Slashdot Mirror
Would a Boycott of the MPAA/RIAA Help Matters?
ChrisGoodwin asks: "Why do geeks support MPAA and RIAA? Here on Slashdot, the talk is all about how evil the film and record companies are. But when the next Star Wars or Matrix or Lord of the Rings comes out, it's all about camping out to get tickets. According to RIAA's web site, member companies distribute 90% of the legitimate sound recordings in the United States; chances are, if you've ever bought music, you've given them money. (Take a look at their list of members.) Heck, most of the film companies own, are owned by, or share a corporate parent with a record company, and many of us get our internet access from part of the MPAA/RIAA conglomerate. So why is it? Why do we continue to buy their product? Why are we giving them money so that they can harass us? Why hasn't there been a call for a boycott of the record and film industries?" This is in the FAQ, but this is certainly a discussion worth having. With the pervasiveness of media in our society, for some it is not as easy as "boycott" or "no boycott", and it may be unfair to the artists we like for us to do so, and as Big Media diversifies, a boycott on movies and music may still not be enough. So do you feel a boycott of mass media will help matters, or would such be counter-productive in some way?
Sure it would help. If you could actually convince people outside of Slashdot to do it.
If Slashdot stopped posting its subcuture Anime film content (and yes, they're owned by the RIAA too), I can imagine it would win back a fair number of the more technical Slashdot users who left when they could no longer understand what the posts were about and what they meant to them, even as "nerds". This is just based on my experience with people who laugh mockingly when you mention Slashdot in their general presence.
-----Original Message-----
From: Attaway, Fritz
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 8:25 AM
To: Nicoletti, Maryann
Cc: Dow, Troy
Subject: TEACH Act study on Technological Protection Systems
The TEACH Act (the distance education bill enacted this fall directs the Patent and Trademark Office to conduct a study on technological protection systems for digitized copyrighted works and report back to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees within 180 days, describing the technologies that have been implemented, are available for implementation, or are proposed to be developed to protect digitized copyrighted works and prevent infringement. The actual study language follows this message.
The PTO has now issued a Federal Register notice (attached) formally kicking off this process. They are requesting written comments by Jan. 14 on the following questions, which include a catch-all question asking for "any additional comments" on technical protection systems:
(1) What technological protection systems have been implemented, are available for implementation, or are proposed to be developed to protect digitized copyrighted works and prevent infringement, including any upgradeable and self-repairing systems?
(2) What systems have been developed, are being developed, or are proposed to be developed in private voluntary industry-led entities through an open broad-based consensus process?
(3) Consistent with the types of information requested by Congress, please provide any additional comments on technological protection systems to protect digitized copyrighted works and prevent infringement.
A public hearing has been tentatively scheduled in Washington D.C. on Feb. 4. Expressions of interest to testify at this hearing are requested also by Jan. 14.
>
(d) PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE REPORT.-
(1) IN GENERAL.-Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act and after a period for public comment, the Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, after consultation with the Register of Copyrights, shall submit to the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report describing technological protection systems that have been implemented, are available for implementation, or are proposed to be developed to protect digitized copyrighted works and prevent infringement, including upgradeable and self-repairing systems, and systems that have been developed, are being developed, or are proposed to be developed in private voluntary industry-led entities through an open broad based consensus process. The report submitted to the Committees shall not include any recommendations, comparisons, or comparative assessments of any commercially available products that may be mentioned in the report.
(2) LIMITATIONS.-The report under this subsection-
(A) is intended solely to provide information to Congress; and
(B) shall not be construed to affect in any way, either directly or by implication, any provision of title 17, United States Code, including the requirements of clause (ii) of section 110(2)(D) of that title (as added by this subtitle), or the interpretation or application of such provisions, including evaluation of the compliance with that clause by any governmental body or nonprofit educational institution.
I'm sorry, but it's just not feasible.
No one wants to stop buying from their favorite artist, who is most likely distributed through the RIAA. And no one wants to miss a much-anticipated movie, even though the MPAA is involved. I don't want to say we have no willpower or convictions, but there are just things people will always want to see and hear, and these things are provided by an evil company. Asking someone to give up these things is maybe asking a bit too much. Sure there are those of us who don't want to see LOTR, but there's a good chunk who would stop at nothing to see it, despite its "evil" ties.
There have to be alternatives to a boycott. Because if you're basing your entire revolution on something of that magnitude, you're going to be sorely disappointed. The masses need their entertainment, and will get it from the easiest source.
I DO!
It's tuesday, hence we hate the MPAA and live the RIAA. Or is it the other way around? ....
hmmm, when was the last full moon.....
I think today is a DMCA day, but I'll have to check my calendar.
---
Seriously, though, the biggest problem lies in organizing such and event. Sure, it could be done, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. (Especially since their products are so popular among so many. Most people probably wouldn't follow through with such a boycot even if you got them started.)
-Space for rent
People, as a whole are lazy and don't want to spend / have the time and energy to fight things like this. That's why groups to fight the powers on issues like this never rally enough support. We as a whole like our comfortable middle; a quiet life spent hoping they go away.
I would like to boycott the MPAA, but if I want to see a good movie they're the only game in town. I can't really see a movie in any way (except when on TV) without supporting them. The best I can do is to send a dollar to the EFF for every dollar I spend on movies.
However, I do boycott the RIAA.
In order to be successful, any boycott would have to be: 1) Well-Planned. Without sufficient planning, it would be too little to matter. 2) Big enough to matter. Remember, these are large companies. Fluctuation (both up and down)is nothing new to them, and your boycott would probably go unnoticed unotherwise. 3) Thourough. It doesn't do much good to boycott the RIAA, then turn around and give the money to them some other way. 4) Publicised. They would have to _know_ they were truly losing money, and why. Otherwise, any real loss could be considered a sign they need to _increase_ their stranglehold on the market. Let them know who they are losing money to, why they are, and what they can do to stop it. I have yet to see any attempt which did not fail in at least one of these aspects.
Contact Me (got tired of viruses emailing me).
I hope we just slashdotted them... :)
A boycott would hurt more than it helps. All that the elimination of the slashdot market would do is make us a market not worth pursuing--and so we'd have a return to the days when all movies sucked, instead of having a good one every few (6-36) months.
A better idea would be for us to find RIAA/MPAA a business model adapted to the digial age--one that's more effective than the "Street Performer's Protocol" and more flexible than the current "pay per copy."
(Of course I have an idea. I'll write a journal about it, and y'all can see it there!)
People still go to theaters because there is currently no other method to see these movies the way they're meant to be seen: Big Picture, Big Sound. Until a reasonable solution to showing these movies the way they're supposed to be seen is devised, people will still support the RIAA/MPAA out of lack of options.
It's unfortunate the government is just a hand-puppet for the media monopoly or otherwise I'm certain they would have been disbanded a long time ago making way for more competition.
The last piece of entertainment I paid for was Return of the Jedi when it was origionally released back in the 70's. Boycott the 'lectric company too :)
I think that an organized event in which large numbers of people stop buying or renting music and movies for a week would be noticed. You might even need protests at music and video stores to let people know about it inform people of the issues.
I am down for a revolt against them. Lets open up a De-RIAA p2p network, and we can revolt all we want!
Free music for all!
The copyright law was intended to protect intelectual property as an incentive for invention and artistic creativity that benefit the society as a WHOLE. Current laws are not created in the same spirit and benefit only a few corporations (and not the society as a whole).
So, screw them...My way of boycotting the RIAA and the rest is by getting the music for free...
She rings that bell, we drool.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
What we need is someone to step up and provide what we DO want and then buy from them. So long as there is no alternative, then "boycotting" can never work. If you feel strongly about the issue, buy from and support those that are not funded or owned by the bad guys.
Anything you say will be held against you.
RIAA is disproportionately controlled by the Big 5 labels, despite the large membership including dozens of indie labels, few of those labels have anything to do with what RIAA says or does. Furthermore, many of those labels are members of RIAA more to gain legitimacy and access to basic distribution channels etc - not to fight your digital rights.
We'd be much better off boycotting the Big 5 of the music industry - Sony, Warner, EMI, BMG, Universal, and leaving indie labels and musicians that need every last bit of support alone.
People are too set in their ways, and even those who aren't would rather that someone else make the sacrifice as they sit back and enjoy the comfortable familiarity while waiting for "things to get better."
Got news for ya: It won't get better. Ever.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
The hard part is actually getting enough people to understand the issues and join the boycott. It's not simple, you can't tell people they're slaughtering cute little puppies for fur or something. You have to go into a huge explaination of the issues at the end of which, most people's response is "So what?".
I personally no longer purchase new CD's unless I'm buying them directly from an unsigned artist. I go to the used record store if I want something published by a label. It might take a little while for something specific to show up but I always have a list of 20-30 CD's that I want to buy at a given time anyhow. I would certainly participate in an official boycott and do my best to explain the position to non-geeks. However, my gut instinct is that the only way you can get a boycott against the record companies to work is to say they're drowning bags of kittens to make CD's or something.
Don't expect any support from the media either...
These companies have spent billions brainwashing us to think that we actually want these things. The new evolutionary strength is going be people's ability to filter out media and advertising. Wise Up.
love is just extroverted narcissism
yes but after The Two Towers
RIAA: Music sharing programs have caused our sales to go down by as much as 40%! Therefor we MUST be even MORE diligent in shutting down those evil pirating services! Commie bastards!
Those with children:Try explaining to little Suzy why she can't have the latest Britney cd, or why you
/.ers use products everyday made by large, greedy corps. So, you make the call. Boycott? Me thinks this would work only if you got enough people together to hit the bottom line of these companies. Something on the order of Napster's followers when it was popular.
Now, I am going to get flamed for this opinion, but that's ok. The truth is out there.
don't want her to go the movies because of your beliefs.
I doubt she will care.
[sarcasm]I'm sure the looks you'll get when you explain to her why the **AA's are bad will justify it.[/sarcasm]
Those without children:is it ok to support a large corporation that's greedy? Well, apparently so, since the majority of
Sent from your iPad.
I must have it...
I must watch it...
I must own it...
My own...
My preciousssssss
Last CD I bought was in November 2000. I do buy some DVDs (about 5 or 6 in the last year), but I rarely go the movies anymore unless there's a big scifi/horror/eye-candy release (LOTR, starwars, etc.) or it's date night (which I won't go into the rarety of that :) )
Becuse people would get the product off the net I BET you won't not go to LOTR!
Put your energy and time and $$$ into lobbyists who will push your agenda in Washington.
otherwise, cut out your eyes and ears. 'cause, really, there's no way of stopping yourself from putting money into their hands. When you listen to the radio, you are supporting the RIAA via advertisers. Same with network television. a media boycott is just not feasible in a media saturated country (it's one of the US' largest exports)
I haven't purchased a CD in probably 2 years. Haven't gone to see a movie in the theater in probably 8 months or so. My boycott is part ideological and part because I don't want to pay good money for their shit products.
The only problem is that the RIAA (and soon the MPAA) are attributing their reduced revenues to piracy. After all, that's so much easier for their egos to handle than admitting they have a fucked up business model and are not responsive to their customers.
It seems that with the RIAA and MPAA owning (or co-owning) so many facets of entertainment life, it would be hard to try and stay away from those things that we have grown accostomed to.
On the other hand, I would bet that a boycott of as little as a week would be a strong enough message.
If you want a boycott to be effective you have RIAA/MPAA has to be aware there IS a boycott. To quote Dr. Strangelove "What good is a Doomsday weapon if you don't tell anyone you have it?!?"
A bunch of people suddenly stopping use of a product(s) does not send a company a message. It must involve some sort of media frenzy so that the message is clear. If we just stop buying/supporting RIAA/MPAA without letting them know that there is a boycott, then they'll just see that as further justification that pirates are cutting into their profits.
"I drank what?" - Socrates
With Kazaa...
So join the cause and use Kazaa =)
Do a web search for: stages of intellectual and moral development
And then consider at what levels the people see from day to day operate on. It's not a happy thing to understand but explains much of what is wrong in the world today.
I'm one of those rare people who actually *doesn't* go out and purchase CDs after I download them to my computer. How I suffer, not being able to look at the liner notes and cover art, but BY GOD those record companies won't see a dime from me until they dispense with their evil practices...or something.
There is a simple way you can take action against the MPAA and RIAA. Donate your old music CDs and movie videos to your public library.
If you later decide that you want to hear or watch something you donated, just get it out of the library.
If you want to sell me tickets to LoTR from a non-MPAA entity, just tell me where to send the check. Until then...
Here's the way Slashdot (staff and members) would react.
BOYCOTT THE MPAA and RIAA! BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT!
Oooh. Some faggy anime that I love is out on DVD! Buy buy buy!
A boycott will only work if an alternative method of distribution grows along side it.
From a record company exec's point of view, 5% of people stopped buying his product is a problem.
For that same exec, 5% of people are sidestepping his entire business model and listening to artists who get paid without him getting a cut is a mortal threat.
You can't destory the old without creating an alternative if you want to change the world for the better.
What a silly idea. It's just not possible in the real world. Boycotts only work as a mass protest, and there is just no way this would ever happen. Let's talk about something more realistic.
We the geeks, who understand the issue care, and can get the message to out community and can get our community to understand. However the uninformed public who doesn't want to, or even care about making an MP3 from their CD or play a DVD on Linux doesn't give a Rat shit about our plight. In the end it would only hurt us in other ways. If we all boycott the Movies we like that translates into less ticket sales for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Anime, what have you..that means that the studios are less likely to make more of those movies, or will put less money to them in anycase. The same goes for music, boycott Metallica and the next great rock band will not get signed, they will sign that little Britney in waiting instead...they only care about the numbers that tell them waht sells if something sells less as far as they are concerned the world don't want it.
Think of it this way...when little Susie wants the latest Disney POS on DVD...is Mommy gonna stop and think about the fact that they are an Evil Money Driven, DMCA supporter...or is she gonna make Susie happy...if Mommy is a geek maybe...but in 90%+ of those cases Mommy is the average uninformed consumer...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Yes, I agree! We should boycott them immediately!!
If you'll excuse me, I have to go see the screening for Lord of the Rings: Two Towers.
Boycott now!
suddenly I feel very tired
Maybe not totally, but I'll bet they are feeling the pinch.
I guess that since this whole problem has become "mainstream" that I've kept aproximately $7000 that I would've happily put into someone elses pockets.
Why did I keep my money? Overpriced goods, and a dislike of their business practices. I know that the kids that I have raised don't purchase as many CDs as they would like becasue of our discussions regarding the "evils" of the MPAA/RIAA.
So, if these organizations would look at their business models, I would happily part with some of the current savings that I have reaped by not supporting the MPAA/RIAA. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll ever get the blind patronage that they have enjoyed in the past.
Just my 2 cents ($17 at the local record store)
At least, that what's the RIAA is going to say.
I would give the boycott a go if I thought it would help, but I think we might have to work our way up to it. Boycott a few small things to get their attention, etc.
If there is a boycott, though, can we please do it when there's no LOTR or Radiohead cd planned for release? :D
If sales happened to go down because of this, they would probably blame lack of sales on file sharing and piracy. They've done it before.
For this reason and because we geeks make up a small portion of all who give money to them, it's probably best for us to increase awareness of all the bad that the MPAA/RIAA are doing and support groups like the EFF.
A number of geeks I know, including myself, support the RIAA and MPAA for two main reasons: 1) The obvious, they don't mind paying for movies or music. I must admit, I mind prices for music, but I only buy or rent DVDs these days and I stopped using P2P entirely over a year ago. 2) P2P file sharing services account for something like 60% of all internet traffic now. When my pings spike to 800ms to a site that should be giving 20, or I download a Slackware ISO at 2.4kps, I support the RIAA and MPAA in fighting services like Kazaa. I'm tired of my choked internet connection. Eliminating Kazaa will speed things up by a huge amount. Go RIAA and MPAA.
For almost a year, I have boycotted going to the movies and I dont really seem to be worst off. There are lots of movies on TV (except that an MPAA company might own your cable system / tv networks...)... And well, Books are still fun.. And most movies suck anyways...
Every part of the movie and music industry is infected by the MPAA and RIAA. For a successful protest to ensuel, we must all be as Mr. Richard M. Stallman: question all of our charities and purchases, discuss our position and reasoning of why we will not participate in any even that has been infected with the MPAA and RIAA. RMS does this verry well, and yet people go as far as disrespecting him jus because he knows his priorities. It is a matter of time before we start seeing everyday people ask,
"What would RMS do?"
lol
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
First off, if Anime firms were part of one of the two groups it would be MPAA. Second, do you even know that they are associated with such a group. Post your evidence.
At least American Gramaphone (Mannheim's Steamroller's label) isn't on that list, because those have been the only CDs I have bought in a year.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
I think the problem is that us Geeks have not done a good job of alerting the public at large. Even if we boycott every geek-centric film. The masses will still flock to the latest Hugh Grant / Julia Roberts film and still buy the latest generic pop (poop) album. I think the key is educating the consumer whores. If they stop consuming everything shoveled in front of them and take a stand based on ethics and value (not marketing), we may just be able to get some changes made
Insert sig here (slashdot) Insert cig here (Lewinsky)
I didn't see Dischord on that list.
