Ohmanohmanohmanohman!
Rockstar has announced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas slated for an October US release.

Oddest Damn Thing
Safe for Work Porn? (Don’t Bother SSC. It’s Blocked.)

Copywrong

The Constitution’s Copyright Clause grants Congress the power to “promote the Progress of Science . . . by securing for limited Times to Authors . . . the exclusive Right to their respective Writings.”
-Justice Breyer’s Dissent

A limited time which is extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time.
-Justice Antonin Scalia

Intention: Promote. Progress. Limited. Authors.
Interpretation: Stifle. Control. Perpetually.

Lawrence Lessig has been very hard on himself (article) for his loss in the appeal to overrule the current mockery of the U.S. copyright system. I think he did the best he could in a time where every particle is privatized and the thought of a public domain is a mere pipe dream. We can’t legally stream music to ourselves on the net, we can’t reprint books printed a hundred years ago, and no new information is entering the public domain.

Authors cannot benefit from their creations after they die: their corporal and corporate heirs do. The intention of Copyright law was to encourage publishing by granting authors (not their heirs or business associates) with a maximum of a 28 year term to enjoy the fruits of their labor after which time the works would pass into the public domain. By granting a limited term on a work, the law actually encouraged the dissemination of information and, in the end, increased the amount of information in the public domain.

Thanks to Sonny Bono and copyright extensions, Congress has sold out public property to the highest bidder. Sonny had in interest in extending copyrights on works: He was an author. He had no interest in securing information for the public domain or the increasing of public knowledge. No. He was stakinga flagg in intellectual property rights that his heirs would own forever. He was attempting to create an informational empire to be passed from one generation to the next in perpetuity. Like all congressmen, he was out for number one, and taking a number two on me and you.

So here we are. No music sharing even with yourself over the internet, no free public domain Classics to read, fear, anxiety, and intrepidation. We don’t share information or music with each other due to the uncertainty of the complex legalities involved.

It’s 29 pages, but it’s an interesting read: Breyer’s dissent.

CopyRight?
If a body can legally make a copy of a sound recording for their own personal use, could two people make fairusee copies of a CD if they bought it together? If so, could a library make unlimited copies of the music in its archives? As the CD is owned by the library, and the library is owned by the citizens, can the library distribute copies of sound recordings to the collective owners of the CD? There’s something that I’m missing on this one, but I’d love to see this loophole open up and see the RIAA fight it.

Posted in Anger, Geeky