Friday, 25 January 2008
Dude, where's my right to copy?
Hi there CardMeeting ppl,
Let me help you direct your ire: rich dudes hoarding all the intellectual property.
Sorry in advance for going all chimpanzee today, but I've been absolutely SLAMMED the past two weeks with coding and the brains are shutting down. Many all-nighters, its been brutal. So, in honor of my feeling cranky, I thought I'd go off on a bit of a tear on something. Hmm, let's go ape on, um ... copyrights! :)
Microsoft has a funny way about slipping a little hidden gems into fix packs and whatnot. Heck, they are getting so sloppy/brazen that they're installing stuff without permission and against user preferences now! You know, this is the biggest problem I see with big companies: they get these funky alliances and partnerships going and before you know it, their whole purpose gets all twisted around. It's really shameful to me that Ballmer went from "Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers" (omg) to "Advertisers, Advertisers, Advertisers" (wtf) in just a few short years.
Mister Softie, you really have lost your way.
But like I was saying, you lose track of what makes you you when your alliances control and define you. The intellectual property thang and control of media is the heart of that whole identity surrender that has happened with big mega companies, particularly Microsoft, today. These companies don't want to make the best delivery vehicle for media and information, they want to control the information and own it and lease it to you in bite sizes. You wind up with impossibly unfair laws and twisted, annoying new technologies like DRM and Trusted Platform Modules.
(Ok, don't get too sidetracked, Dave.) What drove me to write today other than insanity is a little observation I made of something Microsoft slipped into an XP fixpack. This observation has been burning in my brain ever since I first noticed it; I was OUTRAGED by Microsoft's impudence frankly. This little gem was slipped in there and they went and kept it in future Windows versions. I haven't heard this talked about anywhere, and so, I thought the time was right to bring it up as the subject of this public Microsoft lynching.
What I am grumbly about is, of all things, the Windows XP splash screen! The Windows XP SP2 diverged from every Windows splash screen that came before. Here are some screenshots lovingly constructed by some complete raving madman laughing factory worker on the interweb:
Notice the differences? Interesting they dropped the edition moniker, (bespeaks laziness by the patching crew, ahem.) But, pay no attention to that, that is not the outragifying factor!! What is so brazen is that Microsoft dropped the YEAR designation on their Copyright notice!
Ohh, that makes me so mad. How DARE you try an lock it up like that, Microsoft?! Why you little... What a crummy, shameful thing to do, to try and obfuscate away MY FUTURE RIGHT TO PLUNDER!!
No, Microsoft, your works are not immortal. Your intellectual property is NOT forever! You don't just get to copyright something and then it's game over, Dave loses! Your copyright WILL expire, and the blood of Christ COMPELS you to put a year on there to remind me when I get to start copying the heck out of your works free and clear to grandma and my neighbors!
Sigh, ok, whew, I feel better now... Time to go grab a beer.
[Beer is popped] Ok, I'm back. The problem I see is with the intellectual property hoarders. These guys are the new king of the hill. We gots to DO something about that. And, as your new revolutionary rewind copyrights movement leader, I command you to bring me their heads. (Said in a proverbial sense, please don't go actually beheading any fatcats on my behalf!)
Commerce, innovation, the advance of culture - it all gets stimulated because of fair use and the expiration of copyright. Now copyrights last for like, what, 99 years after the death of the copyright owner? All we get from that is information stagflation. It is virtual copyright immortality. We get the rehashing of the rehash by the IP hoarders only. Well, just keep tightening your grip Microsoft and others, see where that gets you.
Time to reverse laws and go back to the 7 or 14 year copyright model, whatever it originally was in the states. After that time, the copyrighted work enters the public domain. THAT is why the year is printed next to the copyright symbol.
♥ Lovingly yours, ♥
Dave Woldrich (dave@woldrich.com)
P.S. And yes, I realize this whole rant was uttered by the biggest hypocrite in the world, (that would be me), who fails to distribute the majority of his copyrighted works because they live behind a server and firewall. :P Oh sweet, delicious irony, getting to your creamy center is so sublime!!