Can anybody say "hooray for taking a stand"?
Help support the indy DC scene!
Dischord
Buy second hand stuff. Its cheaper, and it doesn't support the industry (RIAA/MPAA).
-------
Support Indy Music. Buy
Wow.. great minds think alike (whilst fools seldom differ)
:-)
/. community proclaimed a boycott and refused to buy CDs for a month.
I was just pondering the practicalities of a RIAA boycot this morning (okay, who installed the trojan on my PC???
Unfortunately, such boycotts can backfire very, very badly.
Imagine if the
If CD sales remained unaffected then the RIAA could simply turn around and say that this proves most people are happy with their pricing, their product and their attitudes to the marketplace.
Or, even worse, if such a boycott did affect sales in a negative way, they'd simply say that this was due to piracy and that it endorses their stand on copy-protection, the DMCA, etc.
In effect, we'd be hoist by our own petard.
Anyone contemplating a boycott ought to be very sure they've got the numbers (and I'm talking *big* numbers) before they embark on such an action.
A better way might be to incite people to get active in starting a petition protesting the loss of fair use due to recent and proposed moves by the RIAA/MPAA.
This would have to be a petition where signatures are collected in ink, on sheets of paper. Cyber petitions are too easily discredited.
I'm sure, given the seven degrees of separation principle, that if everyone here solicited everyone they knew to sign such a petition, and got them to do likewise, it wouldn't be too hard to dump a very large truckload of dead-tree pulp and ink on the doorstep of Congress.
That's the way democracy works isn't it?
There's this cool thing called demand. With the advent of media a lot of demand for entertainment is based on this media. Do you want to stop watching movies, watching TV (there are a great deal of advertisements for movies, as well as movies that make it to TV). Oh yeah, and stop listening to the radio while you're driving. Grab a good tape and... oh, wait, you bought that music legally. Stop listening to your CDs and... whoops. You get the idea. They provide a valuable service (I'm talking collectively, as you know as well as I do that the RIAA/MPAA is just a front for its respective company members).
If you boycott the MPAA/RIAA, you give up certain luxuries. It's not like boycotting Ford -- you can't just buy a car from another manufacturer (although in the entertainment media case there are independent filmmakers and artists that don't sit under the guise of the MPAA/RIAA -- I encourage people to support them).
I say we boycott their business methods. Don't buy copy-protected CDs, do the usual congress-critter writing, etc., etc.
Boycotting is mostly useful when there is a viable alternative. While some people can find completely different forms of entertainment, the entertainment industry itself encompasses a lot of what we do. I don't think it's the right way to get them to change their business practices.
Now something I'm unclear of is, for example, the nature of Sony. I own a PS2. Does that mean that I'm supporting the xAA's? My assumption is that Sony Music and Sony Electronics are almost entirely different companies, but I'd need more clarification from other slashdotters.
If I recall, Trotsky said something to the effect of "You don't have to believe in the streetcar company in order to use it when you have to get to work."
Similarly, I suppose, considering the current state of things, if you want to enjoy movies and music, you will find yourself giving money to MPAA or RIAA member companies.
Of course, Trotsky's ideas in general didn't workj out so well. And I don't even buy CD's or see movies very much. And now I've paved the way for some stupid "in Soviet Russia" comment. Looks like this post is going to be a failure all around!
Sorry dude, MPAA forever.
Note: I hate the MPAA, but I love Tolkien. I hate the RIAA, but I love my music.
1;
Whether or not we decide to boycott them depends on:
a) the boycott's effectiveness
b) your own scruples
Some will boycott reagrdless of its effectiveness, because they deem it immoral to do otherwise. I try as hard as possible to boycott all companies that use sweatshop/slave labour, and those that do a lot to damage our civil rights. But sometimes I find it would have too negative an impact on my lifestyle, e.g. not seeing any films or listening to any music, so I decide not to because the boycott would be ineffective.
A boycott of music and film is a pointless exercise, because you'll never get enough people doing it to make them notice. Hell, Esso (ExxonMobil outside the UK) don't even care when StopEsso slash their salkes by 40% a few days a year, and are constantly spreading the word to boycott Esso. But if people want to boycoot personally, good for them.
More effective forms of protest are to join/support/donate money to organisations that work for digital rights, and to try as hard as you can to spread the word and educate others.
Entertainment is not really a transferable good that can easily be boycotted. Sure, you can boycott a brand of toilet paper, or a type of clothing line, because they are all easily replaceable by something else. The boycott would be effective on them because there ARE viable alternatives.
Entertainment on the other hand, is a creative product and if you crave the "specific" creativity, then your SOL. You hate the MPAA but love Star Wars. Do you want to sacrifice your love of the movie, when you know there isn't another company coming out with a Star Wars? My guess... not.
By buying into the brand you're already playing in their court. The only thing that would be effective would be a boycott on yourself. Not many people are willing to give up their passions for that, and these guys know it.
We can call it AoFMotW (Association of Freedom Media of the World).
It wouldn't be counter productive, but just like anything else, one has to determine what they are trying to achieve and choose the best way to get there.
/. is composed of many technical, knowledgeable people (well one or two and then everyone else ;), why don't we as the open source community do the unthinkable, and come up with a os technology to help the MPAA/RIAA attain their goal of making their content harder to illegally copy, but yet still allows fair use use. We regularly bash their attempts at doing this because they would rather err on the side of making the thing totally uncopyable, so why not pitch in and help to try to achieve a mutally agreeable (well as much as possible) solution.
As far as I can tell (and this applies to me personally) the biggest gripe that people have about MPAA/RIAA is that they want to squelch a persons right to fair use. I don't think anyone begrudges their attempts to keep actually pirating at bay, it's only when these attempts prevent the legitimate owners from doing things that the copyright laws appear to allow is when hackles get raised. Please feel free to add anything else (like artists rights, but I don't really have an opinion on this personally as it is more contract law imho).
OK, so we want to make sure our fair use rights are kept intact. How is the best way to go about doing this? I see two possible approaches. One approach that falls into the category of "why can't we all just get along", is this.
The second approach (and probably more realistic) is to say, "hey, no matter what technology we throw at it, people will copy it". Fine, this is a valid point. But lets be realists here and accept that the MP/RIAA will not take this for an answer. So again, I think having us as a community help them come up with a solution to their needs that is mutually beneficial. Suggest alternatives, create/push these alternatives. Put youself into their shoes, say "I need to protect my IP from those who would illegally gain/attain it" and say, how would I solve this issue?
I guess both my suggestions fall into the category of, lets solve the problems instead of fighting wars. Not that I have anything against fighting wars, it's just that, like in "War Games", there can't be a winner. Sure we could "boycott", but would that REALLY do any good? We're just to small a segment to make any real impact with our wallets, but we could potentially make more impact with our heads.
I don't know what hole the poster is living in, but I see the recording companies taking in less money from my friends day by day. Everyone I talk to has said that they're more willing to buy a DVD over a CD because they cost the same amount, but a DVD has so much more value to it than a CD these days with maybe one or two good movies on it. And since DVD's were engineered from the beginning with "copy protection", no one YET has noticed why DVD's having copy protection is a bad thing versus CD's having copy protection (hint: they don't work well in older CD players, if at all).
And besides, copy protecting mechanisms will never stop, no matter how bad the 'boycott' until it's removed from US law.
While I definately don't approve of the RIAA/MPAA's actions, the basic fact is that I like my music on legit CD way too much to boycott it over a principal. Sure, I could get into unsigned bands etc, but I'm not going to give up buying records of bands I like even if they are with a largish record company. Likewise I could pirate all my muisc, but I prefer the higher quality of CD recordings and the packaging, not to mention the very vauge warm feeling I'm helping the artists in a tiny way ;)
Movies I don't really care about, but I'm not going withiout my music.. To me (and, I suspect, a lot more people), that is worth more than making a stand against a Nasty Organisation.
I've been boycotting the RIAA since they first went after Napster. What took you guys so long? The only CD's I've purchased in the last 2 years have been from indie labels. Not that my small boycott will make much difference, but I was kinda hoping the idea would catch on eventually.
When you watch network television, you are contributing by being an eyeball. The more eyeballs, the more money they charge for advertisers. And where does the advertising money go - back to the studios for actually showing the content. And of course, the studios funnel some of that moula into the MPAA.
I haven't bought a CD in 15 years. Got little use for Hollywood films. Your entertainment dollar goes a long way at small clubs and art houses. Buy used CDs and used books. And refine your tastes.
illegitimii non ingravare
Hell, I'm a musician, and up until about a year ago I thought getting signed to a record deal would be the greatest thing ever. Then I found out, through associates of mine, how much they screw you over, as a musician, and take all their profits and run, that I said "F*ck it."
I do, however, like to buy the CD or vinyl editions of albums that I like. If I hear something that really grooves me, I'll buy the CD, and also go see the live show, in an attempt to help out the band, even just a little bit. I understand a large percentage of the CD money is headed to the "Evil Conglamerate", but, hell, you need to support your brothers/sisters, and thats one way of doing it.
And here's another thing. How do we know that a boycott would solve the problem, instead of making the RIAA/MPAA's "solutions" harsher?
Anyway I've ranted enough. Mark me off-topic all you like, for I will only become more powerfull than you could ever imagine.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Boycotting is a complete waste of time in this case. We are not talking about boycotting fur which has a negative stigma attached to it, nor are we walking about sticking it to some small company that doesn't want to play by the rules. Media is just too pervasive in society and the next round of teenyboppers can keep the big media companies afloat with their rampant desire for the next N'Sync and Power Rangers.
Beyond that, while there are many Slashdotters who have no problem skipping Star Wars or LOTR until it comes out on video, ask them to not purchase the next Resident Evil when it comes out. Video games (something geeks love) and the movies are hopelessly intertwined. When you support the video game or the console (hello!?! PS2 is made by SONY!) you support the DRM bills we all hate.
If the geeks on Slashdot want to make a difference, they should
There are a lot of smart people reading Slashdot. I read a number of posts on any given topic that the author should just cut and paste into a letter, throw it in an envelope and send it to his or her legislator.
That is how you make a difference... not by boycotting.
-ACheck out the following website: http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html
Now tell me that a boycott is going to do jack. The media corporations are so interconnected that a boycott is a useless gesture. And no, there is no hidden weakness here. Odds are they're providing you with your broadband anyway.
If you really want to hurt them, support your local file-sharing network.
I expect them to cave any minute now.
The church where I go pays a license fee (based on the size of the church) to sing a bunch of the newer songs. I protested to the guy who pays the bills, saying we should only sing public domain stuff. The fee (which is not all that much, really) goes to some company which is part of the RIAA. I figured all this out and am still trying to determine how upset I should be. I love the image of a Christian musician offering his works to the church "for the glory of God", and looming behind him is the dark visage of the State: "don't even think about singing these without paying!"
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Isn't the RIAA/MPAA's whole beef that we're essentially boycotting them with our evil file sharing programs? Not that this is true, but if we were serious about a boycott, couldn't we just employ the methods they already accuse the consumers of using anyway?
paintball
many of us get our internet access from part of the MPAA/RIAA conglomerate.
So then my Kazaa downloads ARE paid for, after all! Guilty conscience, be gone!
Those with children: Try explaining to little Suzy why she can't have the latest Britney cd, or why you don't want her to go the movies because of your beliefs.
I doubt she will care.
And when your child asks "[Daddy | Mommy], where were you when they took our rights and our democracy away?" you can turn around and tell your child it is there fault, for whining about the latest Britney CD, rather than admitting that it wasn't the child asking that was the problem, it was the spinelessness of an adult who knew better, but chose spoiling their child over education, over their own principles, and over the future of that child's freedom.
Nice. You get to help flush your child's freedom down the drain and send the child on a guilt trip for your decisions, and your inaction, all in one. With parents like that, who needs pedophiles and predators?
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Just give equal (or more) money to the EFF?
See a movie, make a donation.
Then at least you're not contributing to the net evil.
A boycot of the riaa/mpaa would have to take one of 2 forms.
1. A true boycott
A true boycott would entail actaully going without a whole lot of entertainment. NOt listenign to any new albums or watching any new movies would probably be very unlikely for anyone, much less a (average) slashdot reader who enjoys that much more than football or clubs.
or
2 Piracy. That's the only way a boycott could work. Filesharing, vcd and dvd-r's(one of my friends has those and they work on just about every palyer you can find nowaday's) could effectively get the entire slashdot crowd entertainment without feeding the riaa/mpaa.
the only problem with option 2 is that is, well, illeagl. And many slashdotters value being somewhere other than jail.
I personally think no boycott will happen the **aa does something bad enough to make us either go without entertainment, or break the law in mass.
procrastination is a way of life aka i'll think up a sig later
Instead of the negative boycotting.
How about using the few alternatives that exist, allowing them to get bigger.
This is my list of sites for alternatives:
http://peace.tbcnet.com/music/
Please people, suggest more!
And here's something I have no idea about.
How about alternative movies?
Do sites exist for this?
Your publicity always works better if you be positive (promoting something), rather than being negative (boycotting something).
If you have no solution, but you complain, people just label you a lunatic.
Just don't see the films you don't want to see, but do more than that. Write to the director, producer, MPAA and tell them you are refusing to see this movie and state your reasons. Either the MPAA will get the message or those that make really crappy movies will think their problem is really the MPAA and we'll all have a good laugh at their expense.
'Same speed C but faster'
Things to avoid :
>>LotR 2 and next year's LotR 3 (or any movie you like)
>>buy CD or DVD's
>>watch MTV, or any TV channel
>>live without DSL line or internet access
Will you be really able to live without it ? Of course if you live on island in the middle of the Pacific ocean, stranded. But that's another story.
When you boycott the **AA, you're supporting PIRACY!
Seriously, if you boycott them, they'll blame the lowered sales on piracy and buy our rights away even more.
Isn't this country great?
America - Home of the scapegoat, land of the Corporation
I have to agree. I never buy CD's anymore - unless it is directly from the band - which is one of the cool thangs about living in Austin. Because 1) the RIAA sucks, 2) most popular music sucks, 3) the Net provides great alternatives, especially if you are over the hill and lost your hearing above 12Khz. As for the MPAA, welll.... there is just no substitute for the experience of the silver screen with it's giant 35mm glory and 5.1 sound that would get me evicted in my apartment. I am sad to report the ONLY picket line that I had ever crossed in my life was to see "Star Wars:The Empire Strikes Back". There was a projectionist's strike on. But dammit, it was Star Wars! I would do it again.
Fighting terrorism is hard, as it's difficult to effectivly target and counter. As such, the work to nip it in the bud by focusing on it's support structure is fast becoming the new battleground. I say take the same approach to the MPAA.
Start communicating with the artists who support it. Provide and promote technical and ethic alternatives to it -- again, to the artists. Supporting a lobby group (such as the EFF) makes much more sense. Each time you 'reward' the MPAA, send an email (or better yet, break out that old pen and paper and WRITE a letter) to the artists involved saying how you enjoyed the show/music/whatever but share your concerns with the MPAA based association.
And KEEP doing it.
Focusing on the political arena is important, but it's only one battlefield. Choose where you fight this, find the best arena to combat this (one where the MPAA has less strength/interest) and don't let the fight stop.
Robert Anton Wilson
Peace.
"People still go to theaters because there is currently no other method to see these movies the way they're meant to be seen"
Ah, so you mean if people could have better quality warez, they'd stop supporting the MPAA. That's exactly what we *don't* need.
What we need is a fair way to compensate the studios, not theater-resolution DivXes. (well actually we do need those, but distributed by the MPAA, and not some self-proclaimed hax0r in a basement)
My Sig: SEGV
How many posts have the theme "I've been boycotting RIAA for years -- the last new CD I bought was xx years ago."
News flash -- this means that RIAA doesn't care about you. By definition, you are not their customer. Hell, you're not even close to their target demographic. Why would they care if you love/hate/support/boycott/praise/condemn them?
You, personally, have absolutely zero impact on their bottom line.
Zip
Nada
--
because theres no other choice, unless you want to live your life in a wooden shack with no electronics
It's our American way of life, our freedom to bitch and complain, and do absolutely nothing about it.
Awesome!
Look, the reason we support the MPAA and RIAA is we LIKE THE CREATIVE WORKS THEY REPRESENT! This isn't like Nike exploiting workers...there are only a handful of options that aren't held by interests of these two. We can't switch to a different "brand" of films and music, especially if we're not into the low budget, often limited appeal options in the 10%. I listen to RIAA acts 12+ hours per day. They have to become really goddamn nefarious for me to alter my lifestyle such.
I guess there's always piracy, but it seems to me that's not much of a way to get what you want. "Until you cease your anti-fair use machinations in the name of piracy prevention, we will be forced to pirate stuff." And then we'll use murder to prevent abortion...
