The Read the Bills Act

I recently came across an interesting piece of legislation. The Read the Bills Act would require new bills to be read, in their entirety before a quorum in both the House and the Senate before being voting.

In my opinion, this would solve a couple of problems. Firstly, It would help stop pork barreling, or tacking extraneous things onto laws to get things passed without proper discussion. Second, it would help to make bills easier to understand. Let's face it, if you have to listen to a bill being read, you aren't going to fill it with legalese. And finally, it would help the public to be better informed about what is going on in congress by requiring that all bills be posted online 24 hours before they can have a vote.

GarageBands.com

Wow. That was my first reaction when I found this site. This is the way to listen to music in the 21st century.

You go to the website and search by:

• Band
• Location
• Genre
• "Sounds Like"
• or "Influenced By"

Then you can listen to the music, download mp3's of the songs, or buy a CD. All legally and free. You gotta love independent artists.

"But," you may ask, "how do they expect to make any money if they are giving away their music as mp3s? Well I'm glad you asked. ;)

You see, if they let you listen to their music for free and give you copies for free, you are more likely to like their band. This means that you will want to support them, by buying a CD (yes, I know, you already have the music, but you don't have a cool CD and jewel case, now do you?), by going to one of their concerts, by buying swag, or just as a donation. Isn't that an awesome way to do business?

It has also been shown that fileshareing actually increases a bands CD sales, so it is smart for the bands to do this.

In a related story, the RIAA has just been voted the most hated company in America.

4-H and Creative Commons

I had a great idea while driving back to school this evening.
It all started with Dance Weekend. You see, at 4-H Dance Weekend, there are a number of dances that are known as "Dance Camp Classics". When they start to play these songs, everyone gets out on the floor and dances, they even play a few of them at other state camps. The songs that go with these dances are pretty eclectic. They include everything from old country (Little Black Book - Jimmy Dean), to Jazz (Salty Dog Rag - ?). From old Jewish wedding songs (Sway, Romanian Hora), to oldies (Sweet Gypsy Rose - Tony Orlando and Dawn). With a little bit of everything else thrown in for good measure. These songs all have only two things in common: everyone who goes to Dance Weekend loves to dance to them, and they are all on "The CD". I don't know where The CD came from, but there are a number of copies floating around on dance weekend, usually wielded by a counselor.
Now, the Problem.
At Dance Weekend this year, my mom decided that she was going to get a copy of "The CD" to take back to our county so we could teach a dance class at county 4-H camp. So she approached a lady who was teaching a class and using The CD and asked her where she could get a copy. The lady told Mom that a certain counselor had the original, and she should ask him for a copy. My mom asked, and was told that the man didn't want to infringe copyright, but he gave her the list of songs. Mom returned to me and asked me to make the CD for her, legally. So I paid Napster to buy all of the songs I could find...less than half...and burnt a CD for her. She then asked me if she could legally make copies for other people who wanted to use it, and I had to tell her that, no, they would have to make their own to be legal. That is when the basic logic of it hit her: Why can't I do what I want with my songs that I have purchased? But more on that later.
Now, when I was driving along, thinking about the issue, it occurred to me that if we could get someone to record all of the Camp Favorites and release them under a Creative Commons license, we could eliminate the problem. 4-H'ers are mighty resourceful, and mighty talented, so I figure we get a group of us together to plan it out, then get small groups of kids to make recordings of all the songs on The CD. We can do this legally as long as we send a letter of intent to the original copyright holders to tell them we are going to make a cover of their song. Jackson's Mill could then cut a new "Dance Camp Favorites CD" and sell it to make up the recording fees.
Now all I have to do is get my butt in gear and do it.

First Post!

Well, I finally got around to it and here it is: My Blog.
A place for me to put all of my ramblings, thoughts, rants, feelings, and just about anything else I can think of.
First off, a little bit about me just in case anyone but the friends I explicitly point to this page read it. My name is Jacob Linden Smith. I am a 19 year old freshman at Fairmont State University in West Virginia and am majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Math.
Some posts you are likely to see in the future: Copyright, Linux and Socialism. With variations.
So, a preview on my views on each of these subjects, and then I'll call it a post.
Copyright: We need to get rid of it.
Linux: Ubuntu rules.
Socialism: Yes, yes, I know: "It works great...on paper." You know what else only works on paper? Capitalism.