Thursday
May172012
Message from Our Government: "Ripping a CD is Like Stealing a Pair of Shoes"
Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 8:59AMProving once again that politicians don't understand technology, Dean Del Mastro, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, stood up in Parliament this week to denounce anyone who'd dare rip a CD to MP3. From Boing Boing:
“It’s like going to a clothing store and buying a pair of socks and going back and saying by the way it wasn’t socks that I needed, what i really wanted was shoes. So I’m just going take these, I’m gonna format shift from socks to shoes and I’m not gonna pay anything because it was all for my feet,” he says.
And these are the people who are entrusted with copyright reform?
Reader Comments (15)
I hope the people that start laughing towards the end are laughing because of how ridiculous his comments are.
More like buying a pair of socks and hanging them off your ears.
Seriously? this idiot is in charge of something in the government? who voted that twat in?
And taxing us the way you do is like breaking into our homes, raping our grandmas.wives,sisters and pets and we stand helpless and take it...
I think a better comparison would be like buying water and then deciding its better suited for you frozen so you took your water and turned it to ice in a freezer you bought and paid for. And then having the water industry going "HEY! i sold that to you as water! WTF do you think your doing! you owe us money". Then when we said uhh this is ridiculous, why should i give you money i already bought your water, they come along and sue the freezer maker for allowing ice to be frozen in the first place. And then lobby the government to spy on all of the taps in our home.
He should of said Madam Speaker....I am an Idiot!
It's like electing a government on a platform they campaigned on then they get elected and format shift their policies saying it's not really what we wanted so I'm just going to do the opposite.
Who's running this Gov't???Big Music and Movie Industry?
@Zach, if I could +1 your comment I would. Beautiful, man.
Be kind. When he was very small boy the honorable member was traumatized by a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and has had a paralyzing dear of both socks and music ever since. Also, a bit of a fetish.
It's more like buying a pizza and being told you can only eat it out of the box it came in and not off of your own plates. Idiot! Who elected this guy? Lol.
+++ to Zach. Well put.
"Who elected this guy"? The fine people of Peterborough...well done, you shower of arseholes!
Another +1 to Zach. Very well-put!
Yup, big + to Zach. That's the best analogy i've heard about it in a while.
Absolutely right Zack. Well put and right on the money. This one was nearly as frustrating as Flahertys comments on the Unemployed...Out elected officials are nearly all BOOBS.
if anything, it's more like the guy who pays for one newspaper from the newspaper box on the corner but taking ten copies of the same paper, keeping one for yourself and then giving the other nine to the next nine people you pass on the street. i don't think there is anything wrong with ripping a cd for personal use, but when you start giving someone else's hard work away for free, that's where you cross a line.