John Adams

Even Tom knows this. You've obviously not seen one of Gavin's license plate posts.

Was Stern ever even engaged to Anna Nicole or were they just paramours? Do you think this is just a reaction to all the paternity issues with Anna Nicole's kid--to make him look more stable?

Who's that?

Stop. The. Madness.

If you watch the video (especially the one that the friend shoots while the other guy is falling), the reserve chute is partially opened and he is not travelling at anything near terminal velocity. In fact, as the guy gets close to landing, you can see that the reserve has substantially slowed his fall. It's still amazing but on watching the friend's vid, it's a little less spectacular than it sounds.

Sounds like the RIAA has been calling you.

What's the Republican plan? Keep in mind that the last few haven't worked and that a Republican plan is what got us into this in the first place. I am no fan of the Dems but if you don't hold the Repubs accountable for this hell, who would you hold accountable?

He's on the backpedal now. He heard from a friend of a friend so you know, he's not actually saying Kelly strangled his wife and threw her down the stairs multiple times. Brave soul spreading a horrid rumor like that.

Agreed.

I do feel foolish that a thief told me to shut up for calling him a thief. Pretty sure I also called you selfish. Not sure what other names I called you but I guess you're sensitive. From now on, I'll take a page from Fezmid's book. You're an "unabashed copyright infringer" and instead of selfish, I'll just say you're a spoiled hypocrite. And I guess I still can't say you're from Lackawanna but you do have it in your blood and you've also been exposed to it. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for your contribution.

!@#$ you you bloated womanizing pig. If you loved France, you would have loved Lackawanna.

Dank and his Lackawanna kin are going to hunt you down.

No wonder you have so many problems: you're a Lackawanna boy.

I'm not trying to engage you in a debate about the differences between intellectual property and personal property. Here's what I'm saying: when you steal music online, it's only moderately different than stealing from Best Buy. Again, it's that white collar vs. blue collar crime issue. I see them both as theft but of course understand that when DrD steals his music, he couldn't be charged with theft. 150K/song would be a highly unlikely damages reward.

Unless you're found guilty of criminal copyright infringement, I disagree. If you steal 50 CDs from Best Buy, you might get sent to jail. If you download 50 CDs, you're probably just going to be found liable for copyright infringement and have to pay money to the copyright holder. I see stealing music as stealing music. Just because it's "cleaner" to steal an electronic copy than walk out of a music store with one under your jacket doesn't diminish that it's theft either way.

You steal music and I called you out on it. Go figure that I'm the bad guy. That's a good defense mechanism you have there. You know that I lie for a living? Good. Give me an example of when I did it? Again the rub. I KNOW that you steal. I KNOW you're a thief. You know nothing about what I do excep that I'm an IP attorney. You can make a joke about lawyers/liars but you don't know anything about me except that you don't like that I'm calling you out for your lack of honor. A theiving selfish kid doesn't like me. Boo hoo. The RIAA is wrong--on that I agree. No, I think the maini motivation behind Jons's speech is the pending antitrust action in the EU. He doesn't want to "open" the iPod and its exclusive link to the iTunes store but he might have to because the EU may force it. If it does, Jobs wants to be on even footing with all of his competition and dropping DRM would advance that purpose.

This sort of white collar crime differentiation is BS. It's theft.

Since it's just us having a conversation here--one where I berate you for your selfish behavior--let me ask you a question: do you realize the big motivation for Jobs's speech yesterday?

Oh the humanity.

They wouldn't be extorting money from you. You are a proud thief--not a misidentified one.

Thanks.

I am sorry about my condescending tone. You deserve more respect than that.

You think this is a win? Most of the RIAA defendants have something in common: they lose.

Assuming it's a capitalist society (dubious assumption), the consumers do have a voice. Read on boy to see how. Poor starving Van Halen. Poor homeless Beyonce. Boo f*cking hoo. I have a friend who's had 3 deals fall through with labels and still made over 700K in contract money. That means the labels invested millions in his failures and got almost no return. That, my friend, is why the record companies charge money. There are more misses than hits. Let me get this straight. You care about the bands but hate the RIAA. Thus, you download the music for free. I assume when you do that, you send a check off to the band so they get the money from you without the evil RIAA involvement? I know you do that. I mean, the band is the creative force behind the music so they should get paid. As should some engineer in a recording studio. And the guy who cleans the recording studio. And the building owner who rents the recording studio. And the company who makes the recording equipment. Oh wait--this is a capitalist discussion. You get all this so I'm sure you're sending the money in. Right. Here's how capitalism works. If you want to protest, don't buy it. Don't support it. But not for you boy wonder. You actually do support it. You own it. You play it. You tell your friends about it. So in fact, you want the music so you steal it like the selfish prig you are and justify your theft with some civil disobedience BS. Here's an analogy your childish mind won't grasp. I don't believe in eating meat but I sure love the taste of bacon and steaks. Since I don't want to support companies that kill the animals, I steal the meat and thus get to eat it. I tell my friends how much I love the meat. I serve it to my guests. This is my form of vegetarian civil disobedience. I'm sticking it to Frank Perdue every time I eat some bacon.

I am an intellectual property attorney and have worked with some of the RIAA defendants. I once thought the RIAA would not sue the end user--since then, that's been proven false. So copy up boys and come pay me when the RIAA sues you and you are found liable for copyright infringement of a few tens of thousands of dollars. If you ever get a sense of honor, let me know and I'll scratch you as a potential client. Until then, the lawyers--who are always painted as the bad guys--thank you for the money.