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How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

Why? Because speak freely does voice over IP with hard encryption. I don't know of any other VoIP product that does that.

So if you care about your privacy, and have the time and skill, get the source code while you still can, and make a new generation VoIP product that addresses the problems in Speak Freely while continuing to provide hard encryption.

If you wonder why you should bother, read Why You Should Use Encryption.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

You can change that. But it's going to take some work. But there are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get active politically, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.

One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same thing.

Sixty million american peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry Sklarov is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.

Thank you for your attention.

• Change the Law

If you think that can't happen, consider that more Americans are sharing files with peer-to-peer applications than voted for George Bush.

The steps my article suggest you take to bring about copyright reform include:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

If you agree with me, please have a look at What You Can Do to Help.

Thank you for your attention.

• Change the Law

If you think that can't happen, consider that more Americans are sharing files with peer-to-peer applications than voted for George Bush.

The steps my article suggest you take to bring about copyright reform include:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

If you agree with me, please have a look at What You Can Do to Help.

Thank you for your attention.

For example, iRATE Radio is a free (as in speech) downloader that fetches MP3s from websites that provide free, legal downloads. It uses collaborative filtering to learn your tastes and select songs based on the ratings of other users who like the same kind of music you do. iRATE's database of MP3 URLs has 46,000 tracks registered.

My article has a Creative Commons license. I urge you to copy and distribute it. In addition, I'm looking for help in translating it to languages other than english. The first such translation, to Romanian, was performed by an incredibly helpful fellow named Ciprian Mihet: Legaturi catre Zeci de Mii de Download-uri Legale de Muzica.

The article also discusses what you can do to make peer-to-peer filesharing of music legal. That's a realistic possibility, considering that more Americans share files with p2p apps than voted for George Bush in the last election.

That's why I want to get every US p2p user to read my article before the upcoming US elections, in November of this year. I want copyright reform - meaning much more than just the repeal of the DMCA - to be a central issue in the upcoming election.

For example, iRATE Radio is a free (as in speech) downloader that fetches MP3s from websites that provide free, legal downloads. It uses collaborative filtering to learn your tastes and select songs based on the ratings of other users who like the same kind of music you do. iRATE's database of MP3 URLs has 46,000 tracks registered.

My article has a Creative Commons license. I urge you to copy and distribute it. In addition, I'm looking for help in translating it to languages other than english. The first such translation, to Romanian, was performed by an incredibly helpful fellow named Ciprian Mihet: Legaturi catre Zeci de Mii de Download-uri Legale de Muzica.

The article also discusses what you can do to make peer-to-peer filesharing of music legal. That's a realistic possibility, considering that more Americans share files with p2p apps than voted for George Bush in the last election.

That's why I want to get every US p2p user to read my article before the upcoming US elections, in November of this year. I want copyright reform - meaning much more than just the repeal of the DMCA - to be a central issue in the upcoming election.

For example, iRATE Radio is a free (as in speech) downloader that fetches MP3s from websites that provide free, legal downloads. It uses collaborative filtering to learn your tastes and select songs based on the ratings of other users who like the same kind of music you do. iRATE's database of MP3 URLs has 46,000 tracks registered.

My article has a Creative Commons license. I urge you to copy and distribute it. In addition, I'm looking for help in translating it to languages other than english. The first such translation, to Romanian, was performed by an incredibly helpful fellow named Ciprian Mihet: Legaturi catre Zeci de Mii de Download-uri Legale de Muzica.

The article also discusses what you can do to make peer-to-peer filesharing of music legal. That's a realistic possibility, considering that more Americans share files with p2p apps than voted for George Bush in the last election.

That's why I want to get every US p2p user to read my article before the upcoming US elections, in November of this year. I want copyright reform - meaning much more than just the repeal of the DMCA - to be a central issue in the upcoming election.

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

Please copy and distribute this article. It has a Creative Commons license.

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

Please copy and distribute this article. It has a Creative Commons license.

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

Please copy and distribute this article. It has a Creative Commons license.

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

Please copy and distribute this article. It has a Creative Commons license.

But my personal feeling is that copyright should be reformed, not repealed.

