A Uniter, Not a Divider
No one reading this will get a chance to vote for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in the presidential election, as his campaign will likely implode before the primaries. And that’s for the best, because this excerpt from his Meet the Press appearance should convince you that you can’t trust a word that the man says:
MR. RUSSERT: You spent a lot of time in, in Massachusetts. Are you a Red Sox fan?
GOV. RICHARDSON: I’m a Red Sox fan, but I got into trouble in New Hampshire. You know why? Because I said…
MR. RUSSERT: Luis Tiant, the fund-raiser. But, now, governor, this is very serious. In your book on page 18 it says…
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, about Mickey Mantle?
MR. RUSSERT: You said you’re a Yankee fan!
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no. I said—no, no, no.
MR. RUSSERT: I mean, you can, you can…
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, no, no, no.
MR. RUSSERT: …you can have different views on immigration, assault weapons…
GOV. RICHARDSON: I, no no no no. No, what I said…
MR. RUSSERT: But when it comes to Red Sox, Yankees.
GOV. RICHARDSON: What I said, the Associated Press asked me, “If you weren’t running for president, if you weren’t running for president, what would you rather be?” I’ve always been a Red Sox fan, but I said if I weren’t running for president I would like to be number seven, Mickey Mantle, playing center field for the New York Yankees.
MR. RUSSERT: “Because of Mickey Mantle, I became a Yankee fan.”
GOV. RICHARDSON: I, my favorite team has always been the Red Sox.
MR. RUSSERT: You’re a Red Sox fan.
GOV. RICHARDSON: I’m a Red Sox fan.
MR. RUSSERT: End of subject.
GOV. RICHARDSON: End of subject.
MR. RUSSERT: You better get rid of this book.
GOV. RICHARDSON: Oh, no! I’m also a Yankee fan. I also like…
MR. RUSSERT: Oh, now, wait a minute!
GOV. RICHARDSON: You can—Tim…
MR. RUSSERT: I guarantee…
GOV. RICHARDSON: No, I know, I got in trouble…
MR. RUSSERT: …if you go—if you go to Yankee Stadium or Fenway, you cannot be both.
GOV. RICHARDSON: But I like—Mickey Mantle was my hero. If I weren’t running for president, and the Associated Press asked me, I’d play center field for the New York—I wanted to be number seven. And—but I still love the Red Sox as a team. I mean, this is the thing about me, Tim. I can bring people together. I can unify people.
MR. RUSSERT: Yankee fans and Red Sox fans?
GOV. RICHARDSON: Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: Not a chance.
Solidarity
09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0, represent!
Why this matters: This is the AACS Processing Key number, which allows you to crack the copy protection on an HD-DVD. The Motion Picture Association of America would have you believe that the only reason someone would want to do this would be to rip an HD-DVD and upload the content to a torrent site or otherwise distribute it illegally. They completely reject any argument that a consumer might have legitimate reasons for wanting to crack the encryption, such as making a backup copy in case the original disc is destroyed, or putting the content on a home media center.
This is the same bullshit argument that keeps you from transferring DVDs to your iPod as quickly and easily as you transfer CDs. If it’s not countered, the only legal way to watch the same movie on different devices will be to purchase multiple copies for each device. I can’t think of many movies that are worth $30 for a single HD-DVD, much less an additional $10 or however much for the iTunes download. And how long is it until a purchased movie is keyed to a specific player, so you won’t even be able to take a DVD to a friend’s house and watch it there?
So, okay, maybe this isn’t as important as keeping the earth from overheating and exploding, or trying to keep that maniac in the White House from destroying democracy at home while pretending to be spreading it abroad. But this is a fight for technological innovation, for fair use copyright law and for consumer rights. This debate is going to shape how much control you have over something that you purchase. Do you own it, or don’t you?
Yeah, if copy protection is crushed, the resulting freedom is going to be abused. Movie studios might have to settle for being moderately wealthy as opposed to absurdly wealthy. But having to do more with less usually results in actual creativity and innovation, and do you really think that Spider-Man 3 would be all that much less of a movie if it only had a $100 million budget instead of a $250 million one?
leave a comment