Failure of an Assembly...
Well crap. We had an "assembly" of sorts in religion today where an FBI agent came to the school and talked to us. Initial rumors mentioned Livejournal and Myspace posts being possible points of libel towards the administration. (For those of you who dont know what libel is, it's written false statements that damage someone or something's reputation.) Meaning that students could be prosecuted for making posts against the school and/or the administration under grounds of libel.
I was so pumped for a freakin fatty post it was unbelievable. I would've gone on for hours about how this was unconstitutional and against everything America stands for blah blah blah. I was so ready to stick it to the man that i brought in a tape recorder the size of my overblown ego so that i could record the events and make sure that i had evidence of exactly what the agent said so that no one could say otherwise.
What a waste of cassette tape.
Turns out she was just warning us against sexual predators on the internet. Complete bogus. That crap is only for girls and middle schoolers. High school boys are safe on either one of two counts. 1. They're popular enough so that they get enough ass not to need to go online and find more or 2. They're nerdy enough to know the dangers of the internet so well that they can smell trouble from a mile away.
There was mention of libel and livejournal/myspace posts, but it was so brief and the points so obviously true that even i couldn't find anything to argue against. (And if you know me well enough, something has GOT to be completely obvious for even me not to have anything to argue against)
However, there was one point brought up that i don't think was covered well enough.
The Purpose of Filesharing Programs:
For those of you who are smart enough to know how to use a filesharing program yet not smart enough to know what it is, a filesharing program is any program on which files can be transferred from one computer to another. Examples include Napster, Kazaa, Morpheus, ITunes, etc. They can be free or pay. Certain programs specialize in certain areas (ITunes obviously specializes in music).
What is the intended purpose of a filesharing program? Surprisingly to some of you, it is not to send or receive music. It is actually to enable people and businesses to put shareware products on the internet for everyone to enjoy. The only reason why these programs are allowed to exist is because of the following argument:
"The intended purpose of the filesharing program is to enable people to share legal files with each other. What people use the program for is out of our control once they download it."
Which is true. This is why Kazaa is still allowed to exist. Speaking of filesharing programs as if their sole purpose is to enable people to send or receive illegal music files is a deliberate twist of the truth.
So when the man tells you how filesharing programs are evil, give him the finger and tell him to go find the people who have committed the crime, not the people who have written the program.
However, other than that short schpeal, i got absolutely nothing out of that assembly. The agent was just some backwater near-retirement woman who nobody wanted to deal with so they assigned her a cushy job that really does absolutely nothing. If you want proof, go copulate with yourself and think about asking me that question again.
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