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Tag(s): Children; Children; Games; Internet; Internet; Internet; Liar Loans; Lies; Living; Movies; (more...) Music; Sharing; Truth; Work; Writing (less...)
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May 18, 2008 at 11:04:59

We are all Liars and Cheats

by Jason Greywolf Leigh Page 1 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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Did that title get your attention? Good. I had hoped that it would have. The truth always hurts—although it will always bring us closer to reality whenever we are reminded of it and willing to accept it. The truth, that is.

And we thought it was only politicians who lied and cheated their way into our lives.

Our own form of lies and cheating consumes us like a shadow in the night down a long, dark alley.

That is why we want these dishonest politicians in office: we need them to justify our own misgivings. And guess what? They know it. ‘Never forget that fact.

If you have ever copied an album of music for free—you have cheated. If you downloaded some software and made copies for your friends and they accepted it; you’re both cheaters.

If you know that your children are downloading songs, or games off of the Internet without paying for them, or if you know that they are ‘file sharing’ (Peer 2 Peer) Hollywood and Indie movies, then you have accepted the fact that your child is a thief.

You raised them. They learned from you: your good points and your not so good points.

The idea behind a ‘copyright’ is to protect a person or person's rights to the creation of that which has been copyrighted.

You have to pay for something that you do not own.

People from all walks of life in all counties in this dubious, immoral 21st century are lairs and cheats.

We have become a world of lairs and cheats, although many of us refuse to admit to it.

One person, of whom I addressed this topic to, wrote me, “If they don’t want their music or movie copied, or, okay, I'll say it, 'stolen off of the Internet,' then they should not have put it on the Net to began with.”

Wow. ‘Real brainy guy. ‘Kind of daunting, though, actually.

Have you ever actually read that FBI Warning logo that appears on all movies, musical CDs, games and softwares to name but a few? It's a 'crime' to steal other people's copyrighted work.

Creating a song is work. Making a movie is work. Although in the writing of the idea of a movie, or of a song is the real work.

Therefore, I ask the obvious question: “Why has the world become the very thing we despise the most in our political leaders? Are we not made of the same clay?

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My web Master, Quirt Evans, offered to put this Bio together for me, as I am not my favorite subject. JGL ;-) Jason Leigh attended Jr. College earning an Associates Degree in Education and Electronics, having also earned a 1st Class F.C.C. License. He was elected Editor of the Student Newspaper while contributing to the Under Ground newspaper. He attended various City and State Universities throughout America making The Dean's List for Academics while earning a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts. Jason worked in Broadcast TV-news and Production (ABC, PBS and Independent affiliates in New Orleans) for almost 20 years as a live cinematographer, Air Director, Master Controller, editor, writer, ENG photographer, and production director. His production company, Workhorse Productions, filmed the famed, "Checks, Crooks and Counterfeits" (c) 1994 by Jason Leigh, which is used as a training film by National food store chains, FDIC Banks and Law Enforcement Agencies. It remains the ONLY such commercial training film in the world. Songwriter, Jason Greywolf Leigh, is registered with BMI as a songwriter, composer and publisher (Cherry Picker Publishing), where his recently released Indie Folk/Americana album, "DIRECTIONS," is available at over 50 musical downloading websites (for singles), with the entire album available at such well known Web music stores as CDBaby.com: http://cdbaby.com/cd/jgreywolfl Or for more info, please see: http://jasonleigh.org/directions.htm at our website. He is listed in the Texas Musical Artists and in the Great Bands of Texas out of Dallas/Fort Worth. "DIRECTIONS," was recently debuted on the radio talk show of New York's The Meria Heller Show (http://meria.com) and has been played on many such radio talk shows. Jason is an Honorably Discharged, Disabled U.S. Navy Veteran of the Vietnam War, having served with the Navy SeaLs and assigned to the Navy's Intel Hawaiian Armed Services Police. His published book, "PowerGlide" (Available at Filament Books) http://www.filamentbooks.com/scripts/WebObjects.exe/eBookstore.woa/wa/find?assetID=1683, details his lifelong experiences with clairvoyance and UFO sightings and filming, "The best documented, broad daylight videotape of a UFO in the world," with his 'Factual Findings' and contains all published research papers and documents. He has been a repeated guest on many of the leading radio talk shows discussing paranormal topics including his proven clairvoyant abilities or, his 'God-given-gift,' as he refers to it. Jason lives alone in the small Texas town of Cleburne, being a widower, where he is planning a history making horse-back 'Long Ride' across the length and breadth of the USA to help bring public, media and governmental attentions to the plights, dejections and abuses of disabled American Veterans and their families who have become the nation's 'forgotten heroes' and its worse disgrace. Favorite quotations: "We improve by trying our strengths with others. Not by showing them off." William Hazlet "WE can't last too long, I mean, who wants to listen to a 30 year old Beatle?" John Lennon 1964 (John smiles and then chuckles). "Understanding, is a foot that is asked to do some walking." (c) 1970 by Jason Leigh

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11 comments

Wolfie

HE WHO HATH NOT SINNED MAY CAST THE FIRST STONE

We need not find that perfection in our-selves. Yes, we should admit to our

hipocrisy and try to be better persons. But if you want sainthood from mere

mortals then you are barking up the wrong tree.

