Downward spiral continues

As if the events of October's election weren't depressing enough, the War on American citizens is picking up steam.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is suing individuals for sharing crappy movies on the Internet. Unlike their evil ilk the RIAA, they're evidently not just targeting people who are sharing hundreds or thousands of files, but anyone who has shared any file. The MPAA claims pirates are costing the industry millions of dollars, but it's more likely because the movies the studios put out are crap and taking a family of four to the movies and buying snacks requires a second mortgage.

There is also a total garbage bill going through Congress that, among other things, makes "offering for distribution" (aka, file sharing) a crime regardless of intent, outlaws fast-forwarding through trailers at the start of a DVD, and lets the Feds go after copyright infringers on taxpayer money, when it is clearly up to the rightsholders to bear that expense. We should all contact our representatives to let them know this bill is ridiculous.

I'm going to toss out a plug for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is sort of the ACLU for the digital set. If this sort of thing makes you angry, you should head over there and sign up for their newsletter.

Lastly, what is the deal with this Monday Night Football controversy? It's all terribly hypocritical, especially by the NFL, who is up in arms over a woman's bare back, but whose games are punctuated by ads for beer (which are often much more salacious than the Terrell Owens/Nicolette Sheridan sketch) and erectile dysfunction pills.

Who can forget last year's Super Bowl? Most people remember Janet Jackson's bare breast, but what stuck with me is that Cialis users who have sustained erections of four hours or longer require immediate medical attention. When we talk about protecting our kids from being exposed to nudity (or in this case, semi-nudity) during a football game, what about that?

The funniest thing about it all is that, just like Janet Jackson, the networks show the clip over and over and over again to show how distasteful it is. If no one had made such a stink about it, I would never have seen it at all (I was on the way home at that time). Now I see it three or four times a day and I couldn't be more sick of it.

When did this country go back to the 17th Century?