Hey freaks: now you're ju
... and the RIAA doesn't seem to care they've lost my business of about 25 CDs a year. The MPAA also isn't wondering why I haven't bought a DVD since 2000. So don't organise a huge boycott or they'll notice!! Then I'd have to start paying for music and movies again, damnit.
Oh and if you're the RIAA or MPAA -- just kidding!
----- rL
I mean the RIAA will not even allow people to rent CD's. But that is the MPAA members biggest source of income, probably
Most of the CDs I own are put out by TVT, but I didn't see them on the list. Strange. I did see Nothing Records, which I would have thought to stay away, but I guess not. Strange as well.
Morphing Software
There's lots of things to do besides see a movie. read a book. Write a story (even a bad one). Walk. Turn off your TV.
I don't like the terms that music is offered for sale under, so I don't buy it. I don't download it either, because I don't like stealing. I just let it pass into obscurity unnoticed.
I think that even if boycotts worked, they'd still be wrong on principle.
The problem is not boycotts, it's the system that brings about the desire to boycott.
It is UNDENIABLE that the RIAA and MPAA are cartels which operate in violation of and counter to free market/capitalist ideas. Legal loopholes are the only thing separating these groups from the ranks of Microsoft or other robber barons from the (previous) turn of the century.
When you have a tiny group of people (cartels/corps wielding unfair power irresponsibly) whose actions force an enormous amount of people (the general public) into a "behave responsibly or sacrifice tremendously" binary choice, something is dreadfully wrong.
And it's not just movies, music, designer sneakers and frivolities, it's many or most things. Shop in a supermarket for basic necessities? Chances are you've unknowingly supported tobacco firms. Eat meat, ever? Congratulations, your dollars tell the grotesquely abusive US factory farming industry (who regularly fix prices) that they're actions are A-OK with you. Use electricity in your home? Check out the marketplace behavior/pollution records of your city's provider. Own a mutual fund? Etc etc etc.
To paraphrase some recent populist whose name escapes me, "We're voting with our dollar in an election with no campaign."
I do NOT think we should throw capitalism away, but I do think we need some tweaks to ensure against concentrations of power, because it's all downhill from there.
I don't think an outright boycott would make much sense. Too much work organizing and publicizing it. Some religious groups tried boycotting Disney a few years ago. Probably didn't accomplish much.
I think if those of us who dislike the **AA patronize various forms of live entertainment and otherwise occupy our geekly little minds with alternative channels and/or content, that will be good enough. And if we break down and see a movie once in a while, well, a few guilty pleasures won't make all that much of a difference anyway.
----------
Manifesto for the Peoples of the Third Millennium
The problem is, no one here buys anything from the MPAA or the RIAA - they're organizations of organizations. I order to succeed, you'd have to never, ever listen to any music in public or on the radio.
This reminds me of the Disney boycott a few years ago by several Christian groups. The plan was to not buy anything Disney, but it got to the point of absurdity because Disney is so pervasive. You would literally have to never watch any Disney branded movie, or any movie from any Disney-owned studio, or watch ABC or any ESPN network.
Same with this. Boycotts don't work because businesses lose money, they work because businesses are embarrassed by the negative publicity. Until we can convince the public of the problems behind the RIAA and MPAA (and that's unlikely with the communication skills and attitudes on display here), no boycott will ever work.
I like movies. But if I want to go see a movie, I have to pay the MPAA some amount of money. There's no way around it.
But why not go see independant films? Where am I going to see them? All of the theatres in town are owned by, or contract with... the MPAA. So even when I see a film that was entirely produced without the MPAA's involvement, I'm *still* paying them by seeing it in a theatre, where some fraction of the revenue will end up in their pockets.
Fine.. just buy DVD's and skip the Big Screen? No, foreign imports which might be MPAA-free are region encoded for somewhere that is not here. The DVD consortium is sleeping with the MPAA, so any DVD I purchase pays them indirectly as well. If I bypass the region encoding by using software or a reasonable player (Apex), then I'm violating the DMCA... which is sponsored -- errr supported -- by the MPAA.
Oh yes... I also like the internet. I can't get DSL at my house (HEY AMERITECH! Head? Ass?), so I have to go with a cable modem if I want any kind of bandwidth. Cable modem is from Charter Communications... a cable company... which makes money by sleeping with the MPAA through premium movie channels.
So, no movies... no internet... music? Nope, the RIAA is just as bad, and they also work with the MPAA, since having soundtrack albums does tie into their own revenue stream as well.
No movies, no internet, no music. Books? Better be careful.. I suspect some of the publishing houses have ties to the MPAA as well, especially those who publish movie novelizations.
How about I just sit in a chair on the porch and stare at the traffic? Surely that's ok. Well, maybe... although I did buy the chair at a store, which might have been owned by a company involved with the MPAA.
The MPAA/RIAA *is* a monopoly. If they aren't as much of one as AT&T was (is?), then they're well on the way.
We all know rock and roll obtained pefection in the 70's...
Ok, well, maybe not. But honestly, I haven't bought an RIAA album in 4 years. Yes I'm sure. I haven't bought an album in 4 years.
Will it hurt our artists? Sure, in the short run. But in the long run, when we have a media we actualy want to use, we'll be far more likely to buy their product agian, and, probably, buy more of it. Helping our artists.
Bite the bullet now, and struggle with some discomfort, or cut the arm off latter, and suffer with something we never wanted to happen.
And since these guys use their PR arms to label infringers pirates, shouldn't we refer to them as something unpleasent, too? Like Cartels? It'd be a hellova thing if that caught on 8)
Well, I don't think it's possible to boycott them, but just ignore all the crap they are producing (maybe 20% of the production is interesting, and I am optimist). Was Spiderman an interesting movie? No, it was just the same story as Batman with new clothes. Did the last Britney bring something new? No, it was the same as the previous one. Etc. Just be critical, it's enough harmful for them.
(1) Go to the theater and watch TTT
;)
(2) Make up for it afterward by picketing in front of the theater.
(3) Prof... eh, nevermind...
BTW, the issue's not really not hating the MPAA/RIAA, but rather a desire to keep your fair use rights.
Its called Kazaa or whatever your favorite file sharing program is.
If you don't want to support them, but you still want their product then do what many of us do, steal it. No the quality isn't that good and you need to get highspeed access to download movies, but it really leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy that you didn't support their machine.
I know we shouldn't steal, its wrong and all that, but I love movies and have relativly lose morals. Also I see what these groups are doing towards eroding my freedoms, the only things worse are the wars on terrorism and drugs, and you really don't want me to rant on about that.
that doesn't mean that we shouldn't though...
hmmm...
I think its a great idea. Even though the financial impact upon the studios may be small (invisible), a boycott by the Slashdot community would have a high media profile and raise awareness to the issue. Slashdot is a collection of IP generators with a good comprehension of the technical issues involved. As such it should be seen as a vanguard to more gullible general public opinion on the matter.
I'd be happy to miss the next raft of zillion dollar movie releases. I find I'm a sucker for the marketing and always end up disappointed at the end of the movie. The only movies these days that seem any good are the ones that you don't have rammed down your throat.
I select games and music on the opinion of friends/reviews etc which are far more reliable than a $20m marketing campaign.
What a bunch of Pussies! A boycott would work. They have worked in the past. With some organization and plenty of press coverage, the point can be made. What is the matter? Can't go two weeks without spending money? You don't know how to read? You are pretty much hooked on the media teat? God, no wonder the US is turning into a fascist police state and everyone is just sitting around with their finger up their bung-hole.
There is no free market in the entertainment industry. CD and DVD prices are obviously fixed, and every media company worth it's salt will only sign exclusive agreements with authors to distribute their materials...so there's never any competition. Musicians are the perfect example. Bands sign their lives away to record labels, and then the record labels (not the artists) have a monopoly over their music.
Regardless of the industry, free markets do not remain free naturally. There will always be a tendency for companies to congolmerate in a free market because it gives them greater control over the market (making it less free for us and more profitable for them). This trend toward a controlled market can only be reversed by an enternal entity (i.e. the government). That's why anti-trust laws were invented...it'd just be nice if someone would bother to enforce them.
An unsucessful boycott would simply demonstrate the impotence of the high-tech community with respect to any kind of political action, particularly since success in terms of affecting sales would require selling this outside the community, and would be worse than useless.
However, there will be a consumer boycott, and it will be effective. The next generation of DRM disabled audio gear with no analog or digital outputs, i.e. encrypted from source to speakers or CRT is on its way and was discussed yesterday here.
The public will scream its heads off when they find out what's in it, "You mean my VCR won't work, either?" and when they're told "DRM TV or NO TV", will be calling their Congresscritters telling them to tell the FCC to put off digital-only TV.
Hollywood won't lose any money over this, but the high-tech manufacturers who bought into Hollywood bullshit will lose billions, and a lot of jobs are going to get lost. Hopefully, including those of the CEOs who were stupid enough to roll over and play dead for their new masters.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Give some of their bucks to EFF or EPIC. That doesn't mean "don't go to the movies"... it just means offset your media habit with some donations to the people who fight for you!
That's what I do. I give 65 USD every year to the EFF, and I don't spend any more than that on major-label music or movies.
Want to know more? Take the Lessig Challenge
Will I retire or break 10K?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
they could come up with their own formats, but they want to have other people do it and then, after the technology works, then they go boo-hooing to congress.
.
we could come up with our own formats too, and tell them that they can't use them.
See how long they like that.
Simple solution: don't pirate their stuff.
Make your own stuff. Give it away.
They are correct in saying that they can't make a dime if the stuff is given away.
The real issue is NOT that movie, film and music producers and talent will be obsolete, but that the money monger class that CONTROLS what gets promoted is to be obsolete.
People will always make movies and music because it is art. But their will not always be these lawyers and coke-addicted power brokers who stand in the way of the music and film.
Did you know that a lot of getting your music promoted involves not just selling your music but also your body? Did you know that the casting couch is a real force in Hollywood? Why do you think there are so many BAD television shows with pretty people? Becuase someone is PAYING these pretty people to have sex with them and the production is a right-off. What else would be the reason for some of the crap that comes out of Hollywood?
SO. .
what can we do? Nothing. If they pull fashist stuff they will be exposed as the power greed-miesters that they are and they will shoot themselves in the head.
They have to face reality: They are obsolete.
Find another career, you Hollywood lawyers and powermongers.
Sooner or later they will find out they are fighting
windmills. It is not possible to distribute things digitally and at the same time prevent people from copying it. That is not the same as saying that the majority of people will actually do so.
It puzzles me greatly that they are putting up for sale CDs that supposedly are not readable by computers. If I am a computer user what use do I have for such a product? My only alternative if I want to hear the record would be to download it. It kind of defies the purpose.
BR A. Coward (I tried to find an unused handle but after 5 attempts I gave in)
As a Loooong time record buyer (since 64), who still has each and every one of his vinyl LP's along with lots & lots of CD's, I have to say that I have focused on used CD's now for a couple of years. We (the buying public) were told, when CD's first came out at twice the price of vinyl, that the price would come down once the special CD manufacturing machinery was paid for.
Unfortunately prices have not come down.
Also, artists are routinely 'misaccounted' so the level of royalty payments benefits the record companies and not the artist. Jazz artists that have been dead for 30 years, and get no royalties, still have CD's priced at $13-16. Artists get, what, twenty cents for a CD that I pay fifteen bucks for ? And now Hilary Rosen is accusing the public at large of grand theft audio because company revenues have dropped off a cliff ? Have you heard any of the mindless dreck that is being promoted as music these days?
My solution: Most of the time (90+%) I either buy a CD used (pay less, not directly supporting record company ripoff) or buy it directly from the artist at either a concert or a website (support the creator not tha machine.
It may not be much, but there's 600-1000 bucks a year they aren't getting from me.
I feel better now...
So I sever all exposure to mass media. No more newspapers, magazines, etc. And while I'm at it, stop reading slashdot, since I've disconnected my internet. So no more independent media either.
Uh-oh. How do I know, when we've won.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
We do it for the same reason you got yoru phone service from AT&T in the 70's: Where else are you going to go? You said it yourself, 90% of the legitimate music is distributed by RIAA Member companies, same with movies. If you want to listen to mainstream music and watch mainstream movies, they have a monopoly. Yes, you could listen to to music from other companies or watch movies from non MPAA companies, But I want to see LOTR, I dont want to see something else, so its either Pay the MPAA for the privelige or illegally download it off the net.
As someone who goes to 80+ movies a year, I have made an effort to try and give about as much to the EFF ($200 last year) as I do to the studios.
I boycotted the recording industry after CDs first hit the scene, because they were too expensive, required another piece of audio equipment, and forced my favorite VINYL outlets either out of business or out of vinyl. After about two years of very limited cassette tape purchases, I caved in and grudgingly got on board. The industry pormised that CD prices would come down, but it still pretty much wrecks a twenty dollar bill for one disk which is still too much for the crap that they push on the market. Anyway, my solitary boycott against the recording industry failed, but a few million people might get a point across. BTW, anybody see this?
and this fact has been known since the beginning of humanity.....
What needs to be done IMO is to buy their 'Crippled Discs' and return them at the retailer. Sure this isn't fair to the retailer given that it's RIAA's fault of providing crippled products, but the RIAA would soon realize that pissing off their primary means of distribution, as well as their own consumers, is not a good business practice.
They would certainly notice the anger from their distributers more than that of what they consider 'a few disgruntled pirates' consumers.
AC comments get piped to
The problem is that only a small percentage of the money I pay to see a movie is going toward funding the evil lawyers attacking fair use law. The vast majority is going toward stuff I *want* to support. I *want* to vote with my wallet by giving Peter Jackson money for Two Towers. I *want* to give money to the actors. I *want* to give money to the scriptwriters. I do *not* want to live in a world where there is no more entertainment industry. So what's to do? If you say a policy of zero tolerance is in order, such that as long as a company does any small thing I don't like I should never buy their products, then I'd never be buying anything at all, and would have to go off into the mountains to live as a hermit, growing my own food, sewing my own clothes, and so on.
So what's the *practical* answer? What can drive the message home to the entertainment industry without making it cease to exist? From the point of view of the MPAA members, reduced movie attendance because of a grievance over their legal policies looks indistinguishable from reduced movie attendance because people don't like their movies. It just looks like there is less of an audience.
This is especially a problem with the kinds of movies geeks like to see. If the industry sees that geek-friendly movies are not doing well, their reaction is NOT going to be to change their legal policies to appeal to the geeks. Their reaction is going to be, "Oh, I guess we should stop making movies like this - they don't seem to do very well for some reason." And then no more movies we like get made.
So, yes, I *am* going to be giving my money to see The Two Towers - multiple times. But I will be sure to balance that out with donations to the EFF.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Some artists might support the public. If we can talk them into relasing their work on "rival" labels, the boycotters might suffer less from media abstinence. Alternatively, if they can't be bothered to break their contracts, they could pressure the industry from within.
Small thing first: The DMCA is lame, in particular as it applies to decrypting DVDs. I don't boycott DVDs, but I do point out to people how easy it is nowadays to become a felon for watching one's own (purchased) disks.
... and you might want to move back soon :) ASCAP, Harry Fox and others are just as sickening as the **AAs of the world, and have been for much longer.
The idea that people should have black-and-white attitudes something as complex and ambiguous as Big Entertainment is a far more annoying meme than anything having to do with SOVIET RUSSIA.
A lot of things in life are messy -- life itself is messy. This government of this country (the U.S.) has done some reprehensible things, promulgated some things I think are evil. It's also managed to be, on the whole, far better than any other government I can think of. Doubtless Your Mileage Varies, but take it as an example rather than a statement I expect you to specifically agree with. What I'm calling Big Entertainment is such a broad group that dismissing (or uncritically lauding) the entire industry is sort of pointless.
The RIAA / MPAA are lobbying groups which exist to buy and exploit any advantage they can for their own little industry, because they know that the U.S. (the the world's) mixed economy allows, even encourages, the creation of loopholes and stumbling blocks through sometimes arcane and subtle means, not to mention kick-in-the-head means. The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state and all that. They did *not* invent the system, no matter how cynically (or sincerely) they participate in it.
The actually creative parts of the particular companies on whose behalf the *AA groups lobby do some interesting and sometimes very good things -- and unless you think that Peter Jackson secretly rubs his palms at night thinking of how he can disadvantage you through his filmmaking, you probably agree that the current Military/Industrial Film Complex leaves the door open to create at least *some* satisfying, interesting works. I happen to like certain filmmakers (like Whit Stillman) whose works I've purchased on DVD. If they were available for direct download for a small fee, Sure, I'd rather pay less, get more, vote more directly with my dollars -- who wouldn't? Right now, I like the fact that I can (finally) watch "Barcelona," and that the movie got made in the first place. That's the side of the equation that people sometimes forget about when they disparage the truly bad parts of the entertainment establishment -- that they *like* some of what it produces, even when it's packaged as being anti-establishment.
