sour peas and where we're headed

There is a thing I fear. I fear that the world is on a course that will take us straight to a cyberpunk world where the government is a puppet, and corporations hold the true power. One even more so than it is now.

I Don't know what we can do to keep it from becoming that world though. All we can do is fight it.

I'm fairly sure that none of you have heard of the great sweet pea lawsuit. But I'm hoping that by reading this you will become aware. While it doesn't affect you right now, the long term impacts of this case and how it's handled could hurt us all in the future.

Personally, since I know one of the defendants I'm probably too close to the story to be reasonable about describing all that is wrong with it. So I'm gonna drop some links and let you decide for yourself.

Miami Herald Article
Sourpeas.org

Now to tie all that in with my opening statement. Some of you know that I am a fan of Tales from the Afternow, and things like this only prove that we are currently on a collision course with the world described in the series.

I would like to say that the court will laugh and throw out the case. We all know that this is a case of internet extortion. But the way laws are currently set up the plaintiff is working within the letter of the law.

I'm not saying that a company shouldn't have a right to defend it's marks. But trademark law needs to be reexamined. We cannot continue to allow blanket trademarking of common terms and phrases. A recognizable mark is one thing, but if the plaintiff in this case wins it will be obvious that our government is selling the rights to own words.