In this article from CNet is a discussion about how the music industry is trying to employ technologies to prevent pirating. About halfway through, Jay Samit (of EMI) says this:
**“We’re working very hard to make buying music as easy as stealing music…And we’re also working hard to make stealing a hell of a lot harder.” **
I nearly fell out of my chair. If you didn’t catch it right away, Mr. Samit is basically saying “we want to make buying as easy as stealing, and we want to make stealing impossible.”
I know a lot of you take the “it’s not what he said, but what he meant that’s important” approach, but this quote makes poor Mr. Samit sound like the Dumbass of the Month to anyone who gives a damn about clarity.
I know there’s already a thread about diction, spelling, etc. But if you’re going to say something publicly, you should damn well make sure what you say makes sense. I’d say this quote is almost Quayle-ish.
Yeah, it’s dumb. But by no means is it Quayle-ish. I mean, do you really think that quote compares with, “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child”
Oh yeah, I forgot to point out that all of these precautions are useless. As soon as they introduce a safeguard, there will be an army of hackers that will have broken through it (give or take an hour).
Anybody ever see * The Unautherized Biography of Dan Quayle? * It was great–it had all the aforementioned quotes, plus it had all these photos of him looking silly. And some great quotes from his father–who seems like a reasonable intelligent man, that realized his son was a twit.
The OP was about a classic mistake in dangling and missing modifiers. The person I think was meaning to say:
“We’re working very hard to make buying music as easy as the way stealing music is currently done…And, in the process, we’re also working hard to make stealing in the future a hell of a lot harder .”
(Bold-faced parts my corrections)
With these modiications, this person is making non-controversial, non-nitpicking sense about the projects. Now, the separation of the buying and stealing aspects is easier to understand.