On the other hand, if you truly don't like annoying cartel / guild-based "evil corporate" influence on your entertainment life, you can move to a place where there is none
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Ok, so you don't want to miss the next great movie. You can hold off for two months and see it at the dollar movies can't you? Just think, instead of them getting a cut from 8 bucks they only get a cut from a buck.
[RIAA Webmaster[holding smouldering cat5]]: Uh oh.. we must have been linked to on slashdot again.
Trolling is a art,
And it's easy, really. Buy used CDs! I actually take great pleasure in 'the hunt' at the local used record shops. I'm looking for a range of material, and I rarely walk away empty handed from an outing.
And I buy stuff from the indie labels I like. They're mostly priced at $12 with I believe to be fair for a boutique price on a limited run CD. It's really that easy.
I won't rehash the reasons why a boycott would probably be insignificant. Rather, I think its worth pointing out that many people use Microsoft products for the same kind of reasons they buy/use RIAA/MPAA products: their perception is that few acceptable alternatives exist.
I believe that the internet as a distribution channel for media will eventually (and this will take a while, like 10 years+) replace the lawyerish media monopolies and their trade groups. This seems a lot like what will eventually happen to proprietary software and its owners with open source continuing to make advances. Eventually, acceptable alternatives will exist. Eventually, the monopolists will be vanquished. It will take time. These businesses weren't established overnight, and they sure won't die quickly, either.
So, IMO, a boycott is probably not going to work. Donate to the EFF. Encourage independent artists by BUYING their products (music only, pretty much now). But do it. Once there's a critical mass of musicians who can economically prosper, more will follow. The heavily unionized and politically related film industry will one day follow. How long? What? 25-40 years? That feels about right.
Meanwhile, support independent musicians!
Even if all the technogeeks in the US boycotted the MPAA I don't think there would be much impact. Geeks are a huge minority in the US, and I don't think non geeks really care.
/. are preaching to the choir about such initiatives.
Most of the time people on
-shane
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
Hey, guys:
;)
Boycotting the MPAA and RIAA won't do any good, for one major reason: the number of people who actually care about this issue is so small compared to the population at large that the RIAA and MPAA is unlikely to even notice that a boycott is occurring.
What WILL happen is that the people involved in the boycott will punish themselves, suffering weeks without internet access, movies, music, and so on, all just to find out that their suffering has all been in vain.
Then, there are the logistical problems. How, for instance, will boycotters coordinate their activities if they cannot read Slashdot because their ISP is their cable company? And, if they cannot coordinate their efforts, isn't it possible that at least some of them will never realize the boycott is over, ending up forty years from now like latter-day Rip Van Winkles, trying to plug decades-old Linux boxen into some hyper-modern network? Hair down to their ankles, teeth rotten away, eyes frozen into a thousand-yard stare?
Let alone the withdrawl symptoms they'll experience when they give up their favorite games. Public-service wards will fill with people whose thumbs continually twitch, twitch, twitch in a memorized UT sequence... Periodically they'll yell "BUY A BIGGER GUN!" The orderlies will be nervous wrecks. Electroshock will certainly follow.
No, friends, I think I'll pass. I think it will be a lot more fun if one of us creates a half-life mod oriented around the MPAA and/or RIAA headquarters and posts it to a friendly mirror. Surely at least ONE employee of one of these agencies reads slashdot? And, surely SOMEONE out there likes doing game mods, and has a few hours to spare?
I'd just like to see the boss battle against Valenti. THAT would be SOMETHING. Do a sort of "ROBOVALENTI" theme, maybe. Use really bad, color mug shots from the media. Animate it like on SouthPark. Maybe do something like the "bedroom" scene between Saddam and the devil? Um... Or not.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
It will help matters extremely well.
But, after a couple weeks the 5 slashdot readers who actually do boycott the media will realize that no one else in the world is, give up
I don't have the bandwidth to download movies. ;-)
I'm not a big music fan anyway (at least not big enough to spend $15 on a CD, even since before MP3's came around), but I think everyone should stop buying CD's and just send a "screw you, you gready @#$%^&*(" to the whole music industry.
I can understand why people would support their favorite artists despite who they are signed with...I know I do, and I wish there was another way to get their work and still pay them for it.
Aside from that:
The larger a company or organization is, the harder it is to affect them through a boycott. Even if all of slashdot boycotted every MPAA/RIAA company (which means giving up movies, music, cable TV, in some cases internet access), the result would amount to a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the population. And of course as the rest of the population either does not understand, chooses to ignore, or is simply naieve (sp?) about the issues at hand, it is impossible to generate enough boycotters to make a difference.
Most people don't know what DRM is or why it makes a difference if you can or can't play a CD in your computer, what region coding and encryption means concerning DVDs... Although we try as we can to educate the general public, most will turn a deaf ear when the info gets technical and simply forget how the whole ball of wax is about their rights as a consumer. Not to stray off topic, but the same thing goes for political issues and government, and alot of other important things in life...maybe people just don't seem to care or are afraid to go against what is considered popular (read: shoved down their throats) because they don't want to be the ones to rock the boat. Whatever the reasons, if more people don't speak their minds and educate themselves about what is happening right under their noses they will be in for a rude awakening one day.
And refine your tastes.
What, you mean watch/listen to total crap? I don't have time to wade through an Internet full of 10,000,000 19-year-old boys who think they're the best DJ since their hero Darude, just so I can find a couple of albums' worth of decent music. I don't have the patience to watch some turtleneck-wearing indie filmmaker mentally masturbating through his camera lens for an hour and a half just to see his own name scroll by 20 times in the credits at the end.
There are no small clubs around here. Oh, wait, yes there are... and they suck. I don't like rock music, and I don't like top 40... the answer is probably to live in a town that isn't in the geographical butthole of the continent, but that's not feasible right now. I could go to the local comedy club, but I can only hear comics make fun of how cold it is so many times, especially when this is one of the mildest winters so far I can remember.
What IS feasible is to watch Dennis Miller and Jerry Seinfeld when they come to town. Oops, I just supported Ticketmaster. I can go home and watch South Park, Home Movies, Inu-Yasha, Cowboy Bebop, and The Simpsons. Oops, shite, there's Viacom, FOX, and my local cable company. I can go to a film... oops, dammit, there's more money to Carmike Choke-The-Life-Out-Of-Cinema, and probably Sony while I'm at it. I could play Animal Crossing... wait, no I can't. Nintendo may be cuter than Sony, but they're still anticompetitive.
I can come to the computer lab and bitch about how hard it is to boycott things without subjecting myself to a life full of lousy entertainment... uh-oh. now I'm using Windows XP. I could go to a hockey game, and watch the top-rated college hockey team in the nation beat your team... but then my five bucks is going to support the arena staff, who have little regard for the students (after all, we don't pay full price).
So, screw it. I'm an American; my life has become softer and easier as time goes by, and I don't want to give it up. I'm accustomed to the perks that massive funding and corporate support can provide, and at this point, there's not that much I'm willing to do otherwise. I'll give my share to the EFF and ACLU, and wave signs when it's appropriate, but a boycott? this isn't the 60s, and these aren't buses.
Without media all first worlds populace would become uneducated, meaning democracy would become an even bigger farce and government would be able to do what ever they want without anyone ever knowing. They could for example go against the wishes of the global community and start wars in the name of peace not even understanding the paradox. If there was no media then the power of the people is about the same as the power of a herd of cows.
then record and movie ticket sales would continue to decline and they would say "See!? Pirates! Arrrrrgg!!"
see there is a small problem with this. people won't boycott anything, they might say they will but in reality they'll follow along with the norm to fit in with society.
i personally try not to buy stuff from major labels and go see movies for several reasons:
1. i don't like most of the music made by the mainstream/riaa member labels, there are a few exceptions to that rule.
2. the bands and music i do like aren't on riaa member labels.
3. indie movies for the most part are well crap, once again a few exceptions to the rule but those are usually picked up by large studios.
4. all the mainstream music sounds the same, well with in the genre it is particular to. all rap sounds the same, all alternative/punk/grunge/college sounds the same, all metal sounds the same and well rap is just rehashing lots of old stuff and has repeated itself for years.
for the most part i listen to stuff from:
metropolis records
projekt records
ipecac records
soliel moon records
invisible records
not for the sole purpose that they are not members of the riaa, tho that helps, but because i like the music and also for the most part they all give away free mp3s for you to listen to.
the majority of the people on slashdot tho won't take the bold step to listen to something that deviates from the norm. tho they are big proponents of saying "down with the riaa/mpaa"
the movie thing i'm guilty of cause well i like eye candy and good stories, however i rarely go to the movie theatre, the last few movies i went to are lotr:fotr, spider-man and attack of the clones. before that i think it was maybe episode 1 or a movie i took a date to, but the point is it was a while since i went to the movies.
everyone here can talk the talk but frankly most aren't willing to walk the walk.
i kinda do both but it's not because it's to be cool, it's cause i like that thing better than what is considered "popular" or the "in thing".
however if the music i liked was part of the riaa i'd probly still listen to it no matter what cause i genuinely like the music and unfortunately that's the boat most people are stuck in. that and a lot of them are unwilling to take a step and be a bit different than the rest of us. that and we have all this pop-culture crap shoved down our throats constantly it's hard to ignore, tho i can do it because of choices i've made and my personal preferences, when there's "no market" aka no payola from the label to play the music then it's not on the radio so when i do listen to the "radio" it's via netcast most of the time.
all people really need to do is get some balls and take a step and be different but they won't and will say stuff on here and yet go out and by the latest snoop dogg or britney spears cds and watch survivor and take what ever the riaa/mpaa dish out.
They've got a near-monopoly lock on our own culture. Boycotting them means boycotting the majority of American culture. What am I supposed to do? Adopt another culture? (Or almost as close, adopt the fringe part of my own culture?) They've got too much power to ignore.
Happily, I *have* scaled back to a considerable degree. That's much easier to do.
Are there any all-request format TV or radio music shows that have non-RIAA artists within their domain of acceptable requests? Turn /. loose on their request lines, and let's see what happens.
Radioland is a self-fulfilling system sometimes. Most radio charts factor in radio airplay, and then are taken by the program directors as clues as to what they should be playing.
So for smaller artists, the game is like this: Can't be on the charts without getting airplay, can't get airplay without being on the charts.
The RIAA's "service" to artists is that they give them the mass media thrust into fame. Getting your video played on TRL means that people who never heard of you will see you... a small handful will like you, and buy your CD, posters, T-shirt, etc.
Of course, any artist endorsed by the Slashdot community would likely have to committ that the song we request be open source, lest they turn around and sign an RIAA deal with their newfound popularity. The goal would to prove to artists that "it can be done." Forget about CD revenues, just get your music in front of a lot of people and they'll make you a star.. and stars are already making a lot of money from non-CD sources.
One easy way to protest the RIAA/MPAA that still leaves you entertained is buying used cd's/dvd's. The money you spend doesnt go to them.
I boycott RIAA. It's easy enough to listen to alternative radio and buy CDs direct from local musicians. There's was a tough transition period, but eventually the shakes subsided.
For movies, I'm a victim of the system. I can watch indy movies, but they don't compare to a handful of powerhouse movies produced each year (ex: Two Towers). There is no comparable experience, and so I'm stuck forking my money over to shadow forces.
In the meantime, I do pay to see fewer and fewer movies, perhaps one every 3 months. But that's easy because most movies being produced are crap (or maybe I've fallen between the cracks of marketing demographics... it's a loney existence.)
Leisure time I used to spend watching movies I now spend playing online games and low impact sports (you know, pool, bowling, sex, etc.).
If you find an artist who is with a label that is not with the RIAA that you like, buy their CDs. Then, send a simple letter to them (or more likely, the PR department of the label) saying "I just bought your album, and I want to thank you for not being a member of the RIAA, which is doing this and that. I am happy to support you."
Only takes a moment, and if nothing else makes someone feel good for not being part of the conglomerate.
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
Libraries are under attack. Direct legal attack from the entertainment industry. Attack from the government, who forces them to play the Poindexter Game. Is it as fun to go to the library when you have to wonder if people are evaluating you based on the things you've checked out? Is a person's attempts to enrich himself the domain of the government?
but it's not going to happen. Like it or not, the RIAA and MPAA both provide a necessary service: entertainment. Although they may not be the best at this, they are by far the largest and most accessible. When you toss in that the techno-literate are a minority in the world, it becomes clear that boycotting the abovementioned corporations is nigh impossible.
Unfortunately, I can't offer any ideas on ways to stop them, short of having them declared a monopoly by various governments around the world. And the odds of that happening are about as slim as the odds of N*Sync or the Backdoor Boys not releasing another hit album.
ok, its simple enough, boycott these evil money grubing bastards
here is a short list of things you would have to stop using.
-no more movies, weither in the theater or in the home (VHS/DVD) even the ones you already own
-no more TV, all your local programing stations are owned or affiliated with MPAA/RIAA members
-no more cabel TV all the cable carriers are owned by MPAA/RIAA
-no more cd's buying or listining to
-no more radio, same as buying cd's only the radio station is paying them you are paying the radio station by buying the advertisers products
-no more computer games, most game destributers are affilated or owned by MPAA/RIAA companys
-check your internet connection, unless you are with a local isp your paying the MPAA/RIAA money to surf the web
-I would also venture to think many web sites are hosted or affilated some how with MPAA/RIAA
-no more newspapers or magazines
Think of this a boycott on all MPAA/RIAA related feilds leaves you basically twiddling your thumbs or even worse becoming envolved in plotics.
(its the only thing else I can think of that wastes as much time and money and playing computer games)
Ahh.. The mind what a wonderful trap!
why don't we boycott the mpaa/riaa? the short answer is that we can't. if you want to watch a movie or listen to music, you are automatically drawn into the mpaa/riaa web.
turn on the radio. very little music on the radio is not distributed through the riaa.
watch a teevee show. very veiw teevee programs are distributed by companies that are not members of the mpaa.
with all the consolidation that has been going on in the last ten years, boycotting the media conglomerates is just impossible to do unless you want to go completely without watching new movies or listening to new music. if we tried to boycott, we're pretty much limited to listening/watching the media we've already bought (rentals are out) or can get used.
our situation is like the farmers of the 19th century. they didn't like the railroads. the railroads at the time were just about the most evil money grubbing and greediest corporations around. corporations that were not above market manipulation, lobbying and outright bribery to get what they wanted. but the farmers had to use them, otherwise their crops would have just rotted in the fields. understand that even lobbying organizatios failed. the farmers' trade union, the grange, couldn't even crack the railroad monopoly. not really. the railroad's grip on the shipping industry only finally broke when trucks became available and practical in the '20s and '30s.
the media industry is, of course, currently faced with a similar threat to their monopoly now, the internet. this explains why the riaa is so apparently dead set against independent distribution of music on the internet, particularly when that distribution enables artists to bypass the major record companies. it also explains why the media networks are dead set against teevee recorders like tivo and replay. it's not piracy they are really worried about, but the alternative distribution channels they haven't learned to control, yet.
now the reason the railroads couldn't use legislation against trucks to enforce their shipping monopoly is probably because of the impact of the depression. when the '30s rolled around, the technological and business model advances of the trucking industry were able to take place without interference from a railroad industry weakened by the depression. sure the trucking companies and truck manufacturers were also suffering, but the cost of building a truck, the barrier to entry, is a lot lower than the cost of building a locomotive. plus, after ww2, the auto and truck manufacturers were very wealthy and powerful (the depression acted as a darwinian tool taking out the weak players) and were able to get the federal government to build a national highway system, no doubt over the objection of the railroad lobby.
but today, with the media industry versus the internet, the situation is reversed. the dotcoms collapsed and the technology industry doesn't have the money or resources to fight a protracted battle with the media companies. plus, the media companies are rich and well prepared to get legislation passed in their favor. if the media industry's grip on technology is going to be broken, it will probably have to come after a prolonged slump in media sales starves the media companies for cash. the farmers couldn't do it to the railroads in the 1880s and 1890s, and we can't really do it today.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
"member companies distribute 90% of the legitimate sound recordings in the United States"
hmmm... Grateful Dead Records is listed. Are you sure that shouldn't read 90% of member companies distribute legitimate sound recordings in the United States?
come on fhqwhgads
It's difficult to boycott all "evil" companies, and impossible to boycott all companies which buy products from resellers which license them from companies which happen to be members of an organization which lobbies congress to pass "evil" laws (such as movie theatres and record stores).
So I take the "try my best" approach. I "steal" mp3s from friends or napster rather than give money to RIAA affiliated record companies. I try to go to theatres where I know the owner, so they will let me in without printing a ticket, so none of the money goes to the MPAA companies.
But ultimately, when someone asks me to go see a movie with them, I'm not going to say "no" just because a few dollars goes to an MPAA company. Never seeing a movie would decrease my number of friends, and how could I ever earn enough money to compete against the big record labels without any friends?
Similarly, lobby artists. Lobby major-label shareholders. Lobby elected officials.
