Employment Equity

I just received my first Employment Equity Program questionnaire at work.  Apparently since we are doing work for the Federal Government we MAY be subject to the requirements set out under the Federal Contractors Program.  I can hardly explain how furious this makes me.  It is discrimination!

Am I a woman – Nope

Am I an Aboriginal person – Nope

Do I have a disability – Nope

Am I a visible minority – Nope

So, what this means is that if a decision ever has to be made between me and one of the people who can answer Yes to one of the four questions above (all other things being equal) I don’t get the job/promotion/raise/etc.  And, heaven forbid we are far behind our quota in any of the four categories, because then even if all other things are not equal I still won’t get the job.

Do we want to do work for the Federal Government?  Then we’ve got a quota to fill.

…I am just shaking at work right now this makes me so mad.

Free Music Downloads

This is something I struggle with quite a bit.  I love listening to good music so much.  One of my favorite things to do is to put on my new 7.1 circumaural headphones that my excellent wife got me for my birthday and just zone out for an hour or two listening to music at the computer.  There is very little music that I don't listen to.  Recently I've been listening to a lot of Kaskade and Deadmau5.  Check out my profile for a list of music and artists I listen to.

Downloading music for free is like a dream come true.  I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want.  I'm listening to music on the radio while I drive home from work, all of a sudden Deadmau5's Ghosts N Stuff comes on and I crank it.  Inner monologue: "I should download this when I get home.  This song is so wicked"  That's right, I say wicked a lot in my inner monologue.  But wait...there's the alarm...and...WAKE UP - YOU'RE DREAMING!

*I would have put an exclamation point after each sentence for the rest of this post, but I feared the repetition would have caused it to loose some of it's potency.*

The reason downloading music for free seems like a dream come true is that you're dreaming if you think it has come true - ethically anyway - does anyone still bother with ethics?  I am not talking about downloading music from itunes or some other site where you purchase music.  I have had some of my Christian friends argue with me about this!  "Downloading music is ok because the artists are making so much money anyway, they really don't need the extra $X from that one CD."  "It really isn't illegal in Canada if you are just "sharing" files."  "Everyone's doing it, what difference am I going to make?"

I don't care what the law says in this regard.  If you are taking something for free from another person who created it and intended for it to be purchased, you are stealing.  You are stealing their livelihood.  How is this so hard to understand?  It doesn't matter if they are as rich as Bill Gates, if you download a copy of Microsoft Office without paying for it, you stole it - they didn't spend years staying up late writing the software out of the goodness of their hearts.  Do you think that Universal Studios spends billions each year making movies without some intention of making that money back somehow?  If I grab your wallet and start "sharing" your money with everyone, you're going to want to sit down and have a talk with me about that.

Be honest with yourself.  You want to do it, so you justify it.

Everyone knows that unless it is freeware there is some expectation from the author to be reimbursed for your enjoyment of their product.  Do you really think they did it just for you?  If I was to run into someone who would respond to me that they knew they were stealing but that they didn't mind being a thief, I think our conversation would be over.  There would be nothing for me to say.  I wouldn't agree with them, and my opinion of them would be in the dirt, but the conversation would have nowhere to go.  It is people's justification of the whole process that starts to make my temperature rise.  Especially people who call themselves Christians - there is no excuse for that.  None!  If you have come up with an excellent excuse for downloading free music which makes my previous one word, gramatically incorrect, sentence obsolete please leave a comment telling me all about it - I would love to start downloading music for free.