For example, while I feel that copyright should be allowed for software, I don't think it should be permitted for binary-only releases unless full source code is submitted to the copyright office, so that upon the expiration of the copyright, it can be released to the public domain.

In the section of the article entitled Should Copyright Even Exist? I say:

While copyright in its current form has outlived its usefulness to society, I don't think it ought to be eliminated entirely. I think the copyright term of fourteen years provided by the United States' first Copyright Act is about right. That would allow artists and writers to profit from their work, while the shorter term would allow you to legally share music from your favorite bands of your younger days while you are still able to enjoy them.

If you think this couldn't happen, consider that more Americans use p2p filesharing applications than voted for George Bush.

Change the Law, from my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads, discusses the background of copyright law in the United States, and suggests steps you can take to reform copyright law. Among the steps I discuss are to Speak Out, Vote, Write to Your Elected Representatives, Donate Money to Political Campaigns, Support Campaign Finance Reform, Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Practice Civil Disobedience

Thank you for your attention.

If you think this couldn't happen, consider that more Americans use p2p filesharing applications than voted for George Bush.

Change the Law, from my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads, discusses the background of copyright law in the United States, and suggests steps you can take to reform copyright law. Among the steps I discuss are to Speak Out, Vote, Write to Your Elected Representatives, Donate Money to Political Campaigns, Support Campaign Finance Reform, Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Practice Civil Disobedience

Thank you for your attention.

Ever heard about iRATE?

Free, legal music downloads... it's even tuned to your taste! And yes, it does run on linux (and on Windows, and on MacOSX).

OK, maybe the interface isn't so sexy as iTune's... but it's still worth a try, imho. It worked great for me :)

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

If you're a musician who offers free, legal downloads of your music, I will link your band's website from the article, at no cost to you other than the work it will take you to give the article a reciprocal link from anywhere on your website. To get your link, please follow the instructions in the Links to Individual Artists section carefully.

Thank you for your attention.

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

If you're a musician who offers free, legal downloads of your music, I will link your band's website from the article, at no cost to you other than the work it will take you to give the article a reciprocal link from anywhere on your website. To get your link, please follow the instructions in the Links to Individual Artists section carefully.

Thank you for your attention.

More music downloads (mostly MP3 though) can be found in my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads.

The article has a Creative Commons license. Please copy and distribute it.

Stranger things have happened. The United States Supreme Court recently overturned the last of the sodomy laws in the United States, a decision that at one time would have been inconcievable to the majority of Americans, but the gay community worked together patiently to make homosexuality completely legal.

Now, I want you to consider that there are over sixty million Americans practicing peer-to-peer file sharing. That's more people than voted for George Bush, and also more than the number of homosexuals in America. So it's not unreasonable that copyright could be repealed, or at least reformed.

I discuss the background of copyright law in the US and what you can do to make file sharing legal in Change the Law, a section of my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads. The steps I suggest you take to make file sharing legal are to speak out, vote, write your elected representatives, donate money to political campaigns, support campaign finance reform, join the electronic frontier foundation, and to practice civil disobedience.

It is my objective that all sixty million American p2p users will read my article by the time of the 2004 election. I've got a long ways to go to reach that goal.

The article has a Creative Commons license. I encourage you to copy and distribute it. I'm also seeking help in translating it to other languages; a Romanian translation will be posted soon.

Thank you for your attention.

Stranger things have happened. The United States Supreme Court recently overturned the last of the sodomy laws in the United States, a decision that at one time would have been inconcievable to the majority of Americans, but the gay community worked together patiently to make homosexuality completely legal.

Now, I want you to consider that there are over sixty million Americans practicing peer-to-peer file sharing. That's more people than voted for George Bush, and also more than the number of homosexuals in America. So it's not unreasonable that copyright could be repealed, or at least reformed.

I discuss the background of copyright law in the US and what you can do to make file sharing legal in Change the Law, a section of my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads. The steps I suggest you take to make file sharing legal are to speak out, vote, write your elected representatives, donate money to political campaigns, support campaign finance reform, join the electronic frontier foundation, and to practice civil disobedience.

