Question - Is the Internet bad?

Recently the CEO of Sony posted an article stating the Internet is bad - see commentary - Sony Pictures CEO: The Internet Is Still Bad. His point, in a nutshell, is that piracy of intellectual property is harming content providers, e.g., Sony distribution. Some have counter argued that society/business models have changed and content providers should welcome free distribution of content.

My initial reaction - The counter argument is made by those individuals who have not had their intellectual property stolen. Intellectual property laws are significantly comprehensive and exist internationally. There are state laws, federal laws and treaties addressing intellectual property. To simply dismiss these well established rules is a demonstration of one's lack of knowledge of the law and its reason for being. Content can take a great deal of time and money to create. Doesn't someone have to pay for it? How should today's content providers, e.g., newspaper, magazine, music and movie industries, earn money to pay for the creation of the content?

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Red Sweater Software and MarsEdit visit BMAC

Last night at the BMAC user group I had the privilege to listen to Daniel Jalkut, a software developer for the Mac and, in the near future, the iPhone. Dan’s company, Red Sweater Software, LLC is based in Massachusetts and currently has five Mac applications on the market:

Clarion – Music interval recognition
FastScripts – Keyboard shortcuts for applications, scripts and documents
FlexTime – Productivity tool
Black Ink – A truly great crossword puzzle application accessing free crossword puzzles on the web
MarsEdit – A blog publishing tool

Dan is very articulate and knowledgeable making his presentation and demo a joy to watch. The scene stealer of the night was MarsEdit. My personal blogging experience is limited to what you see hear. However, I could quickly see the benefits of using a Mac oriented blog publishing tool that would effortlessly sync with sites such as Blogger and WordPress. I plan on purchasing MarsEdit and encourage you to download the free 30 day trial version to learn more about the product.