When is copyright just plain stupid? Have we gone too far?

It appears the music and movie industries have inspired the rest of the world to jump on the copyright and DRM train. Here is just some of the absolutely ludicrous news I read today. I haven't even gotten to the mainstream news agencies before I got completely fed up and had to post this. Seriously, read this.. this is what's going on in the USA just in the last 24 hours.

1) Egypt is now trying to copyright the pyramids..... *I have a glassy eyed stare now*... Yes, you heard me right. They want to copyright the pyramids as "property of the Egyptian government" so they can charge companies who make likenesses of it...

OK.

1. Egypt doesn't "own" the copyright to the pyramids.. technically, that would be the pharaoh who had it commissioned, who is now long dead, as are his descendants. So... the copyright would have expired about one thousand years ago or more...
2. Since all pharaohs were actually Greek, doesn't this mean that Greece should be able to tax Egypt for their use?
3. The purpose of copyright law is to promote competition in a market.... are they planning on opening up a new pyramid for rental anytime soon? If not, I think they can freaking relax!

It gets better:

The NCAA is setting up rules to try to copyright the broadcasts from their games due to live-blogger's. Guess what dummy? You don't get to copyright what ANOTHER person says about a game! They actually have new rules in place to cover correspondents who arrive at games, stating how many times they are allowed to blog per inning or per game... holy crap how stupid can they be?

 

Wanna hear a funny one? Microsoft wants to sue Apple... hold on... hold it.. hold it.. hold it.... they want to sue Apple for being a Monopoly!!!!!!

OHMYGOD can anyone possible believe the absurdity of that one? Microsoft says that iPods make up a majority of the market (which is true) but that iPods can't play WMA encoded songs (which is also true). They can't play them because the format SUCKS and no other company wants to use it. Even Microsoft themselves broke their own digital rights management rules when they released the Zune... now they're mad because the Zune doesn't have the market share that iPod has, so they figure they'll sue for market share potential... WOW!

 

PS:  Microsoft just filed a patent application for making a Santa Wish List..... think I'm kidding? I'm not! I swear to God, Microsoft wants to OWN the right to make an online list of your Christmas gift ideas. They actually believe they thought of it first!

 

On a tangent topic, yet still within the realm of ludicrous, here's another one. The SECOND person this week tried to sue a GPS company because their GPS told them to turn right.... on to a train track... AND THEY DID!

They actually got their car stuck on a train track and tried to SUE the GPS company for bad directions. I mean c'mon. What's your first idea that this might NOT be a road?
A: The bumpy feeling under your ass.... that's a little too regular for potholes.
B: the screeching rails that are tearing up the bottom of your car.
C: The lack of a road sign?

God we live in a country that has gone absolutely MAD with stupidity in recent years.

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