A Simple Truth About
YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS
or The Day The Lights Went Out On John Angus

I was pleased to read today that John Angus was finally shut out on his idea to charge for garbage pickup. At last some sanity. My victory was especially sweet after reading all the propaganda Angus was sending out in the past few months. Like his editorial in the March 2001 Councillor's Update where he stated "I question why all of our property tax bills should go up because a number of people throw out more than their share of garbage." Well, John, being a councillor, one would think you'd understand this concept. It's the very reason for Government. What happens is this: services that the whole community require are supplied by Government and everybody is charged a "tax" to pay for these services. Hopefully, "buying bulk" will result in a lower cost for all taxpayers. If I substitute a few different words for "garbage" into John's statement, you can quickly realize how just plain stupid his comment is:

"I question why all of our property tax bills should go up because a number of people use more than their share of police protection."

"I question why all of our property tax bills should go up because a number of people use more than their share of fire protection."

"I question why all of our property tax bills should go up because a number of people take out more than their share of books from the library."

"I question why all of our property tax bills should go up because a number of people have more than their share of children."

Get the picture?? Give up John.

The main thrust of my column this week is to discuss the recent Napster debacle. It's my belief that the use of Napster or other similar services is completely legal and in fact, if you don't use the services you are throwing money away. Nonsense you think? A matter of opinion? No. It's really quite straight forward. The argument I am about to present has never been mentioned throughout this whole RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lynching. And after you read it, you'll understand why it makes sense.

Everybody who has ever bought a blank cassette tape, video tape or recordable CD has paid for the privilege of making a copy of whatever it is that they wish to copy. Each blank recordable media has, for years, had a fee added to the retail cost of the unit that is paid directly to the RIAA. And until Napster, I questioned how valid this fee was. In other words, how many people were actually illegally recording music or movies onto these tapes? First of all, you'd have to know somebody with the record or CD that you wanted to tape in order to borrow and tape it. Obviously, this wouldn't be happening all that often. But if it did happen, the RIAA was getting paid for it. Secondly, movies, for a number of years, have had Macrovision copy protection. So it's next to impossible for the average person to make a copy of a movie - copy that you've paid to make when you bought the blank video tape.

Enter Napster. Finally, you can get what you've been paying for for years. Why hasn't this point been made before? Because most people probably don't realize they're paying the fee. A lot of people I talked to had never heard of it or thought it was just charged on audio tapes. Well, in fact, the fee just increased on blank recordable CD's on January 1, 2001 to 50¢. And while this may not seem like a lot of money at first, think about the fact that most blank CD's are not used for "stealing" copyrighted material anyways.

Since Napster has been having their legal woes, a number of other services have popped up across the internet. One of the best I have found is called Morpheus. It's a lot more sophisticated than Napster and it bills itself as a file sharing service as opposed to an mp3 sharing service. Please check it out by clicking on Morpheus. Tell your friends and neighbours. Don't feel bad because you now know that it is not illegal. The companies already have their pound of flesh.

To celebrate Napster and its offshoots like Morpheus, I'm starting the Weekly Top Ten Downloads. Just click on the name of the song to download the mp3 file. I've made them small so they're accessible to you dial-up netters too.

Some short "snappers" for you.

• The first hurricane given a male name was "Bob," in July 1979.
• Flamingos live remarkably long lives — up to 80 years.
• Nobody knows where the body of Voltaire is. It was stolen from its tomb in the 19th century and has never been recovered. The theft was discovered in 1864, when the tomb was opened and found empty.
• Sixty-two degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum temperature required for a grasshopper to be able to hop.
• The Japanese cremate 93 percent of their dead, as compared to Great Britain at 67 percent and the United States at just over 12 percent.
• The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. Wild cats hold their tail horizontally, or tucked between their legs while walking.
• Per capita, it is safer to live in New York City than it is to live in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
• The average adult raccoon weighs 21 pounds.
• At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life," an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog.

As always, send me your suggestions for future columns on crang.com. I know I said this before but be with us next time for a discussion on "Baiting Game Animals". I had a guest columnist lined up for this topic but the e-mail with his story never arrived. How long does e-mail delivery take anyway?

© April 28, 2001