Have copyright patents not been the core of American culture and power? For decades the government of the United States, as well as companies all throughout the West have accused China of stealing ideas and technology. Then that tech is made at a fraction of a cost and western companies haven't been able to compete; some going straight out of business. Canadian telecommunications company and once-a-tech-giant Nortel was hacked and had their patented products reproduced directly by Chinese company Huawei. Nortel was forced to shut down and many lost their jobs.

That the Chinese government even encouraged their people and companies to do so, while pretending with the West as if they weren't, was an insult. Then a further humiliation of the West was that everyone continued to buy Chinese goods, even though that meant that people who had spent their lives developing technologies and sought to make hard earned money off their patents were now suddenly buried by their own countrymen.

Is it not part of the American Dream that a young man in a garage, with a guitar can sing his heart into a microphone and one day be paid for it? That if anyone wants to use that young musicians' sound, they have to pay him? Shouldn’t Nikola Tesla have been paid for his patents and inventions?

Yet after the ‘A.I. section’ of President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ was struck down by Congress and the President introduced a new executive order, mandating that any state which is perceived as a hindrance to the development of A.I. would receive no Federal Funding, Shira Perlmutter was fired. She who was in the role of ‘Register of Copyrights’ in the Library of Congress (it is her express job as the foremost authority on copyrights in the United States) wrote that training A.I. on the works of others without their authorization was not always legal. It was just a single day after her opinion was read that she was fired, and then she sued, arguing that since she works for Congress, only Congress can fire her.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against the Administration, expounding that the removal was illegal, and that the Register’s role is a function of the legislative branch, and thus not subject to Executive oversight, but that didn’t stop the Trump Administration from also firing Carla Hayden who hired Perlmutter.

However, days ago on October 27th, the Trump Administration filed an "emergency application” to the U.S. Supreme Court, pleading for the High Court to grant President Trump to remove Perlmutter.

With this said, how can the older generation of Americans sit back and be alright with their patented work being used to train A.I. – and then that A.I. can produce work for Silicon Valley tech bros, without any compensation to the creators of those patents? Are we Americans not angry at China for stealing American technology? A.I. companies now regularly steal the total works of artists and musicians and writers. Any consumer can head to those websites and pay some guy in California, to use his machine to reproduce a new Harry Potter book which hasn’t yet been written, or even a George Strait song which sounds exactly like him, in his style with his voice and instruments and everything.

President Trump has been very clear in his actions what he believes in, and it certainly is the comfort of his tech friends who are very opinionated about what should be free and handed to them. Elon Musk recently said that all copyrights should be abolished and done away with. Likely because then it would be much cheaper for him to train his A.I. “army" which is the way he refers to his mass of intelligent robots that he is currently building.

But what is sacrificed is every artist who aspire to paint the next Mona Lisa, or your child who can only speak the waves of emotions that roll though their heart through the chords on their guitar. Or even your child, or father who has been working on a book for years. By supporting this current Administration's actions, the Americans that do so are not American. They have traded their anger towards Liberals for the American Heart, and the pursuit of the American Dream for others, and especially their children.

They should not claim they are angry at China, not if this Administration tries to make legal the theft of the works of a whole generation, and all the generations of mankind which had come before. Punish the pickpocket for stealing twenty dollars out of your wallet, but not all the revenue of your children for all the rest of their lives?

What an eternity of shame.

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.