Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

#326
#326
Boom!

...the story of Eli Whitney is particularly
instructive. Born in Westboro, Massachussets, in 1765, Whitney
graduated from Yale College in 1792. The following year he
designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated
the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber.
Very much like Watt’s engine in the coal districts of England, the
cotton gin was enormously valuable in the South of the United
States, where it made southern cotton a profitable crop for the first
time. Like James Watt, Eli Whitney also had a business partner,
Phineas Miller, and the two opted for a monopolistic pricing
scheme not dissimilar from the Boulton’s and Watt’s. They would
install their machines through Georgia and the South, and charge
farmers a fee for doing the ginning for them. Their charge was
two-fifths of the profit, paid to them in cotton. Not surprisingly,
farmers did not like this pricing scheme very much, and started to
“pirate” the machine. Whitney and Miller spent a lot of time and
money trying to enforce their patent on the cotton gin, but with
little success. Between 1794 and 1807 they went around the South
bringing to court everyone in sight, yet received little
compensation for their strenuous efforts. In the meanwhile, and
thanks also to all that “pirating”, the Southern cotton growing and
ginning sector grew at a healthy pace.

Ironically, Eli Whitney did eventually become a rich man –
not through his efforts at monopolization, but through the wonders
of competitive markets. In 1798, he invented a way to manufacture
muskets by machine, developing the idea of interchangeable parts
and standardized production. Having probably learned his lesson,
he did not bother to seek patent protection this time, but instead set
up a shop in Whitneyville, near New Haven. Here he manufactured
his muskets and sold them to the U.S. Army. So it was not as a
monopolist of the cotton gin, but rather as the competitive
manufacturer of muskets that Whitney finally became rich.
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#331
#331
milohimself said:
Representatives who have came out against regulation of the internet during the net neutrality debate, but are in favor of SOPA

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, (R) Tennessee
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, (R) California
Rep. John Carter, (R) Texas
Rep. Steven Chabot, (R) Ohio
Rep. Elton Gallegly, (R) California
Rep. Robert Goodlatte, (R) Virginia
Rep. Tim Griffin, (R) Arkansas
Rep. Peter King, (R) New York
Rep. Thomas Marino, (R) Pennsylvania
Rep. Alan Nunnelee, (R) Mississippi
Rep. Dennis Ross, (R) Florida
Rep. Steve Scalise, (R) Louisiana
Rep. Lee Terry, (R) Nebraska
Sen. Lamar Alexander, (R) Tennessee
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, (R) New Hampshire
Sen. Roy Blunt, (R) Missouri
Sen. John Boozman, (R) Arkansas
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, (R) Georgia
Sen. Thad Cochran, (R) Mississippi
Sen. Bob Corker, (R) Tennessee
Sen. Michael Enzi, (R) Wyoming
Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R) South Carolina
Sen. Charles Grassley, (R) Iowa
Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah
Sen. John Isakson, (R) Georgia
Sen. James Risch, (R) Idaho
Sen. Marco Rubio, (R) Florida
Sen. David Vitter, (R) Louisiana
Click to expand...

Bob Corker???

Nevermind, I just saw the date of the OP.
 
#333
#333
Ras is indirectly co-responsible (with me) for me liking dozens upon dozens of posts from years ago. It often doesnt occur to me to hit "jump to new"...lol...in this very thread I was liking posts from 8 years ago until I realized the dates. Lmao...

I would bet a paycheck that I give out more. "Likes " than anyone on VN...probably at least 20 a day. Somedays much more...just spreading the love and lurking boys.
 
#334
#334
Here is a fun anecdote about IP protection run amok. On Saturday I took a video of my little girl helping me with gardening. The Beatles were playing on my Alexa in the background of the video. I posted the video to my family's private facebook page and moderators muted the music on the video. My mind is blown.
 
#335
#335
n_huffhines said:
Here is a fun anecdote about IP protection run amok. On Saturday I took a video of my little girl helping me with gardening. The Beatles were playing on my Alexa in the background of the video. I posted the video to my family's private facebook page and moderators muted the music on the video. My mind is blown.
Click to expand...

Was the music the only thing muted, I mean were the other sounds still there?

Just curious, as it used to be the case that the whole video would be deleted. It would be something if they can excise only the music.
 
#336
#336
Stew Cook said:
Was the music the only thing muted, I mean were the other sounds still there?

Just curious, as it used to be the case that the whole video would be deleted. It would be something if they can excise only the music.
Click to expand...

Yeah it was just the music. It's amazing to me that such care and attention would go into such a small, inconsequential use of coprighted material. Blackbird is 51 years old. How is it still protected? There is no way the benefits outweigh the cost here.

The whole point of IP protection is to encourage creativity. Were the Beatles sitting around in 1968 thinking "OK, we'll write Blackbird, but only if 30-seconds of it is prevented from unintentionally appearing on Huff's home video that he shares with his immediate family, 51 years from now."
 
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#337
#337
n_huffhines said:
Yeah it was just the music. It's amazing to me that such care and attention would go into such a small, inconsequential use of coprighted material. Blackbird is 51 years old. How is it still protected? There is no way the benefits outweigh the cost here.

The whole point of IP protection is to encourage creativity. Were the Beatles sitting around in 1968 thinking "OK, we'll write Blackbird, but only if Huff can't put it on a video he shares with his immediate family 51 years from now."
Click to expand...

That's interesting. And I've never thought about copyrights relative to "modern" recordings, but yeah, that's an interesting subject, as well.
 
#338
#338
Stew Cook said:
That's interesting. And I've never thought about copyrights relative to "modern" recordings, but yeah, that's an interesting subject, as well.
Click to expand...

I hate Disney so much because they are the major driving force in extending copyright protection. Mickey Mouse was supposed to become public domain like 70 years ago, and they keep lobbying to change the law. It's going to happen again, because his protection expires in like 3 years. Disney made bank off other people's IP (like the Little Mermaid). It will be interesting to see if Mickey Mouse goes for 152+ years (the time between HCA's publication of A Little Mermaid and the Disney movie's release).
 
#339
#339
n_huffhines said:
I hate Disney so much because they are the major driving force in extending copyright protection. Mickey Mouse was supposed to become public domain like 70 years ago, and they keep lobbying to change the law. It's going to happen again, because his protection expires in like 3 years.
Click to expand...

This doesn't surprise me. Seems like nothing becomes public domain anymore, unless it's something that's been completely abandoned.
 
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