Star Wars oh how I fear thee.

Like many I have not been too pleased by the new starwars movies. The
first one was nowhere near as good as I had hoped it would be. The
second was even worse than I had feared it would be.  Oh there
were good parts, some parts that were absolutely great, but so very
much of it fell short from what I had hoped. These are just likable
movies, not extroardinary works that will withstand the tests of time.
Certainly they are not unforgettable epics the likes of the original
starwars movies or now the new standard: Lord of the Rings.

Partly this is hoping for too much. I know that, but I cannot help but
think that there was a lot of room for improvement in both movies. They
could have been more than they were even if they never could have been
what I wished them to be.

Why then, I wonder, if I have been so disappointed in the past do I
look forward with great anticipation toward the new movie on the
horizon. Why do the trailers get me so excited? Why do the commercials
leave me yearning to watch it as soon as possible? I know that the
movie is highly likely to disappoint me. I know that past experience
should make me hesitate to rush out and watch it. I should be
nonchalant. I shouldn’t care… But I do.

Part of it is just the world. The Starwars universe is extroardinary.
Even the worst story would be made tolerable if it were just to take
place in that extroardinary universe and remain true to its principles.
I look forward to any chance I get to learn a little more about that
world.

Part of it is the basic story which we already know. The story of 
the fall and redemption of Annakin is a classic tale and well told in
this telling. It just feels good to have the final piece of the puzzle
put into place. It’s like something that has been missing from my
conception of starwars all of these years. A large gap right in the
middle of everything preventing me from truly seeing everything as a
one big complete story. That is just the way with prequels really, but
I think it will feel good to finally achieve that feeling of relief
that comes from knowing that it is finally over.

A large part of it also is certain images in the trailers of the return
of a certain characacter that any true starwars fan will love.  A
part of it is the fact that the trailers and commercials have very
little dialogue, and it has been in the past the dialogue of the first
two movies that really ruined them. Part of it is just imagining how
potentially awesome the light saber duels could be, as we all know that
is a large part of the reason anyone watches these movies at all. Part
of it is the knowledge that this movie being the end will have the
death or disappearence of many of the characters I’ve come to dislike
over the course of the previous two movies. And of course part of it is
just that trailers can make almost anything look good. It’s part of the
art of making trailers.

But the biggest reason I can’t wait to watch this new starwars movies despite all of my trepidations is simple. Darth Vader.

Oh how long have we waited? After all of this ridiculous build up, if
they ruin this character’s triumphant return I will never speak of
anything related to starwars again. Ever.

Well maybe I’ll make an exception for things related to the starwars
animated shorts. Thoe were friggin awesome. If only the movies were
made by the same people and in the same style, then I’d have no
trepidations whatsoever.

Consider that beloved concept created by the internet called
“filesharing”. I know I have spoken of it much before, but I have never
really clearly stated my full opinion of it and all the controversey
surrounding it. Of course I’ve not hidden nor will I even my as of yet
unshaken believe that filesharing is NOT wrong, nor have I ever
pretended that I don’t think that the abstract philosophical concepts
at the heart of the debate over sharing of files is one of the most
important debates in the history of human existence, but I haven’t
actually given much in the way of arguments one way or another.

Nor will I start now. However, I will direct you to an interesting
debate on the topic so that if you have a few hours to spare you can
probably get a good sense of the current state of the debate and draw
your own conclusions.

Here it is: http://www.cit.cornell.edu/oit/ucpl/download-debate2.ram
IF this doesn’t work try here:

http://www.cit.cornell.edu/oit/UCPL.html

If you don’t see anything that looks like a debate on copyright click
OIT Outreach, and Unversity Computer Policy and Law Program.