It is my objective that all sixty million American p2p users will read my article by the time of the 2004 election. I've got a long ways to go to reach that goal.

The article has a Creative Commons license. I encourage you to copy and distribute it. I'm also seeking help in translating it to other languages; a Romanian translation will be posted soon.

Thank you for your attention.

• Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads

It has a Creative Commons license. You are encouraged to copy it.

A Romanian translation will be posted soon, kindly provided by Ciprian Mihet. I am actively seeking translations to other languages.

Here's the introduction:

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

From the introduction:

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

It has been Google's #1 hit for the query legal music downloads for about three months now, and recently has been on the second page of hits recently for the much more popular query music downloads.

Traffic to the article has been climbing steadily, especially since the RIAA lawsuits were filed. It's looking like my copy of the article will get about 19,000 page views this month.

emusic.com

If it was buy one song at a time, I might go for it, but I pay enough monthly subscriptions between dish, cell, dsl and netflix.

Their webpage hawks the free trial at you like crazy and hides the real price but it starts at $9.99/month for 40 downloads per month.

I'm trying to be satisfied with stuff I found through Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads and avoid supporting the dinosaurs completely. GarageBand looks promising- I can listen to RealAudio songs & "radio" at work, add the ones I like to my playlist & download 'em to my iPod at home.

I agree. I've been running iRATE for aa little over a month, and I'm getting quite a good collection of music that I really like.

I've always wanted to get away from pirate-2-pirate filesharing systems and packaged pop, but found it really hard to discover good non-RIAA music. this site was a great help..

(posting a/c because this sounds like a tacky advert. I didn't intend it to sound that way, I just want other people to know there IS good music out there other than what the RIAA pushes.)

I know you were kidding but I feel the need to plug this again, I am amazed about how much quality music is out there for you to llegally download.

Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads

You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here's some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker's Loop.pooL.

If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.

• Let's Put SCO Behind Bars

The article is under a Creative Commons license. Please copy it to your website, your weblog, or other message boards. The markup is very simple and the page completely self-contained to enable easier copying.

There is a UBB code version for message boards that use that format. When I get some time I'll make a plain-text one suitable for email and usenet news.

Thank you for your help.

• Let's Put SCO Behind Bars

The article is under a Creative Commons license. Please copy it to your website, your weblog, or other message boards. The markup is very simple and the page completely self-contained to enable easier copying.

There is a UBB code version for message boards that use that format. When I get some time I'll make a plain-text one suitable for email and usenet news.

Thank you for your help.

I have had the page online for quite some time now, yet am quite surprised to have yet to receive a DMCA notice about. My hosting service hasn't received one either. It's especially surprising considering that the page places in the first page of results at Google for a search for content scrambling system. I get a few referrals from queries for "decss" as well, although the page doesn't rank so highly for it.

Perhaps an explanation for this phenomenon can be found in the following quote from another notorious criminal, which appears prominently on my page:

one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

-- Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail

I have written more recent piece called Practice Civil Disobedience that you may enjoy reading.

Absolutely everybody though, should read Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. I understand that it inspired not only King and Gandhi, but also the Dutch resistance under the Nazis.

It's not long, being just twenty pages or so in dead tree form. Here's a Spanish translation.

It's not hard at all to find in paperback. My local used bookstore had editions from two different publishers that also included Walden for just three bucks apiece.

I read somewhere that Senator Joseph McCarthy, who instigated the infamous "witch trial" hearings by the Senate Committee on Unamerican Activities, was appalled to discover that Civil Disobedience, being considered a classic work of American literature, was standard issue for the libraries that the U.S. government operates around the world, I guess for overseas servicemen. He got all the copies removed.

I have had the page online for quite some time now, yet am quite surprised to have yet to receive a DMCA notice about. My hosting service hasn't received one either. It's especially surprising considering that the page places in the first page of results at Google for a search for content scrambling system. I get a few referrals from queries for "decss" as well, although the page doesn't rank so highly for it.

Perhaps an explanation for this phenomenon can be found in the following quote from another notorious criminal, which appears prominently on my page:

one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

-- Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail

I have written more recent piece called Practice Civil Disobedience that you may enjoy reading.