For that matter, remember that the RIAA doesn't represent all labels. Remind your elected officials that there are plenty of other labels and artists out there, labels and artists who are actually hurt when the RIAA is allowed to dictate public policy. Sure the major labels have money to buy politicians, but it's still the people who actually vote.
Many years ago people sat down and realised that the powerful in the clan were oppressing the minorities. And in fact since everyone was in a minority of some type, everyone agreed the oppression had to stop.
After much wrangling, they evolved a code of laws and a newfangled idea of democracy. That way, if anyone started oppressing, a vote was held and laws were passed limiting the oppression.
It didn't take long for powerful groups to work out how to pull the levers, but by and large the system worked. Every now and then some group started feeling oppressed and taking direct action with boycotts and sometimes much much more. Some things got changed some not. A cause for concern perhaps but the truth was, most of the time the oppression went away when powerful group collapsed of its own accord. Times passed, interests shifted and the focus moved on.
Right now, the focus is on individual rights to enjoy copyrighted material, and benefit from patented work. Don't imagine that the way it is now will be set in concrete forever. If you think that the mega corps and political groups will last your life out, just turn the clock back 50 years and see who the big names were. Some familiar names, but lots of the old dinosaurs died out.
I went over to the FAQ and read Taco's words. He seems to sum things up just fine.
So keep up the steady pressure, don't bust a gut over this.
"One individual with electrons in his hand can bring down an empire"
-Timothy Leary
I think that should sum it up. Bringing down, or at least putting a leash on the RIAA can be done. We just need true motivation, and I believe that one person could in fact be the catalyst required to initiate much needed change.
It's not stealing if you download it from a P2P network--the people sharing it are putting it up for anyone to borrow. Also, the people who originally produced the work do not own the copy that the people I'm downloading from bought--they sold it.
Boycott Headquarters!
its pretty apparent from the riaa list that it will be next to impossible to implement a boycott. what we need in reality is a way to obtain music from alternate sources. perhaps a distributed peer-to-peer client architecture that allows individual users to make their mp3's available to anyone else who wants to download them ...
A boycott wouldn't do much because almost no one would bother with it. Instead, try having a day or a week of protests - picketing outside theaters, chain record stores (Best Buy, Tower, Virgin, HMV, et al). That would be great because it's actually somewhat realistic and unlike simply not buying things, it sends a clear a direct message to the companies that people are pissed off at them, while it also educates consumers who don't know any better.
Of course you could always try buying indie music as well, though some have major label distributors, you can always find others.
NT
My other OS is the MCP!
I agree with "take the Lessig challenge," as you say. What's more, boycotts almost never work.
In order for a boycott to work, you have to have a huge amount of the customer base boycotting, and you have to make sure the message gets to the company that they are being boycotted and why, so that the company can't point to alternative explanations for the dip in revenues. What's more, certain corporations (such as McDonald's) try to tread more lightly than others, and will respond; other corporations (such as... well, the RIAA) have no interest in such things.
The appeal of Lessig's Challenge to me is that I know that even if I merely match the funds I spend on movies and records with the funds I give to the EFF, more of the EFF money will go directly into fighting policies I disagree with than money I spend on the RIAA, since the latter money has to go to packaging, materials, shipping, marketing costs, and the occasional penny or two for the artist.
Also, whenever possible, support the artists you enjoy directly. See if they have a website, or a collection of free MP3's. Support artists that you know oppose the RIAA's policies, such as The Offspring, Hole, or Prince -- of course, only if you like their work.
As for movies, nobody's forcing you to wait in line the day the movie comes out to pay full price. Go to a matinee, or better yet, wait until it comes out on HBO/TMC. Or get a group of friends to rent it or buy one copy that you all watch together later. Homes are more comfortable, anyway, and nobody will keep you from bringing your own beer to the show. (Enough beer, and you might even like the movie better.)
I met Lessig's challenge last week. I joined the EFF. I don't feel so bad about wanting to see Bond and Hobbits now.
A boycott cannot work ... lets say that enough people boycott X or Y to get noticed ... that will merely be recorded as a drop in marketability and a shift in market focus to some crap you don't want to see anyway.
... whatever silly DRM or copy protection they come out with ... it will never give them the degree of control they want over people who know that every image and sound is really just a series of 0s and 1s. Once they spend sufficient money on DRM and realize that it is a losing proposition ... that it will only affect people who really want to be affected by it ... i believe that they will get wise to the "computer" age and change their focus. IMHO, this will be after spending many billions of $$ on DRM, of course. What a waste.
Just live with the knowledge that
People enjoy movies. Enjoyment is addicting.
And we all know how an addiction is hard to break.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
These people have looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
No wait... Isn't my piracy their excuse for everything they do to oppress users? Uh oh...
== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====
We are in the minority. As sad as that is you all must learn to accept that.
The majorty of the public really doesnt care about any of this, yet..
So a boycott of lets say less then 1%.. like they would even care.. THey might even prefer it since we would be out of their hair..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
No one wants to change their lifestyle. Its like giving up an addiction, Whether its smoking or goat-porn; The brain thinks up all kinds of reasons for going back to the old ways.
Its easy, its comfortable, its compatible with existing peers.
Advertisers learned long ago that its way more costly to change peoples behaviour, but reinforcing existing behaviour is very cost effect.
Boycotts seldom work now because it is so difficult to expect the modern masses to live up to their convictions.
- never had cable tv (use a good antenna for local stations), and I use DSL for hi-speed internet access
- haven't bought a CD in many years; just keep an eye on the latest CD rips floating on the net
- haven't gone to the movie theatre in years, either (never quite liked that "communal" experience anyway); got a large tv set and plenty of divx from the net
- descrambled dishnet programs for some time, but no more: there is so much stuff in the clear to choose from (including dishnet audio channels; go figure...)
Really, if you put yourself to it, you can live a media happy life while advertising companies are paying the bill for it! (double whammy)
Isnt that kind of the side effect of monopolization? Has anyone ever considered that they dont have any *competition*?
...an effective boycott would come from the artists not working for big media.
I've decided to flag all RIAA/MPAA activity as 'terrorism', due to the way they treat consumers to force them into obeying. From this point forward I'm just going to follow our presidents lead and send in my troops to destroy them, err, stop supporting terrorism. :)
Like many here I'm already boycotting the RIAA by not buying CDs and getting my music through *cough* other means. I think geeks can be far more effective by making it even easier for more people not to need to buy their product (better more anonymous p2p systems). Now that's a boycott!
I'll start worrying about destroying the incentive for artists to make more material as soon as I see actors getting less than $25 million for big ticket movies, "artists" like Britney Spears making most of their money off of live performances, and when politicians no longer accept giant bribes from the industry.
I am already boycotting I call it file sharing, At the University I attended I've gotten atleast 5000 to do so on a regular basis. I will continue to keep file sharing, and influences others to do so until the RIAA and the MPAA straighten up and know thier roles....
which is nothing close to what they are now.....
"suffering weeks without internet access, movies, music, and so on, all just to find out that their suffering has all been in vain." who will be suffering? The point is to go about your life without these things. If you are suffering, there is no point because you have a mind set that you can't live without them.
A boycott is a form of protest. Presumably it is a protest that would actually economically force the boycotted comnpany, products, etc to change its policies. The complexity of organizing a boycott of all, even a large majority, of RIAA/MPAA products and services is probably beyond the scope of anything other than another major organization.
But if you take a boycott as a more respresentative form of protest, then you might have something. A well-planned boycott would be simple. Perhaps a day. A published date that is widely publicized. The size of the boycott, assuming good publicity, is likely to increase if the ideas and instructions are clear. A ten page letter rambling about the evils of groups most people (who are not members of groups already concerned enought o care) is not an effective means of persuasion. A couple sentences underlining the basic desired result are all that's required. Thoroughness is aided by doing things that don't have anything to do with either group. Take your kids (spouse, dog, stamp collection) to the park. Put in some volunteer hours. Read a book (unless we want to boycott the publishing industry as well).
Publicity has already been mentioned, but it bears repeating. MoveOn.org has the right idea, ads in the Times, maybe some other major media outlets (those that would allow a commercial to boycott their owners...). Word of mouth is powerful.
If the RIAA notes a 60% drop in CD sales one day, are they gonna roll over immediately? No. But it's a very powerful message all the same.
What if I don't like any of the artists' music on those labels? I'm not going to buy product I don't like just to divert money and put a scare in RIAA members. I have better things to do with my time. If I buy something from a major label artist, it's because I LIKE THE MUSIC! I buy music to listen to it, not to make a political statement.
I don't need entertainment media to survive. It's a luxury to me. If the RIAA locked down everything, I wouldn't be put out. Life would go on as ususal. Only in spoiled America do people think they have a right to everything free, especially luxuries. Sometimes I wish this country would become very poor, just so people could appreciate the largess here.
1)Crank!
2)Doghouse
3)Dischord
4)Jade Tree
5)Some
6)Invisible
and I am sure many more I can't think of off the top of my head.
Plenty of alternatives to the mainstream garbage RIAA members serves up.
Movies: Only attend matinees, if you MUST see it in a theatre.
MPAA still gets a cut; even if not directly, the cost is offset in the feature price.
DVD's: Only buy used. Period. It's not that difficult to find a pawn shop, or ebay, or whatever.
Music: Only buy used. Again, it's not that hard to find your favorite artists.
Sorry, somebody originally had to buy it in the first place, which means that MPAA or RIAA still got its share. Creating a demand in the secondary market is only going to stimulate a surge in supply in the primary market.
Wanna support the artist? Go see their show, buy their ts-shirt or cd AT THE SHOW.
Sorry, the RIAA gets its cut here as well, at least from the CD sales (the T-shirt sales and concert tickets will vary depending on the artist's contract).
You are missing out on another thing: even if somehow the distribution channel is completely bypassed, that means that the artist didn't get paid either.
The problem with both RIAA and MPAA is that neither one consists of a single corporation, but that they are "trusts" which have succeeded in sustaining oligopoly power.
A boycott truly means: never watching movies outside of independent films, and never listening to music outside of independent music. Most of us (myself included here) are all consumerist victims to the mass market.
Sorry, we can't beat them using these tactics.
The idea is basically this: Watch the media of those whom you want their practices to change, and pay careful attention to the advertisers. Send nasty-grams to each of the advertisers you noticed along the lines of:
And of course sticking to your guns and not buying the products will probably help too.I feel this may be the type of message that will probably get through to television stations, at least, and perhaps the MPAA/RIAA.
Best regards,
Loren Osborn
A geek boycott won't work since there are not enough geeks to make a difference. All a geek boycott will do is destroy the revenue stream for the cool music and movies while leaving the revenue stream for crappy music and movies intact, resulting in a higher percentage of crappy movies and music being made in the immediate future.
Instead do this:
Buy whatever CD's, DVD's, movie tickets you want and donate an equivilent or greater amount of money to the EFF. The AAA's (Asshole Associations of America) will still have to pay a percentage of their revenue (however small) to the artists and the manufacturing costs while the EFF will get piles and piles of cash to use for lobbying the legislature and organizing the populace into protecting our fair use and other rights.
This strategy is easier to sell to the geeks who need (not want) to see The Two Towers about six times (like me) and it will still empower our viewpoint.
Do some simple arithmetic.
How many slashdotters would it take to make up 1/1000th of this country.
Sure, a small percentage (less than 1%), but more than 0.1%.
Well at least you weren't yelling...
Save some of your little pennies and buy used stuff! Boycott is such an stressfull word anyway..
Buy intelligently. And they will never win.
So do you feel a boycott of mass media will help matters, or would such be counter-productive in some way?
Do we mean we should stop reading Slashdot?
If CD sales remained unaffected then the RIAA could simply turn around and say that this proves most people are happy with their pricing, their product and their attitudes to the marketplace.
Or, even worse, if such a boycott did affect sales in a negative way, they'd simply say that this was due to piracy and that it endorses their stand on copy-protection, the DMCA, etc.
That's the way they spin it (obviously). Boycotters simply say either:-
"Since our boycott did not affect your sales, piracy is a non-issue. Anti-piracy/privacy legislation that you are pushing is not legitimate."
or
"Your policies have angered us legitimate consumers. Change them or lose our custom."
Put money into supporting artists signed with non-RIAA labels, and support non-MPAA movies. No, it won't hurt the RIAA or MPAA directly, but it financially supports these companies, and makes them a more feasible choice for artists. If more and more artists are able to work for more scrupulous record labels and film studios, we will begin to have more choices, and be able to purchase more and more stuff that isn't distributed through the **AA.
Take a look at websites like www.cdbaby.com that sell stuff by independent artists, you might be surprised at the quality of stuff they distribute.
I say boycotting RIAA/MPAA will *hurt* the cause. Furthermore, if you don't buy (license) MORE movies and music, you just might be responsible for new draconian laws designed to keep content dealers afloat.
(irony intended)
Sound absurd? Not really. All of the television and much of the print news has some affiliation with the RIAA/MPAA. On the news, slumping music sales are attributed to piracy by kids. If THAT is true, then declining automobile sales must be caused by little green men from mars, because the media is pretty much ignoring the economy right now.
News outlets like CNN run -- unedited -- the RIAA's claim of 400 burners siezed in that NY piracy raid. Never mind that it is NOT TRUE, the news doesn't care about accuracy and even if they are aware of an error, they have a vested interest in the RIAA/MPAA.
Anyways, they'll just spin it so the boycott gets no mention, and dropping sales is because of filesharing on that evil Gnutella network, and obviously the RIAA needs a license to hack your system looking for loot... blah blah
-S
"They're grups! bonk, bonk, on the head."
DVD's: Buy only ones with features, and only if you plan on viewing them, but buy them new on sale.
Music: Buy only compilations that you'll listen to 3/4 of, and a lot. Again, new and on sale if possible.
What it really comes down to should be a time vs. money question. Compared to $50/3hr football games (this is just a reference - throw in whatever sport you wish), $10 a movie ticket isn't that bad - but I view matinees to offset the popcorn/pop prices. I stopped buying CDs left and right five years ago when I realized I was paying effectively $15 for 3 minutes, or 6 if I was lucky. Since I've generally paid to see a given movie already, I try to only buy DVD's when they have features I know I'm going to watch, and it's a movie I'm likely to just 'feel like' watching.
I'm not saying this will change anything. But it will help us be reasonably entertained while not feeling like we're throwing our money away. It also may let the stores know what we like and how much we're willing to pay. It seems to me that as long as the stores (Walmart, Best Buy, or whatever) are independent of record companies they are responsive to buying habits, so a better strategy than an all out boycott would be focused buying.
If the boycott were at all successful, their sales would fall. If sales fall, whither the first blame? Pointing out the boycott as a reason would go ignored, they'd downplay the effectiveness. They could then point to the declining profits as an excuse to forward more DMCA-like evils.
The power of the (RI,MP)AA derives from controlling the vast, vast majority of content. The only way to do away with it, or ever to lessen its hold is to get content creators to simply find ways to do without the corps. The internet can be a big help in this. Support non-RIAA artists! It may take a while, but their hold will lessen.
No black flags with skull and crossbones, no cutlasses, cannons, or daggers identify today's pirates. You can't see them coming; there's no warning shot across your bow. Yet rest assured the pirates are out there because today there is plenty of gold (and platinum and diamonds) to be had. Today's pirates operate not on the high seas but on the Internet, in illegal CD factories, distribution centers, and on the street. The pirate's credo is still the same--why pay for it when it's so easy to steal? The credo is as wrong as it ever was. Stealing is still illegal, unethical, and all too frequent in today's digital age. That is why RIAA continues to fight music piracy.
:). Such quotes and more can be found on the The Funnest Place on the Net
Well shiver me timbers
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
Why exactly is the MPAA so "evil" then? Besides the occasional downright dire film, the only evidence I see here in the article is unsubstantiated rhetoric and venom.
we say that you are going against the windmills.....
PENAROL: Seras eterno como el tiempo y floreceras en cada primavera.
I have been boycotting the RIAA for quite some time now. I look down on my friends who buy music in stores, and although I do see that it is necessary for the record industry to make money so they can come up with this music we all know and love. I do not think they should bully people around to get it. **Then again, we all know the money comes right back to us, seeing as there is no way britney spears could really sound like that without the help 20 well skilled engineers.**
we're outnumbered by idiots who will buy their kids everything and anything (movies, dvd's and cd's) just to make sure that they are always ahead of the neighbors kids. then there are the idiots that go to the midnight showings of movies, those that wiat in line for days (star wars), and those that wait at the record stores for midnight sales on mondays... I don't see a /. boycott making too big of a dent in their profit graphs
-Cnik
The local library treats donations of DVDs and CDs separately.
I have pretty much quit going to theaters since they've all been turned into claustrophobia-inducing shoeboxes with cardboard walls. Not much of a Big Picture, Big Sound experience when you hear half the dialogue and all the effects from the movies playing on either side of you.
In other news, astrophysicists have announced that they now know what all that dark matter is: it's stupidity.
Step 1) Boycott MPAA/RIAA
Step 3) Profit!
hmmm...
