Limits

Everybody can agree that if I come up with a song I'm allowed to sing it to myself, right?
And also that I can sing it to my friends.
I can also with my own song sing it to audience.
I can record it and give it to my friends, share it with strangers or even sell it.

If my friend comes up with a song am I also allowed to do this? Perhaps not sell it, at least not in my name.
If I buy a song I am allowed to listen to it?
Am I also allowed to listen to it with my friends?
Can I let my friends listen to it without me?
Can I even lend this song to my friend so they can listen to it? Or give it?
If the song can be copied, can I lend a copy of it to my friend? Can I give a copy to my friend?

What if I write down the lyrics of the song, isn't that also a copy of the song?
Can I write the lyrics to a song I bought here in my blog?
I cannot copy the song and sell it?
But what about copy it for a friend and ask the friend for the cost of the copy?
What about using a song for a hobby project; put it as background in some interactive flash presentation or PDF or music to a video of you and your friends wakeboarding, just to make the show slightly more appealing, nothing commercial about it.

What if I didn't buy it?
Can I sing a song I heard?
What about a song my friend heard and sung it to me?
What about the lyrics of a song I haven't heard, can I sing that?
What if I sing it to my friends?
Can I sing it to an audience?
Can I sing it and record it and then upload it on internet for others to enjoy my wonderful voice?

What about radio then?
I assume commercial radios pay license fees for all the songs they play, but what about internet radio? There is a lot of software that allows me to open a channel and play my playlists for anyone who likes to surf into my IP and listen. Then they can copy the song that is currently playing and listen to it again whenever they want.

I think I have a quite good sense of ethics; you shouldn't kill, steal or hurt people, don't take something which doesn't belong to you and such. I've always reacted against the commercials where they show someone stealing a movie and then the message piracy is theft, I honestly don't agree; I think that as long as there is no financial gain for the copy and there is no material loss for the creator (it can't be proven that whoever copied something would ever buy it) then it is fine.

I realize there is a financial loss for those behind a product when it is copied but there is also a gain; as in if it is actually something worth buying (which is a rare case #1) it will spread like wildfire throughout the world. Sure this might not sell really as well as it would have without the copying but I for one does not believe it makes much difference, and for the crap that would never be heard of at all except in small specific groups it can only be beneficial, in the end I find it hard to believe that selling CD's, DVD's or even softcopies of an entertainment product is anywhere near the main source of income for the creators. I just have a feeling that commercial endorsements, concerts and cinema tickets stand out higher. This leaves out literature though, but literature isn't yet hurt in the same extent as the other fields.

I can also see all the problems my mindset might create as it would not be entirely agreeable, but then why is there no better option? I haven't checked this up personally as I'm not interested but I heard that buying one song online costs about 1USD, that means a whole album would cost about 10-20USD and a decent playlist would go for about 250-500USD, is that reasonable for something you might enjoy for a week, perhaps a month, or if it is music you don't personally like but suits a party - just one single night? Is it reasonable to pay 10-20USD for a movie you will see once? For the cinema I could agree to that as I personally like the cinema experience. The one field that is reasonable and that has this more or less under control is the game industry; particularly with online games you can copy as much as you like, but you can't play without subscribing to an account, ergo paying for playing, and with a sum of 10-20USD per month and maybe a starting fee of 30-50USD you get several actual hours and days per month of entertainment #2.

Now there are alternatives for movies and especially TV-shows; the creators of South Park has clearly shown what can be done, and several TV networks do the same, with South Park Studios website where you can stream and watch every episode ever made with the only cost of about 2x30 seconds advertisement. South Park has also twice in their show, Episode 709 - Christian Rock Hard and Episode 1204 - Canada On Strike, taken up this problem and I was personally surprised to not find a reflection of recent developments when I saw the latest episode, Episode 1307 - Perfect Pirate Club, today.

This can be argued back and forth forever and better people than me have already decided that the line is drawn slightly lower than my mind wants it, my wakeboarding video is already off facebook for containing copywrited material (Let's dance - Lady Gaga, a song which even though good I would never in my life pay money to own, I'm happy enough to hear it on the radio or in a club).

But one question remains, why is my fish video still on with music from Final Fantasy XI? Is that not also copywrited or do people just not care if it is Japanese music?


#1 Among all the hundreds of thousands of items that is downloaded online only a small fraction is worth the time it takes to "enjoy" (be it listen, view or both) it, from this small fraction there is only a tiny fraction that is worth more than the time it takes to "enjoy" it, thereby worth spending money on.

#2 Compare 15 songs for 15USD which might in total be 1 hour playtime, should equal about 10 hours worth of entertainment, a movie for 15USD would be about 2 to maximum 6 (you don't want to see a movie more than once or twice generally) hours worth, World of Warcraft players who spend 15USD monthly generally spend 2-3 hours daily (completely depends on the player, can be once every other day or 12 hours a day too, I just want to simplify) spend probably 50-100 hours in a month, giving 5-10 times as much value compared to downloading songs and 10-50 times as much value compared to buying a movie. I'm sure there are people who enjoy listening to music and watching movies much more than they enjoy playing online games, that is not the point though but it is that buying music and movies is way too expensive, (I just bought a book for about 10USD, I will enjoy that book for about 24 hours at least).

Wakeboarding in Sai Kung: The Movie

Sister visiting Hong Kong

Instead of doing a day by day posting I find it more interesting to post by activity and summarize what can be done when visiting Hong Kong.

I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong

So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.

Party in Hong Kong (part 1)

As of yet we haven't really been out partying; we had a few drinks near my home the other day and last night we drank some beer with the BBQ but otherwise we have taken it easy. On Wednesday we have plans to go out to a club with a friend and on Saturday I have arranged a big local party and BBQ to show Maja how we really party here, should be quite fun.