Absolutely everybody though, should read Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. I understand that it inspired not only King and Gandhi, but also the Dutch resistance under the Nazis.

It's not long, being just twenty pages or so in dead tree form. Here's a Spanish translation.

It's not hard at all to find in paperback. My local used bookstore had editions from two different publishers that also included Walden for just three bucks apiece.

I read somewhere that Senator Joseph McCarthy, who instigated the infamous "witch trial" hearings by the Senate Committee on Unamerican Activities, was appalled to discover that Civil Disobedience, being considered a classic work of American literature, was standard issue for the libraries that the U.S. government operates around the world, I guess for overseas servicemen. He got all the copies removed.

I have had the page online for quite some time now, yet am quite surprised to have yet to receive a DMCA notice about. My hosting service hasn't received one either. It's especially surprising considering that the page places in the first page of results at Google for a search for content scrambling system. I get a few referrals from queries for "decss" as well, although the page doesn't rank so highly for it.

Perhaps an explanation for this phenomenon can be found in the following quote from another notorious criminal, which appears prominently on my page:

one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

-- Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail

I have written more recent piece called Practice Civil Disobedience that you may enjoy reading.

Absolutely everybody though, should read Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. I understand that it inspired not only King and Gandhi, but also the Dutch resistance under the Nazis.

It's not long, being just twenty pages or so in dead tree form. Here's a Spanish translation.

It's not hard at all to find in paperback. My local used bookstore had editions from two different publishers that also included Walden for just three bucks apiece.

I read somewhere that Senator Joseph McCarthy, who instigated the infamous "witch trial" hearings by the Senate Committee on Unamerican Activities, was appalled to discover that Civil Disobedience, being considered a classic work of American literature, was standard issue for the libraries that the U.S. government operates around the world, I guess for overseas servicemen. He got all the copies removed.

While it focusses on reforming copyright laws, most of what I say applies to patents. Note that in the U.S. at least, patents have the same legal foundation as copyrights, being authorized by the same clause in the Constitution.

The steps I suggest are:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

The above article is going to be put under a Creative Commons license to encourage copying as soon as I have the final draft done. I expect that to happen this weekend. So check back and copy the article to other websites when it's ready.

Also I closed my consulting business website a couple days ago and will keep it that way a couple more days.

While I don't get a huge amount of traffic to my homepage, I also don't expect most of the people visiting it to already be free software enthusiasts who know all about the patent controversy.

While it focusses on reforming copyright laws, most of what I say applies to patents. Note that in the U.S. at least, patents have the same legal foundation as copyrights, being authorized by the same clause in the Constitution.

The steps I suggest are:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

The above article is going to be put under a Creative Commons license to encourage copying as soon as I have the final draft done. I expect that to happen this weekend. So check back and copy the article to other websites when it's ready.

Also I closed my consulting business website a couple days ago and will keep it that way a couple more days.

While I don't get a huge amount of traffic to my homepage, I also don't expect most of the people visiting it to already be free software enthusiasts who know all about the patent controversy.

While it focusses on reforming copyright laws, most of what I say applies to patents. Note that in the U.S. at least, patents have the same legal foundation as copyrights, being authorized by the same clause in the Constitution.

The steps I suggest are:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

The above article is going to be put under a Creative Commons license to encourage copying as soon as I have the final draft done. I expect that to happen this weekend. So check back and copy the article to other websites when it's ready.

Also I closed my consulting business website a couple days ago and will keep it that way a couple more days.

While I don't get a huge amount of traffic to my homepage, I also don't expect most of the people visiting it to already be free software enthusiasts who know all about the patent controversy.

The copy on my own website has been served to about 5000 distinct hosts so far this month. A google search for "Let's Put SCO Behind Bars" turns up 2190 matches.

Most of those are links. The article has a Creative Commons license, and I've been encouraging copying. By doing various searches, and checking my logs for referring pages, I've found a few dozen other copies on the web, many of them on message boards where they've had lots of readers.

It turned out to be very helpful when Linux Universe asked me to submit my article there. They use UBB codes instead of HTML. I realized that lots of other message boards use UBB, so I saved a copy on my site in UBB format for people to copy to other message boards.

