I am not for the Republican Party. You must have guessed that by now. However, I am rather fiscally conservative. You see, I'm not against taxation, however, the principles that currently govern our tax laws are a little bit tricky. For example:
I have 100 dollars. Over a year inflation is 5% and I get taxed %15... I am now effectively down to about 81 dollars, instead of 100 dollars in a year. This system would be fine, if not for inflation. Because the government prints money and inflates the value of the dollar every year, all money is worth less every year. It does not matter whether you have 10 dollars or 10 billion dollars, inflation effects EVERYONE EQUALLY. So I must say that if I had the power to change one thing regarding money in this country, it would be to minimize inflation AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, if not get rid of it entirely. If that happened people could just keep their money. They would not have to invest just to keep the money they have already. People complain that people who get money from their investments are not being taxed enough because these gains are not taxed at the same rate, but this is actually a case of double taxation by the government. If you have 100 dollars, and put it in an investment so that you can not lose that %5 or more each year to inflation, then the government taxes the money you get out of this investment at an equivalent, or higher rate than the rate of inflation, slowly your money gets sucked away in either case. I say that if the government wants to tax these kinds of gains they also need to STOP PRINTING SO MUCH MONEY! And that is not fair.
So while I think it is MUCH MORE important in the long run to protect trees than it is to reduce inflation, money does matter, and double taxation isn't fair.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Communication Problems
So I'm fairly sure I mentioned this before, but seeing as so many of our legislators seem hopelessly confused as to what the problems are with the SOPA and PIPA bills, I think it bears mentioning again. I expected the Republicans to be stupid enough to fall for this BS, but I was suprised to see it's actually mostly Democrats that support these awful bills.
The problem is that this legislation would effectively give the government wide ranging powers to censor and control the internet in the name of "protecting jobs." It would actually kill jobs if these powers were to be used. It puts huge strain on internet start-ups like Thatguywiththeglasses.com, which is a site for reviews of movies, video games, etc. Sites such as this would effectively be put completely out of business by this bill simply b/c they use some short clips and images from the titles they review. This is not harmful to BIG COMPANIES... such review sites are HELPFUL to them, as they provide FREE ADVERTISING over the web for their products, which people can legally purchase in their entirity if they so desire. If Big Companies refuse to provide their products in legally purchasable ways to the consumer, should the consumer really be blamed for trying to find alternative sources to access these products? Before I mentioned that Disney, one of the biggest supporters of SOPA and PIPA, STILL refuses to release Song of the South b/c they fear backlash of racial criticism. On the other hand, WB has released many of their "racially insensitive" Looney Tunes Cartoons on DVD, with a disclaimer about the times in which they were made.
It seems to me that the Big Companies that support this legislation do not really understand what it could do to them. After all they have a cycle of fear regarding new technology, and it always seems to have worked out for them in the past. Is it illegal to record things off TV? NO... it's CALLED: DVR. What is the difference between DVR, buying a blank VHS tape, and downloading a video off Youtube? Not much... really, and yet nobody gets threatened with jail time for purchasing DVR service or blank VHS tapes... they are readily available.
So why do companies like Disney, Viacom, etc. think that crippling the internet is good for business? And why do our legislators think that these bills will not lead to INTERNET BLACKLISTS, KILLING JOBS, and MASSIVE BLOWS to FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
We already have to work on repealing: THE PATRIOT ACT, CITIZENS UNITED, & NDAA... we cannot allow this disintegration of our democracy to continue, or it will soon be too late to undo the damage. SOPA and PIPA will kill our power to organize over the internet and have our voices heard. Would you rather wait until words are no longer powerful enough to stop the growing PLUTOCRACY... in other words a government run by a small group of wealthy people?
STOP SOPA, PIPA, CITIZENS UNITED, and all other FREEDOM LIMITING legislation. Loss of FREEDOMS is a slippery slope that not even those Big Coporations would want to go down. We can make our government see why continuing these policies PROTECTS NO ONE, and only serves to HARM THE FREEDOMS OF ALL, including those who support it.
