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Piracy and its legal consequences in a psychopathic world

Submitted by Jakob on 26 April, 2006 - 19:27.My Blog | Politics & Society

Browsing my regular website for news related to the Internet and information technologies, idg.se, I came across a reference to these articles about the revised DMCA that would introduce penalties of up to ten years in prison for attempting piracy, far more than the sentences for assault, robbery and rape, a clear indication of how mega corporations look upon the human worth as compared to it of money.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31256

http://www.ipdemocracy.com...penalties_and_police_powers.php

With the new revision of the DMCA, software piracy, well piracy of any intellectual property (IP), is considered a more serious offense than such violent crimes as assault and robbery. As the first article ironically concludes:

"If you copy Craig David's CD you get ten years, but if you punch him in the face and pummel him into a seven day coma you will only get six. You are more likely to get the respect of the prison population with your six year sentence as well."

Reading this made me think, and reminded me of something I've seen happening, a development that has been going on ever since the first days of humankind. However now in light of recent developments and modern technology, it is more than sheer fiction, and I see the world turn more and more into something that reminds you of the societies described by George Orwell and William Gibson in their works of fiction.

...never before has it been so clear that the monetary value is considered so much higher than the human, because that is the essence of this DMCA revision...

There's an unwritten law, something world leaders never say loud but still accept. Money, or economical interest, has always been worth more than human life and ending and preventing human suffering. This has always been the case when it comes to the interest of governments and big corporations (which often tend to have much influence over governments), it's one of the problems with multinationals corporations. The greed and desire for greater profits has been one of the things powering the cold war and the many military operations carried out by the US and the CIA under the guise of promoting "democracy" during that time. However never before has it been so clear that the monetary value is considered so much higher than the human, because that is the essence of this DMCA revision. It may seem like I'm making a lot of something trivial but the analysis is correct. The principle is simple, you can't lose as much money from a rape or robbery as if someone copies your material, a little human suffering is nothing compared to your $100,000 loss due to piracy, isn't it so mr RIAA spokesman?

I used the word "psychopath" in the title not just to get a reaction but because the noun isn't too far off. A psychopath is (dictionary.com):

"A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse."

A psychopath is basically someone who will walk over bodies to further his own personal goals, human value means little if it happens to stand in the way. The strive for greater profits, at whatever costs, the total negligence of human value and worth that manifests itself in the revised DMCA, shows a moral fault of the mega corporation, its psychopathic personality trait. I believe that sane and empathic normal human beings would never hurt someone else for money but the corporate structures distance effect and cause from the decision makers, why the multinational corporations have since long ago no collective sense of ethics.

A psychopath society, the one that George W Bush is currently busy building, a society characterized by values such as those expressed in the revised DMCA, has lost its humanity. It's something people mention when they try to describe psychopaths, they seem real but something essentially human is missing, they're like a chameleon, a shell without contents. A society without a human spirit, a society where only the craving for more controls us, is a society that has lost its right to exist, it's a parasite on life. A society whose purpose encompasses nothing but gaining material wealth for itself, and since materials have no intrinsic value, they are dead and our appreciation for them gives them meaning, such a society has lost its reason for existing.

This is about more than "evil multinationals" and software and music piracy, things some of you may shrug off as "left-wing paranoia", it's about something much more important, it's about what kind of society we want to live and the world want our kids to grow up in.

What person (apart from the great tyrants of the previous century) doesn't agree that profits, material gain, has no role, no value, no purpose without the value of the individual, the human being and his/her self-worth and right to respect? Any other view would conflict with basic epistemology for the value of materials only exists in relation to the individual human who can appreciate it.

...we must see that material goods only have meaning and true value as long as they have a subordinate value in relation to human worth and serve only to support human self-realization.

As long as we let materialism control us, allow the struggle for it to dominate our lives entirely and accept that some people have more power than others simply because they possess more money, we will fail to recognize the things that truly mean something to us. For our own future survival as a species we must see that material goods only have meaning and true value as long as they have a subordinate value in relation to human worth and serve only to support human self-realization.

So consider that without anyone to watch and enjoy a beautiful sunset it exists for naught, it lacks meaning, for beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, and without a being to behold it, there is no beauty, no meaning and nothing to celebrate and hold dear.



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Submitted by AngusThermopile on 1 May, 2006 - 01:33.

I wish I had something more intelligent to offer than a, "Hear! Hear!" or is it "Here! Here!"?

Either way, your observations are unfortunately all too correct.

On another note this place is looking great Jakob.

Submitted by Jakob on 1 May, 2006 - 19:43.

Thanks! Do you have a blog too?

Submitted by AngusThermopile on 5 May, 2006 - 23:31.

No, I decided to spare the world that trauma. It really doesn't deserve it.

Truth is I have neither the content in me or the time to ctreate it. I barely manage to keep up a decent posting rate at my own message boards.

http://www.jasidog.com

Submitted by Jakob on 11 May, 2006 - 10:20.

Been a while since I last visited your site but wow, it has grown since. Very nice work, great designs too!

I try to post daily or bi-daily, I don't have much traffic here though and those that pop in just skip the frontpage and go directly to the downloads page. It's kind of discouraging. I really try to make good posts and not just average junk. I believe it will pay off in the end.

--
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith

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