confusion

So there is this big controversy over the censoring of movies on home video. The company doing it says that they are making movies suitable for viewing by the whole family by cutting out violence, sex, profanity and other things people object to. Some big name directors have filed a lawsuit against the company to stop them, saying it violates the directors copyright.

It’s an interesting case because it pits consumer rights against copyright integrity. While I think that a consumer should be able to do as they please with a product they have paid for (provided they don’t try to make some sort of profit off it that would violate the copyright; i.e. rebroadcast a move.) I don’t think a company should be able to cut a movie and then sell it to consumers. We all know that, for instance, Saving Private Ryan would be a completely different movie without the cussing and the graphic violence—it would lose all its impact and reality. (Yes you can make a war movie without showing the graphic violence, but part of what makes Private Ryan such a good movie is the emotions that seeing the graphic violence forces the audience to feel and deal with.)

I think I agree with the directors on this one. If a consumer wants to buy the movie and all the fancy software to edit it then they should be able to, or maybe send it to a company to be edited after the fact then ok. But a company that wants to buy these movies and then sell them seams to me to be violating the copyright in that they are editing a copyrighted move and then selling it as new.

The real objection I have to this (we’ll let the copyright lawyers figure out the legality of it.) is that parents would want to show these movies to their kids but not allow the kids to see the sex, violence, drugs, et al that are in the movies. I don’t have kids so feel free to ignore me or flame me on this one but I think that that is a form of putting off a parents responsibilities. If you are going to show the kid the movie, or allow them to watch it, the show them the whole thing and talk to them about stuff. To me the whole idea of buying censored movies, books or music is like living in some sort of fantasy. Anything that the kids would be exposed to in these things in their raw form the kids will be exposed to in daily life and on the news. Kids are not dumb and def, we all know they know this stuff.

Rather than showing a kid some fairy tail about World War II show them Private Ryan and say, “this is why war sucks, but we did it because of this…” and then show them Schindler’s List and say “hate sucks just as much.”

So I had an interview (which actually turned out to be three interviews!) with Lockheed Martin on Friday. I stayed up in NoVa Friday night to see S██████, J███████ and K██. But before we get into too much detail I have to say something; Driving back from NoVa today, I got passed by a Silver Mustang convertible around the Warrenton interchange. The car was weaving in and out and passed when it got behind me was trying to push me—and I was not going slow… Well about thirty miles later I came over a hill and see flashing blue lights. There in front of a state cop is the silver Mustang and the lady driving it being handed a ticket! Now, not to be an ass hole and a gloat, but there a few things in driving that feel better than seeing the bitch or bastard that passed you being served a nice fat ticket! Yea.

Anyway, the Lockheed Martin interviews went well. Three groups within the Tech Ops and Management Systems department interviewed me. All top-secret work so not much info but the interview went ok. Two of them where just ok but the third one I think went well. At this point it is hard to be too hopeful about the prospects of getting a job but I think I have a good chance this time. Cross my fingers!

Now for the other thoughts. Have you ever had a dream about someone you have not seen or talked to in years? And in that dream the person is portrayed in a where you never thought of the person? Get your mind out of the gutter—nothing like that! But the dream was a little disconcerting. It was just a dream but took all morning to shake the feeling of “I wonder if things could have been that way if…” Strange man.

Last thing: I misread someone this week; talking with the person over the Internet I got a feeling, that something was wrong. It turned out to the feeling was wrong but I sent the person an email thinking that something was wrong and the email scared the person into thinking that there was something wrong with me. The problem with only talking to people over IM or the phone—no body language! I hope I did not confuse the person too much.

First off: Happy Birthday C███████! Hope you have a good day, and get lots of cool presents. Wish I could be there.

Second: Does anyone read this? If so leave a message… J███████, S██████, C███████, C██████, Rachel… just press the “post comment” link and say hello… It’s really not worth doing this if no one interacts.

Today is the one-year mark from when I left Genesis to get ready for my year in England. I still don’t have a job. I do have another interview this coming Friday with Lockheed Martin. I have a ton of forms to fill out for them, so they can look into who I am… They want an entire ten-year background on the application and the name and contact info of someone who can verify any periods of unemployment. Nosy bastards aren’t they?

Three hundred and sixty-five have come and gone since the day it happened. The Earth has come full circle and once again faces the Sun from the same direction. Day to day life has returned to normal or at least to what will constitute normal from now on. There is really not much to say that has not already been said. Remember those who died, and get on with living your life.