And years later someone came across that piano arrangement, found that a copyright had been registered on it, and (presumably being ignorant of the actual history of the song), thought they owned a copyright on the song and started trying to enforce it.
When it comes to copyright, never attribute to ignorance that which can be adequately explained by malice. They always try to enforce the rights further than they know they are entitled to.
You mean the money they just created out of thin air isn't really real?
That's usually a pretty funny bitcoin comment, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the situation in this case.
I'm becoming a bit of a fireworks nerd, actually. I grew up in the big city where firework sales were forbidden, and now I live in the country where you can buy them twice a year. We actually double up on fourth of July and get extras to save for the fifth of November and have a fun time then, as well.
I've gone so far as to research how to create my own fireworks, and I might actually give it a try some day.
Gunpowder is really the original world-transforming technologies.
Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other?
On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?
Steve, thanks for many enjoyable hours spent gaming and reading your company's books about gaming. I wish I could ask you how to make more hours so that I could still play today!
I have read that at one time you had cryonics arrangements with Alcor Life Extension foundation. Is that still true today? Are you optimistic about your chances? Do you recommend other people follow suit?
Err, why exactly would it be a bad idea to pay debts?
I wondered that, too, the first time I heard this. The answer is that it would be a bad idea to make debt payments if you are spending your rent or grocery money to do so. This is why we have things like bankruptcy laws.
Outrage is almost always a sign that someone is trying to manipulate you (either for page views, or something else).
An angry outburst is temporary insanity. You are not rational while you are angry, and anything you are thinking of saying or doing is going to be irrational and stands a high degree of making your problem worse. If you will train yourself to relax as your default habit whenever something frustrates you, and adopt the rule that you won't say or do anything until you have calmed down, you will actually train the neurons in your brain to focus on rational problem solving instead of producing an angry outburst, and you will be able to come up with much better solutions to your problems.
A debt collector knows that if you are thinking rationally when they call, you will not pay them, so they seek to get you upset so you will do something irrational. Politicians exploit the exact same thing.
As a parent I know the most important thing I need to do in raising my children is to keep my head and stay calm and relaxed so that the solutions I come up with to parenting difficulties will be rational solutions, the best solutions possible so I can do a good job of raising my kids.
This works for nearly any problem in life.
Maybe, there can be some justification for legally recognizing groups of people raising children together (their own or adopted) â" but I am not sure about that either...
As a libertarian I would say that each group or individual should be able to grant whatever recognition to those groups that they please, or withhold it. The group/couple should be able to get together and do what they want and their neighbors can consider them "married" or not, or whatever.
"What man has done, man can aspire to do." -- Jerry Pournelle, about space flight