We can fail in our fight against perfection, but not have to allow

desecrations of others that make our faults pale in comparison.

To accept the sacrilege of the Illuminati because we transgressed in

a way that hurts someone else brings us to different levels of Dante's

circles of hell.

If we await the impossible , then we let the Illuminati win!

Be as imperfect as we seem, still we must not be afflicted by

self-hatred and paroxysms of dormancy. The enemy does not

give brownie points for our desuetude. They just continue to devour

the sheeple as if we were a nosh for their cravings.

Wolfie has flirted with sin and yet has endured with his tail held high by

advocating love and trying to protect his fellow creatures.

by Wolfie (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 31 diaries, 1184 comments) on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 12:57:41 PM

Brett Paatsch is an Australian born secular humanist with degrees in management and science and an interest in politics. He is a former pro-American that wishes to be pro-American again and thinks the impeachment and repudiation of President George W Bush for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 is necessary to reestablish trust in American signatures on international treaties and confidence in the global rule of law.
Brett PaatschBrett Paatsch is an Australian born secular humanist with degrees in management and science and an interest in politics. He is a former pro-American that wishes to be pro-American again and thinks the impeachment and repudiation of President George W Bush for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 is necessary to reestablish trust in American signatures on international treaties and confidence in the global rule of law.

I think there are hierarchies

Is stealing from the poor and ignorant—worse than copying (stealing) music, movies, games, and software?”

Isn’t a limb a part of the same tree?

A limb is less than a tree though part of it.

We need the rule of law. We need confidence that it applies to all. But we have a US President that tortures and launches aggressive invasions and a system full of agents that won't breath life into the law. Compared to torture and the supreme war crime what can smaller wrongs matter. Everything downstream is corrupted.

The tree is more important than the limb. The rule of law and the prohibitions against torture and aggressive invasion must be upheld or we live in a world knowing that it is corrupt.

Our lowest common denominators are now elected to the highest human offices. We humans have put terrorists into the Presidency.

With the rule of law and confidence in the rule of law we have to start with the big stuff because the big stuff is the only thing that matters to all of us.

Murder is more important than theft. Aggressive invasion is worse than murder. In a world of torturing Presidents why would a person bother obeying lesser laws? From what well would they draw the conclusion that others deserve better?

by Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 1010 comments) on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 11:11:45 PM

John is an educator who asks "Is that true?" and "Why?" far too often.
John HaighJohn is an educator who asks "Is that true?" and "Why?" far too often.

Copying is different from stealing

There is an essential difference between copying and stealing that is being ignored by one side of the p2p debate.

It's the element of deprivation. If you have something and I steal it from you, after the theft, you don't have it.

If you have something and I copy it, after it's copied, you still have it.

In the distant past somebody invented the first wheel. Were the people who observed the usefulness of that first wheel and built some for themselves thieves?

Most societies advance by sharing information.

Is it "stealing" to repeat a joke you tell me?

It's just not logical to claim that copying and stealing are the same. Perhaps one can claim that copying is analogous to stealing. But we all know the fallacy of arguing by analogy, don't we?

Many people also cherish the concept of "Freedom of Information."

by John Haigh (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 106 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 4:38:02 AM

Dr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published over 45 scientific articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org, and is a Managing Editor at OpEdNews.com.
John R MoffettDr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published over 45 scientific articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org, and is a Managing Editor at OpEdNews.com.

Siding with Corruption

Jason, you are siding with the MPAA and RIAA, two of the most corrupt organizations in the US today. Organizations that sue innocent people because their grandchild downloaded songs from the internet on their computer. And I would like to add that I, like millions of Americans, have no illegally copied music or movies, I have a collection of CDs and DVDs purchased from the store. So your claim that all humans are cheats doesn’t play out in “the real world”, as you put it.

Finally, comparing kids downloading songs, which only hurts rich music and movie executives, to politicians sending young people to die in a war based on lies, is a tragic mis-assessment on your part.

I wish you had this much passion about the lying politicians you speak of.

by John R Moffett (80 articles, 14 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 610 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 5:32:40 AM

A concerned citizen and former mathematician/engineer now retired and living in rural Maine.
PrMaineA concerned citizen and former mathematician/engineer now retired and living in rural Maine.

Similar?

In reading this article I was struck by the similarity of this topic with another form of theft that has been common throughout history and that is what is euphemistically termed tax evasion. The similarity is in the thought process of the thief, which probably involves the notion that, this is not really hurting anyone, or perhaps, they don't deserve my money or support. Into the mix is also the thought, everyone else does this, would I be a fool to stay honest?