Tourism in Hong Kong (part 1)

So far we have hardly done anything touristy at all; we only went to Wetland Park near my home in Tin Shui Wai. But tomorrow we will go to Tung Chung and do the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and see the big Buddha and on Wednesday we will go to the peak. I also have plans to go with her to Ocean Park on Friday and we will see what we can do next Sunday.

Shopping in Hong Kong (part 1)

Maja was very eager to go out shopping as soon as possible when she came here, the only problem was that I have actually no idea where to take her to shop. We did however go out to Causeway bay and walked around inside SOGO and around that area for a while without finding anything particular, actually the main problem was that whatever she found and liked it was always too short for her. We also went to Mong Kok and I ended up buying a few t-shirts and cologne, Maja still didn't buy anything.

Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.

Playing in Hong Kong (part 1)

There is a lot to do in Hong Kong but mostly you need to have contacts for it, or at least it will be a lot easier if you do. Fortunately I have a few contacts and one of the companies I'm involved with likes to arrange things for their employees with families on holidays and last Friday (Good Friday as it was) was one of those times. For me it involved some teacher training in the morning and that Maja didn't have to join, but the buffet mentioned in Culinary Hong Kong and the team building we had after both Maja and Ariel joined. The whole day was great fun and I got to know some of the teachers a bit better. We had planned to go out and do something in the evening after but we were so tired and dehydrated from the games and eating that we just went down for a drink at the hotel bar near my home.

My main friend and contact for doing outdoor fun things in Hong Kong is my good friend and colleague from UK, Marc Rimmer, he has worked with outdoor sports in Hong Kong before and made some good friends in the field. So he arranged for us to go out wakeboarding with one of his friends and we had an awesome day playing in the water yesterday, but so exhausted now and muscle aches all over.

I think there won't be any more play like this but perhaps we will do something in the weekend and we should go to Ocean Park on Friday.

Me trying to wakeboard, I did get up on my second try
but I couldn't manage any other impressive feat.

Maja trying to wakeboard as well, and in fact she was better than me.

Marc testing out as well.

Finally Marc's friend and our instructor showing us how it is done.

Culinary Hong Kong (part 1)

Food comes in plenty in Hong Kong and so far we have managed to cover quite a few nationalities and styles; the first evening after Maja arrived we went out to a local Chinese restaurant (one of those with a spinning platform on the round table) and had a huge Chinese cosine dinner with Joyce and her family, I also got to try the weirdest Kung Pow Chicken I've ever seen, not even close to the real thing. We have also done Thai food in Thai Orchid in Langham place in Mong Kok, great spicy curry and some other stuff that both enjoyed together with Almen (Joyce's third sister). We went for an enormous lunch buffet at the Gold Coast resort hotel with one of the companies I’m involved with, spending nearly two hours constantly eating I managed to finish five plates; starters, main dish, salad, cakes and dessert and finally some more of the starters. Saturday we went to celebrate Almen's and Maja's birthdays with Indian food in Yuen Long, together with all of Joyce's family and also Ariel and Man, and after that we all went back to my place to enjoy two cakes, one that I made and one that Shirly's (Joyce's second sister) friend made for us, mine with chocolate and the other with mango and passion fruit, very yummy. Finally last night we had a huge outdoor BBQ buffet and spend about seven hours constantly eating and drinking.

This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.

We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.

The Comedian could have taken Ozymandias

There are three kinds of heroes; compromising heroes, uncompromising heroes and heroes who are willing to give up everything. There are no uncompromising heroes.

Heroes are more or less a symbol of human nature at its best but with a romantic prowess to do more than we are generally willing to do. The compromising heroes are those who are trying to save the world but not exactly willing to go all the way, they are giving up some things but not everything. Self sacrifice is not a stranger to them but there will always be something they will not give up, and when there is no other choice they will fall in line like everyone else; when the heroes who are willing to give up everything have become the villains who gave up everything a compromising hero will fall in line and accept this as fate. The uncompromising hero is those who will not accept even the inevitable, "No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.", but in the end they will allow themselves to be slain for the greater good; like Batman in his self-loving/self-loathing hypocrisy (which Cartman illustrates brilliantly in "The Coon") gave himself up to allow Harvey to become the saint and Rorschach met his death in Antarctica. And the heroes without any remorse are those who will kill one life to save two or a million to save a billion.

This leaves the omnipotent who cannot be seen as heroes as someone who is omnipotent has no place in making a though decision; nothing is though if it doesn't have any consequences and how can anything be of any consequence to anyone omnipotent. An omnipotent will not endure a life in a compromising world and uncompromising world is a dead one. But the omnipotent is so detached in his prowess that he cares as much of a single human as the whole world; like in Vietnam when he Comedian kills the woman carrying his child he says: "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Pregnant woman. Gunned her down. Bang. And y'know what? You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! You coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia...but you didn't lift a finger! You don't really give a damn about human beings. I've watched you...".

We do love those who try to never compromise though and even such a wicked figure as Rorschach is probably the best of heroes in our eyes; even in the mind of the creator he managed to convert Doctor Malcolm Long to his thinking. And The Comedian was loved too, Rorschach expresses is admiration of him in several occasions, which is explainable due to their kinship of mind, Dr. Manhattan too talks about his curiosity in him, "Blake is interesting. I have never met anyone so deliberately amoral.", and even The Silk Scepter who was raped by him had only fond memories left after his death,

And yes, I really think that The Comedian could have beaten Ozymandias had he wanted to; in his death he did not put up a fight to allow Veidt to go through with his horribe plan, this was Blakes final and only compromise, his punch line.