Unnamed rant 1.

[Requia ☣]

So Obama has screwed over a smaller group of his followers, and broken another campaign promise.  The man still has two weeks till he takes office and he's already on a roll.  His latest trick?  He's reversed his stance on copyright, and appinted to the 2nd and 3rd positions in the Department of Justice the principle lobbyist behind the last copyright extension act, and the guy who arranged royalty fees so high that when they take effect internet radio will be permanently shut down.  

I know you don't fucking care about the copyright wars, but aside from a quick mention that Biden was already a Hollywood shill and we should have seen this coming, this isn't about that.  This is about the fucking morons who defend Obama despite him breaking campaign promises at record speed.  "His decisions cant all be grand slams."

Seriously, some fucker said that.  Grand slams.  As if Obama has ever acted like a decent person *once*.  Since he got elected he's appointed every lobbyist and party hanger on within reach to high office, and arranged a stimulus package that is being planned by a committee so heavily loaded with Californian politicians that we'll be lucky to see a fucking dime spent in the rest of the country.

The other fuckers are defending him by claiming that the most recent appointees are ok.  Because they were just doing their jobs when they fucked people over.  Much like the logging industry lobbyists bush appointed to the EPA were just doing their jobs.  The man betrayed you.  You need to turn on him like a pack of hungry rats.  That's how it goddamned works.  People elect a politician.  Politician fucks the people, has a great time.  People consume politician in an orgy of blood and shit flinging.  New politicians run for office.

On the plus side Obama looks like he just might break the spirit of the people for good.  My hope of riots this year is strong.

Anyway, the unemployment office is too incompetent to let me tell them I don't want to set up direct deposit over the phone, so I have to go buy stamps.

[Cramulus]

Copyright and Internet are my two pet issues. I am not pleased with the direction Obama will be taking either of these things. 

[AFK]

Could someone please elaborate on this copyright issue.  What does this copyright extension do exactly? 

[LMNO]

Old boss, new boss, yadda.

[Cramulus]

I'm gonna C&P from wikipedia, which explains it better than I can. I've bolded the part that I'm personally concerned with.



The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. The Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier. Copyright protection for works published prior to January 1, 1978 was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date.

Expansion of U.S. copyright law

This law, also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or pejoratively as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, effectively 'froze' the advancement date of the public domain in the United States for works covered by the older fixed term copyright rules. Under this Act, additional works made in 1923 or afterwards that were still copyrighted in 1998 will not enter the public domain until 2019 or afterwards (depending on the date of the product) unless the owner of the copyright releases them into the public domain prior to that or if the copyright gets extended again.



Personally, I think Public Domain is a sort of holy ground for creativity. Nearly everything I write is in the public domain, and I do a lot of collage/art composed of public domain works. I'm all for letting people have their intellectual property, but after you've been dead for 70 years, I think it should become public property.

[AFK]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but isn't that what it says?  70 years after the life of the author.  I see it is longer for corporate creations but that's to be expected as the royalties for a corporate creation are going to impact the livelihoods of many more people. 

[Cramulus]

ah yes, I meant 50 years. But I'd prefer even less.

[AFK]

Yeah, I'm not sure if more years needed to be added or not, but I personally agree with the principle.  I see it as a sort of insurance policy for an artist, so if they die some tragic and early death, there can still be a source of income for their surviving family, or whoever ends up with the estate. 

As for Obama, I'm neither bowled over nor disappointed with his cabinet picks.  Initially I thought Richardson would've been better as Sec of State, but as events have unfolded, it appears Obama dodged a bullet by not nominating him for that post.  I'll be interested to see who he replaces Gates with when it is decided his tenure is done.  I think Hagel would be a good fit for that post and hope he gets some consideration. 

I'm also not ready to cast judgement upon a President who isn't even the fucking President yet.  We still have 13 days left of W. 

[Requia ☣]

It's usually much longer for an individual author actually.  The clock might not start counting down for 50 years.

It should be kept in mind that the primary purpose of both the last two copyright extension acts was to keep mickey mouse cartoons from entering the public domain.  (Much like the UK is now pushing for copyright extensions in the EU over the music produced in the 60s there).

[AFK]

I thought this would fit here.  It's an article by Newsweek's Howard Fineman, who I think is one of the better political journalists the US has to offer today.  It's basically a blow-by-blow wrap up of the suck-and-fail theatre that has made up this Lame Duck period between the Election and the Inauguration.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/178396

The Republicans don't need to lift a finger to get back at the Democrats.  They seem to be trigger-happy when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot.