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What does the independent music artist (or video creator) get? Is YouTube gonna share ad revenue with the rest of us, or do only major labels play the licensed distribution game? Seems a bit unfair to me.

And don't forget folks, we are still BOYCOTTING the RIAA! Please don't take advantage of WMG's apparent lapse of insanity by gleefully uploading/downloading these YouTubed vids. (Thus, giving the RIAA lots of money.)

*sigh* ...not enough of you will will listen to this advise I am afraid. Unless there are hidden catches, WMG may have just saved itself from extinction.

Support Local and Independent Music!
--Shmoo, aka "independentmusician" of:
http://www.boycottriaa.com/

Creative Commons

Defective by Design's List of DRM-Free Music Sites

dmusic

Electronic Frontier Foundation List of "Artists Online"

emusic.com

Fading Ways Records

FreeCulture.org

harveydanger.com

Janis Ian.com

last.fm

Lime Light Radio

live365.com free downloads

MagnaTune

myspace.com

Nettwerk Download Store

R.evolution I.n P.rogress

RIAARadar.com

uncoolcentral.com

Vision Metal Records

I keep a list on my blog and welcome more suggestions.

I'm willing to bet that he'd say that you are free to break laws as long as you are also willing to accept the risk of getting caught and being punished.

This is the primary basis of civil disobedience, which is a good way to get laws changed. As long as you are willing to back up these actions with directed protest about the law in both the form of written and vocal dissent and/or with discrediting viewpoints such as your own through valid argument.

We live in a Constitutional Democracy and the Constitution promises us that the majority cannot always have it's way, and sometimes the asshats who are arguing for a mass conformity in the name of "civilization" forget this and need to be reminded that if conformity is what they desire, then they can well pack up and move to one of the many other nations that do not have a Constitution that is intended to protect individuals and minorities from trom the asshat majority.

OTOH, it may be necessary for the people who, like myself, would like to see the laws governing the possesion ans consumption of marijuana for recreation to give up the weed for a while in order to get thier thoughts ordered enough to mount an effective campaign against the laws. I've seen too many "protests" that were little more than shouting fests that likely were more effective at alienating than educating the people that they need to convince.

To bring this back to topic, the currently vocal P2P community seems to be making similar mistakes, simply crying "unfair" while uploading other peoples copyrighted works without the artists permission.

The site Boycott RIAA is a sham, simply rallying people to protest against the music industry without leading people to any alternatives, such as the tens of thousands of legally distributable mp3 and (other format) files that artists unburdened by RIAA member contracts have made available, legal defense for uploaders such as attempting to bring the possible damages awarded into the realm of reason by logging the number of actual downloads from your P2P directory times the recognised market value of such a service ($.99 is what most industry services charge), or movements that wish to change copyright laws to reflect the original intent of copyright, which was to encourage works to be made by giving protection of reproduction and distribution rights for a limited time while garaunteeing that works would eventually enter the public domain so as to inspire derivative and related works (such as arrangements for different instrumentation and/or genres of music).

Much of the U.S. Constitution is derived from traditions of anti-establishment thought that centered on the ideas that dissent against authority and non-conformity was essential in a just society. The unjust society that the U.S. was rebeling against was deeply rooted in the ideas of Feudalism, which is inherently based on ownership and property rights.

The current state of intelectual property rights is very much beginning to resemble Feudalism. Artists are beholden to thier copyright holders to get permission to perform or record the very works they created, programmers are expected to assign copyright for any ides the think of to thier employer. Both recording artists and programmers are increasingly forbidden ownership of thier own work, whether that work was created "on the job" at thier employers expense, or on thier own time at thier own.

At least the software community has gotten more and more away from the tactics of "piracy" with the advent of Free Software as a valid competitor to propietary. When the music P2P comunnity follows suit and gets the idea of Free Music, the it'll be all over for the RIAA, for thier members, and (hopefully) for Clearchannel as well.

Nothing. Because we are all Boycotting the RIAA.

Boycott RIAA site

www.boycott-riaa.com
www.boycottriaa.com