Martin Luther King Jr Would Roll Over In His Grave...

     January 18th was, "Internet Freedom Day", something I didn't even know existed until 24 hours later. A celebration of the defeat of SOPA and PIPA. Propositions which would have regulated free speech on the internet. While this is a great thing that these initiatives were defeated, we're a long way from a truly free internet. As part of the celebration a website had posted Martin Luther King Jr's iconic "I have a dream" speech. Within hours though, that speech was taken down from the website Vimeo, presumably due to a "copyright" request from Mr. King's estate, (i.e. his family).

     Apparently it is very hard to find a full length version of his speech anywhere, unless you want to pay his estate $20 for it on DVD. It's my belief that Martin Luther King Jr. is rolling over in his grave right now, because of the way his descendants are prostituting his heritage. That speech was a milestone in civil rights in this country and should be available freely on something like the internet, which didn't even exist when that speech was made. Because of the greed of his family though, it is only available to those who want to pay for it. I've been a staunch advocate for rewriting the copyright laws in this country. They've been hi-jacked by corporations to "protect their intellectual property" and are now stifling true education and freedom of expression. Greed has become the over-riding factor in copyright law, and it needs to be rewritten so that important cultural landmarks don't disappear from the landscape.

TV SUCKS...WHY?

It's Easter Sunday, and TV sucks! It doesn't even really matter that it's Easter, TV sucks all the time anymore. Why? For as long as there has been television programming, and movies, why does TV have to keep re-showing the same crap all the time? Why have I been seeing the same twenty or thirty movies being played over and over and over and over again! My GOD! How many times do they have to replay Batman Begins? How many times do they have to have a Battlestar Galactica marathon?

The real problem is that there are only a few wealthy people/organizations that own the rights to too much of the media for the last 50 years or so. There might be 150 channels out there, but 99% of them don't have any "rights" to show some of the great things that have been produced over the years. So we get stuck with the same few things they do have the "right" to show, and sucky reality TV programming.

In my opinion, the whole concept of copyright needs to be re-thought. I think the copyrights to anything, should last no longer than twenty years. Once you create something, you get the exclusive rights to it for twenty years, then after that, it's fair game. After all, twenty years gives plenty of time for a whole new generation to come along, and for the most part, they're not going to care about what was created by the generation before them anyway. Just because a new medium comes along and someones work gets transcribed to it, does that automatically mean they should be entitled to make people pay for it all over again just to see it on the newest device? I think not.

I hate to think about the fact that I've had to buy the original Star Wars movies on just about every medium they've come out on. VHS, DVD, digital, etc. etc. If I've bought them once, shouldn't that give me the right to see them from then on in whatever format they're in? I mean, it's not like the content changes...well, in the case of the Star Wars movies, I guess the content does change since George Lucas can't seem to leave well enough alone, but you get my point, right?

John McCain - Elitist!