Dead Men Left

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Truffling

In agreement with Taxloss about Shot by Both Sides, whose proprietor presumably spends hours truffling the internet for ripe and stinky little nuggets like this, this and this, on the last of which I find my wild disagreement with the premises of the argument overruled by bitter irrational hatred of the individual concerned and his adolescent dirges:

Bono, U2’s lead singer, is one of the leaders of the campaign to supply the third world with drugs by dismantling the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies. So is this his position on IPRs generally? Not at all. Bono is also one of the leaders of the campaign to strengthen the IPRs of (you’ve guessed it) musicians. Today, most European countries protect copyrights on sound recordings for no more than 50 years. The U2 members think that they should be allowed to "retain their copyright for at least as long as they live, and to pass it to their heirs, just like any other asset that they own." Yes, it’s very easy to say that property if theft when you’re talking about other people’s properties.