Welcome

Hey, thanks for visiting my column page.  My name is Luke Tolley, I'm the Moderator of the Historic-Hillyard.com Community Forum, as well as a contributing editor.  I'm no computer genius, but I like to spread my knowledge around and share what I've found.  I'd love to hear your thoughts, you can send me feedback at Moderator@historic-hillyard.com.  I hope you like the new format.  I've added links and an archive of all my previous HGCS columns.  I will soon be adding a place for some interesting topical links that will change fluidly.  Keep checking back and enjoy.

Links
Digital Goddess Kim Komando:
www.komando.com
Spokane's Craig's List, free classifieds and so much more:
 http://spokane.craigslist.org/
Free online Encyclopedia written by users:
http://www.wikipedia.org
Safe Internet Games:
http://www.jimbogames.com/
VERY popular online community, all the kids are doing it:
http://www.myspace.com
Ever have a burning question?  Here's a whole bunch of 'um:
http://ask.yahoo.com
Not just for searching:
http://www.google.com
Fun Deal Site:
http://www.woot.com
Fun Art Site:
http://www.worth1000.com

HGCS Archive
-Vol. 1:
Making your computer work better in 3 Easy Steps, Step 1.
-Vol. 2:
...3 Easy Steps, Step 2 & 3.
-Vol. 3:
Wow, you must spend a lot of time in chat rooms
-Vol. 4:
Internet Forums 101
-Vol. 5:
Internet Forums 102
-Vol. 6:
Internet Forums 103
-Vol. 7:
Internet Forums 104
-Vol. 8:
My Favorite Websites
-Vol. 9:
Pictures for Websites, etc.
-Vol. 10:
Flashback 1997
 -Vol. 11:
Electronic Security Rant.
 -Vol. 12:
Piracy
 

The topics and content of The Hillyardite's Guide to Computer's & Stuff, do not necessarily reflect the views of Historic-Hillyard.com.  The aim of this column is to educate our computer novice public, with the added bonus of having fun.  While we take every effort to be accurate, we DO NOT take responsibility for our reader's actions with regard to their computers. In the computer industry there are countless variables and we cannot attempt to know them all.

The Hillyardite's Guide to Computers and Stuff is a monthly column written by Luke Tolley and published by Historic-Hillyard.com

We encourage suggestions and responses.  You may either submit an email to ComputerGuide@Historic-Hillyard.com or let us know what you think by responding in the Forum.

Historic-Hillyard.com staff.

 

 

 

Volume 12: 04.10.2006:  Piracy

It's a pirates life for me?  I wouldn't suggest it, "Bad food, brutal discipline... no women."*  However, people all over the world choose everyday to be pirates.   Music pirates, software pirate and the like.  I'm not going to debate the right and wrong of this, what's illegal is illegal.  I'm not going to tell you my opinion of the RIAA or how Metallica ruined the internet; I'm not going to talk about that.  What I am going to talk about is the wisdom of calling these things piracy.  In a nutshell, plagiarism and copyright infringement aren't nearly as romantic.

Have you purchased a new DVD lately only to pop it in the player to be assaulted with the, "you wouldn't steal a car...buying pirated movies is illegal" commercial at the beginning? Who are they trying to kid? First of all, piracy is the coolest form of crime (not that any crime is cool, but if it was, piracy would be the first on my list).  Even cooler were the pirates on the high sees, or air pirates (remember Tailspin) or space pirates.  Did you know September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day?  Arrrrrrgg.  Seriously, who doesn't want to be a pirate?

And another thing, in a lot of ways piracy is the highest form of capitalism. You are completely looking out for yourself and you are only motivated by what will make you the most money.  Hostile takeovers, hunting for opportunities, the higher up the ladder you are, the bigger your share.  Kinda sounds like Enron doesn't it.

Possibly the only thing cooler than being a pirate would be being a Ninja. Maybe if they started calling drug dealers, "drug ninjas" they could really stamp out the teenage drug problem. Doesn't anybody do studies on this kind of thing?  "The psychological implications of the naming of criminal acts" or something.  Should we really call crimes by the same names we use for nicknames of our high schools or our mutant amphibian cartoon evil fighters?

Back to the point. If they didn't call burning illegal copies of CDs and downloading music or movies piracy, I think they would have a much easier time fighting it.  That's my point.  Kids wouldn't be wearing stylish Music Pirate t-shirts. If it was called petty larceny or copyright infringement, it doesn't have quite the same romantic appeal.  Think of it like the cyber version of making inmates wear pink jumpsuits.

Resources: