I just signed Rock the Vote's Young Voter Platform and wrote the following comment for the nominees: Copyright reform is again becoming in issue in Congress (see this and this) but hasn't made it onto the presidential radar (see this or this). Freedom of expression is meaningless without a common language. True, the alphabet and common words are not copyrighted. But the common language of modern culture is made up of sound bites and video clips. Should Howard Dean have been able to claim copyright over his famous scream to prevent its circulation? Should companies be able to stifle criticism by having Internet Service Providers remove user-created materials simply because they're critical of those companies? The next President needs to understand these issues and needs to make his positions known. In order to earn my vote, a Presidential candidate must recognize that fair use is critically important, that there are numerous non-infringing uses for peer-to-peer networks, and that universities should not be the police force for the music and movie industries.

BTW - Did you know fair use accounts for 1/6 of the entire U.S. GDP

I had something of about 1300 characters that I wanted to post somewhere, and the "Wall" on Facebook has a limit of 1000 characters. So I re-animated this blog that I originally created 8 years ago to document my experiences while I spent a month in The Bahamas (yes, "The" is part of the country's full name). Now it will cover a much wider variety of topics. I foresee the following topics: Product reviews and general consumer grumbling; copyright/tech/media policy issues; rock climbing; politics (not necessarily in that order).