You have got to be kidding me

The fashion industry wants copyright protection so that they might eliminate knockoffs.

WTF? This whole "This is mine! You can't have it!" bit has gone too frakkin' far. First off, given that fashion designers regularly pillage previous fashions--not to mention cultural costume, art pieces in other mediums, and god knows what else--how the hell would they hope to enforce this?

Second, why the hell do they think that enforcing a copyright will help their business? The only people who are going to be able to afford the couture originals are still going to buy them instead of the knock-offs because they can. The people who can't, won't, and if this protection does hold sway in legislative form, then all it means is the people who would buy the knock-off will forget about it and not buy it. Congrats, fashion moguls, you'll put the knock-off guys out of business--the legit ones, anyway. You'll still be able to buy a Yves Saint Laurent handbag on the streets of New York any time the spirit is willing.

Third, so, say you do eliminate second-run, knock-off, interpretations of high fashion couture clothing. That just means, aside from the sewers, no one outside the industry is going to pay your lines much attention. Let's face facts here: people don't pay attention to high fashion unless a) they can afford it, or b) they happen to admire a piece on a famous person (I would venture a guess that something like half of the knock-offs that are popular are popular because they were Oscar gowns and the like). So, unless you can convince Scarlett Johanssen to wear your dress to high profile event, the chances of that design reaching the masses? Not so much.

And did I mention that, knock-off availability not withstanding, people who can't afford to pay thousands of dollars for one item of clothing still won't be able to afford it even if that's the only version that exists?!? Sheesh. Some people. This sort of prima donna behavior is probably the only reason I could see couturiers getting their product covered as art--only artists are this pretentious and blithely unaware of market functions. God.

Hello, have you met my aunt?

My lovely, kind, sweet aunt, she of the fundamentalist persuasion of religion, has sent an e-mail to my family mailing list titled The Plan. It's a semi-joking, isolationist, right-wing bit of propaganda. Parts of it were so awful I wanted to cry and throw up at the same time. That is not hyperbole. I felt sick. I felt sad. Sickened by what was supposed to be "funny" and "true" that was really insensitive, ignorant, and unjust. Sad that anyone could be so heartless, so unfeeling as to think this up, and sadder still that my aunt found anything about it worth repeating.

Before I send my response to the list, which is remarkably restrained until the end, even-handed and not too passionate where I could help myself about it, I offer it to my friends and ask them if I am being too harsh. feiran, bless her, is more temperate about this and cautioned me against censuring a family member lest I get into trouble over a misunderstanding.

So, judge my response, please, and let me know, your own opinions on the subjects notwithstanding, whether it is safe to transmit to my family (safe in the sense that it conveys my hurt and outrage without being vindictive, caustic, mean, or likewise ignorant, insensitive, or broad-stroked).

First things first, the e-mail at the heart of this: ( The plan )

( My response )

Perhaps I'm laying on the religious stuff a bit thick, but you have to speak the same language as those you disagree with sometimes before they'll admit you know what you're talking about.