Years and years ago, it was considered that one day we would have a convenient and efficient way to make micro-payments on line. Didn't William Gibson's novels foresee such a world? Anyhow, suppose news articles had a real "Like" button, not the Facebook Like. If you liked the story, you could click this button and give it a voluntary micro-payement of from a fraction of a cent to a few cents or as high as you wish. From time to time I have seen some excellent articles by some of the best professional journalists in the world that had a profound impact on my consciousness. In these cases, if there was a simple way as desribed above to show my appreciation I would certainly donate.

Why don't we have more signatures on this petition to have him investigated for bribery?

Every time a change to copyright law is proposed, it is in response to demands from powerful lobbies. When have you ever seen a grass roots demand for broadened rights, stricter enforcement, or longer copyright duration? Never! Legislation reflects neither the will nor priorities of the majority. People see this happening over and over again, feeling helpless while watching their rights being eroded away. They are not organized, have no lobbyists working for them and no money to buy the politicians with - nor should they need any of that! Their representatives have failed them.

Interesting comment, but your link didn't work for me.

I also read every one of the comments, on into the night. My impression is here. I concluded that this guy should feel so humiliated after reading all those comments he should want just crawl up in a hole somewhere and die.

I wouldn't worry that you discovered you were wrong about some little point. The point is that having the RIAA dictating legislation is wrong to the point of absurdity. Nothing good could have ever come of it. It had to be discarded like tainted evidence brought to a trial, on principal alone, in a swift summary judgment.

What struck me was how his reaction was so reminiscent of Former Senator Chris Dodd, the Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, when he felt betrayed after the defeat of SOPA and PIPA in spite of having paid millions in "bribes" to congressmen and senators. He said to them, "Those who count on 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," Many feel this is an open admission of bribery.

The game has changed, the vast majority are still misinformed and greatly outnumber the handful of people who actually see and can understand what is actually going on, so the powers that be pretty much can just ignore them.

I would suggest that you underestimate the intelligence and capability of citizens these days. In the first place, they are better educated than ever before in the entire history of mankind. Furthermore, having a myriad of sources for information, rather than confuse, I would suggest allows us to form an educated opinion far faster than ever before. Thirdly, we have instant access these days to our trusted social networks through which we may filter our opinions. Clearly I take an optimist view here. Let me give you a practical example of what kind of thing I base my optimism on...

Late last night, I read the piece by Cary Sherman, than for the next two hours I read every single comment below it, some 250 comments at that point (and closed off to further comments). I was absolutely amazed and astonished at how well informed the overwhelming number comments were. Furthermore, they all were overwhelmingly well thought out - the product of well digested thought. They were also overwhelmingly critical of Cary Sherman, I would say > 95%, and based on rational argument.

I would think after that Cary Sherman wouldn't dare raise his head up again in public if he read through those comments. He should feel thoroughly humiliated.

I was very, very encouraged, so much so that I will stop proselytizing my little manifesto. (I expect this to be the last link to it I'll bother to post, at least here.) People have moved past that now, and have already moved on to reshaping the future of copyright law reforms. There is a revolution underway, and there is no turning back. The people won't stand for it.

I have followed this Slashdot discussion up to here, and I see it has gone off on interesting little side trips. I strongly recommend anybody to read the discussion over at the NYT article, which stays on focus, for an eye opener. It is a wonderful and glorious piece of contemporary collective consciousness.

I'd view this with a healthy dose of suspicion. I'm in Canada. We are a small country population-wise, and subjected to bullying in trade negotiations by our neighbour, the USA. We are eternally pressured to enact stronger copyright laws for example.

One fine day, our government decided we needed to update our copyright laws. They sought broad public input. Now we are at the point of passing these new laws. Wouldn't you know it, though they consulted broadly, in the end they simply ignored any input that did not correspond with their hidden agenda. It was all a sham. Their hidden agenda was dictated by the US based corporate lobby. Even worse, after going through that process, at last minute they now want to sneak in new provisions that weren't even discussed, like DMCA laws. Worse yet, we don't have the fair use laws here that make the DMCA laws palatable in the US.

The bottom line is, this is probably what you can expect in Ireland, and is what has already happened in countries like Australia and New Zealand. We just cannot defend ourselves from Yankee Imperialism.

The problem begins in the USA, and it must be solved there. We must give our American friends who are fighting against this our full support.

WhyNotAskMe.org