Fair Use, Microbeast, & the Fairy Godmother of Inevitable Progress.

"Never mind that ActiveX working behind the curtain, Dorothy!! Hey, your not one of those 'intellectual types', are you ??" said the man in the big white asbestos hood.

- or -

"Do you ever use any of the programs that your ActiveX's destroy ??"
The programer laughed, "That's un-Microsoft!"
"Oh, Of course."

I don't know about you, but everything I make from now on will be an "Experimental Documentary", not that I'm in the habit of violating intellectual rights. I have personal concerns regarding such, but DRM providers that I have corresponded with are unable to guarantee that the code & implementation will remain intact, thus protecting my work.

Anyway, until we as a race reach the point that 'the federation does not use money' & our legislative & judicial systems stop relying on allowing a software company to snuff out our individual civic rights, & actually learn how technology works. Until the time when whatever is in our hearts & minds is not bridled by lines of code & DRM approaches (remember the Sony $sys$), and we as a race are allowed to become more than just a revenue generator. The great appeal of Apple is easily manipulated multimedia, but I don't want to become a serf of my iTunes bill. The appeal of Linux is freedom from monetary constraint, but I don't want to become a 'tester' & be boggled down in the system operating files. And, the appeal of Microsoft used to be functionality & interoperability, but I'm finding more & more I'm having to remove Microsoft ActiveX elements that were never fully explained, as is required by law, right??

Anyone who was lucky enough to read the preload disclaimer that accompanied 'FairUse4WMP' will remember that it was clearly specified that one uses the application as follows:

1. That it was meant to offer an option of manipulation to enable to share 'bought' music between multiple computers that the person actually owns. (ie. one person, many PC's)
2. Was NOT meant to be utilized as a DRM cracking or circumventing program.
3. Was ONLY to be used on legally obtained multimedia that was actually legally owned files of the person using the program.

'Hackers' don't normally write legal disclaimers of intent & use. (but they might) Neither did the major OS software companies, until laptops & cell phones started showing up in caves & deserts.

I feel that I both fit into & would have adhered to the conditions above. I don't 'surf' for music & video. All my music exist in CD form. I have a few computers that I like to listen to music on while I'm working. Oh, 95% of the music were talking about here is pre-1980, so I believe its Public Realm now. I refuse to update my oldest PC's WMP past WMP8 because that when DRM became more important than usability. Nothing past WMP9 allows for file property manipulation that fixes incorrect attributes that are added by people who either do not know how to write them, or must have been using Win3.0. The attribute problem shows up when a file is used in WMP10 & you know you own a copy of something, but its not in the album artist or the contributing artist. Don't hold your breath or ask Microsoft to fix the feature. Their not listening, & WMP works just the way they want it to. Aha, 'cept for the FairUse4WMP issue.

I feel like my rights to my music have been violated. But I have a temporary solution...

1. Copy approximately 9.6Gb of Public Realm WMF files & a copy of FairUse between drives on multiple systems.
2. Remove all the Microsoft ActiveX, (heck, just dump the OS entirely) especially the dreaded WGA because my copies are legal & I don't need the undeclared extras. Instructions (here)
3. Make an extra special copy to an external HDD along with all the other anti-monopoly goodies & keep it under the floor boards.

Remember the last scene from Fahrenheit 451 where everyone is walking around reciting....

I think were already there

While this has nothing to do with DRM, WMP, Music, or your rights, it is along the same lines about how the public needs to recognize & begin to proactively 'Protect Your Rights'.

But first, a little education on the ethics of Fair Use.



NortelLearnIT

And finally a 'Fair Example', albiet a little hard to follow.


Center for Social Media

All coments & videos are offered for educational fair use only. Video material obtained via Google Video. If you feel that your work has been violated, please contact Google to have it removed.