For those smart-but-no-genius students who make it to a university, the California State education system created STAT 100 Intro to Statistics for would-be art and journalism majors as a way to fulfill what would otherwise be a challenging GE math requirement. I took this class two years ago, and if there's one thing I learned, it's that statistics can be manipulated to represent and say whatever you want, and since most people are cheating liars, statistics derived from seemingly innocent polling questionnaires are not to be trusted.
But you didn't have to pass STAT 100 with a C or better to see through the outrageous and innate bias in questions such as "How would you promote the progress of science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?"
This question ACTUALLY appeared on a questionnaire sent out by a coalition of publishing companies last Tuesday. The 44-member, Washington, DC-based Copyright Alliance (made up of such stick-in-the-mud hoity toities as RIAA, Viacom, Microsoft, Walt Disney and the Motion Picture Association of America), sent the questionnaire (along with a letter which can be viewed and criticized here and here) to 17 Democratic and Republican ‘08 presidential candidates, requesting their responses by January 7 in order to inform "the creative community and public at large where our presidential candidates stand on copyright and artists' rights."
Can you see me waving the pirates' red "BULLSHIT!" flag right now? I'm waving!
According to RIAA chief Mitch Bainwol, "When Americans vote, they are making decisions about the values important to them. And one of those values must be a commitment to creativity."
As if sharing copyrighted musical content was a malicious act intent on smiting the despised value of creativity.
"Haha! I've just uploaded an album to my blog because I hate music and the artistic community at large," says the malevolent, digital pirate.
As the questionnaire continues with "How would you protect the rights of creators to express themselves freely under the principles established in the First Amendment?" one gets the feeling that generous, music-loving pirates are being vilified as freedom haters. Which they may well be.
You hating haters, you know who you are. Shame on you.
