I am so sick if the moron brigade over at the MPAA and their constant crying and lies and persecution of kids and their own fans over the issue of Piracy. Well, tech columnist and regualr member of the TWIT podcast, John C. Dvorak has a suggestion that might shut them up. Putting a tax on blank media and media hard drives that goes to the MPAA.
Here is an excerpt from Dvorak’s article:
In Canada, they tax blank CDs. There the tax is called a levy, since it doesn’t benefit the government and is done at the behest of Hollywood. The current levy is 21 cents per CD-R. They also levy a flat $25 on any hard disk in an MP3 player for the same reasons. (This Web site follows that process.)
There seems to me to be some element of racketeering here, but who is going to do anything about it if the government is in bed with the racketeers?
That said, I’d like to know if it would shut them up if we implemented these sorts of levies on blank media and MP3 devices in the U.S.
In my opinion, this move could indeed work in theory, and perhaps it would shut those idiots at the MPAA up. Throw them a BILLION dollars a year in media levies and we might not have to put up with stories of them suing teenagers and watching their pathetic hypocritical ads.
However, there is a principle here that really bothers me. I don’t download illegal music or movies. So why should the MPAA be legally allowed to treat ME like a criminal and charge me a levy on my blank media and portable media devices??? Why the hell should I pay blood money to that cabal of descendants of inbreeders? The idiots known as the MPAA. Why should YOU be treated like a criminal and be forced to pay the MPAA for that blank DVD you want to burn the video of your daughters first step?
Would it shut them up? Maybe… and maybe it’s worth it. But a part of me just HATES what this represents… the power the the MPAA has to do whatever the hell they want, and we end up trying to think up ransoms to pay them. Sad. So what do you think about Dvorak’s idea?
