BLOG WATCH
Making YouTube pay
“Have you checked out Monty Python’s YouTube channel? It’s got a selection of their brilliant (as always) clips, and it’s got links to buy their DVDs on Amazon. And you know what? Despite the entertainment industry’s constant cries about how bad they’re doing, it works. Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000%. I’m not implying that everyone who owns copyrighted content should give everything for free. But I am saying you can’t have it both ways; you can’t control, monitor and bully users, and reap benefits from free redistribution of content at the same time. Sooner or later, the entertainment industry will have to choose.”
IRS double standard
“Rep. John Carter (R-TX) has been a vocal critic of the double standard afforded public officials, in particular Charlie Rangel (D-NY), by the IRS when it comes to assessment of interest and penalties on back taxes. ‘[Despite] Mr. Rangel’s 20-years of failure to pay taxes on his rental income, so far there have been no penalties or interest assessed . . . If that’s the way the IRS is going to treat Mr. Rangel, I think that we should be able to write on our tax returns if we owe any penalties or interest, ‘I exercise the Rangel Rule’ and you would also be exempt from having to pay those monies. Now it appears [Treasury Secretary-nominee Tim] Geithner is getting the same treatment.’ “
Shading the stimulus
“Wasn’t this supposed the era of post-racialism? Robert Reich apparently didn’t get that message. In his appearance before Congress on the stimulus plan, Reich suggested: ‘I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to . . . white male construction workers.’ “