If slashdotters boycotte the entertainment inudstry en masse, we would still only account for a tiny fraction of the MPAA/RIAA's customer base. The dip in sales would be hardly noticeable and rasily explained away
The problem is, online communities have a greatly exagerated sense of self-worth. We take for granted that people even know what MPAA is. Ask 100 people on the street what it is and you'll get 90 different answers. Even after telling someone what the MPAA is, they will simply shrug and say, okay. Getting THEM to protest MPAA actions would be like getting a slashdotter to announce an undying love for Microsoft. It will never happen.
The only thing we can do is make noise. Keep yelling, keep comlaining. Write your senator and congressmen. He who yells loudest, wins.
Boycotts blow over pretty quickly. Supporting their competitors is a better way of getting their attention and encouraging them to change. Maybe independent artists should make the fact that they are MPAA/RIAA-free more visible.
I believe music is the place to start the overthrow of the entertainment empire. Remember that musicians don't make money from CDs, they make money from gigs. They need to see some evidence that free online distribution actually pays off. So change your life a little, go out of your house and hear some local bands live. Look for local bands you like on Kazaa etc. Go up to them and tell them you downloaded their song and that's why you came to their show. Call up the nearest place that features live music and ask them to book those bands. Go to the shows. The RIAA will go away when we all make it obsolete by making free online distribution work for musicians.
It seems to me that the MPAA is going to be a much tougher nut to crack, simply because nowadays everybody craves the kind of movies only big-money can produce. A truly awesome indie version of LOTR? Maybe, but not anytime soon. But that doesn't mean you can't go see indie films too. At least give the MPAA a little competition.
Hell, I already do. I haven't bought a CD in 2 years, and I haven't bought any U.S movies in close to 7 years.
I also don't buy those blank CD-R's that are "for music".
In Jihad vs McWorld, Benjamin R. Barber presents a poignant argument about how entertainment is at the heart of his so call McWorld. McWorld is his term for the assimilating global behaviour of multi-national corporations. It is the entertainment sector of the American corporate scene that sells best in the non-American world. As a result every company desiring a stake in the global economy, which is any company that wants to survive, must embrace the globalizing force of the entertainment sector. As a result, we are starting to see the mega mergers between companies, one of which is often an entertainment provider.
The easiest and most obvious marriages are between companies are between companies that create the entertainment product and those that own the means to deliver the product. As Barber points out, if you own the pipeline, why not own the stuff that goes down it. From there, many other type of mergers become obvious. Why not own the appliance on which it is watched? Or the food people eat as they watch it? In some cases this already has occurred. Hence, Seagram's, before it was bought, venture into the entertainment market.
So, expect more media mega mergers, and expect it to be harder not to support companies to who support the RIAA. Perhaps soon, buying toothpaste will help the RIAA, if not already.
the boycott is for me.
I makes me feel good that I'm doing the little that I can, even if Disney may not feel the effects of my actions. It makes me feel better that I'm making the sacrifice.
Early 2002, I started boycotting MPAA/RIAA as well. I only went to the movies twice ( before the boycott ) for the year, I bought just as many CDs ( from a smaller publisher ) and I don't buy DVDs for myself anymore ( although I do buy for my family, once in a while ).
My only new years resolution is to make my boycott more effective, including making a decent contribute to EFF.
Point is, do it for your own peace of mind; If funding these organizations disturbs you.
In this day and age, the only vote that the consumer really has is her/his money. Make yours count.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I've seen maybe 3 movies in the theater during that time.
I can't remember the last album that was even WORTH buying, nevermind actualy doing it.
Media is only pervasive through TV. People barely talk about movies, and really, having read LOTR, If they talk about the movie, I'd know about it anyway (That's maybe a poor example, I DID see that one).
Here's what I've found.
There's WAY more sex at night when my wife and I don't watch TV until we're too tired.
My marriage is better because I actually talk to my wife, rather than jsut watching TV with her. She loves when I help her make cookies (or whatever) and it's been great for us as a couple. Interestingly, we've both gained weight. (She needed it, but I didn't).
I can't remember my kids asking for (Insert new toy of choice). My youngest daughter still wants barbies, but she actually plays with them (albiet naked), so that's fine. No "I NEED this" item that they had never heard of before, and would either break of forget within a day. They ask for downhill skis, or a kids motorcycle (so it doesn't save you any money, just forget that whole idea.) But the gifts they do ask for get well used.
So dumping the whole media influence is hard, sure. Especially in the beginning. But we were soon 'cured' and when we tried having TV a few months ago, nobody watched it much anyway, so we just cancelled it again.
Missing movies sounds important, but when you don't really hear anything about them, then it doesn't matter. We watch 'em when they come out on video (DVD with the company's projector).
Much like any other addiction, there is a side benefit to dropping it. Money. Cable is $40 a month, plus $50 a month if we go to a movie as a family once a month (popcorn, etc incl.) Intangible savings would be silly impulse buys thanks to good advertising that no longer happen. I figure that's $1500 a year after tax. Which gives us a fair bit of 'play money' for when we go camping, or whatever else. I suppose we also spend a bit because we quickly found we needed a newspaper subscription.
After 2-3 Months, anyone could be TV free. The rest pretty much falls into place from there. It is a willpower/convictions issue. Though to be honest that isn't why *we* dumped it.
Slashdot people doesn't have attitude. They bash Windows, and still dual boot their machines. They bash MPAA/RIAA, but still buy DVDs and CDs.
I don't know about movies but if you want to support a band, go see them live and buy cd's directly from them. If you buy the cd in the store, the band only sees about $1.50. If you buy it from the band at the show, the band puts it all in their pocket.
I don't watch movies - too expensive for too little return. I barely watch tv - 50,000 channels of bad programming. I only have cable b/c it's the only broadband I have access too. I hardly listen to radio - it's all value-removed repackaging and advertising. As such, I buy one cd a year now (a HUGE change for an ex-dj). Print media is ok from time to time b/c of of pricing and depth and choice. I get most of my news, information and entertainment from the net, libraries and books. I'm a pop-culture hermit.
:)
I've been doing this for years now, after having worked in the media. And you know what, they don't care and wouldn't notice if we all did it. Why? They never do an actually random sample when they do ratings. People such as my self are consider an anomoly and are automatically dropped - you can't even fill out the forms. They argue dropping the extremes makes for a better sample (like in some olympic judging), but they seem to always leave in the guy who has colostomy bag so he doesn't have to miss his show.
The important word here is that they are a cartell. In a monopoly, you have no choice. With a cartell, you have very very little choice. Boycotts do not work against monopolys, cartells, utilities and commodities. Sadly, it may be time for regulation - the ultimate vengence. However, after having read about their accounting practices, I don't see why they couldn't be taken down through the RICO laws.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
The problem, pragmatically speaking, is: if people keep bitching about the *AAs, downloading mp3 and divx, AND buying cd/movie tickets/dvd, things could go on the current "gray way" for a while. If the *AAs start feeling the effect of a boycott in addition to the natural p2p effect, they might get really pissed and push harder for a general crackdown. I'm not sure if all this applies to such a massive-scale issue, but i think it makes sense. Besides, if your objective is to hurt them, a (mass) boycott would work. If your objective is to make things change, you could only fail. The root problem is no one (not artists nor buyers) needs labels anymore, but they just won't let themselves die. And the laws, obviously not reflecting the people's thoughts, won't allow it to happen naturally. And, to a certain extent, this is true for movie corporations, game publishers and other intermediaries not needed anymore.
Half of the /. crowd is saying "Look, RIAA, Napster / Gnutella / etc. isn't hurting sales, I'm buyng more music than ever. See? I'm still buying CDs. I'm supporting my favorite artists."
The other half is saying "Look, RIAA, you're evil and I'm not going to buy any music from you because you're charging way more than you should. I'll listen to independent music / go to live shows / etc. to support my favorite artists."
Seems to me as long as y'all can't agree on a strategy, neither side is going to be particularly effective.
Have we boycotted Microsoft yet?
I have, but I know there are lots of Linux folks who still use windows and buy games for windows.
If your complaint about the RIAA/MPAA is DRM/DMCA related, you might consider that given the rampant copying on Kazaa/Limewire/Morpheus, they have a point. The argument that they are not losing money is irrelevant. They are entitled to copyright by law, and it's being violated. They have a right to choose their business model, whether or not you agree with it. Maybe if we made a concerted effort to reduce piracy on the p2p networks, they'd be able to back down as well. However, slashdotters tend to accept piracy as natural, but then have the gall to call the MPAA/RIAA evil for defending themselves against it. People complain that they're buying legislation. Well, they're doing it with your money and they'f keep the money themselves if they didn't think it was saving them money in the long run.
If you don't like the prices of the MPAA/RIAA, boycott and picketing is the only legal course of action. I usually only buy cds from BMG at about $4 on average, and rarely see movies in theaters.
Vote for Pedro
Boycotts are great if you can take away a
noticeable percentage of their business. Most
people don't even know what the RIAA or MPAA
are, which is one reason why they are so
effective.
maybe a digital production house thingee or something. make it have shopping cart, listening station, pay for play settings for multiple bitrates of mp3s, sell stickers, promote bookings, all the goods that an aspiring artist needs to start a label, and distribute without a big company. all with one easy to install (ok, well, installable) package. could be a start.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
You want to boycott... ok... You want it to be affective...ok.... boycott the legistalors. Vote against, campaign against do everthing you can to get those overly entrenched (100 year old bigots for example) slime balls out of Washington. They are the cause of the power the RIAA/MPP has.
They write the laws that would make Adolf cringe. This boycott needs to be an active one. Not just in the US either. In Europe/Asia/the rest of North America/Australia/Africa and South America, you can move to empower your leaders to say NO when a BS US law is stuffed down their throats. (I watched South Korea tell Gates to stuff it when he tried to kill thier software industry, and he backed off hard.) Go see a European or Indian Movie, rather than a Hollywood shoot em up. The only way to effectivly change things like this is proactively and from within the system. They can't deny their own rules. If they do, they harm themselves more than they do you. In short Boycott the Demopublicans (or is that Republicrats). But do it by ACTIVELY voting for someone else, not by staying home. A vote not cast is a vote for the status quo.
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
What's my alternative? Don't just support EPIC and EFF -- help build and support media which the RIAA and MPAA don't and can't control. Listen to and pledge to (and volunteer for!) your local "community" radio station. Watch C-SPAN and public access TV. Read indymedia.org. Go to concerts and buy CDs directly from local artists. Find an art theater. Use free software and play Nethack. There are plenty of alternatives out there if you're willing to look deeper than Hollywood-style surface polish.
It's the same approach many people are taking to deal with factory farms and the "big food" companies like Monsanto: buy from co-ops and farmers markets, and get on a first-name basis with the people who grow your food. It's not a problem for you anymore if you're playing a different game. Sure, it looks like a boycott from the industry's perspective, but the goal of a boycott is to change someone's behavior; the idea here is to switch to something better instead, with no intention of "going back" if the industry improves.
In fact, I don't even like the way this question has been framed. It's not a question of whether "boycotting" huge media conglomerates will have positive effects. The question is why we ever bothered to deal with their system's restrictions, costs, advertising, and insipid pap in the first place.
Just FYI, with the exception of a handful of anime titles released by Disney and Columbia Tri-Star (i.e. Metropolis, Cowboy Bebop movie, Studio Ghibli titles), none of the money spent on anime titles fills the coffers of the MPAA. The anime distribution companies in the US are either independant (Media Blasters, CPM, ADV...) or are subsidiaries of their Japanese counterparts (Pioneer, Bandai, Viz...)
:)
So go ahead and don't worry about plunking down your change for Full Metal Panic when it hits the shelves.
If you thing sex is a low impact sport....Then man are you doing it wrong!
Secure multi-mediation is the future of all webbing...
All I'm hearing is "why bother, we'll never make a difference" and "RIAA doesn't care what we do".
That is so freakin' sad!!
Either you believe in something or you don't. If you do, no matter what the freakin' odds are stand for what you believe in!!
I hate to sound like a fortune cookie, but man.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I didn't see any sign-up sheet for a boycott, but I certainly joined one - starting over a year ago. And so did hundreds of thousands or millions of others in the U.S. And its working. How do I know? The MPAA and the RIAA are kind enough to publish figures showing that revenue is down in both the movie and music industries.
Napster? File sharing? DVD copying? Nope. A lot of us just got sick and tired of bad movies, bad music, and B.S. from the conglomerates pushing them and started staying home.
I used to go to the movies once every couple of weeks. Not because the movies were guaranteed to be great, but because I genuinely like movies. Between the high prices, poor accommodations, and poorer movies, I quit going. Now I find myself renting classics from Blockbuster.
I used to buy a lot of CDs (and before them cassettes and vinyl). Similar complaint. Mostly crap and at high prices.
I'm not alone in this. There are millions like me. We didn't join a boycott, we just quit buying. And won't be likely to start again any time soon.
With movies, pretty much all of the activity MPAA is trying to stop is illegitimate.
If the devil himself was selling tickets at the cost of my first born child i'd still be at the first showing
I work in the financial industry. There is no legal investment of which I am aware for which it is reasonable to expect a healthy 5 or 10 percent profit within a small number (less than 2) of years.
The pivotal word is "reasonable". Why should the MPAA/RIAA be able to reasonably expect to make a 5-10% return on their investment (and expect the government to help them enforce that profit), when I can't expect the government to force the person who manages the assets in my 401(k) to generate a "healthy" 5-10% return on my investments.
What gets me is that the MPAA/RIAA seem to act like it is their entitlement to earn a "healthy" profit. A profit should be a reward for a job well done.
you might as well suggest boycotting the wintel monopoly. people have suggested it, I'm sure people have suggested it multiple times in the past ten years. look at how far its gotten us.
The tech community is too small a minority for a boycott of mainstream media to be meaningful
Do everything you're already doing:
- write your congresspeople, etc.
- donate to epic and eff.
- actively support indy media.
- seek cheaper alternatives that do not directly feed the greedy bastard's coffers. (matinees, buy used, rent, etc.)
- talk to everyone you know, and find new ways to explain our plight in words non-geeks can better understand.
AND:
- start organizing the believers.
- get the word out that there are enough people to put together a large-scale, highly-visible protest/boycott. get the news's attention at least.
- organize protests in the big tech/consumer-heavy cities. peacefully picket the record stores, movie theatres, etc. bystanders and walkers-by will start getting the message. at least they'll see and hear it.
- when peacefully protesting/picketing/boycotting on a large, national scale, you will get news coverage. there's no such thing as bad publicity.
- while this large-scale protest/boycott is going on, have the epic and eff's best faces on all the news shows (that couldn't possibly NOT cover this by now) to discuss this huge protest phenomonon that's sweeping the nation.
even if the news doesn't cover a single bit of it, at least you have the people on the streets seeing what's going on, and maybe some of them will get the message, and join in.
if everyone doesn't work as one on this, we'll never win.
send the money that you would have spent on the movie or cd to an organization that supports or lobbies in your interest. If you can't find any, create one. Work with others.
Also, write your local representative and tell them what you are doing and why. Let them know, in a nice way, how you feel. Check their voting record. If they've been nice, maybe contribute to their campaign. If you don't have the cash, maybe you can volunteer some time.
The main thing is do something. Less talk, more action.
I've been boycotting the recording industry for 2 years now and I think that a LOT of others are quietly boycotting also. Here's how I tell them to go to hell. 1. Buy NO CDs. I listen to the radio. 2. I only see about 1 movie a month, and that's a matinee. I've gotten myself into the habit of waiting until it hits Blockbuster or pay-per-view. A night at the movies for me and my wife costs about $17.00, but a ppv movie on cable costs $5.00. Popcorn and soda at the movies costs $8.00 - $9.00, at home I get popcorn and a soda for $2.00. At home, there are no babies crying and nobody talking behind me. 3. Stay away from pay-for satellite radio service. Radio has been free for its entire history, now we have to pay for this $#!t too? Some of the stations even have commercials!!! These companies have been successful at screwing its customers because the vast majority of lemmings in this country happily bend over and pull their pants down when some inc. wants to screw them. Don't let them. Look at how Linux has taken off. With little advertising and a lot of walls thrown up in front of it. A protest doesn't have to be millions of people screaming all at once, it can start with a few. Support the EFF, don't write congressmen unless you're sending a six-figure check. Protest with your dollars, it's the only thing our government and the incs. pay attention to.
You said: "who will be suffering? The point is to go about your life without these things. If you are suffering, there is no point because you have a mind set that you can't live without them."
("them" being music, movies, cable television, internet connectivity, and so on provided by large media companies involved with the RIAA and/or MPAA)
To which I reply:
Just because you CAN live without something doesn't mean you SHOULD. Or that you should pretend to enjoy it.
You can live without toilet paper, too. Or indoor plumbing. Or medical care. Or cars. Or houses.
My point is, why would you WANT TO? The whole point of civilization is to enjoy the benefits of civilization -- not throw them away on a pointless gesture.
