The Wild Ass and the Lion

A WILD ASS and a Lion entered into an alliance so that they might capture the beasts of the forest with greater ease. The Lion agreed to assist the Wild Ass with his strength, while the Wild Ass gave the Lion the benefit of his greater speed. When they had taken as many beasts as their necessities required, the Lion undertook to distribute the prey, and for this purpose divided it into three shares. "I will take the first share," he said, "because I am King: and the second share, as a partner with you in the chase: and the third share (believe me) will be a source of great evil to you, unless you willingly resign it to me, and set off as fast as you can." Might makes right.

A large conglomerate of movie studios and the lowly consumer entered into an alliance so that they might have a higher-quality home theater experience. The studios agreed to assist the consumer with their production and distribution strength, while the consumer gave the studio his hard-earned dollar with which to fund the production. When they had produced enough DVDs to reach critical mass, the studios undertook to distribute the movies, and for this purpose divided it into three shares. "We will take the first share," they said, "because we are king and do not approve of an unlicensed player: and the second share, as you have willingly distributed source code which allows others to steal our share from us: and the third share (believe me) will be a source of great evil to you, because thanks to DeCSS, all DVDs will soon be obsolete when we figure out a better way to restrict you from viewing what you paid for, and you should set off as fast as you can before we bribe your government into unconstitutionally indicting you for a crime you did not commit."