Utah flirts with abolishing Senior Year

We all knew a few of "that type" of student. The ones who worked hard all thru high school and as soon as they were accepted to college, they stopped trying at all. Of course, most of "that type" learned too late that colleges (1) keep an eye on early admissions, and (2) are able to rescind an acceptance if they see grades slacking off. Still, at least one legislator in Utah is exploring the option of eliminating the Senior Year of high school altogether or at least making it optional. But it is not with the good of the students in mind - it is an attempt to close a serious budget gap.

The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.

The notion quickly gained some traction among supporters who agreed with the Republican's assessment that many seniors frittered away their final year of high school, but faced vehement opposition from other quarters, including in his hometown of West Jordan..."You're looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them," said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It's left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions."

Warner Brothers denies DVDs to NetFlix until 28 days from Release

NetFlix has been a major success story for DVDs. While services like Blockbuster have withered and died, NetFlix has continued to grow and thrive by giving customers what they want - convenient DVD rentals and streaming video. And they did so without violating the property rights of the movie studios, or strengthening illegal downloaders or pirates in general. So how are the studios rewarding them? Warner Brothers is denying them DVDs until 28 days after release. The idea is that this will force consumers to buy DVDs that they otherwise would rent once from NetFlix.

The reality? This will drive more consumers to illegal download sites, and older movies. And will decrease the pressure to buy movies that otherwise would have stayed a long time in queue. Brilliant move, Warner Brothers.

Be Careful Creators of Content, Copyright is NOT a Right

As a writer, I am very conscious of copyright and the protections it offers to me (even if I am still an unsold writer). Without it, there would be no way to charge for my creative efforts (stories, poems, etc.) and thus no way to compensate me for my work. And without compensation, few people can afford to keep writing, keep singing, keep drawing in a way that reaches the public. Copyright is something societies offer to keep their creative types fed, and thus to foster creativity in general.

Recently, the Computer and Communications Industry Association posted a paper that claimed "fair use" is not a right. "Fair use" is a legal doctrine in the USA that states there are reasonable times to NOT strictly enforce copyright in the interest of the public good. For example, if you purchase a book it is "fair use" to lend it to a friend or to quote a section of that book in an online review. The CCIA is against "fair use" because it offers a potential safe harbor to copyright scofflaws who steal music or fileshare movies on the internet before they have premiered. The CCIA argues "fair use" is not a right and thus can be revoked in the interest of societal good.

The problem wth this reasoning is that "copyright" itself is simply a social construct. A right is something I have inherently, which can not be taken away without force and which my government exists to protect. Copyright on the other hand exists to foster creativity, and can be easily taken away without any changes to our Constitution or even our philosophies if it becomes detrimental to the public. Unlike "Freedom of Speech" or "Freedom of the Press", Copyright could be revoked tomorrow without changing the American idea in any significant way.

Be careful, CCIA. By trying to change copyright and make it all-powerful, you could easily push legislators to a point where they questions its basic utility and consider abolishing it or critically weakening it.

Conservatives fail to learn from Air America, launch YouTube competitor

Despite the fact that the "Hillary 1984" commercial premiered on YouTube - along with several other powerful and controversial films that supported Republicans and tore down Demorats - apparently some Conservatives precieve the video sharing website as "too liberal." So in response for the 2008 election season they have founded their own video-sharing website called QubeTV. Using the tagline "Starring The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", QubeTV wants to define itself as THE place to go for Conservative video commentary and propogada.

Have we learned NOTHING from the failure of Air America? Liberals saw the success of Conservative Talk Radio, and attempted to form their own talk radio station to counter it. The result? Millions of dollars of debt, and pretty much no listeners except for Conservatives who tune in to get angry at what is being said. You do not win the conversation by forming a new conversation far away from the original, excluding the people who started it in the first place. You win a debate by facing people down directly, where they are. All this is going to do is ensure a migration of Conservative thought away from YouTube, which is where the majority of Americans will be looking for grassroots political commentary in 2008.

Update: And, of course, QubeTV BARELY works on my Mac. I get audit, but that is it. Way to try to get the message out to everyone, guys. But we all know only liberals use Macs, right?