An MIT student accused of copyright infringement has been documenting her struggles with the RIAA. Upon trying to negotiate her settlement, a representative told her “the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.” Is this justice or insanity?
I’m blogging this from Digg.com, and it reminds me of something I’ve been thinking about lately.
Now, we all know podcasters who point to stories like this one as proof that the RIAA is evil, and I agree with them.
Here’s where I disagree with those same podcasters: when they’re unapologetic pot smokers. If you criticize or advocate a boycott of the RIAA because of their evil practices, then you can’t in the same breath extol the virtues of marijuana. The industry that supplies the demand for recreational drugs is FAR, FAR more evil than the RIAA could ever be. Unless your stash is homegrown, then lighting up during a podcast is soundvertising for what has to be the most evil industry in existence.
Yeah, we all know who I’m talking about. And please, I’m not mentioning this to invite ya’ll to a Podfather piñata party. Aside from this issue I think he’s a decent guy. I just think it’s ironic that people can work themselves into a tizzy over him using the Lord’s name in vain, yet overlook the fact that he’s shilling for the drug cartels more often than he does for Phillips.
And to make this post Japan-related: Marajuana’s just as illegal here as herion. If you’re caught, you’re in deep trouble.
read more | digg story
to play the devils advocate, the illegal drug industry (as far as marijuana is concerened) is only evil because of the cultural taboos that have been stamped on society have forced the distributation of marijuana to be an illegal and dangerous business. The act of smoking marijuana itself isnt exactly immoral, nor any more dangerous than other substances that are legal and sold. If tobacco businesses are alloud to sell cancer sticks (addicticing, dangerous to health), and liquor businesses sell alchoho(addicting, dangerous to health, judgement impareing), why cant their be a regulated market for marijuana to people of age?
By simply doing that, SO MUCH drug violence would be ended.
I think its in england where mari has been classified as the most harmless of drugs and offenders arent even jailed. In america, we’re throwing kids in jail, locking doors and demanding finds. For what?
Who is wrong? The people that smoke marijuana, or the society that forces a substance (that is by no means more harmfull than other legal dangerous substances) to be illegaly distributed underground by people of.. more than questionable character.
Like you said, Unless you are growing the stuff yourself…
Its not the substance itself, its the way society has forced it to be distributed.
Prohibition was a good idea too, right?
And nope, I dont smoke marijuana.
“Guiding illicit drug legislation in the United Kingdom is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA). This legislation and associated regulations control the use of both legal prescription drugs and illegal drugs. Drugs are classified as either A, B or C to reflect the degree of harm they are considered to cause to the individual or society when abused. Each class has different maximum penalties that apply to prohibited activities.
* Class A is reserved for the more harmful drugs; severe penalties may apply. This class includes (among others) heroin, morphine, methadone, cocaine, opium, Ecstasy and LSD.
* Class B includes less potent opioids like codeine, amphetamines and barbiturates.
* Class C is reserved for drugs that are considered the least harmful such as marijuana, tranquilizers, less potent stimulants and mild analgesics.”
ya it was england.
and also, hurray for still updateing the blog^^
Smoking marajuana is immoral because your purchase supports violent criminals. If you’re growing it yourself, then it’s a different story. Whether or not marijuana should be legalized is a completely different issue and irrelevant. People who say “boycott the RIAA” are saying “don’t fund industry because it’s evil.” Yet some of the same people won’t say the same thing about recreational drugs. Unless you’re in Utah, there’s hardly ever an argument over whether or not music itself is moral/imoral.
When you buy a major label CD, there are many innocent, moral, hard-working people in the chain who receive some of your money before the bloodsucking laywers. When you buy drugs, a much larger portion of your money goes directly to funding violence.
