SADDEST DAY OF MY LIFE
This a a very sad day for me, and I fear for the justice system of this great country of ours.
I am a Photographer and a Small-Business/Home-User Computer Consultant, a poor man by any definition, and I have discovered that those with money can steal the copyrighted work of another and get away with it, as long as the person they steal from is poor and unable to pay the expenses of defending themselves and their rights.
I have learned that while an artist's intellectual property is protected by copyright from the moment of creation, that we cannot act under those laws that protect our work, our creation, without first paying the price to do so.
I have also found that even our rights under the First Amendment, our Freedom Of Speech, cannot be defended on principle alone. I have learned that even if one speaks or writes the TRUTH, if someone else has more money they can force that truth to be suppressed, they can take away that "InAlienable Right" that our Constitution guarantees.
I am weeping today, not just for my own loss. I weep today in the realization that the rights, and principles, that members of my family fought & died for, for over 160 years as Americans, have no meaning unless you have the money to buy them. I weep, because this is not what I have taught my children about our values, our laws, and our principles. I weep because honor, dignity, honesty, principle, justice, and even the laws & mores common to all religions of this world, mean nothing.