To the shortsighted who have questioned why I can’t just “stick to travel,” here is a good answer. Whether one pays attention to “politics” or not is immaterial because “politics” chooses to pay attention to you, and it always will.
Yesterday, I filed for a few remaining copyrights because of this (yet another) disturbing development and example of Presidential overreach, likely orchestrated by some of the Bro-ligarchs (i.e. Musk, Zuckernerd, Theil, Bezos, etc.).
If Intellectual Property law in the USA goes the way of the dinosaur, it won’t just be little old Raw Travel that is hurt, it will be ALL major TV, Video, Film, Recording Artists, Authors, etc.
In my travels interviewing musicians of all stripes from Cuba to Russia to Vietnam to Slovakia to the Philippines, perhaps nothing has distinguished democracy more than the ability for creative individuals to make a living (albeit barely in most cases) off their creativity.
The result is that the USA leads the world in all types of entertainment, from film to TV to music, resulting in a kind of “soft power” that money cannot buy (hence why countries like Russia and China must resort to spending trillions on disinformation campaigns).
This isn’t bellyaching for me. I’ve had a good run; if it ends tomorrow, I’ll be good. I live fairly simply and can be happy with just enough. To me, money represents freedom—freedom to go where you want, do what you want, tell people what you want, and help who you want. I can tell know-it-alls who lecture me to “just stick to travel” to stick it up their a&*. Well, you know, what they say about FU money. I do have it, and I am grateful for that. But I’ve had it for a while, thanks to the intellectual property laws in this country.
So, this is (yet another) cautionary tale about how the tech industry has infiltrated the top levels of our government and is now trying to rewrite the rules so that we continue to bow down to them—and no one else.
Consumers will see the changes so gradually that they’ll hardly notice. Still, they’ll wake up one day to find the entire content ecosystem has changed… just like their country, into a wholly unrecognizable and less free society driven by a few wealthy gazillionaires, who get to decide what content is worthy and what content never sees the light of day, because they, not the people and indeed not the creators, will own the only pipelines left… in other words, if you think radio, tv, music, film, etc. is terrible now… You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Please, if you agree, call your elected representatives and tell them you are not cool with an extrajudicial executive order from the president to strip the rule of law from our Intellectual Property system, which, until now, has been the envy of the entire creative world and rewards consumers with a deep variety of some of the most innovative content imaginable.