Another similarity is that the laws in both cases are complex and it is so common to encounter gray areas where it is not clear what the law actually demands. Once you have ruled in your own favor in one instance, it is easy to make a more liberal interpretation the next time, and it is an easy ride down the slippery slope.

by PrMaine (10 articles, 8 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 329 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 7:24:51 AM

waldopaper is an insignificant teacher, informed reader and professional writer... living in dominionist crackerland... with two women, one young man, three cats and two dogs... alarmed at a failing state controlled by corporate psychopaths armed with nuclear weapons. There's a light on. Somebody's home.
waldopaperwaldopaper is an insignificant teacher, informed reader and professional writer... living in dominionist crackerland... with two women, one young man, three cats and two dogs... alarmed at a failing state controlled by corporate psychopaths armed with nuclear weapons. There's a light on. Somebody's home.

Dude...

...aint you hip to "open source economics?"

by waldopaper (11 articles, 3 quicklinks, 24 diaries, 426 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 7:52:33 AM

Hater of Nazis above all. Hobbies include activism, military model building, military history, exciting and vital conversation with retired crooks. Retired
John HanksHater of Nazis above all. Hobbies include activism, military model building, military history, exciting and vital conversation with retired crooks. Retired

Crooks, Suckers, and Lazy Cowards.

That is all there is and all there ever will be. However, there are little crooks and big crooks.

by John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1196 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 8:06:13 AM

I'm a 29 year old male.
TyI'm a 29 year old male.

don't care

I really don't give a damn if people want to download or copy music, movies, games, and software illegally. No one is harmed by any of these activities. Price gouging and price fixing is theft.

by Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 821 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 10:30:32 AM

You should care

You should care because its in your interest to have a world in which contracts between free agents are honored.

Without contracts being honored the opportunity to trade work product decreases dramatically.

Jason Greywolf Leigh is more right than wrong. The big contracts matter more than the little ones. Contracts like the UN Charter and the US Constitution matter more than whether you honor an agreement you probably don't bother to read when you rip off someone elses intellectual property. But all contracts require a will by moral agents to enforce them as they are not self enforcing.

People who steal other peoples work product obviously value it enough to take it but don't respect the author enough to contribute to the authors capacity to produce more of it.

Unenlightened selfishness pervades.

by Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 1010 comments) on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 11:04:06 PM

concerned citizen of planet earth
erik mouseconcerned citizen of planet earth

Two Important points

One - Most of the comments here seem to be ignoring the victom. Several are arguing that the only parties that affected my illegal download, P2P, copying, filesharing are the 'rich and corrupt media companies'. Not so. While it is true that Aerosmith probably won't miss that $13.95 for your ripped version of 'no more' mirrors of which there cut is undobtably less than 2 bucks, but the widow of charles mingus will and does. So do I for that matter. The truth is smaller artists are hurt the most by this new 'all music is free' society. Indeed it makes it that much harder to even get an audience if you have nothing of value to offer. Same can be said of software. In 2002 I developed a computer network applience that acuratly predicted download times. Even though it was far supperior (accurate) than others it was completely ignored and never bought because ripped versions of other companies programs were available for free. Downloading something that people expect to be paid for - for free - does infact effect others.

Two: Although I completely believe everything I stated in point number one, the truth is, the gennie is out of the bottle. It is completly impossible to keep these things from happening. The internet in many ways, is the next step in the evolution of man. A wonder of human achivement. But between now and when we realize we don't really need money there are going to be victoms of the liars and cheats.

by erik mouse (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 106 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 2:21:47 PM

Reply to Replies

I'd like to thank everyone who posted a 'comment' or a 'reply' to my article.

You have proved by your wise and thoughtful words, that you care. You care enough about us all to make a difference, which is where we all will have to begin if we are to ever make the needed changes to our life, and that of those we know and love.

* I needed a catchy title for this article, and I assure you that this was not my first choice, yet I needed a title that would grab your attention.

And I am certainly anything but a saint, although I have striven all of my life to be a moral man and an Honrorable Veteran who served his country proud, dispite being in a war that no one approved of, even those of us who were there: Vietnam.

Although being an Indie songwriter/publisher (BMI) with an album "DIRECTIONS" by 'Greywolf,' (http://cdbaby.com/cd/jgreywolfl) of Folk/Americana music relased and for sale, I can tell you that being a pauper songwriter and having people hack/download my songs is a pill too bitter to swollow. I have NEVER downloaded a song/album or any software or movies without paying for them, for a good, yet simple reason that I wouldn't want that to happen to me, although it has, more often than I can count.

** Please do forgive me for not replying to each comment, as I haven't learned how to motivate through this website. I am all thumbs when it comes to that part. It is much easier for me to just write . . .

Thank you all once again, and please do remember, that coupled with your comments and the article; only we can make a difference in our lives and that of the stranger knocking at our door . . .

Jason Greywolf Leigh

by Jason Greywolf Leigh (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1 comments) on Monday, May 19, 2008 at 10:07:51 PM