My Letter to Congress
Dear Senator,
I am writing to you about a very serious matter that demands your immediate attention. By now, no doubt, you have heard the repetitive cries of such lobbyists as the Recording Industry Artists of America (R.I.A.A.) and the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) about the threats that Peer-2-Peer (P2P) File Sharing Networks have upon the Intellectual Property they are entrusted to protect. They have beseeched you time and time again that piracy costs their industry billions of dollars annually and affects not just their own industry, but the damage supposedly extends much farther affecting even the livelihood of corn farmers and equipment manufacturers as well. Dear Sir, I write to let you know that this is just the tip of the iceberg and our great nation is very much in danger of sinking faster than the Titanic.
You see, when someone downloads an album or a movie online, they aren’t just committing petty-theft or the electronic equivalent of shoplifting. Yes, they could buy that same CD or DVD at Wal-Mart for $10, and shoplifting said CD or DVD would put the industry out the same amount. However, both the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A. insist that when someone downloads the same CD or DVD off the internet using P2P File Sharing Networks they are actually costing the industry approximately $15,000 per disc! Upon hearing these seemingly preposterous claims, I have come to realize that a far greater evil needs to be addressed before it is too late for us all.
You see there are many greater threats to Intellectual Property going on right beneath our noses. These threats are costing American businesses not just a few petty billions of dollars but rather trillions of dollars annually. Something must be done quickly to protect American business interests from these threats. Legislation is the only way this can be done.
What are these threats, you ask? They are numerous and great and I shall share with you but a small sampling. The American people, the vile criminal minds that they are, have a penchant for a Do-It-Yourself mentality. This affects us all. When a person chooses to fix something, say their own car, for example, rather than take it t the mechanic, they are cheating not only the mechanic out of their livelihood, but the part companies that supply him and the Motor companies that he must license with. When an American chooses to grow his own vegetables in a backyard garden, they are stealing from millions of American farmers they put out of work, and the millions who build the farm equipment they use, and the billions of dollars that Monsanto would surely make if it weren’t for those pesky home gardeners. What about those repugnant Public Libraries that freely allow Americans to steal from Publishers and Authors without paying to buy their books? By allowing Public Libraries to exist, you are sentencing Book Stores, Distributors, and Publishers everywhere to certain death, not to mention the end of the entire Timber Industry. Whenever an American watches television for free and doesn’t buy each and every one of the various goods advertised in the commercials they are not only stealing from the advertisers who paid for the shows they enjoy, but costing every single one of those industries trillions of dollars in potential sales annually. The worst offenders, however, are the children of our country. Every year they cost the Toy and Video Game industries trillions of dollars annually by using their imaginations instead of buying more of their goods.
There are many other such threats as well, but let these few examples suffice for now.
Consider also the affect these forementioned actions has upon Tax Revenue at the municipal, state and federal levels! The American people are cheating this country out of billions of tax revenue with their thievery by doing things themselves, gardening, using public libraries, ignoring commercials and using their imaginations!
How can you justify your support in protecting the financial interests of the R.I.A.A. and the M.P.A.A. and their losses of a few paltry billion dollars when trillions are being lost every year by these other gross offenses?
I call for immediate action against Do-It-Yourselfers, Home Gardeners, Public Libraries, Couch-Potatoes and Children. The tools that they use pose an immediate threat to the livelihood of countless millions of tax-paying workers. Legislation must be passed banning the tools and methods they use to steal from the livelihood of others. Tools, seeds, libraries, computers, remote controls and imagination each must be federally controlled or outright banned to protect the bottom line of American businesses and ensure that America remains financially strong. For if we don’t consume more than we create then it could spell financial ruin for us all.
Once upon a time King George had a reliable source of income to help him build England’s great empire. When a bunch of uppity revolutionaries refused to pay taxes and committed acts of terrorism against shipments of tea from the Far East Trading Company, he had to take drastic measures to protect the financial interests of his country’s businesses and protect English jobs, revenue, and taxes. Our forefathers fought hard and gave their lives so that we too could do the same some day to protect our very own reliable sources of taxable income. Even though we built this fine nation on innovation, ingenuity and hard-work during the Industrial era, we must now protect those industries that have fallen behind and lack the innovation or ingenuity or are too lazy to adapt and change to compete in a Free Market society. Darwinism tells us that animals that refuse to adapt inevitably go the way of the dinosaur. Therefore, you must do something for these businesses that refuse to adapt their business practices and make their products more appealing and marketable, before they end up extinct, leaving millions of Americans without a way to feed their families and a U.S. Government without any way to fund it’s war-mongering ways.
I remind you that once upon a time, King George realized that each and every American was nothing less than a thieving criminal, and even today the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A. insist the very same. If the twin daughters of President Bush have themselves stolen from the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A., it is only a matter of time before your children and mine do the same. Yet, I have shown you numerous other examples of how each and every one of us is continuing to steal from American businesses and even our own government that are far greater in reach and scope. Action must be taken promptly. We are counting on you to save us all from ourselves.
Your humble wage-slave,
Mark O. Garrison, Esq.
