I've gained weight. I eat poorly. I don't exercise enough. I've gotten older and it's harder to take it off or keep it off. So I was more than a little intrigued by a recent commercial for a prescription medication designed to help people like me lose weight. Somewhere towards the end of the commercial, the announcer adds in a very pleasant voice, that the possible side effects might include: oily spotting, gas with discharge, uncontrollable bowel movements, and primary pulmonary hypertension -- which is fatal to 45% of its victims.

The treatment -- it seems -- can be worse than the problem. You see, you can't treat a disease like obesity by only attacking its symptoms. Treating the symptoms and ignoring the underlying problem can allow the problem to fester -- and worsen.(...)

How do the War on Crime, the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism and my personal War on Obesity, relate to the entertainment industry's War on Internet Piracy? Our point is that treating the symptoms without addressing the problem will only worsen the problem and generate more daunting symptoms. (...)

Peer to peer file sharing is really just interactive radio -- consumers get to listen to exactly what they want -- when they want it. This demand is not addressed by the record industry. In fact, it can't be offered legally at any price. And as I think I've illustrated, technology and reality will insure that supply finds its way to meet that demand.

11:35:36 AM    comment []