Knowledge Diminished

Some of you may have noticed that when you enter a subject in Wikipedia it comes up and then goes black, with some political advertising.  I don't disagree with the message, but it is politics.  Some folks trying to shut down our intellectual life as we have come to know it are policking to get drastically bad laws put on the books about intellectual property.  What is especially disappointing is people like Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) are supporting this dross.  The good news is that people like Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) are opposing it.

Here is an article at Wired, explaining it.

To be frank, copyright is morally right and also good for the economic well being of this Nation and it's People.  What is not good is denying "fair use" and prolonged copyrights.  With Wikipedia down, and my copy of the Constitution elsewhere in the house, I can't quickly check, but as I recall, the initial period, 200+ years ago, was seven years.  Where did they get that?  I am betting from Moses.  Remember all those rules about resting on the seventh day and the seventh year, to increase long term productivity?  Sadly, since the early days of our Republic the number of years before the copyright goes to rest has just grown.  Some would allege it was all to protect Mickey Mouse.  Then along came Righthavan, which tried bullying bloggers.  Righthaven had the lawyers and the money to bully others but the courts—those defenders of our Rights as [English]men (and women)—stepped up are putting an end to that sort of bullying.

This does remind me of how the Music Industry dealt with new media.  Very poorly.  Everybody lost something.

From the Insapundit is this web site for electronically expressing displeasure to your elected Representative and Senators.  Good, but even better is picking up the phone and calling the local office of the Honorable Niki Tsongas [(978) 459-0101] and talking to the nice young man who answers the phone.  Identify yourself as a voter in the district and say you are against these new copyright laws under consideration.  52 Seconds.  Then there are the two senators.  Senator Kerry's Boston office isn't nearly as quick picking up the phone.  I gave up and called the DC office and got bumped to bumper music, but a nice young lady did pick up and say the Senator hasn't taken a position on "PIPA" (one of the two bills under consideration), but the Senator is for a free and open Internet.  She also told me the Boston office may just be very busy.  [(202) 224-2742].  Our Junior Senator, Scott Brown [(202) 224-2646], is, per the lady who answered, definitely opposed to these bills.

Ball's in your court.

Regards  —  Cliff