The Verdict: Greed, Greed, and More Greed.

The rumors that have spread are indeed true.  The landmark criminal case against the founders of The Pirate Bay, a widely utilized file sharing platform, has resulted in a guilty verdict. The founders, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundstrom, have all been sentenced to a year in prison.  To accompany that verdict, they have been ordered to pay $3.6 million in “damages” to companies who claim they have been “hurt” by their enabling actions.  Among those who demanded payment were Warner Brothers, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI.  This case makes  their unending customs of greed all the more clear.  While they claim they have been “damaged” by the continued actions of The Pirate Bay and similar organizations,  the only demand they had was that of a payment of $3.6 million dollars.  The only thing they wanted of this case was money.  They took no action to resolve the “issues” they claim exist.  The founders were not jailed upon demand of these companies.  No, they were sentenced to  jail for breaking Swedish law. Even at that,  The Pirate Bay will continue to operate normally.  

$3.6 million dollars and the jailing of the founders of a company has not and will not do anything to resolve the continued piracy problems that this entire trial was based upon.  These selfish and greedy companies must heed the demands and needs of the people.   America and the modern world cannot stand by and allow companies to make millions and billions of dollars a year while the rest suffers to get by week to week.  Companies cannot continue their ways and expect consumers to obtain their products legally when they are continually over priced and give nothing back to communities.  They also cannot continue to claim they are taking measures to solve piracy problems when all they do is demand more money and take no action to terminate those organizations that condone it.  We, the people, cannot continue to support these hypocritical companies that prosper and take the easy route to “solving problems” while the rest of us suffer and work hard to solve our own.  

Piracy problems are not an issue at the end of platforms such as The Pirate Bay.  They are an issue at the ends of the companies that stand by and watch as their products are pirated and take no sustainable action against those that pirate them.  If companies wish to solve piracy problems they must clean up their acts to do so.  Rather than suing those whom they claim are culprits they need to implement more sufficient methods to preventing their products from being exploited in the first place.  They must also work to clean up the image that currently exists in the eyes of the consumer.  They cannot continue in their ways of greed and expect consumers to be accepting.  They must restructure their marketing to equally benefit consumers as well as themselves.  

The result of this trial must begin a new era of sustainable and  moral resolution.  Each and every person, company, and organization must heed the call to unite as one to solve problems that clearly exist.  One side cannot continue to stand by and watch as the other continues in its ways of greed and hypocrisy.  Similarly, the other cannot continue to stand by and watch as their products are pirated and claim that they are working to solve the problem while raking in millions of dollars in the process.  

The choice is ours to make: continued hostility that produces no victory or collaborative resolution and prosperity for all.

Tragedy at Carousel Center

While spending the night with my family at Carousel Center, a mall complex in Syracuse,   the night took a tragic turn.  In the atrium of the mall a 21 year old man jumped from the 6th floor balcony in attempted suicide. Unresponsive at the scene,  he was taken to a local hospital and was later pronounced dead.  

There are several sad things that concern this story.  The first is simple. There were plenty of places where this man could have gotten help. There are people that give their entire lives to help those with illnesses like he had.  The fact that help would have resulted in totally different choices and one less death to depression and suicide is an absolute tragedy.  

Another horrible thing that involves this story is how little people actually know about his illness – Depression. When the story hit a local website, there were people commenting and calling this man selfish. This man was not selfish – not at all.  Only ignorance can lead to this kind of comment. The fact is, depression corrupts the way a person thinks.  This man did not have the ability to make the right decision. He was not in the state of mind to know the difference from right to wrong.  Chances are he did not realize the world around him – the fact that there were shoppers and children all around him.  He simply did not have the ability to think for others or even for himself and for all we know, he might have decided then and there that he wanted to end his life.  This man was not selfish.  He was under the control of Depression. 

The absolute worst things about this story are the choices those surrounding him made.  If you were to fall or jump from a 6th floor balcony while surrounded by hundreds of people,  would you want people taking pictures of you?  Would you want your face and battered body posted all over the internet?  If not, then why would you do the same to someone else?  Those that did so had about the same amount of judgement as the man himself.  Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they do things like this. 

To conclude this post,  my heart goes out to the family and friends of Michael.  Depression is a terrible illness.  I can say this from personal experience.  I have seen what it can do to a person and what it can do to their loved ones.  The unfortunate set of circumstances is that, in this case,  help was not being received. I hope that this event will, in its tragedy,  be an eye opener for those who have little knowledge about depression.

Payday For I’minlikewithyou

If you are in any way involved in the internet, whether as a skilled web user or an employee of a technology company,  then you might recognize the name Im In Like With You. The network first hit the internet in 2006 as a private beta website and was under a virtual lock and key. Since that day we have seen an expansion that no one could have expected.  Many new features have been added since including the launch of the game of Blockles and, more recently, Dinglepop,  Draw My Thing and Gemmers. The launch of a fifth game, Balloono, is anticipated for release soon.  The site also earned a spot on PC Magazine’s Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites list.  Blockles has been played over three million times for nearly 200,000 hours and Draw My Thing, while having only been in existence for a few months, has already racked up over one million hours of gameplay.  Just when we might have thought that this website could not get much better or more popular it managed to raise a whopping 1.5 million dollar paycheck for only the second time since its launch. The news has only just begun to spread and more is to be said about it. What has been said (by founder Charles Forman), is no less than a joke. Or could spending the paycheck on a ‘large scale party’ be the indicator for a much bigger addition to the website? We have yet to find out.