Why?

Cause this past weekend I was traveling with five Iranians.

Guess who got searched? Yes. Me, the stupid white American boy.

Heh.

By the way, I've flown, what, four times since 9/11 and I've been randomly searched twice.

Weird.

I've been watching with great interest all the stuff that is going on between Coble and Dave and Tara. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, you haven't been reading Dave Winer's weblog lately, have you?

So, the music industry is scared that I'm copying stuff (er, stealing it).

The funny thing about it is that I'm not buying any more music this year because those two industries feel it's OK to hack my computer.

Um, if I go and steal a candy bar at Safeway, that doesn't give Safeway the right to kick down the door to my house.

I guess this is no longer the United States of America.

I think we should just rename ourselves "the United Corporations of America."

After all, how are we supposed to fight the money they give to politicians?

I guess webloggers are having some success in getting an unknown candidate a little bit of exposure. Tara was in USA Today today. I'm sure that wouldn't have happened had it not been for Dave Winer and other webloggers pushing her cause.

Am I the only one bemused by the fact that Howard Coble's own staff members admit he doesn't know shit about computers?

He knows enough to take money from the entertainment industry. Pretty smart fellow we got there.

Can a scrappy band of webloggers beat Coble. I doubt it. He's too entrenched. Too much money. Too much stature. And there's too many people who vote who hate computers.

That's why this shit is having success.

We've pissed off too many of the constituency and they want to teach us a lesson.

That's OK. Go ahead. Pass stupid laws that no one will listen to.

Remember prohibition? Remember the 55MPH speed limit?

I'm going to figure out how to copy music and movies. Why? Because doing so improves my life. I'm all about having fun with my life.

Now, let's look at my life. Do I give money to the music industry? Yes. I've bought more than $600 worth of DVD Audio music this year alone. I'm probably in the top 2% of music consumers worldwide. How many other humans can afford to buy $600 worth of music in one year? Not many, let me tell you.

Now let's look at my movie-buying habits. I saw Star Wars twice in the first weekend it was out. SpiderMan too. Among other movies.

How many movies have I been to since I've heard about the Berman bill? Zero. None. Nada.

How many DVD's have I purchased? Zero. None. Nada.

How many DVD's have I rented? A couple. So sue me, I'm not giving up entertainment altogether.

I'm a pissed off consumer who used to buy a lot of copyrighted product. Where do I go now?

And the industry says that stealing is what has reduced its sales. Heh.

I haven't stolen an MPEG since I heard about Berman's bill either. So there.

I don't want the product of an industry who considers that I'm a thief.

Imagine if everytime I walked into Macy's they would stop me at the door and say "you're a thief until you prove you're not."

Or, worse yet, if they suspected that I was a thief they'd be given permission to knock down my door and riffle through all my possessions.

What are we willing to give up in this country? I guess we're just gonna hand over all our rights to the corporations so the politicians can make a little money and stay in office.

Sigh.