And it almost seems as if you’re more likely to make the news if you’re a victim of the RIAA than if you’re a victim of drug-related violence. The latter is much more commonplace.
listening to cds- not evil
riaa- evil
buying cds to listen to, a harmless act (the actual listening to cds), funds an “evil” (for discussions sake) organization
smoking pot- not evil
drug industry- evil
buying marijuana to smoke, a harmless act (the actual smokeing of marijuana), funds an evil organization
I’m sure most people who smoke it more than agree that the organizations that supplies it is evil (unless they are growing themselves). I dont disagree with what you are saying about it helping to fund the evil by buying it.
The only thing I am really saying is that when you buy marijuana, many innocent, moral, and hard-working people (before the lawyers) could be recieving some of your money as well, but society has flags and banners shouting the ‘evils’ of smokeing marijuana, when the only evil is the organization that supplies it, due to the society denying it a legal market, for no real reason other than societie’s taboo.
so smokers are forced into participating in a needless and illegal market, and it sucks. they are too blame to a point, but society and leaders refusing to allow a safe and legal market should be shouldering basically all of the blame, not the smokers, in my opinion.
Nobody’s forced to smoke marijuana, nor is it a necessity, so the government isn’t forcing you to fund crime. You’re doing it of your own free will. (I’m using the generic “you” here.)
Advocating that it should be legalized for recreational purposes is all well and good, and wonderful intellectual exercise to engage in over coffee. It’s also futile (unless Willie Nelson is elected president), but harmless.
All those burps on the Daily Source Code have led to a lot of money being spent of coffee makers. I wonder how much money has been made off those lighter flicks.
Great to see you’re still in the loop Rich!
Hello!
Nice to meet you!
I’m Japanese man studying English.
I browsed your blog.
You have original idea, I guess.
I write blog in English too.
But I am strange to write blog in English.
Would you mind if I want you to advise me whether sentences are collect or not on my blog pages?
I think I could learn from you.
Have a good day!
Japanglish Times from Tokyo Japan
There is no reference to marijuana in the “evil” link you provided. I suspect the vast majority of pot supply in North America comes from independent Californian and Canadian growers – not Mexican drug cartels that focus on methampetamine, heroin, and cocaine. If you want to stir up the pot (pun unintended) on this line of argument and keep it Japan-related, how about attacking men who patronize Kabukicho establishments – which you glorified in your enjoyable podcast from March 2005 (wow, time flies). They are controlled by the Yakuza who enslave Korean, Thai, and Phillipine women after they are brought to Japan under false pretenses. Saying “smoking marajuana is immoral because your purchase supports violent criminals” is as ludicrous as saying people who drive are immoral, because the money flows back to governments that support terrorism. But hey, if you’re just trying to be controversial to stimulate intelligent debate and it keeps you updating the blog then I’m all for it.
I was going to post a comment similar to the one that Dave (my name, ironically) just posted. The “marijuana industry” isn’t all that evil, for the most part.
Having said that, I’m not a pot smoker, and I totally agree with you that folks who support drug cartels while decrying “evil corporations” need to look in the mirror. Another thing that drives me crazy are the folks who are into all organic / natural foods while they use drugs. Denial is incredibly powerful.
As a fellow podcaster, I understand the mix of love and hate with which you view your show. Thanks for all of the great episodes!
Take care!
Sometimes I feel like I’m surrounded by potheads who are all dull-minded uncreative and defend a drug that requires zero thought or artistic mental exertion to use. But thats me, anyways, ENJOY!
And Rich, keep posting even though the topics may be completely random at times. ;p
Hmmm…well…I’m not a smoker, myself. But I am a music lover. Not a big RIAA fan. Anyone who sues 12-year-olds is pretty evil in my book, and is wasting their time if they’re trying to make a point about file-sharing. File-stealing. File-whatevering. That being said, whether it’s immoral or not, if you break a law–no matter how stupid it may be–and you get fined/settled/whatever, you certainly can’t complain when they don’t make it easier for you. You can’t whine “but I don’t have it!”. These are things one should be thinking about when breaking laws, no matter how stupid.