<rant>

Unfortunately this is all too common. Let's name some piece of legislation in a way that we can say things like, "How can you be against stopping online piracy?" But what is inside is vastly different than the name. It's always more gov't control over something and usually to get either power, money or both.

You're right. Why can't the government just stay out of it?

I know many people say that without the government and DoD (DARPA et al), we wouldn;t have the internet. Not true. Although the tech may have started there, it was the oppenness of free enterprise that made it explode into what it is today.

So leave it alone!!!

</rant>

Don

i have to laugh at these laws.

from both sides of the coin, i'm glad i sit in the middle. i remember a few years back i went to an iron maiden concert and they were on the band wagon of "hell yea!! download our stuff - the world should be free".  a few years later they realized..."um guys, we have no sales figures because we told everyone to share our stuff around"

again - laughable -

here's the deal - all the stuff you paid for, put it on the internet and label it free.  then have folks come and take all the things you worked for away; and then be happy about it -

i've heard the argument as well that companies are just after the big buck -

duh!

here's where peeps thinking gets all into a hot mess.  they feel that companies actually have some kind of relationship to the customer, and that the company should do everything in their power to provide you with everything you ever dreamed...

no -

a company is only there to make money...
not make you happy
not to keep you statisfied
not to make your day

to make money...

there are some techniques that help companies make more money through cost and customer service, but they are not doing it out of the kindness of their heart; they are doing it because someone sent them some metrics that proved it would boost sales...

i think later on today i'm gonna go down the street and hand over my wallet because the world should be free, and i should just simply work because it's in the interest of the greater good...

lmao -

cheers ~
i'm gonna go get my popcorn now and watch this mess play itself out - should be entertaining...