The problem is that this legislation would effectively give the government wide ranging powers to censor and control the internet in the name of "protecting jobs." It would actually kill jobs if these powers were to be used. It puts huge strain on internet start-ups like Thatguywiththeglasses.com, which is a site for reviews of movies, video games, etc. Sites such as this would effectively be put completely out of business by this bill simply b/c they use some short clips and images from the titles they review. This is not harmful to BIG COMPANIES... such review sites are HELPFUL to them, as they provide FREE ADVERTISING over the web for their products, which people can legally purchase in their entirity if they so desire. If Big Companies refuse to provide their products in legally purchasable ways to the consumer, should the consumer really be blamed for trying to find alternative sources to access these products? Before I mentioned that Disney, one of the biggest supporters of SOPA and PIPA, STILL refuses to release Song of the South b/c they fear backlash of racial criticism. On the other hand, WB has released many of their "racially insensitive" Looney Tunes Cartoons on DVD, with a disclaimer about the times in which they were made.
It seems to me that the Big Companies that support this legislation do not really understand what it could do to them. After all they have a cycle of fear regarding new technology, and it always seems to have worked out for them in the past. Is it illegal to record things off TV? NO... it's CALLED: DVR. What is the difference between DVR, buying a blank VHS tape, and downloading a video off Youtube? Not much... really, and yet nobody gets threatened with jail time for purchasing DVR service or blank VHS tapes... they are readily available.
So why do companies like Disney, Viacom, etc. think that crippling the internet is good for business? And why do our legislators think that these bills will not lead to INTERNET BLACKLISTS, KILLING JOBS, and MASSIVE BLOWS to FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
We already have to work on repealing: THE PATRIOT ACT, CITIZENS UNITED, & NDAA... we cannot allow this disintegration of our democracy to continue, or it will soon be too late to undo the damage. SOPA and PIPA will kill our power to organize over the internet and have our voices heard. Would you rather wait until words are no longer powerful enough to stop the growing PLUTOCRACY... in other words a government run by a small group of wealthy people?
STOP SOPA, PIPA, CITIZENS UNITED, and all other FREEDOM LIMITING legislation. Loss of FREEDOMS is a slippery slope that not even those Big Coporations would want to go down. We can make our government see why continuing these policies PROTECTS NO ONE, and only serves to HARM THE FREEDOMS OF ALL, including those who support it.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
2012
Well it's now 2012 and things are still going along... I just felt like rambling... I know nobody reads this thing... Hi Dave!!! :)
I wanted to say something about Copyright, and Trademark law in the US, and about this recent SOPA thing... so basically we've got a lot of big corporations that make a lot of money claiming that people are stealing their intellectual property by downloading music, movies, etc. over the internet from people who did not create this content. The companies then claim they are protecting the rights of the artists, writers, creators, etc. of this property. I have recently thought of starting a small line of plush toys based off of some creatures that exist in the fantasy world of my book, "The Quest for the Emerald Leaf." However, in order to get "fully protected" I would have to go through a fairly arduous process of getting a Trademark from the Government, which costs upwards of over $400.00 and with no guarantee that I will get one just b/c I paid and filed in advance... etc. etc, so I think we small business creators, artists, etc. need to pick a bone with large coporations that it is difficult to get fully protected by the US government for new products not backed by huge corporations and that if the big corporations concede they are being stolen from they must in return help and nurture all of us artists not currently affiliated with a large corporation so that we too may be reasonably protected. But of course I don't think what these companies really want is protection for artists. Disney doesn't mind stealing the idea of whales swimming through the air/starlight from someone I know, and who is a fantastic animator whose work has been seen by so many other animators it's fairly clearly a decent case to be made on his part that SOMEBODY borrowed this from HIM, an ARTIST... this segment can be seen in Fantasia 2000, as well as in my good friend, John Teton's animated film "Brae She'et," which came earlier. Disney doesn't have to pay him b/c they have the money NOT to do it.
Who wants to go through an arduous legal battle with a corporate giant even if you do have a valid case? It sucks... so we should not let them sway us with their "POOR US... we can't pay our artists b/c people illegally download things..." besides... there are statistics on both sides. By this statement I mean that though they have their "we lose money stats..." they totally hypothetical anyway... basically they go to the government and say something like "10,000 people illegally copied/downloaded this song, and I could have sold that song for $1.00 each on itunes so they stole $10,000.00 from ME!!!"
