Other Alternatives

I just published an entry about why I like copyright. I actually wrote that entry 23 days ago, but hadn't bothered to publish it in this particular version of my blog until tonight. Seeing that entry and realizing how much has changed about my world view is kind of freaky. No, I haven't started disliking copyright* but I have changed my mind about law school. And I need to get this off my chest, so what better place than a blog?

From day one I've been, at best, ambivalent about being in law school. I was only ever partially committed to going to law school and was doing it both out of a desire to learn more about copyright and out of a fear of growing up. Besides Civil Procedure and being called in Constitutional Law**, there's not much I find more terrifying than growing up. I'm a responsible adult but I don't like to think about it that often. Anyway, my commitment to law school has never been that great. But I had always assumed that because I was in law school I was stuck going to law school and becoming a lawyer. While my other great fear*** is becoming my dad, I'm not someone who likes to quit. It's mostly out laziness, but once I've started something unless it's causing me extreme emotional distress I'm not going to stop doing it, especially when it comes to school. So I just assumed that since I had started down that path, that's where I would be going.

However over the past week all that has changed. I'm currently in the process of, honest to god****, applying to a grad program in the UK, have applied to a job at public radio station***** and have given my resume to another in a different city. Now nothing may come of any of this, a thought that I have to keep telling myself. And if nothing does come of it, then I'll finish out this year, sign up for classes for next year and try all of this again after I've finished law school.****** A small part of me is really hopeful though. I would like to be more than ambivalent about what I do on a day to day basis. It would be nice to be passionate about what I do or at least interested. For me the law has always been something I've been vaguely intrigued by, like biology or the moon. The fact that I tried to make more of it says more about my own self image than anything else.******* But I'm aware enough now that trying for other things seems like a viable option instead of a way to distract myself from my situation. Again, nothing may come of any of this. But I really hope I'm wrong to be so pessimistic.

Obviously I'm not going to know any time soon where my future is heading. Right now I'm planning on being in Boston for another two years at least. I'm trying to keep myself focused on getting through the rest of this semester and doing well enough that if I continue with the law I won't be in big trouble. However, besides my parents and my twitter feed, this blog will probably be one of the first things I tell if one (or more) of my alternatives work out. And then I'll have even more things to worry about. But for now I'm just concentrating on getting through the next few months with my head above water.

On a completely different subject, I've lost a little over 10 lbs over the past two months. Go me!

*Because I'll never stop disliking copyright

**My constitutional law professor, while extremely short, is terrifying. I hope to god I never get called

***"Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms—oh damn!"

****Not day dreaming about

*****Which I have almost no chance of getting

******I don't really think I'm going to be a lawyer, but who knows

*******Sorry if that sentence doesn't make sense.

Why I Like Copyright*

Law school does about fifty different things to ones brain so that by the time a person graduates from law school they think in a completely different way than had prior to law school. One of these processes is the slow realization that everything in your life, whether you realize it or not, is somehow related to the law. That makes sense to a certain extent. We, as humans, created laws** to that society would run in an orderly fashion and hopefully people wouldn't kill each other over petty disagreements as much. What law school does is lift the veil on just how much of a person's life is controlled by the law. The classes you take your first year in law school are the ones that touch a normal persons life the most, property and contracts in particular. Again none of this is surprising. But for me, the area of law I love the most*** is an area I knew from the get go had a huge impact on a normal person's life. Copyright and patents and trademarks**** are constantly around us. The diet coke I can't drink anymore, the Starbucks bag I have in my pantry, the Poland Spring water bottle on my night table, the computer I'm typing on right now, the Zune I use to listen to my favorite music, the posters I have hanging on my walls, the fan I have running 24/7 because my land lady is crazy, the books on my shelf, and piles of DVDs I have under my desk. All of these things fall under either copyright, patent, or trademark. You can look around your life and catalog hundreds of different things that fall into one of those categories. While I find copyright the most interesting, none are more important than the other when it comes to a person's everyday existence. How we consume life, outside of contracts and property, are dictated by the laws of copyright, patents, and trademarks.

With the internet we as a society have to some extent started to take for granted a very basic truth. The area of intellectual property, for better or worse, was created to protect and make money for businesses and people. As I tend to focus on copyright I tend to focus on the idea that copyright enabled artists to make money from their creations without having to find patrons. But anything that can be categorized as intellectual property can be said to make money for someone. With the ease the internet gives us in communicating and sending information, I feel that we've forgotten that idea. Copyright has been around for such a long time that it's basic purpose has been forgotten and taken for granted, depending on who you talk to. Our system for dealing with copyright is clearly not adequate, but what I find so fascinating is that the loudest people in this debate either want to make copyright even more backwards thinking or seem to have a naive notion of what copyright is about. I've said this before and I'll say it again, what the copyright debate needs is a middle ground. SOPA and PIPA are wrong and will do more hurt than good. But so is giving up on copyright completely.

*This is a writing exercise with two purposes. 1) Get my brain in the right place to write a cover letter and 2) have something related to law as my top entry for any potential employers looking at this blog.

**And societal norms, which are kind of like unspoken laws.

***And the one thing I don't get to study until next year.

****Otherwise known as intellectual property.