en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/ef5e419d2756d9e63d8b079e75dd7cb8.html
I urge everyone to stop viewing any of Viacom's products. That company has done more damage to the world with their crappy MTV compared with any other media industry. Heck, the makers of South Park had even stated in one of their episodes how MTV is solely responsible for damaging most of America (or in my opinion the entire world). In a way that is ironic considering that Comedy Central is the parent company for both networks. But that just goes to show how it's all inside jobs.

Well, the American justice system is just so damaged when it comes to copyright and intellectual property. Funny how a company like MTV or VH1 can hold something with the words "intellectual" and manage to get away with major lawsuits.

Maybe someone should sue the US government and WTO to force everyone to change the entire notion of "intellectual property" to just assets. If that were the case, I think people would have a better chance of arguing how most things cannot be protected since there's very little academic stimulation involved in all this.

Going back, I really hope that Google fights this case. I hope even further that someone investigates the judge and finds out how much he was bribed behind the scenes by Viacom. This is just plain wrong and it affects people not just in the US but around the world.

For myself, I don't have problem of Viacom shutting down entirely if one day people stop purchasing their goods, clicking on ads or draining them of resources after pirating their stuff. I want them to go out of business. I want all those people to lose their jobs and think even harder about being overly greedy. I shed zero sympathy for any of the staff members. As long as they support that fascist company, to me they are nothing more than Nazi soldiers obeying an order for the simple sake of money.]]> Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:00:35 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/ef5e419d2756d9e63d8b079e75dd7cb8.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/f184fe13e9a66b149ce015da08a47103.html
All musicians know that they are enslaved to Big Media. In their case, they have little to no alternatives. But for them it's like their next hit of crack (which I think the Big Media companies support anyway in a literal sense to keep most of these artists stupid and weak; I mean, I've heard stories in Japan how many puppet artists are drugged up to keep them under control and it's no secret about the so called sex-drugs-and rock n roll lifestyles of celebrities that demand these people in needing money which screws up their lives). Also, people working for companies who build their own tools end up losing their inventions once they sign contracts with non-compete clauses and company ownership clauses. Then you get the medical profession which is completely hampered by patent disputes, preventing more companies from coming out with vaccines. A while back Intel's former CEO had criticized medicine with this argument.

Copyright and intellectual property were supposedly used to allow people to take ownership of what they create back in the day when kings ruled the land. Individuals, not mega corporations. But what we're seeing in the global economy (especially American politics) is the return to feudalism, where we're simply enslaved again to the owners that we work for.

Right now, over at TechCrunch, I see a lot of spammers, people who fear their activities with YouTube, and those even supporting the notion of copyright and the judge's decision in NY over this. However, I find it ironic that because of so-called copyright infringement technology like YouTube that, for instance, Japanese game shows had become so popular, it's now going to be produced in America. So without YouTube, these Japanese game shows would be hidden gems in Japan, while Hollywood runs around producing another creative-less crappy reality show. And isn't even further ironic that it's Hollywood literally copying the format (more or less) from another source? Are the Japanese studios going to receive proper compensation or even recognition for this? Or remember that horrid movie Stealth? That was a blatant ripoff of Macross the Movie. I don't recall seeing any credits being given to the makers of Macross. Or lets go to movies like Lost in Translation or Babel. It's known the shots of Japan in those movies were taken in gorilla-style because obtaining a proper license to film in Japan is quite difficult. So those activities in themselves are considered illegal, yet they're being perpetrated by the same industry which is 1) breaching users' privacy unlawfully; 2) suing users for perceived violations of law.

The world really needs to re-examine the whole issue of copyright, patents and intellectual property. I'm not talking about the constitutionality of them. I'm talking about the real purpose of them in the first place. In reality, artists, engineers, scientists, etc. are not the ones being protected by the law. The firms are using these people as puppets to protect their own interest. But individuals are losing out at every turn as well as society.

Personally, I would like the world/court systems to at the very least:

• Demolish the usage of the word "intellectual." You can't call what Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake, or MTV put out "intellectual." Call it a cold hearted asset because that's the only thing the court is protecting. Something intellectual means something smart from someone talented and smart; not a tool, not a puppet. In this case, it doesn't insult a truly talented person's intelligence when their capabilities are not protected by a court system, but some figure head for these capitalist machines.
• Don't ever associate copyright protection, etc. with individuals. These days individuals aren't the ones being protected. Just the lawyers and companies. People cannot use this argument anymore because it just isn't true.
• Make it illegal for companies to use the defense of protecting their artists' property. Companies can only say that they are protecting their assets because individuals in the post-feudal world basically have no rights without being subordinated to a large company to pay them off for pennies.

For myself, I don't want to be driven into fear of my activities online. I fully support Google/YouTube on what they've done. From a cultural point of view, the presence of viral video/music sites like YouTube has allowed more cultures to interact and be appreciated, even at the expense of large companies like Viacom. This case is unfair for the legally uploaded videos and users who employ YouTube for their own benefit. Also, this situation is global since people all around the world participate in these activities.

I hope that the judge realizes that what he's done is perpetuate favoritism for one company whose sole purpose this entire time is to simply benefit their shareholders and executives. And I'm not talking about Google/YouTube. I doubt that this judge realizes anything except the money that Viacom is handing him in the back parking lot to make these decisions. But that's the US court system these days.]]> Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:18:10 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/f184fe13e9a66b149ce015da08a47103.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/0f2c4d265e6c6efdd07a1121e3f2bac6.html

• No longer go to any movies in theaters
• Stop watching TV permanently
• Never to purchase another album again
• Never to click on an ad related to media promotions
• Inform my friends, family and acquaintances to do similar actions whenever possible
• Support only independent artists, movies and labels.

Fortunately, I've been doing almost 100% of these actions. But I will urge people to do the same in order to put dents in Big Media's profits whenever possible.]]> Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:09:11 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/7/3/0f2c4d265e6c6efdd07a1121e3f2bac6.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/5/f05b7c3bfdeea3713a6a904574a3075e.html
In short, even a dominant company like Google with their internet properties can still have short comings, allowing for more competitors to enter into these territories by virtue of opportunity.

But that's the core point in all this. The constant openings of opportunity permit the internet to continue having an incredible amount of competition. Despite the fact that the US and most of the world are experiencing a downturn economy, the guarantee of opportunities and future goldmines will push tech (most notably) as the industry to stick with.]]> Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:11:10 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/8/5/f05b7c3bfdeea3713a6a904574a3075e.html