VMG Blog Pages

Monday, December 31, 2007

Sony and RIAA ripe for a lawsuit

RIAA lawyer states in legal brief that copying songs from CDs to computer for personal use is just as illegal as posting them online.You, too, could be sued for thousands of dollars by the major record companies — even if you've never once illegally downloaded music.That's because at least one lawyer for the Recording Industry Association of America, the Big Four record companies' lobbying arm and primary legal weapon, considers the copying of songs from your own CDs to your own computer, for your own personal use, to be just as illegal as posting them online for all to share, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Arizona.

Here's my beef with this whole RIAA crap......If I buy a CD from the Sony/BMG Record Club and pop it into the Sony manufactured CD drive of my Sony Vaio laptop, I might even make a duplicate copy onto some Sony made CD-Rs for good measure, I can't see how the RIAA (representing Sony)could then sue me.....according to them and the courts, merely "enabling" copyright violation is in itself a violation. Why hasn't anyone caught on to this concept? I would like to see an artist sue Sony and the RIAA for "enabling" copyright violations and for not protecting them from said violations.I would go one step further and say that Sony was in fact tantamount in the consortium of companies that developed digital file standards and mp3's themselves. Thus Sony is one example of a copyright violation enabler...Stop and think of how many violations Sony alone has enabled through software and hardware as well as blank media. You could apply this theory backwards into the Eighties when mix tapes were the rage. Who made the best blank tapes and tape recorders....Sony! Can you say Walkman? If you apply the same amounts that Jammie Thomas was slapped with...you get the picture. Bye Bye Sony.....

Read more about what these pinheads had to say...

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Students at Vermont Law School should join this fight...

A small university legal clinic in Maine is about to cause a revolution in the P2P filesharing war launched by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

“In what’s probably a world’s first, not lawyers, but student attorneys at the University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic have themselves taken up the fight on behalf of fellow students.

Maine law students vs the RIAA

This a great idea that may well thwart the draconian tactics of the RIAA folks. It would be great to see similar programs take root in other states as well. Like Vermont, many states have a multitude of programs with young, eager, net-savy law students looking to get their feet wet in real world cases. A program like this would tap into the youthful energy of a generation of kids who have grown up on the web. I would venture a bet that more kids have participated in file sharing than have smoked marijuana. This generation views the web as theirs, and they will be loathe to let outsiders ruin the free wheeling nature of the net as we now know it.

Of course in the end, the reality is that this rush to claim this fight as theirs, will end in a resolution somewhat short of what they might envision. But hey...that's all part of growing up.....

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Vermont town seeks Bush, Cheney arrests

"Vermont town seeks Bush, Cheney arrests"
By Dave Gram / Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. - President Bush may soon have a new reason to avoid left-leaning Vermont: In one town, activists want him subject to arrest for war crimes.
A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on a town meeting agenda in March that would make Bush and Vice President Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the southeastern Vermont community."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10614


While I'm generally suspect of anything I read on Michael Moore's website, I had also heard this on the local news as well. Once I was able to contain my gleeful giggling, I found myself amused, yet a bit disturbed. Then I realized that I was more pissed off that Bush has never been here in 8 years than I was about the concept of this ballot initiative.

Ok, I get why he isn't chomping at the bit to visit us, but if I were Republican Governor Jim Douglas, I would be fairly well insulted by this. Is Bush afraid that Howard Dean will jump out of the bushes and give him a "shout"? Granted most people in Vermont don't care for Bush, but there are folks that support his administration. I'm just not sure where they are...

If they want to issue a warrant for their arrest in Brattleboro, I say go for it....I don't think they'll get too far!

The Big Picture


The Lewiston Tribune newspaper in Lewiston, Idaho, ran two large photos on its front page several days before Christmas. One showed a sign painter putting the finishing touches on a store window. The other was a still image from a convenience store's security camera showing an "unknown man" reaching for a wallet which was sitting on the store's counter....


Read more about this amazing coincidence at Randy Cassingham's "This is True" website...

The Big Picture

I would also highly reccommend his newsletter if you like these kinds of true stories...The truth is indeed stranger than fiction...

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Saturday, December 08, 2007

How fast is a Formula 1 Car?

This is a pretty cool video that shows you just how fast an F1 car is compared to a high end Porsche and an ordinary 2 liter Puegot...



5min - How fast is a Formula 1 Car? - Video: ""