A little blog for a restless mind

Fallacies of Justice

The government wants to introduce a new law that would add a special fixed-rate tax to all copy machines and media, like CDs, DVDs, VCRs, backup solutions...
Some media would get even more than 100% more expensive because of it. Some devices even more than 10% more expensive.
Okay, let's say I don't have a problem with this. Just assume it and shut up. Like, lately I'm more into books than movies anyway. All the new movies are... bizzare. Haven't even bought a CDR media this year, only about 40 DVD-Rs. Mostly to transfer all the junk from my hard drives to them and then hopefully get them misplaced somewhere so the problem would get away entirely on its own. But that's beside the point.
Let's follow the reasoning for the new taxation. The copying devices are cheaper every day, so is the media, and copyrighted works get copied all over the universe like it's some kind of a new addiction. Yeah, even the Alpha-Centaurians do it. Making a copy for anything else than a backup is against the [copyright] law. Using a copy and not owning the original is against the [copyright] law. But people do it anyway, and because it's so cheap to do it, it is massively widespread. So massively it's odd a black hole didn't form already. So then, let's tax those devices and media so the authors can get rightfully compensated for the sudden widespread illegal use of their works. Only, I've got a few problems with this concept.

1. Let's say the new law gets through and I buy the media by their sudden expensive prices, and, as naughty as I can be, make an illegal copy of a KLF CD (that incidently I can't buy anwhere anymore) that my friend owns. I've payed the tax. Someone got compensated. Does that mean that all of a sudden I own a legal copy of this KLF CD? No. If the author finds out what I did, I'd probably get sued into oblivion. So, why the hell the tax?


2. Why, all of a sudden, tax ALL kinds of media? Who on Earth would watch a movie stored on a DLT tape? I don't know about those Alpha-Centaurians and Zeta Reticuli folks, but people of Earth definitely don't watch movies on DLT tapes. They're clearly meant only for backups. And why tax digital things at a double rate of analog things? Why tax analog things at all, all of a sudden? They're not interesting at all, with their degrading quality with time, etc. Analog media is history!


3. It's clearly unjust for subjects doing backups and/or legally burning free software and other free stuff. Why should I compensate someone who didn't have anything to do with the Linux distro I want to use? I'd rather that money goes to support FSF and EFF when I tweak with free stuff, such as OpenOffice.org at the moment, if you really can't be bothered with finding out all the authors of free software and other free stuff to proportionally compensate them for my using of their work. Why would I like to support some shit like BackTownBoyz or something?


4. A word or two about efficiency. And real justice. Just how will you shelve out the money among all the artists of this world? Will you track the piracy trend of the populace? How? It's crazy to think that anyone would confess to piracy. Even more, to tell you exactly what he/she has pirated. You're bound to getting wildly inaccurate readings no matter what method you use. And one more thing. Only popular stuff gets wildly copied. But popular stuff by itself is already selling alright, the authors are surely getting rich beyond my imagination. Be certain that real art gets "consumed" by real folks with taste and morality on right place. Stating that everyone is pirating everything he/she can get in his/her hands, is simply defamation! And that because of this you'll enact this law, is simply preposterous! Why don't you consider this form of, let's call it family piracy, where a friend makes a copy of a work he/she saw at a friend, as a form of promotion? A form of promotion at consumer's expense. Yes, you don't get anything from this, but let's face it: it only means that you produce junk, if that friend that made the copy only used the copy once and then misplaced it somewhere never thinking back at it again. He/she is probably sorry for the time wasted and wouldn't have seen the stuff in the first place, if he/she wouldn't have been literally forced to watch it. Hell, I've got a flatmate addicted to movies; he can't spend a day without watching at least one movie, wasting time in that damn inert position on crap movies. I don't mind, it's his choice. But taking a thing out of its frame will never serve the justice, or help anyone in any way. Other than providing exploitive companies with gagging bagfuls of money.


5. And lastly: do you think I could sue the government for defamation? The law clearly implies that all citizens (and companies!) buying the machines and media are without an exception would-be pirates.

But I don't care; TV plays only junk crap these days (densely interspersed with a boatload of commercials), movie theaters show only infantile movies (going to movies these days is like sneezing because you've developed this sudden itch in your nose), and radio stations got these people that really talk too much and mutilate my mind with Britney's dreadful voice. Yarg. If you want me to pay extra for those few CDs and DVDs I buy, fine. It won't hurt me. But I'll still prefer good books. Simply nothing else compares to good books nowadays. So fuck me running, y'all.

posted by AlesS @ 8/27/2004 02:01:00 PM