This goddamn blog is turning into a cheap soap box. Oh well, here goes nothing…
All of my friends in Boregon should know that Senator Gordon Smith is a far larger douchebag than originally suspected.
Senator Smith got some moneys from the RIAA and the MPAA (the people who control pop music and Hollywood). Now what is he doing, but trying to put an end to fair use! For my non-dork friends, this means that Senator Smith doesn’t want you to be able to use TiVos, iPods, and VCRs to their fullest extent.
The long and short of Smith’s proposed bill is that when you’re watching/listening to TV, movies, radio, Internet or satellite radio, the industry would have a legal right to “flag” the media. Flagged media would be restricted… it couldn’t be watched or listened to later (à la TiVo, VHS recording for later viewing, or saving a program onto your mp3 player). Basically, if this shit passes, it won’t stop piracy–it will just require us to download more cRakz and annoying warez programs to do what we want with our media!
But what do we do?? We could join some dorky ass squad and hand out flyers in the Trader Joe’s parking lot to yuppies who don’t care about this shit (despite the fact that they wear white earbuds too)! Instead, let Senator Smith know that you know that he is full of shit with this handy form (powered by the EFF–they are good people).
If you do that, good for you! You care about stuff. If you’re from Boregon and you have iPod toting friends, you might want to have them fill this out too.
I apologize for the fact that my blog has degenerated into this sort of political rambling–I just think that it’s fucking horrible that Senator Smith is pushing such crap legislation in my home state.