The eclectic musings of a bitter software engineer.

Downloading music is okay! Just don't upload.

Friday April 22, 2005 @ 12:54 PM (PDT)

A recent article in the International Herald Tribune about the contents of President Bush’s iPod contained an offhand remark about how Bush’s iPod contains songs copied from a friend’s iPod. Naturally, the blogosphere has been bristling about the fact that the President is listening to illegal copies of digital music. Downhill Battle has even started a campaign to get the RIAA to sue the president, since they’re already suing just about everyone else.

In a recent debate at Cornell University, Siva Vaidhyanathan asked RIAA President Cary Sherman when they planned on suing President Bush. Sherman responded, “We’re only suing uploaders, not downloaders.”

What wonderful news! I think I’ll go download some illegal music to celebrate.

Comments

So were you deliberately invoking Clinton's famous assertion that he didn't inhale, or am I an original thinker?

Friday April 22, 2005 @ 02:31 PM (PDT) Posted by Eilonwy

I read a column t'other day on the BBC (this one in fact) waxing non-eloquent about the 'cult of Apple':

I suppose there may also be a type of person who delights in going against the herd. Whatever is fashionable for the masses becomes unfashionable for the minority.

The above quote begins less than an inch from a picture of the President with an iPod, and yet the irony is lost on the writer, who goes on to praise the counter-culture "bolshiness and perversity" of Apple users. Hrm.

I had a point, but it was driven out of my head by dodging a herd of iPod users :P

Friday April 22, 2005 @ 02:48 PM (PDT) Posted by Eilonwy

What did the president do that would possibly make him civilly liable? You seem to have been given the impression that possession of copyrighted material is among the exclusive rights of the copyright holder.

Monday May 23, 2005 @ 07:51 PM (PDT) Posted by jrayhawk
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