bryan stratton dot com

And while I’m talking about the homebrew community (which is too often used as a fig leaf by software and media pirates), here’s a rather stunning article from today’s Gizmodo:

image © Gizmodo

I’m outraged that the Obama administration is supporting the RIAA on the case against Jammie Thomas, a single mother of four who has to pay them $1.92 million for downloading songs. That’s more expensive than murder and six other crimes[...]

Heck, you can do all these crimes, and the total amount will be only $2.2 million. Of course, you can’t really quantify years spent in prison using dollars, but I don’t care. The case of Jammie—and many like hers—is still absolutely outrageous.

Now look, I’m rather a fan of the Obama administration in general, and I don’t even want to think about how much of my work has been stolen over the years, from the software I’ve helped to create to the strategy guides that wind up retyped on FAQ sites a week after they come out. But this is silly.