Showing posts with label DMCA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DMCA. Show all posts

Saturday, April 26, 2014

And, the GOP needs a platform for young people

The young voters are heavy internet users.  They all believe that everything should be free.  They want to download music, movies, ebooks, you name it, for free.   There are some things we could do to make interneting  more harmonious.
   First, rewrite copy right law.  Current copyright runs for the life of the author plus seventy years.  We ought to cut that back to fourteen or seventeen years, like it used to be.  That would take all the good pop music off copyright and allow downloading legally.  My children's ipads are stocked with the great songs I remember fondly from my college years.  That was more than seventeen years ago.  The kids would love this.  The labels hate the idea.  Labels don't vote.
  Then repeal the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which permits all sorts of legal bullying by Hollywood and the labels. The kids would love this.  Hollywood and the labels hate it.  They don't vote.
  Then repeal the age 21 drinking law that MADD rod rodded thru Congress twenty years ago.  Make drinking age a matter of state law.  The kids would love this.  And, it would increase safety.  Colleges ought to operate on-campus pubs.  Students would prefer sipping a few, at a place where their friends might be.  After having a few, they can walk back to dorm.  Much safer than driving back to campus after a party.   Not sure just who is against this idea, but someone is.
   Social security and medicare reform.  Most young people figure these programs will be gone long before they get eligible for them.  They would be fine with some modest trim backs of benefits.  They see FICA taking a big whack out of their paychecks, and they don't see any payback for themselves.  They see it as a tax on them to support the elderly. 

Monday, December 22, 2008

The "Don't talk about it in public" issues

Earlier I posted about real political issues and "hot button" issues. Since then it came to me that there is a third class of political issues, the "don't talk about it in public" issues. Second Amendment rights, decriminalization of marijuana, repeal of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act, reform of patent and copyright law, net neutrality, and tort reform, come to mind. There are probably others. These are real issues, that effect citizens directly. But for some reason, fear of offending the interest groups that support them, or journalists too clueless to understand them, or something, you never hear a candidate speak out on these issues at all. There are plenty of voters who care about these issues. Maybe the Republican party should take a public stand on some of them.