anything. So far, most of them
seem more geared to sponsoring employment for low-end lawyers in "lawsuit mills" and scorched-earth tactics than practical and reasonable methods
for bringing fairness into the equation.
Meanwhile, the Internet is rife with entrepreneurs and "idealists" who see nothing wrong with people working hard and investing significant
resources to produce quality intellectual property, only to see it ripped off and benefit others who never lifted a finger to make it. As long as that
mentality is in play, something needs to be done about it.
The answers won't lie in legal frameworks that are typically impractical and obsolete before they are passed into law, but rather in the combined
efforts of good people around the world to come up with solutions that are sensible, fair, and practical.
Law and technology won't solve everything. Ethics and honesty won't either, but the more of us who embrace them in good faith, the better off all of
us will be.