Now I should say about this debate first off is that I enjoyed it
greatly and I learned something from it. I also found it quite
entertaining. However, I should also say that I didn’t learn all that
much considering the books I’ve already read on the subject and that
every single person from the panelists to the moderator, to the student
audience annoyed me greatly. Why you ask? Well there are many reasons
but most notably is just how overwhelmingly sure of themselves everyone
seemed to be. I mean really I highly doubt anyone left the debate with
even the slightest bit of a different opinion than they started with.
But this is really par for the course for these kinds of gathering. The
hope is that people with diverging views learn a little bit of
something of the opposing view so that they can take it more seriously
and perhaps respect those whose opinions differ from theirs. The goal
isn’t, sadly, to uncover the truth or to have there be any kind of
concensus or agreement on any particular point or issue. Unfortunately
not only do these debates fail to realize these ideal goals, they often
fail even to manage their considerably smaller goals. Panelists who
hate one another end up still hating one another just as much, and
everyone goes home just with a little more fuel to use in the next
debate. People use the debate as just a means to try and imprint their
own opinions on those who haven’t quite made up their mind. In effect
they are campaigning not debating and in many ways some of these
academic debates end up looking just like our presidential debates.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it and that doesn’t I mean I don’t
think we should have more of these and that more people should be
encouraged to watch them and learn from them. I just think that they
could certainly be better if experts on subjects were also those with
the greatest desire to learn more about the subjects and student
questioners devoted themselves to unearthing truth rather than trying
to spout their own opinions.

That said, there is one person in this debate whose comments I must
address directly. For of all of the four panelists who stood in
opposition to my own beliefs, his was the opinion that I felt most
sympathetic too and at the same time his proposed solution was the one
I found most repulsive and his style of argument I found amongst the
most annoying. It is the panelist to the far right of whom I speak who
had the misfortune of having to speak after the EFF guy who was just a
higher level debater. He had more skillz. And on top of that he was the last speaker who had to talk in front of an obviously antagonistic crowd.

My sympathy for this debater goes further than his crummy seating
arrangement though. His position being of all of the people that he
came to belief that we need stronger copyright law because of
interaction with real people who are suffering right now due to the
violation of copyright law through the internet. In other words his
concern isn’t that big media be allowed to make money, its that pirates
can’t indiscriminately get away with screwing the little guy just
because they can.

He reminded me of one of those guys who cries out against the growth of
computer use in industry putting regular secreatry’s and typists and
bank tellers and cashiers out of business. Or perhaps of those in a
previous era who lament the loss of hard labor jobs due to superior
manufacturing processes. I have long found these kinds of thoughts
about the changes that the future brings interesting and I always have
sympathy for them. But I, obviously, don’t think the world would have
ever ended up in a better place by haulting the flow of progress. Quite
the contrary the only way to move forward is the embrace the progress.
Those same people who will suffer due to the way that the internet
makes their work easily ‘stealable’ can use the internet even in an era
of filesharing to progress their own marketability. And you know what?
If they can’t, that’s too damn bad. I’m serious. They might not be able
to make money the same way. Certain businesses and ways of life might
pass away and through not fault of those engaging in them. And it’s
really sad, but the gains in terms of social mobility and equality and
general spread of knowledge and awareness in a society where free
sharing of media and ideas on the internet is greater than the loss of
some people’s livelihoods. Now admittedly it won’t feel that way to
them or to those familiar with their plight but this is the flow
history and it cannot be stopped by will alone.

Also interestingly enough this same debater was the most insistent in
the discussion of the moral/ethical question. Admittedly his desire to
debate this topic was twisted as he was trying to get a confession out
of the others in order to trap them in a classic debater’s trick. But I
should say that this is the angle through which there is not enough
discussion in the world of mortals. We need to seriously discuss what
is right with regards to creative content and what is wrong not just
assume that we can all see the so called “obvious” answers to these
moral questions.  It is becoming increasingly clear that not all
Americans value the same things with regard to intellectual property
manipulation but many like this debater are still devoted to forcing
everyone to agree on a false oversimplification of the issues of right
and wrong. 

Anyways more on this later.

And sometimes press can be bad…

This is almost surely the last thing I will post on this particular issue ever but anyone passing by should definitely read it:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/31/schiavo_media/

You might have to click through an annoying add to get in which is why
I never read anything from that particular site unless I can’t locate
the equivalent elsewhere. This happens to be the case today.