I Fought the Law...
...but the law won? No, wait...that can't be right. Laws are everywhere and are an established part of our daily lives. Some laws are helpful, for instance the traffic laws, which in most cases keep us from killing one another on the road. Of course there are always assholes who decide they can do whatever they want, but if there were no laws, more lives would be at risk.
Other laws are a hindrance, such as citizenship laws. I find them to be totally arbitrary. Especially since I am someone who has been living between two countries at more than one point in her life. If someone wants to be a citizen of another country, why do you have to prove your family is from that nation? Nations are just constructs - or imagined communities to reference Benedict Anderson's seminal concept from the 1980s - and the jus sanguinis requirement for citizenship is bogus. If I want to become a citizen of a country so I can live freely with my husband, but do not want to rescind my given citizenship so I can visit my family and travel back and forth, why is it such a big deal? It makes for some difficult decisions - I am truly inspired by my friends and their partners who had to go through the process (esp. Annette and Emily)! Now that I know I will be facing a similar situation, the legislation is a mind boggling mystery. And surprisingly, according to the U.S. State Department, they defer to the other country's citizenship laws in certain situations. Thanks, guys! You really screwed me on this one. Whatever happens, I will just have to accept my fate (i.e. become a German citizen and give up my U.S. citizenship), mandated by the arbitrary citizenship laws.
Then there are some laws that are a downright nuisance. Such as copyright and distribution laws. In this age of technology, smartphones, iPhones, iTunes, Spotify, streaming music, Netflix, Amazon, VOD and instant gratification, why the hell are we not allowed to access everything made anywhere in the world at anytime we want? I was trying to access a video of a house/dance mix my boyfriend made, which he recently posted to YouTube. Here's a riddle for you: My laptop was bought in the U.S. It is a modern Apple product. I am living in Germany. I have a VPN installed on my browser. I can bypass odd copyright laws with said VPN. YouTube was set to Germany. So why could I not watch the video? Why did I receive this message?: "Unfortunately, this video is not available in your country because it could contain music from UMG, for which we could not agree on conditions of use with GEMA. Sorry about that." Sorry?Really? I highly doubt that. It is even more mind boggling to me to think that we have not taken care of this yet. Come on, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Apple, et al. Get your shit together! People are willing to pay good money to be able to watch "foreign" movies or listen to "world" music or watch silly YouTube videos and they should be able to access them. In my frustration with trying to watch my boyfriend's video, I read that about 60% of the most viewed YouTube content is blocked in Germany! What the heck is that? That means in other less liberal countries that people have access to even less? I thought the internet was meant to be free for all! Am I a naive American capitalist or what?
With all of this talk about laws, I guess what I'm trying to say is, let's tear down ALL the walls, Mr. Gorbachev. Love should be king. Let us marry people from other countries and become world citizens and access international films and buy any songs we want on iTunes and watch all YouTube videos. Especially the videos made with love and painstaking German effort by my man! He has created hours of music you can really groove to, which he mixed himself. He also used a cool program to make a simple but sweet video you can play in the background as you jam out to the sweet tunes. The link to his station is below:
Vibestation: The Best in House Music - YouTube Channel
Other laws are a hindrance, such as citizenship laws. I find them to be totally arbitrary. Especially since I am someone who has been living between two countries at more than one point in her life. If someone wants to be a citizen of another country, why do you have to prove your family is from that nation? Nations are just constructs - or imagined communities to reference Benedict Anderson's seminal concept from the 1980s - and the jus sanguinis requirement for citizenship is bogus. If I want to become a citizen of a country so I can live freely with my husband, but do not want to rescind my given citizenship so I can visit my family and travel back and forth, why is it such a big deal? It makes for some difficult decisions - I am truly inspired by my friends and their partners who had to go through the process (esp. Annette and Emily)! Now that I know I will be facing a similar situation, the legislation is a mind boggling mystery. And surprisingly, according to the U.S. State Department, they defer to the other country's citizenship laws in certain situations. Thanks, guys! You really screwed me on this one. Whatever happens, I will just have to accept my fate (i.e. become a German citizen and give up my U.S. citizenship), mandated by the arbitrary citizenship laws.
Then there are some laws that are a downright nuisance. Such as copyright and distribution laws. In this age of technology, smartphones, iPhones, iTunes, Spotify, streaming music, Netflix, Amazon, VOD and instant gratification, why the hell are we not allowed to access everything made anywhere in the world at anytime we want? I was trying to access a video of a house/dance mix my boyfriend made, which he recently posted to YouTube. Here's a riddle for you: My laptop was bought in the U.S. It is a modern Apple product. I am living in Germany. I have a VPN installed on my browser. I can bypass odd copyright laws with said VPN. YouTube was set to Germany. So why could I not watch the video? Why did I receive this message?: "Unfortunately, this video is not available in your country because it could contain music from UMG, for which we could not agree on conditions of use with GEMA. Sorry about that." Sorry?Really? I highly doubt that. It is even more mind boggling to me to think that we have not taken care of this yet. Come on, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Apple, et al. Get your shit together! People are willing to pay good money to be able to watch "foreign" movies or listen to "world" music or watch silly YouTube videos and they should be able to access them. In my frustration with trying to watch my boyfriend's video, I read that about 60% of the most viewed YouTube content is blocked in Germany! What the heck is that? That means in other less liberal countries that people have access to even less? I thought the internet was meant to be free for all! Am I a naive American capitalist or what?
With all of this talk about laws, I guess what I'm trying to say is, let's tear down ALL the walls, Mr. Gorbachev. Love should be king. Let us marry people from other countries and become world citizens and access international films and buy any songs we want on iTunes and watch all YouTube videos. Especially the videos made with love and painstaking German effort by my man! He has created hours of music you can really groove to, which he mixed himself. He also used a cool program to make a simple but sweet video you can play in the background as you jam out to the sweet tunes. The link to his station is below:
Vibestation: The Best in House Music - YouTube Channel
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