I am writing to you about a very serious matter that demands your immediate attention. By now, no doubt, you have heard the repetitive cries of such lobbyists as the Recording Industry Artists of America (R.I.A.A.) and the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) about the threats that Peer-2-Peer (P2P) File Sharing Networks have upon the Intellectual Property they are entrusted to protect. They have beseeched you time and time again that piracy costs their industry billions of dollars annually and affects not just their own industry, but the damage supposedly extends much farther affecting even the livelihood of corn farmers and equipment manufacturers as well. Dear Sir, I write to let you know that this is just the tip of the iceberg and our great nation is very much in danger of sinking faster than the Titanic.
You see, when someone downloads an album or a movie online, they aren’t just committing petty-theft or the electronic equivalent of shoplifting. Yes, they could buy that same CD or DVD at Wal-Mart for $10, and shoplifting said CD or DVD would put the industry out the same amount. However, both the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A. insist that when someone downloads the same CD or DVD off the internet using P2P File Sharing Networks they are actually costing the industry approximately $15,000 per disc! Upon hearing these seemingly preposterous claims, I have come to realize that a far greater evil needs to be addressed before it is too late for us all.
You see there are many greater threats to Intellectual Property going on right beneath our noses. These threats are costing American businesses not just a few petty billions of dollars but rather trillions of dollars annually. Something must be done quickly to protect American business interests from these threats. Legislation is the only way this can be done.
What are these threats, you ask? They are numerous and great and I shall share with you but a small sampling. The American people, the vile criminal minds that they are, have a penchant for a Do-It-Yourself mentality. This affects us all. When a person chooses to fix something, say their own car, for example, rather than take it t the mechanic, they are cheating not only the mechanic out of their livelihood, but the part companies that supply him and the Motor companies that he must license with. When an American chooses to grow his own vegetables in a backyard garden, they are stealing from millions of American farmers they put out of work, and the millions who build the farm equipment they use, and the billions of dollars that Monsanto would surely make if it weren’t for those pesky home gardeners. What about those repugnant Public Libraries that freely allow Americans to steal from Publishers and Authors without paying to buy their books? By allowing Public Libraries to exist, you are sentencing Book Stores, Distributors, and Publishers everywhere to certain death, not to mention the end of the entire Timber Industry. Whenever an American watches television for free and doesn’t buy each and every one of the various goods advertised in the commercials they are not only stealing from the advertisers who paid for the shows they enjoy, but costing every single one of those industries trillions of dollars in potential sales annually. The worst offenders, however, are the children of our country. Every year they cost the Toy and Video Game industries trillions of dollars annually by using their imaginations instead of buying more of their goods.
There are many other such threats as well, but let these few examples suffice for now.
Consider also the affect these forementioned actions has upon Tax Revenue at the municipal, state and federal levels! The American people are cheating this country out of billions of tax revenue with their thievery by doing things themselves, gardening, using public libraries, ignoring commercials and using their imaginations!
How can you justify your support in protecting the financial interests of the R.I.A.A. and the M.P.A.A. and their losses of a few paltry billion dollars when trillions are being lost every year by these other gross offenses?
I call for immediate action against Do-It-Yourselfers, Home Gardeners, Public Libraries, Couch-Potatoes and Children. The tools that they use pose an immediate threat to the livelihood of countless millions of tax-paying workers. Legislation must be passed banning the tools and methods they use to steal from the livelihood of others. Tools, seeds, libraries, computers, remote controls and imagination each must be federally controlled or outright banned to protect the bottom line of American businesses and ensure that America remains financially strong. For if we don’t consume more than we create then it could spell financial ruin for us all.
Once upon a time King George had a reliable source of income to help him build England’s great empire. When a bunch of uppity revolutionaries refused to pay taxes and committed acts of terrorism against shipments of tea from the Far East Trading Company, he had to take drastic measures to protect the financial interests of his country’s businesses and protect English jobs, revenue, and taxes. Our forefathers fought hard and gave their lives so that we too could do the same some day to protect our very own reliable sources of taxable income. Even though we built this fine nation on innovation, ingenuity and hard-work during the Industrial era, we must now protect those industries that have fallen behind and lack the innovation or ingenuity or are too lazy to adapt and change to compete in a Free Market society. Darwinism tells us that animals that refuse to adapt inevitably go the way of the dinosaur. Therefore, you must do something for these businesses that refuse to adapt their business practices and make their products more appealing and marketable, before they end up extinct, leaving millions of Americans without a way to feed their families and a U.S. Government without any way to fund it’s war-mongering ways.
I remind you that once upon a time, King George realized that each and every American was nothing less than a thieving criminal, and even today the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A. insist the very same. If the twin daughters of President Bush have themselves stolen from the R.I.A.A. and M.P.A.A., it is only a matter of time before your children and mine do the same. Yet, I have shown you numerous other examples of how each and every one of us is continuing to steal from American businesses and even our own government that are far greater in reach and scope. Action must be taken promptly. We are counting on you to save us all from ourselves.
Your humble wage-slave,
Mark O. Garrison, Esq.