Are You a Digital Criminal?

As we settle into our warm homes frozen into an ice cube the government taxes us once again on the fact we MIGHT be guilty. I always thought we were innocent until proven guilty. Not in the government's eyes! Once again I am about to climb on my soap box and ask my readers to hold on as this is going to be a rant about our money grubbing government brethren! Well some might not feel this is the right way of looking at things, but here is how I take this thought process. If thought to be a thief why not do what they expect of you! Like they say while in Rome act like the Romans! I watched a DVD the other day, and at the start of the movie the film company is trying to guilt us into thinking that copying this DVD is stealing. They try and make you feel so dirty. Now don't get me wrong even the rebel that I am I even have some moral fiber. Do I think that backing up a movie that you may own is stealing well then Kojack guilty as charged! Going out and copying it and selling it 40 or 50 times that is wrong! We all work hard for our money, and if Mom or Dad want to preserve the classics because they know their bundles of joy are going to use it for floor hockey at least a couple of dozen times before it becomes so scratched even the best archivist in the world is not going to make sense of all those 1's and 0's. So why is it that Canada is one of the highest taxed countries in the world? With tongue in cheek the money collected is to be handed over to compensate the artists for their monies lost. If you believe that you also believe that fat kid is just going into the candy store just to look, and not buy anything. Wink, wink, nod, nod! So where does that money go you ask? Well the government is collecting it, and it is going some where. Well sparky your local political lackey just got a new pair of shoes! That's right... eaten up faster then a bucket of chicken at Opera's house! Administration is the new buzz word. That is just the new speak for Daddy's coming home with a new pair of shoes! So why is it that the movie and music companies have not clued in? Well some artists are actually getting smarter then the music companies. They are starting to weed out the music company or middle man and going straight to the fans by the way of the internet. Some producers are even jumping on the band wagon and doing the low budget sundance film festival type projects. Some are giving away some of their music and productions, and hope that people will go on line to some where like i-tunes or Napster and purchase more of what they hear or see. The other cool idea is giving their fans just what they want. Rather then putting out 2 good songs, and the rest of the album (do they call them albums anymore? OH NO I have just become uncool!!!) (Sorry monkey man...You can' t lose something you never had! SNAP) Anyway the point I am making is I think this debate is the same issues they had in the times when we were growing up. Whether it is the cassettes or the VHS tapes everyone is crying wolf and telling everyone if they buy into this the industry as they knew it is forever changed! Well maybe that might be the case, but is that necessarily a bad thing? I think that people have to keep up with the times. So does business! Keep up or get left behind is what the most innovative say. So rather then trying to tax us into submission try being innovative enough to build a better model, and get people to think it was their own idea, and jump all over it. So why is it that an old ape in Medicine Hat can figure it out, but the fat cats in Ottawa with new shoes have no clue? Lets go one step further and look at the digital cards for all your pictures. Once again you are going to be paying more for your own creativeness! So those memory cards or mini hard drives are going to rise in cost also. Now the bean counters are going to give it the spin it is only a few penny's extra. Well as my Grandmother use to say look after the penny's, and the dollars will look after themselves! So in lands of turbulent times when your dollars are probably the most important to you. We are squirreled out of your hard earned sheckles. So as this Christmas break rolls in, take a few minutes to contact your MLA and tell him that even though there is some pretty life changing matters before us politically these matters need to be addressed too! That is what our goofs in Government is counting on that because of the trying times this matter is going to fly right underneath the radar, and strip those dimes and nickles from us in the short term.

Remember:

The mint makes it first, it is up to you to make it last.

Evan Esar

Cheers:
From The Big Ape