My CS 404 Thoughts

Today's presentation and discussion had two effects on me. First, it reminded me that I really do want to do my own thing, and start my own business again at some point. Second, it reassured me that there are people in the high-tech community that think like I do. I wouldn't have guessed that someone as technically savvy as Phil Bunker would agree with the RIAA about DRM and what I can and can't do with media that I have legally purchased, but it was nice to get the affirmation that someone a little older and much wiser than me thinks the same way I do about the subject. It was also great to hear his thoughts about what rights your employer should have over your outside-of-work intellectual property. Despite the fact that I'm not likely to have much leverage when I first begin my career, I can always turn down a job with an employer whose ideas of intellectual property don't allow me to exercise my own creativity. If everyone in the high-tech industry held the same belief, that their personal life and creations were completely separate from their employer, I believe it would have an impact on those employers who want to control or own their employees lives and creations. If no one would work for them under those conditions I think they would change their manner of thinking much more quickly than otherwise. Most of all I appreciated his (maybe underlying) message that your life and what you make of it are your own, and you can go as far as you choose.