I've been meaning to write a plain-ascii version suitable for email and usenet but haven't gotten to it yet.

Both Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond enjoyed the article. Stallman said that if it weren't against his ethics to write proprietary code, he would have enjoyed working at the SCO of old as I described it.

My first draft I posted at Advogato, followed soon after by InfoAnarchy and then Kuro5hin.

However, I didn't succeed in getting Slashdot to feature it. One can only dream.

I have been hesitant to allow copying of many of my articles before now, but when one's objective is to get a lot of people to read what one has written, and to do so in a short time, it works wonders.

The copy on my own website has been served to about 5000 distinct hosts so far this month. A google search for "Let's Put SCO Behind Bars" turns up 2190 matches.

Most of those are links. The article has a Creative Commons license, and I've been encouraging copying. By doing various searches, and checking my logs for referring pages, I've found a few dozen other copies on the web, many of them on message boards where they've had lots of readers.

It turned out to be very helpful when Linux Universe asked me to submit my article there. They use UBB codes instead of HTML. I realized that lots of other message boards use UBB, so I saved a copy on my site in UBB format for people to copy to other message boards.

I've been meaning to write a plain-ascii version suitable for email and usenet but haven't gotten to it yet.

Both Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond enjoyed the article. Stallman said that if it weren't against his ethics to write proprietary code, he would have enjoyed working at the SCO of old as I described it.

My first draft I posted at Advogato, followed soon after by InfoAnarchy and then Kuro5hin.

However, I didn't succeed in getting Slashdot to feature it. One can only dream.

I have been hesitant to allow copying of many of my articles before now, but when one's objective is to get a lot of people to read what one has written, and to do so in a short time, it works wonders.

• Let's Put SCO Behind Bars

It was a rather hurried job. I could use some suggestions on how to explain why software patents are bad, but written so concisely that one can read and understand the argument in the twenty seconds I wait before redirecting to the FFII site.

You may be interested to read my piece Change the Law. While it discusses what you can do about copyright law, patents in the U.S. are provided for by the same clause in the Constitution as copyrights, and what I suggest one can do to change the law is pretty much the same in any democratic country.

It was a rather hurried job. I could use some suggestions on how to explain why software patents are bad, but written so concisely that one can read and understand the argument in the twenty seconds I wait before redirecting to the FFII site.

You may be interested to read my piece Change the Law. While it discusses what you can do about copyright law, patents in the U.S. are provided for by the same clause in the Constitution as copyrights, and what I suggest one can do to change the law is pretty much the same in any democratic country.

Personally, I find it unfathomable that corporations are allowed to make campaign donations at all. No one but an individual, natural person ought to be allowed to do that.

The root of this problem lies in some established legal precedent which makes a corporation the legal equivalent of a person, so that corporations, and not just the people who work for or invest in them, are now granted the same Constitutional rights as living human beings. I think that the threat corporations pose to our fragile democracy could be eliminated by adding an amendment something like the following to our Constitution:

A corporation is not a person. No one but a natural person may donate money to a political candidate, political party or elected official.

The solutions to many of the difficult problems our country faces would be solved by eliminating the political influence of corporations. If the power of corporations is allowed to continue to grow unchecked, the threat to our nation will one day be as great as it was in the days of the Civil War.

Copyright could be abolished tomorrow, in the US at least, if you could just get enough votes in congress to pass a bill to repeal copyright. That's not as difficult as it may sound, if you consider that more people share files with p2p apps in the US than voted for george bush.

Change the Law, a section from my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads discusses this in more detail, and suggests several specific steps you can take to reform the copyright laws and make filesharing legal:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience

Copyright could be abolished tomorrow, in the US at least, if you could just get enough votes in congress to pass a bill to repeal copyright. That's not as difficult as it may sound, if you consider that more people share files with p2p apps in the US than voted for george bush.

Change the Law, a section from my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads discusses this in more detail, and suggests several specific steps you can take to reform the copyright laws and make filesharing legal:

• Speak Out
• Vote
• Write to Your Elected Representatives
• Donate Money to Political Campaigns
• Support Campaign Finance Reform
• Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Practice Civil Disobedience