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Do you ever feel that sometimes people are so incredibly stupid that they’re basically beyond help? Now expand that feeling to include companies, governments and organisations. Are these people really this dumb? A small recap of some of the news stories of the past couple of weeks:

Associated Press

Associated Press (AP), one of the world’s most trusted news sources (well, until now that is), is suing news aggregators and search engines for a share in the profits, even if those third-party sites play nice and link through to the original AP source stories on AP’s own site.
This not only shows them to be moneygrabbing vapid suits, but also that they’re quite capable of completely misjudging and alienating these third party sites. I wonder what happens when Google decides to filter out all AP stories completely, and how happy AP-dependent newspaper sites will be about that. Open mouth, insert foot, AP.

Mrs. Zappa

Gail Zappa, widow of the musical (and lyrical) genius Frank Zappa, is basically suing her ass off and trying to stop anyone from playing Frank Zappa’s music anywhere anytime without ponying up some cash to her. Yes, she is the copyright holder, but owning a copyright does not give you full control over the works. As long as anyone who wants to cover or play your music plays nice and ensures that all the licensing fees are paid up, they’re actually allowed to play your stuff. And in fact you should be supporting them, thus ensuring that everyone is reminded of what a genius Frank was and subsequently going out and buying his albums.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs, the Manhattan investment bank – which is struggling amidst a massive global recession, owes $10bn to the US government in bailout funds, and last fall was forced to become a bank holding company with Treasury oversight due to worries it would run out of cash – has hired Chadbourne & Parke to close down the anti-Goldman website goldmansachs666.com, citing:

“Your use of the mark Goldman Sachs violates several of Goldman Sachs’ intellectual property rights, constitutes an act of trademark infringement, unfair competition and implies a relationship and misrepresents commercial activity and/or an affiliation between you and Goldman Sachs which does not exist and additionally creates confusion in the marketplace.”

So, a blogger that clearly states that his website criticising Goldman Sachs is in no way affiliated at all with Goldman Sachs is bullied by said company because he’s allegedly “confusing” innocent consumers. Yah, sure. And now, because the blogger won’t back down (and has numerous court rulings on his side to boot), Goldman Sachs has shot itself in the foot as the story blows up right into the major press channels.

RIAA/MPAA

What can I say? Rarely ever has a bigger bully been seen on the block, using big-money backers, expensive lawyers and the morals of the lovechild of Idi Amin and Irma Grese to protect the number one mantra: “We fear change. Pay us. We will not adapt. Pay us.” Abusing copyright laws and government influence, running sh*tloads of lobbyists and strong-arming anyone who disagrees appear to be paying off for them…but let me stress that “appears”.
It is becoming clearer and clearer every day that the MPAA, RIAA and all their henchm-…ummm…associates are in fact like Godzilla, screaming loudest just before slipping into the abyss.

The central tenure of all these stories (and much, much more): the world is changing, and the copyright owners are unwilling to change with the rest of us, in stead clinging to old revenue streams and scare tactics (the cease-and-desist notice must me the most printed letter in the world right now). Imagine this: what if the MPAA had taken the lead in digital distribution, offering choice and pay-per-extra solutions (Trent Reznor, anyone?) from the real source (the record companies)? If they had, they would have been the biggest thing around right now.

…breathe…

Okay, I know I can start ranting at times, but it just frustrates me so when this crap happens, especially because it confirms all the bad stereotypes the world has about the gov/tech-industrial complex.
Chill out guys, get some good advice, take some risks, try some new things out and find your way in the digital world. You’ll do much better, really. Come on in, the water is lovely.