Prologue
On playgrounds all over the world, kids are saying to each other…. “If you like me, you’ll do it…. And if you don’t do it, then I’ll know that you don’t really really like me and then you can’t be in our gang.
Children don’t understand the concept of bribery or corruption, but they do understand the concept of belonging to the biggest or strongest or prettiest gang.
All economists would agree with me that distribution of westernized content is both educational and beneficial to the economy.
Governments realizing that the more educated the public were, the higher would be their output, initiated the development and funding of public libraries. To enable the less financially able citizens to read and learn for free.
So I’m curious, why now are Governments turning their back on over two millennia of statistical wisdom in relation to other forms of content?
Can you imagine the outcry if suddenly, someone stood up and said – Hey – I have an idea – Lets sue everyone that loans out books. Authors are loosing millions because the public can read their works for free from Government sponsored libraries.
Therefore all governments are Pirates. Hang draw and quarter them, call in the National Guard …
Ooops, sorry, I got carried away with the emotion of it all.
The methodology, developed by the
Don’t buy local – buy American. American cars are bigger. American cars are faster.
American cars are AMERICAN!
What more can I say. With that rational I will immediately junk my one cylinder, electrically assisted hybrid car and buy a Hummer.
More jobs for the boys. Except – they’re the wrong boys – they’re over there and the financial crunch is about to hit you below the waist here.
(Think seriously about buying a hybrid one cylinder Holden or Ford next time you’re in the market. Please. Don’t worry if they haven’t made one yet – tell them that you would’ve if they did and go and buy an Australian made alternative green energy car.)
Our entire intellectual property system is based on money
being channeled to the
None of the revenue from that American content is spent in
Why is it legal?
Legislation my boy, it’s been legislated into legality.
In an excellent story comparing file sharing to prohibition in the United states, Crosbie Fitch the author pointed out that the longer that prohibition lasted the more speakeasies opened and at the time of its repeal, there were an estimated 500,000 “clubs” throughout the United states doing a roaring trade. (What the article doesn’t say is that Prohibition was enacted in several countries copying America with an average of five years per country – except for Hungary where it last four months – trust my ancestors to like their Palinka.)
In other words, the harder the Prohibitionists and Police pushed, the more gin stills and speakeasies opened up in response.
This then brings us to the subject of the story. What is the cost of that pushback in terms of the Australian economy?
What financial hoops, promises and Trade
Agreements does our Government have to entertain? What additional, non
And what is the real cost to our law enforcement officials in trying to comply with the constantly changing goal posts?
All to satisfy the requirements of continued cordial diplomatic
relations with the
In other words, for every file downloaded, what percentage of our GDP is utilized to try to prevent it? How much money is being spent on reviewing and discussing legislation and enforcement practices that will not add one penny to the bottom line of a single Australian?
I can’t answer those questions. I can say that whatever it is – we need to spend that money on trying to stamp out a whole lot of other social issues before we focus on the rather dubious crime of file sharing.
We could for example spend it on housing the 100,000 homeless that roam the Australian streets at night, or we could spend it on sending all heroin addicts to a small uninhabited pacific atoll; either way it would result in a vastly increased standard of living for the rest of us and huge decrease in social services costs.
On the other hand, if we really wanted to kick start the economy; we could reintroduce taxation incentives to produce more Australian relevant content and flood the P2P networks with it, legitimately, thereby ensuring a steady stream of tourists for years to come.
There are a lot of things we could do with the few billion
dollars (yep I said BILLION) that
But we won’t. Until “Prohibition” is repealed…. We will continue to be that kid in the playground who wants to join the gang, with his membership pending on just one more little thing…..