So, pardon me, but although I know I can live perfectly well without television, the internet, and movies, I CHOOSE NOT TO. I like 'em! And, I'm keeping 'em.
You, of course, can go right ahead and do as you wish. If you want to move to the Appalacians, build a Quonset hut miles from any road, and spend the rest of your life eking out a pre-industrial living as a moonshiner or something, well, Banzai! Go for it! I'm sure we all respect your decision.
I'll be playing Hitman II on my Playstation. The levels set in Japan are TOUGH.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
...the bastards have our number and there's no way we would be able to carry off a boycott.
Look at how many obviously moronic movies come out and as we watch the trailer we say "That movie looks so stupid, I wouldn't be caught dead in that theat...oooh she's naked!"
Next thing you know, there we are watching an over produced piece of theatrical krap just because some girl takes her top off in it.
They get our cash and we leave pseudo-satisfied enough to come back for more tripe next week.
If they didn't know us better than we know ourselves, if they didn't know how to push our buttons, we wouldn't have media as staple of our society.
Karma: Excellent (Mostly from refraining from kiling all those bastards who are really asking for it.)
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
It's not feasible for any individual to fight everything they don't like or agree with in life. We must choose our battles, depending on whats important to us. If it hurts my life more to boycott the MPAA/RIAA than it will ever help, then I'm not likely to do so (or at the least I won't fight many battles of the sort). I'm only one person, so my affect is negligable, considering the potential damage to my life (especially if I take on a bunch of causes all at once). :) ). Similarily if I avoid boycotting an industry and thus improve (or dont damage) my life as a result, then I'm going to take it unless I feel very strongly, ie the gain is worth the hurt.
For example, if I have the chance to steal from a large corporation I hate and no one will ever notice or get hurt by it, and it will benefit my life immensely, then I'm going to do it (because I can live with the guilt
An individual is unlikely to take on a bunch of 'noble' causes if they are lowering her/his quality of life, nor should they be expected to (sometimes its difficult to see or predict the future results of such actions though, an unintentionally cause more grief one way or the other).
If there were a serious, organized effort put forth to educate the mainstream about such things, you would really get the attention of Big Media.
No one wants to stop buying from their favorite artist
I stopped. I'll listen to the old stuff and the stuff I have rather then buy new and send money to RIAA/MPAA. I can go to live shows, or find sites that have RIAA-free music. With cam-corders and bandwidth, MPAA alternatives will show up if I wanna see a 'talkie'. Both might be better than Brittney Spears or The Scorpian King
And no one wants to miss a much-anticipated movie, even though the MPAA is involved.
Again, I'm no one then. For I would have went to the 2 Lord of the Rings, and would have waited for the cheap-seats on the Star Trek flix. I would have also seen spiderman and I'm not sure what else.
The ONLY movie I've seen in the last 2 years in a theater was Metropolis. (The flesh was weak).
I can wait until the DVD is at the library, or someone I know has it in thier collection so I can view it.
I'm not boycotting the product wholesale, but I *WONT* give them my money so they can buy a stick to beat my ass with later. I am just delaying the watching experience.
Asking someone to give up these things is maybe asking a bit too much.
No. Not at all. If someone asks about Brittney Spears, how spiderman was, or wants to chat about LotR's, I can't participate in those watercooler talks. Other than missing out in this idle chit-chat, *MY* life is in no way hurt. I instead can have idle chit-chat about John "Torquemada" Ashcroft, or John "I beat the rap!" Poindexter. Chit-chat that matters. (Yes, I'm a kill-joy!!!!)
Boycotting the RIAA/MPAA is not like asking people to do without petrochemicals due to the oil industry, or go without medicine/health care due to the wacked US healthcare system, or not us paint/plastics/non-organic food etc la due to DuPont/Monsanto/ConAgra/etc la.
The masses need their entertainment, and will get it from the easiest source.
Before there was TV/film/radio there were social events, books, hobbies, and even - gasp - sex. We have the ENTIRE internet for reading material to support reading, your hobbies, and even - gasp - sex.
Would it "actually" impact the board members and CEO, CFO of the companies boycotted.... Not likely. They will tow the company mantra that peer to peer or the "evil" consumers are killing them by using "eeevil" mp3's or ripping cd's. When they bail on an mismanaged dying industry, using thier "golden parachutes" they will be as blameless as a newborn lamb. Of course if the boycott does peeek over the horizon on them, (before they can bail with the cash) they will just jack prices up and lower contract payouts to artists. This way they have the added joy of screwing both ends of the chain.
One of the main problems is that for artists of all stripes, the *AA is the only reliable way for them (the lucky few of them) to reliably reach an audience and make a living, even if they're being robbed.
There needs to be a genuine, viable alternative. At the least, for ever dollar you spend buying a major label CD or DVD, spend another one on a small-run album from a local band or just drop the cash in the hat of the guy on the streetcorner with the guitar.
What would be ideal is a corporation with the distributing channels and strengths of the *AAs, but with the needs of the artists and consumers coming before those of the executives. Anybody know how we can set that up?
...MPAA boycotts YOU!!
ok, there are lots of technically very proficiant and independently wealthy individuals on slashdot - why don't a few people start an indepentent record label and start putting out good music? as you get bigger, sign bigger artists - have a slashdot music p1mpage site - unearth cool music..
and independent film!! we'll all start making movies!! WOOHOO!
anyway, at least support record labels which are independent. and i think music distribution which isn't evil would be a good idea - slashdot's influence would also help it fly.
Literally, I have not bought a single cd produced by a modern artist since David Bowie released Low.
Why?
Because I love MP3s. I dont like CDs. And you know what? I dont feel guilty either. The day I cant listen to MP3s for free or close to it, is the day I stop listening to new music.
Of course, I have bought CDs from local bands and orchestras when they are selling them directly to me. Why? Because I dont want them to go out of business. Modern popular music I hope goes out of business. I hope the RIAA and its affiliates die out. It would even bother me if they found a new business model, because inherent to their nature is the desire to destroy "art" as an expression of humanity and to instead transform it into a commodity.
Art is destroyed when it is homogonized and mass produced. The MPAA is no different then the RIAA. While there are exceptions, Hollywood has produced utter crap. I dont deny that there are success stories, but the reality is that there would be even more GREAT film if the Hollywood system died out. The same can be said for music and the RIAA.
sure it would help, if we could convince enough people to be vocal about it, get some press coverage as well.
and for those of us who cant live without some media, perhaps they could impose themselves a "limit of 1" 1 cd per year, 1 movie ticket per year. The phrase "If you only see one movie this year" would actually have some meaning now.
I think the last cd I bought for myself was Weird Al Yankovic's Running with siscors, and that came out what 2 years ago 3 years ago? I've only bought one cd since then and that was a gift, and I've since learned my lesson.
Before these take it in the butt prices and gestapo tactics were so evident to the average consumer I bought a dozen cds a year, so screw the RIAA.
From now on, it's boycott 24/7 for me.
------- sig goes here
This is a friends attempt to get the word out for some indie blues musicians.
www.wholelottablues.com
check it out if you are so inclined.
Cheers
Come on up to the GOOD life, Yosemite, CA.
I bruise easily.
This was said after the release of "The Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones," "Fellowship of the Ring" and now "The Two Towers". Give it up, already.
Lucasfilm and all its sister outfits are anomalous from "the film industry", and any geek worth his salt already knows that.
Wingnut/WETA are anomalous from "the film industry", and any geek worth his salt already knows that, too.
This is a silly idea for a boycott anyway, as the MPAA is just a distribution cartel and the oft-maligned studios merely publishers. They DELIVER art when they're at their best, and when they're making it you can just ignore it secure in the knowledge that it will be terrible, no boycott organization required. The consumer boycotting the art to protest its distribution controls is a meaningless act, especially given the distribution scheme used by the MPAA - a boycott would hurt theater owners and workers far more than it would affect the fatcats you hate. At worst all it would do would be to convince them that the artist whose work you're boycotting can't draw at the box office, and to replace him. Maybe you want "Michael Bay's The Silmarillion" but I don't.
A boycott would be futile. There are still enough people on this planet who would not take part that these companies would barely even notice the change in revenue.
Our best bet is to get the goverment to make the changes necessary to level the playing field. It will be difficult but it is the only sure-fire way to make change.
Unfortunately the latest LOTR DVD has very important uncut scenes not shown in the theater. The fight scenes were twice as long.
A review on Amazon says it all:
In every aspect, the extended-edition DVD of Peter Jackson's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring blows away the theatrical-version DVD. No one who cares at all about the film should ever need to watch the original version again. Well, maybe the impatient and the squeamish will still prefer the theatrical version, because the extended edition makes a long film 30 minutes longer and there's a bit more violence (though both versions are rated PG-13). But the changes--sometimes whole scenes, sometimes merely a few seconds--make for a richer film. There's more of the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien, embodied in more songs and a longer opening focusing on Hobbiton. There's more character development, and more background into what is to come in the two subsequent films, such as Galadriel's gifts to the Fellowship and Aragorn's burden of lineage. And some additions make more sense to the plot, or are merely worth seeing, such as the wood elves leaving Middle-earth or the view of Caras Galadhon (but sorry, there's still no Tom Bombadil).
Is slashdot really a community? We can't even agree if the RIAA/MPAA is a bad organization or not. A lot of /. readers even think its a good thing to have the music and movie industry the way it is. They are probably the same people that go watch Star Wars X on openning night, or watch their favorite TV shows every night, etc. I don't even watch TV anymore. I P2P all the shows I want to see and purchase/rent the movies I'm interested in watching. Because of the difference between people like me and the rest of the voters, /. posters, etc, I don't think a boycott would ever work.
I have been following everything these organizations have been doing in the last 3 years. I know we should have been boycotting them all this time. But I don't care. Its like Microsoft. You call it a Monopoly yet you still use and recommend their products. What's the point in trying to convince you monopolies are bad. You should have been taught that in economics class, but somehow it didn't quite register. Personally I think people enjoy working long hours to buy poor quality products and entertainment. They like being treated like some worthless ignorant consumer. I'm just sorry I have to put up with all of it.
Maybe one day if slashdot is a community they'll decide to start their own country and do things the right way the first time, automate everything, KISS, etc, etc, etc. Until then, until we start acting like a community, we're nothing but a bunch of hypocrites, just like everyone else.
The only real advantage of the theatre is the "theatre experience", which may or may not be preferable to what you got at home. No bathroom breaks. Annoying people talking around you. Uncomfortable seating. Can't talk to your friends. Gotta pay outrageous prices for refreshments. Sound system often way too loud. And price is multiplied by the amount of people you're going to see it with - which means it usually ends up costing more than buying the DVD, never mind renting it.
;)
I'm not quite sure why you think the profit on seeing it at the theatre is "reasonable", but the profit on the DVD is "ridiculous". The movie production company gets 100% of your money - the theatre owners make all their money on the aforementioned refreshments. So if you're saving money by not buying refreshments, you're essentially screwing Mr. Local Theatre Owner.
Whereas if you buy or rent a DVD, you're getting a physical item that cost money to make and you're contributing to the local merchant. Your money gets spread around a bit. And the nature of the rental/DVD business means that you're a lot more likely to have a good idea if it's any good or not.
Plus, if you buy or rent the DVD at a later date instead of rushing out to see it in the theatre, you're not contributing to the opening-weekend-box-office-blockbuster effect that many blame for all the crappy movies that come out. The more movie companies can rely on people to seek out smaller, quality movies instead of whatever's playing at the local multiplex, the more willing they'll be to make such movies. Instead of spending almost the cost of the film itself on promotion to get a bit opening weekend.
Never mind that if DVD sales go way down, they'll just blame it on the Internet, and it'll provide more ammunition for their draconian laws. (They'll blame everything on the Internet, anyway, of course, but it's easier to fight their arguments when DVD sales are going through the roof.)
You're right about the other stuff - action figures, collectible t-shirts, etc etc. No one should ever buy that crap.
Would it be acceptable to you to rent DVDs for a night and convert them to DivX ;) for later viewing (time-shifting)?
And if someone happens to use a P2P file-sharing utility to make illegal copies of your personal for-single-viewing-only DivX collection, well, that's not your fault.
I haven't gone to see a movie in a theater in years, and I won't even rent garbage like Star Wars. And, all my music listening is now online mp3s.
Just because I got out of the media/money-fed rat race a few years ago does not mean that my life sucks...
:-)
/.-ers if the porno industry is shelling out to the MPAA? (I guess so. As Vespasian said after taxing Rome's public toilets: "money has no odor.")
I go to shows to hear the musicians. I go to plays and see the artists. I go to museums and expose myself to art (so far, no arrests.) I go to the neighborhood bar, bend the elbow and talk to friends. I borrow and read books from the public library.
I stay home, cook and invite friends over. I surf the net, hack, write, sing, play, live and, yes, I even make love, have sex and screw like a crazed weasel. Whatever ya wanna call it.
Meanwhile Valenti and Rosen can go fuck themselves but they're NOT doing it with my money.
But can I ask you
It certainly isn't about quality of the material now is it.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
How about instead of boycotting the RIAA/MPAA we all commit to using filesharing networks for legal purposes only? Seriously, isn't that how all of this started?
Let's boycott, starting with LoTR: The Two Towers. I'm not ready to see Ents walk.
Ah screw it, who am I kidding?!
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Show how you feel by picking, as a collective,
one new movie and one new cd to not spend
money on. Make it something they expect to reach
landmark sales...
and kill it.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
That hits their wallets, and that makes a statement.
SAO
What is really needed is a class action by those companies who distribute music on record and cassette.
They could band together and sue Sony, etc on the grounds that compact disc technology is used to promote the piracy of copyrighted works.
Afterall, it's a real hastle to connect a truntable or tape player to your computer and rip tracks, whereas CD-ROMs and their associated media are a piece of cake.
Surely the RIAA/MPAA are colluding to produce technology that can be used in the piracy of music ?
Bring Back LP's !
We want to be fat, lazy, and comfortable. 99.9% of the population cares more what happens on the next episode of Friends than they do about who's running the country, how much they pay in taxes, or what freedoms they lose.
Why should they be inconvenienced to fight a menace to freedom ?
Boycotting the *AA's would be a very difficult task, given how much of a monopoly they have on our media-saturated society these days. Even if we did succeed, they would probably attribute the lost sales to piracy. (The only way I could see around that is getting some media attention on the issue, so that the public KNOWS a boycott is taking place. But given that the *AA's serious control of the media...the web is probably your best bet to get the word out.)
/.'s have in their arsenal is technology, how about we putting it to good use?
So what is the slashdot crowd to do?
Most of the suggestions that have been made so far include:
1) Give the *AA's as little money as possible if you can't seem to break the addiction to mainstream media (every little bit of revenue you keep out of their pockets helps, and more importantly it DOES add up)
2) Doing the Congress-critter crawl and urging friends/family to do the same, and also supporting the EFF. (Consider a donation to the EFF as a Christmas present that can give you a good return on your digital freedoms in the future, and don't give up on politics and the law yet, they CAN work with consistent pressure and concerted effort.)
But here's one suggestion that I haven't seen anyone else come up with:
Attack the *AA on their own turf. When I say attack, I don't mean "run off and DDos their networks or start pirating their material". A bunch of highly-opinionated, screaming geeks will fail to change the general public's perception of things as they truly do stand, so we have to work in a manner that they DO understand.
I'm sure everyone out there has friends or knows people who really want to make their own movies, start a band, etc. or who does this on their own time. How about we give them a hand? One of the most potent things
I'm sure there are enough geeks out there who could lend their techincal expertise in setting up or running some *nix sound recording and mastering software for the garage band practicing next door. How about using those graphics skills to add some polish and shine to your buddy's new movie that he's shooting as a labor of love? Or you could help you friend set up a website for distributing their creations.
I know it may sound cheesy, but think about it, it is possible to give some of these budding artists a helping hand in creating some truly high quality work, and not one second or dime is wasted on the big media companies. What this is also does it turn's people's attention to what will be considered an 'underground/amateur' media scene.
At the very worst, you've had some fun helping people and learned/mastered/improved your technical skills on some interesting projects. Probably even opened a few people's minds about being creative on a grass roots level.
At the best, people might start being turned off by mass-produced cheesy crap when they realize that controlled distribution channels prevent them from experiencing good media, because some bean-counter thought it wouldn't turn a profit. In the very best case, they might become jaded towards big media productions...
Since these are labors of love, the cost is bearable by the people who make them, (in fact, I'm guessing most of them don't even see it as a 'cost' as much as an expression of their artistic freedom), and the big media industries will have a hard time competing with something that's 'cool because it's NOT made by big media'.
The last time I bought a CD from a major label was 1997. I don't even own a DVD player.
Either I'm a dedicated boycotter... or a cheap bastard.
and 1000 homo djs said it well.
Yea, do agree and lets do MS while we are at it. OR just do MS...
Every CD I've bought over the last 4 years was handed to me by the artist who made it during intermission. And while I haven't bought a mass-market CD in that time, I've spent close to a grand on live shows.
