A Trio of Terrible Tales by George Ziemann -- May 26, 2010 Three stories to talk about today, none of them good. LimeWire Rolls Over David Kravets at Wired writes: "The company behind the file sharing software LimeWire is considering aggressively filtering out pirated content and is hoping to strike a deal with the music industry in which it would be permitted to live on as a for-pay music download service, a company executive said Monday." The company executive also said "the recording industry should take the opportunity to partner with LimeWire, 'to put the most amount of money into the pockets of artists and those who own their copyrights.'" Unfortunately for said exec, he seems to miss the obvious. If they sue LimeWire out of existence, the RIAA doesn't have to put a dime in the pockets of artists. Apple Takes Heat For Common Sense A year and a half ago, the Dept. of Justice was scrutinizing the RIAA because the only music services that were allowed to function had to have a deal with all four major labels, preferably a joint venture where what were supposed to be competitors were partnering together and sharing ownership, allowing price fixing from the bottom to the top. That was then. Now, the DOJ is top-heavy with RIAA attorneys. Here's their idea of antitrust. The labels want to give Amazon exclusivity on first day sales for some titles. Apple says, "Fine, but don't expect any free promotion from us." The accusation is that Apple is abusing its market dominance. But come on, does the DOJ actually expect that when a supplier gives a competitor an exclusive deal, everyone else is supposed to cheer and give it free promotion? That's idiotic, not antitrust. The truth seems to be that the record labels no longer have any idea what actual competition looks like, the DOJ lawyers still work for them and will do anything they ask. Welcome to Soviet Arizona Obama is sending troops to Arizona to protect the border from the people who used to live here. Never mind that most of these people are trying to escape much worse conditions than Cuba, but Mexico isn't communist so we don't care about their people. Seems like our country actually needs people with this level of grit and determination. They'll hike for days across the desert they used to film "Dune" and "Star Wars." A lot of them don't survive the journey. I know it would kill me. I wouldn't even try. And neither would anyone else that wasn't truly desperate. Our government is the one who created any danger which exists. The border violence is the result of America's failed War on Drugs. Without it, the cartels would have nothing to sell, nothing to fight over. Now we're going to send troops in, which can only escalate the situation, probably resulting in the death of more otherwise innocent people trying to find a new life, even knowing the hazards. Then there's our stupid anti-immigrant law, where the police can pull anyone over for looking Hispanic and demand to see their papers. I'm betting that's not how they phrased it. Probably some vague reference to persons appearing as if they may be foreign. The problem with that is that Arizona (and New Mexico, and Texas and most of California) used to be part of Mexico, which they shared with the Indian tribes we now refer to collectively as Native Americans. They belong here. They are not foreign. This is their home. It's the white people who are the illegal immigrants. And we stopped teaching history (since it's not on "The Test"), so no one remembers the sign at the Statue of Liberty that their ancestors all trudged by at Ellis Island. It didn't say, "But keep the Mexicans out." And who is next? Probably Muslims. But why stop there? Once you start down this path, there's no reason to stop. And we've certainly taken the first few steps. This is ugly America, and it's getting uglier by the day. Reminds me of something I was told to never forget. Actually, several things.