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[Q:]... The publisher apparently withheld [a Stephen King book's eBook version] to encourage people to buy the more expensive hardcover. So I did, all 1,074 pages, more than three and a half pounds. Then I found a pirated version online, downloaded it to my e-reader and took it on my trip. I generally disapprove of illegal downloads, but wasnโt this O.K.? C.D., BRIGHTWATERS, N.Y.
[A:]An illegal download is โ to use an ugly word โ illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical.... Thus youโve violated the publishing companyโs legal right to control the distribution of its intellectual property, but youโve done no harm or so little as to meet my threshold of acceptability...
What crap. Is the book out of print? Is that hardcopy somehow obsolete now? Of course not. There's obviously value added with the eBook or ole C.D. wouldn't've wanted it. How does Mr. Cohen (the "Ethicist") decide when you've paid enough into the system to begin illegal civil disobedience?
Can I pay for the movie in the theater and then download?
Better parallel: Can I burn a Blu-Ray b/c I've purchased the DVD at full price?
What if I paid a clearance price for the DVD? Have I still paid in enough for someone to forward me a bootleg Blu-Ray in high def?
If I've read the book, can I sneak into a theater showing the movie that's not quite filled? Where's the harm in that?
Would it really put poor, poor CD out to take along that "more than three and a half pounds" of codex on his trip? Really?
Look, if you want a law changed because, in this case, you feel superior enough to remark "the anachronistic conventions of bookselling and copyright law lag the technology", then start lobbying. Now show me one fair law that's anticipated a specific technology perfectly. Sort of another anachronism, ain't it? Honestly, I think eBooks are an interesting way to leverage your ownership of IP into more profit. As long as we're not EULAing hardcopies, knock yourselves out.
Furthermore, in this case we have easier solutions for CD. Wait for the g*******d eBook to be released. Trade time for money. Read another book on your trip. I just finished Water is Wide by Pat Conroy on my iPod. You'll enjoy it. If you want to read a new book now, ya gotta pay. Or why not go to your local library and reserve a copy to read while you're waiting. That's a pretty good deal, isn't it? You're not out a buck. Now you read Conroy on your trip and you get to know the latest and greatest from that sick-o King[1]. And guess what, you've already paid for the privilege. Take advantage of it.
Had Cohen even so much as said, "Though the risk of being caught is low, it does exist, and in NY the penalty is [X]. I would also say that you need to delete the eBook as soon as you return from your trip, when its marginal utility is gone, and that once the eBook is released, you should stop using this rationalization immediately," I would have felt a little better.
As it stands, it bothers me that a representative of what's essentially the record of the United States could show such a simpleton's approach to ethics and encourage his readers to break the law without understanding the ramifications on themselves and the corporations that provide them with their goods. I'm no corporate cheerleader, but when a "ethicist" rationalizes stealing in officially sanctioned e-print, you know society's gauge of right and wrong had long since made a turn for the gutter.
[1] Actually, I'm suspicious King is one of the best authors alive. I've read a few of his books that aren't about blood and guts, and they're all exceptionally well written. Still, I tried that city in a bubble book and couldn't get past the first few chapters. SICK. It's all about how you apply yourself, I guess.
Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them. They can choose from the patterns in the world and lengthen their time horizons. This individual power leads to others. It leads to self-control, the ability to formulate strategies in order to resist impulses. If forced to choose, we would all rather our children be poor with self-control than rich without it.
I wonder. I've always bought into the concept of delayed gratification, even if I do occasionally [purchase from Amazon and] download a random album or two on a whim (Krankhaus only a few good tracks; Delores O'Riordan's Are You Listening much better). It's taken me most of my life to figure out that in all arenas, impulses must be strategically resisted and then followed, not simply delayed until masterpieces of idealism are finally created.
I figured this out in part from basketball coaches. When I played [third string], we were always told to concentrate on fundamentals, defense, rebounding, and hustle. "We'll teach you to score," the varsity coach used to tell us as early as junior high.
Turns out that's a lot of baloney, and Brooks is feeding it to us too. What's expected is that *everyone* is teaching themselves to score. You're not supposed to be able to completely resist the impulse to shoot like mad, no matter what the coach tells you. What he was saying is, "You'll teach yourself to score; we'll find places within a [necessarily constrained] offense for you to do so."
If all you can do is hustle, rebound, play D, and be in the right place at the right time, you'll never win a game. At best, you'll tie. And unless you're Robert Brickey (name appropo, no?) or Dennis Rodman or Ben Wallace, you won't have much of a career. You're stuck, instead, as the main training dummy/sparring partner for the first-stringers. (Not that I'm complaining. Scrimmage time is playing time of a sort, and I got a lot more than the guy sitting second string. And I still have the misplaced notion I can stop anybody in the post, whether he's 6'4" and 250 lbs (so beating me by 2" and 35 lbs. And I'm slower. F**k.) or no. It's all about confidence, baby. That's another post.)
Discourse expects impulsive behavior and then does its best to proscribe the same -- in a horribly exaggerated fashion -- with the understanding that the idealistic vision will be unattainable. As my current compositional method (and flawed basketball skills) attest, I never understood that common discourse really wasn't for neurotically literal-minded schomes like me.
(This, by the way, is part of the reason programming is so much fun for idiots like me. Idealistic discourse is, in a digital world, suddenly enabled! With good guidance drafting specs (always a priority for me), you actually can write exactly what's expected of you.)
Researchers at McGill University in Montreal have discovered a new state of matter that they say could greatly extend Moore's Law.
That's great, but does a consumer really need more power at this point? I mean, other than for playing Quake. Folding@home claims that it'd cost about $130 to run 24/7 for a year. Why stop there? I mean, we buy our PCs in the interest of distributed computing, right? When do we get an iPhone client?
We all love your products, Apple Inc.! But your recently refreshed line of consumer notebooks lacks the possibility to plug in digital audio and video equipment as well as fast mass storage devices. Therefore, we pledge to purchase a new MacBook or MacBook Air if you, the inventor of FireWire technology, would be so kind to bring back FireWire ports to those products.
Would be much more interesting if signing were legally binding, forcing the signatories to buy the MacBook. 90%+ won't if Firewire were added, and that's probably low.
I still think the Firewire removal is a crappy move, and puts a hefty, $900 tax on mobile DV editing, which is obscene. It doesn't upsell MacBook Pros so much as used Minis. Import with a used PowerPC Mac, then import the file onto your MacBook.
What the lack of Firewire doesn't do is convince people with Firewire camcorders to "Switch" (c) Apple. Why replace two major electronics in your household? Why is Apple spiting related hardware they chose to make central? I don't get it.
But these, um, grass roots movements mean zilch. Can I at least get a proofread?! (Eg, when's the last time the Air had a Firewire port again?)
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