But they CANNOT prove that ANY one of those people would have paid them $1.00 for the song had they not had they option to get it FREE, so this statistic is FALSE.
On the other hand there are REAL statistics that DO PROVE that people who download stuff "illegally" are more likely to actually buy the products and/or related products if they enjoy the thing they got for free. So maybe a better strategy for the big corporations is to STOP WHINING about the cake they made and didn't sell by not giving a free sample, and just give the FREE SAMPLE so that we can taste the cake and we'll probably BUY IT after we do. After all... what costs the most money in Hollywood is NOT PRODUCTION COSTS... it's PR... and that's the truth. After all... they give free samples in the supermarket... I don't see Nabisco complaining about people trying their cracker recipes... you see, many of these big media companies just do not provide certain products for "wide release" anyway... so they only way to get them AT ALL is to find them online somewhere... so Disney... stop complaining about the theft, and release stuff like SONG OF THE SOUTH on DVD... then maybe we'll respect you more. In other words... don't antagonize your customers... it's not good for business. And BTW... you also need to watch who you're "borrowing" from.
I wanted to say something about Copyright, and Trademark law in the US, and about this recent SOPA thing... so basically we've got a lot of big corporations that make a lot of money claiming that people are stealing their intellectual property by downloading music, movies, etc. over the internet from people who did not create this content. The companies then claim they are protecting the rights of the artists, writers, creators, etc. of this property. I have recently thought of starting a small line of plush toys based off of some creatures that exist in the fantasy world of my book, "The Quest for the Emerald Leaf." However, in order to get "fully protected" I would have to go through a fairly arduous process of getting a Trademark from the Government, which costs upwards of over $400.00 and with no guarantee that I will get one just b/c I paid and filed in advance... etc. etc, so I think we small business creators, artists, etc. need to pick a bone with large coporations that it is difficult to get fully protected by the US government for new products not backed by huge corporations and that if the big corporations concede they are being stolen from they must in return help and nurture all of us artists not currently affiliated with a large corporation so that we too may be reasonably protected. But of course I don't think what these companies really want is protection for artists. Disney doesn't mind stealing the idea of whales swimming through the air/starlight from someone I know, and who is a fantastic animator whose work has been seen by so many other animators it's fairly clearly a decent case to be made on his part that SOMEBODY borrowed this from HIM, an ARTIST... this segment can be seen in Fantasia 2000, as well as in my good friend, John Teton's animated film "Brae She'et," which came earlier. Disney doesn't have to pay him b/c they have the money NOT to do it.
Who wants to go through an arduous legal battle with a corporate giant even if you do have a valid case? It sucks... so we should not let them sway us with their "POOR US... we can't pay our artists b/c people illegally download things..." besides... there are statistics on both sides. By this statement I mean that though they have their "we lose money stats..." they totally hypothetical anyway... basically they go to the government and say something like "10,000 people illegally copied/downloaded this song, and I could have sold that song for $1.00 each on itunes so they stole $10,000.00 from ME!!!"
But they CANNOT prove that ANY one of those people would have paid them $1.00 for the song had they not had they option to get it FREE, so this statistic is FALSE.
On the other hand there are REAL statistics that DO PROVE that people who download stuff "illegally" are more likely to actually buy the products and/or related products if they enjoy the thing they got for free. So maybe a better strategy for the big corporations is to STOP WHINING about the cake they made and didn't sell by not giving a free sample, and just give the FREE SAMPLE so that we can taste the cake and we'll probably BUY IT after we do. After all... what costs the most money in Hollywood is NOT PRODUCTION COSTS... it's PR... and that's the truth. After all... they give free samples in the supermarket... I don't see Nabisco complaining about people trying their cracker recipes... you see, many of these big media companies just do not provide certain products for "wide release" anyway... so they only way to get them AT ALL is to find them online somewhere... so Disney... stop complaining about the theft, and release stuff like SONG OF THE SOUTH on DVD... then maybe we'll respect you more. In other words... don't antagonize your customers... it's not good for business. And BTW... you also need to watch who you're "borrowing" from.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)