I think I'm doing my part.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
As others have said, there are better alternatives to this. If I were mega rich (or had enough time to organize it as a charity), I would make an organization that tours from city to city giving studio time free to aspiring artists on the condition that the music they record enters the public domain. They can use the recording to promote themselves, and the organization website would promote the bands and have downloads.
The issue with boycotting the RIAA is that it doesn't really go to what I see the root of the problem is: they are a middle man that can be cut out. They don't produce the content, but they control it unfairly. Finding ways around the RIAA is a better way of going about it, IMO.
-no broken link
Honestly, I don't keep up with the issues all that much. I only know what bothers me.
Personally, music is insanely over-priced. I don't think movies are nearly as bad -- not much worse than I'd expect. How often can you get a DVD -- full movie, sound track, tons of extras -- for the same price as the sound track on CD? Sound track CDs cost nothing to produce (it's just a compilation of previously recorded/mixed/mastered crap), while movies cost millions. Yet, both cost the same to you and I.
I don't care if they are comprised by some of the same companies. I'm not against any companies entirely -- just the things they do that I don't like. Same with the 'net access issue -- that part I have no issue with, provided that they are handling that part fairly. It's the music industry, in general, that I have a problem with.
Any company in their right mind will dump a division that is no longer making money. If we boycott what we don't like -- instead of entire companies -- then our point is made. No sense refusing to buy Sony electronics because Sony Records is a major RIAA member. Same with boycotting an ISP that might happen to be owned by some subsidiary who's uncle's former room-mate works in the mail room for an RIAA affiliate.
Just boycott the music part. They'll see that that division is having issues, and may do something about it (or likely not). Of course the RIAA organization itself will blame piracy, etc, but the individual members may have their own views.
What do I do about it? I don't buy CDs. I don't listen to broadcast radio. I don't listen to the flavor of the week in any form. On the rare occasion I really, reall like a band that happens to with an RIAA-associated label -- I pirate the album via Kaaza-Lite, and send the band a crisp $10 bill with a letter explaining the situation (it's way more than they'd have seen if I'd bought the CD). Legal? Absolutely not. But just, in my opinion.
I've done this twice btw (Disturbed's new album, and Taproot's latest). I plan to start a whole thing about it on one of my web sites later, with a form letter etc...
We're better off being politically active, taking on (or over) the government, and getting the laws passed that we want passed. A government by the people doesn't do the people's bidding if the people aren't involved.
It's good to see someone taking a stand. The point is not to make a huge difference, the point is to stand true to your own morals. The idea that one person doesn't make a difference, so it's not worth making a stand, is ridiculous. If one person makes a stand, then perhaps another will, if two people are making a stand, perhaps a third or forth will join them?
Personally, I felt really good about myself when I finally decided to properly boycott Microsoft products and services. But when I did that, I was only missing out on a few games (few as in games worth playing). But the reason I won't boycott the MPAA and RIAA is that I like films and I like music, they actually have something I want. At least in Microsofts case there is a valid alternative.
Although, I guess the alternative to MPAA and RIAA owned media might not be so bad, I haven't really looked into it. I will do now though, and I'll try and cut down the amount I spend that benefits the MPAA/RIAA.
It's something we all should be activly trying to do, even if we do give in to our LoTRs and Matrixs (should that be Matrices) from time to time.
--
Hollywood representatives have publicly stated that skipping commercials is "stealing."
Isn't the Internet supposed to be about P2P? Why not take that concept into meatspace? Why sit around and consume, consume, consume from the large corporations? Why not create, share, and interact with your friends, family, and neighbors?
That /.ers are righteous, opinionated hyprocrites who toss out the 'party-line' when it suits them and make excuses when it doesn't.
If there are no (or fewer) record sales for said band, the record company is likly to drop them. They're only likly to trust their own quantative statistics, and the band sending them a few dolars here and there isn't likly to help.
--
Hollywood representatives have publicly stated that skipping commercials is "stealing."
Okay, you know how the ??AA claim that the internet is hurting sales? well if we can get a reasonable-sized boycott, then they'll start yelling "WE HAVE NUMBERS! OUR SALES HAVE DECREASED!" and they now have another bone to throw to the idio^H^H^H^Hcongressmen in washington.
Personally, I have 1100 CDS, and not a single one
of them is on a major label. The closest my cd
collection gets to major labels is records off of hellcats records http://www.hell-cat.com which is owned by epitaph.. Frankly, there's just nothing on the radio that interests me. I have no interest in the latest techno, pop-punk, pop r&b, whatever album.. Never had, never will.
"And how can this be? For he is the
Rent DVDs, rip them, give CD/VCD-versions to friends.
A $5 hire price for twenty people to see the movie is an acceptable cost, IMO, especially with the miniscule amount of that $5 that actually goes to the MPAA.
And if you get your twenty friends to chip in 25c for the rental, you can justify it to yourselves as only giving the MPAA maybe 10-15c for the latest 50 trillion dollar special effects money-sink.
OK, so it's illegal... and the tactics of the MPAA with their region-coding and willingness to push bad laws on the public for their own gain is somehow better?
Screw them. They've tried (and are still trying) to screw each and every one of us, and I don't see why we should respect them OR their so-called Intellectual Property.
You laugh, but I have done this with 4 different bands so far. One responded to me with thanks for beer money.
It serves a dual purpose: They get far more money than they would with a tiny royalty, and it opens their eyes to the fact that they could be a whole lot richer if they found business model apart from the RIAA.
So, laugh, but some people practice it.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Would a record company work as a not-for-profit-organisation? I mean, assuming some benevolent rich corporation (if such a thing exists) was willing to set one up, if only as a marketing ploy, could it succeed?
I don't really see why not, although I haven't really looked into it enough to perhaps see some of the pit falls of my idea. They'd take enough money from CD sales to cover expenses (admin, distribution, marketing) and give the rest to the artist. There's a possibility of cheaper CDs and more money for the artist, leading to more demand from consumers and more artists wanting to join. Perhaps even some larger artists could be persuaded to join for ethical reasons?
On the other hand, perhaps I should stop wearing these rose-tinted glasses, they cause nothing but disapointment...
But seriously, if anyone has any thoughts on how this might/might not work, then say.
--
Hollywood representatives have publicly stated that skipping commercials is "stealing."
I've already stopped buying discs from RIAA-friendly labels. Not that big of a deal. You see, I listen to *good* music, and therefore, the collection I have doesn't 'get old'.
As for the MPAA, no thanks. Whereas with boycotting the RIAA, you can still get decent music from other sources, what happens when you boycott Hollywood?
Indies? Hah. Thanks, but no thanks. The last thing I need to subject myself to is something along the lines of the Blair Witch Crapfest.
I haven't seen a movie in the theater since the MPAA began the bullshit that is the anti-DeCSS legal case, and I do not own a DVD player nor any DVDs. I will continue the boycott until they stop trying to stomp on my fair-use Rights, including the removal all Region Code enforcement and "unskippable" content. Unfortunately, as you note, most people can't be bothered to put their long term interests ahead of watching the latest pile of Hollywood bile, so it's largely a pointless act. People are stupid, corporations rule.
they want to control the channels of distribution, and/or distroy the potential of ones they cant control, like the internet and our computers that we contol (thats why they and microsoft play nice, since its also in microsofts interest that they, not us, control the net and our computers)
i dont like the idea of a ruthless meglomaniac and a bunch of short sighted assholes controlling the means to collaborate thought. thus, the thought of going to the MPAA movies or buying from the riaa sickens me.
and yes, i help/support independant movies and music where i can. thankfully there are many "content producers" who also give thier finger to the **AA
Hmm, when you "BORROW" stuff from your p2p friends, do they still have their COPY or are they unable to use it because you "BORROWED" it?
And guess who owns the media?
I wonder...
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
"Would a Boycott of the MPAA/RIAA Help Matters?"
If people stopped downloading their IP off the Internet, I'm sure it would help.
Since I'm mostly listening to Indiemusic (Punkrock, Emo, etc.) I found only two Labels listed on the RIAA page Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph Records and the last time I bought an Album from Epitaph (Beatsteaks - Living Targets; damn good CD).
All my other purchased CDs (quite a lot) a released almost completely independently and I always try to order them directly from the Labels/Bands.
Instead of blind boycotting, just try to change your mind about music! Get into indiemusic and movies (they are a lot better anyways), instead of demanding the products of the evil, capitalist companies.
All your church are belong to the RIAA !
bool Marketoid::IsGood(){return IsDead();}
The boycott only makes a noticible impact if you can find people who buy regularly and convince them to stop. Personally I haven't purchased anything in 3 years as far as movies or cds goes, but thats because (as usual) they just put out crap. Convince the sheap to do it is the only way, because as large a member base as slashdot has, I doubt there is a significant amount of purchases for the *IAA that comes from here (significant in terms of their bottom line). Its irrational to think that a group that contributes .5% or so could seriously impact any company's policies, and until anyone can find a group that does contribute that much, you haven't got a chance for this to be noticible anywhere but slashdot
Isn't there something against corporations froming market cornering conclomerates and pricefixing etc?
I'm not willing to pay an extra $5 a CD for a jewl case and box... So I don't buy it! but I'm just a drop that missed the bucket.
I'd buy a few hours worth of music at $5 an hour though... unless the songs are immensly popular, inwitch case the amount that I'm willing to pay becomes less...
Music is like water, Our friends talk about it and we must keep up. (well not so much now that I think about it a bit more... but... it is... grrr... I'm waffling on my own statement)
Please use [ informative / summarizing ] SUBJECT LINES
Flame me here
I want to see / hear the latest new work by artists I admire. Unfortunately, most of the ones I admire are (because most of the ones I know about are) distributed by MPAA/RIAA member companies. It is not the artists who are responsible for the objectionable parts of the MPAA/RIAA's agenda (usually; and I for one don't think Metallica are artists), it's the management. Sure, I'd like to stick it to the management, but not so badly that I'm going to keep myself from experiencing new work that I want to see or hear. So while I may buy the stuff the RIAA / MPAA are pushing (though less and less as the years go on; there hasn't been as much interesting in the past few years), I'll still support the fight against some of the stuff they'll pulling. Does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe so; but that's the world I'm living in.
I liked the guy growling in the background - is that you? - and the song in general. It's actually a catchy tune.
These guys at MP3.com are screwing you over?
Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
They both are monopolies, but someone has to prove they're abusing their power, and they both own the government figures that decide whether to pursue that or not.
I'm both Irish and an open source evangelist, so while a Boycott seems quite natural (you have heard the story of Captain Boycott of Achill Island?) I don't think it's the right approach. It's certainly not the most effective one.
Instead, if everyone who disapproves of the RIAA/MPAA continues to buy DVDs, go to movies etc, with this addition: submit a small, standardized business card that shows concisely why you don't like what they're doing and tell the clerk/manager/whoever that you're mad as hell and won't take it much longer... if they want to continue getting your money, their bosses have to change their tune.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think with a suitable standard design of card, this might stand a fighting chance of making an impact. I'm not poetically inclined (nor that good with the GIMP) but I'm sure someone out there could come up with a good design. Remember when Linux lacked a logo? We came up with Tux. Surely we can do something similar now?
Anyone up to this challenge?
Markets are Conversations (as Doc Searls and his cluetrain buddies will no doubt remind us). We need to converse back. LOUDLY, DAMMIT!
-- This
My god, look at the problems that affluence breeds...the plight of having to pay so much for entertainment because there's so much food in your stomachs that you can't find a better place to spend your money.
And you guys really believe you've seized on a problem? Look at the RIAA. Then look at the starving people in this world. And then look in the mirror, you pathetic whiners.
<bart
These jerks are big enough that a boycott isn't going to do much. At least not anything that the /. community is capable of comming up with.
/. community has the power to do this. Napster was a great start. Don't quit there. What other ways can you think of that the geek world change the way entertainment is produced and distributed?
Besides, if you did "win" with a boycott you would end up with the same jerks in control, they would simply conform enough to please you.
Do you really want those jerks running entertainment?
Instead I would propose a revolution. Rather than getting them to bend the rules a bit to meet your desires.....shatter them. Completely change the rules of the entertainment industry.
The
At first it may take a bit of guerilla warfare, things like bootlegging. But you will need to recognize, as you create the new entertainment industry, that those involved do need to make a living.
Forget trying to make your point with them tho. They just don't care. Forget them. Replace the bastards.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
A boycott sounds like a good plan, but getting enough people to do it would be hard. Unfortunately, if a big enough impression is made that it starts hurting their sales noticably, they aren't going to attribute it to the boycott. No, they'd probably claim that internet piracy is the cause of the downturn and use that to justify being even worse. <sarcasm>After all, if we aren't buying their products, we're obviously pirating.</sarcasm>
I'm not sure if there's a way out. If the artists start turning away, then they'd lose their revenue in a way that they couldn't attribute to piracy (no source of revenue = no revenue), which would probably hurt them a lot more. However, the artists can't be expected to do that either, as they need money too.
Everyone seems to be so vocal about their favourite easy way out. There isn't one, and they know it. It's getting harder too -- as the post says, they're diversifying.
You can buy with confidence from
http://www.metropolis-records.com/ . they're an industrial/ebm label mostly, and have lots of good acts like VNV Nation, Assemblage 23, Apoptygma Berserk, Funker Vogt, KMFDM, Covenant, etc.... In my opinion most of these artists are helping to revolutionize the music scene and they're definately proof that good music exists outside of the RIAA, which endorses mostly crap anyway.
The easy answer is because we are all media whores, we love the imaginary world and we hate anything that stands in the way of getting our fix.
Lets keep in perspective tho', I recently bought two round media's. I payed almost the same price (approx $15) for Spiderman and Shaman (the new Santana CD). The Spiderman CD cost approx $100 Mil to make. I find it hard to believe that Shaman cost that much. While I have listened to Shaman more, I find it hard to believe that it cost more to make.
The readers of this website are among the smartest people in the world today. Its not hard to understand, its all about collusion. CD's should be cheaper (with regards to DVD's, I gotta say Spiderman with special features for $15 is not too bad).
If you feel it is something you should do then do it. You may go through an annoying stage of preachiness, but it won't hurt you. When McDonalds raised the cost on plain cheese burgers from .69 to .99, I called it quits. It's been 4 years. Besides Wendy's is better. The last movie I saw in a theatre was LOTR and it will be the next. As other's have mentioned video and music can be had at used stores. And if those dry up because of a boycott, then read a book. I have always been fascinated by the courage of the early pioneers in this country. It seemed at times that they barely hesitated to boycott or what not. Of course the society was smaller, but in reality so is ours. How many of us are really friends with everyone in our extended neighborhoods, city, county, state, you get the point.
/. recommended returning all the junk mail prepaid envelopes. I thought that was a great idea, so I started doing it. I've mention it to friends and family and now many of them do it out of habit.
Sometime ago, someone on
Sometimes my 2 cents becomes 4. sorry.
"Comrads!
What WILL happen is that the people involved in the resistance will punish themselves, suffering weeks without internet access, movies, music, and so on, all just to find out that their suffering has all been in vain.
So join the Red Army NOW!"
A boycott is an inherently democratic form of protest. By this I mean that its effectiveness is inherently linked to the number of people that decide to do it - and those protesting get the increased effect from their similar behaiour even if they don't coordinate with each other to organise the protest. So don't worry about what everyone else is doing: boycott those things that you think should be boycotted, and you'll be having your say - your fair share of attention - in aggregate with everyone else that feels the same way. You don't need to solve the whole problem by yourself: just take well-considered personal action that, if scaled up (i.e., done by enough people), would solve the problem.
This applies to other such democratic mechanisms too. Like what that street musician is performing? Give him a bit of money, and think about how much he'll be encouraged to keep performing if everyone who liked him as much as you did also gave him that much. Hate door-to-door salesmen? Waste their time by shutting the door on them without saying whether you'll come back; gloat at the thought of how frustrated he'll be if he ends up waiting a couple of fruitless minutes at every door on the street.
I am not personally blanket-boycotting big media businesses at the moment. I've considered it, but boycotting an effective monopoly (in a product that one wants) is difficult, and I'm not yet convinced that it's the right approach. Rather, I avoid particular types of products that I object to. For example, I will not knowingly buy a crippled pseudo-CD, because I view it as a proprietary data format (CD formats are open), which limits how I can practically use the data. If big labels start crippling all CDs then I won't buy any from them. Similarly, I do not buy DVD videos, at least until I can get a DVD drive that will extract all the data from DVD video in an open format (I wait to see whether CSS obfuscation can be treated as an `open format').
I think that paying GBP10 or so for a single view of a good film on a big screen in a West End cinema is a fair exchange, so I'll continue to watch movies in cinemas. However, I do maintain an absolute boycott of films that have been censored. Seeing a mutilated variant of a film isn't worth anything to me, so I won't pay to see such things. In fact, seeing a censored film isn't even worth the time it takes to watch. For this reason, I haven't seen Star Wars Episode II (see my comment on it), and, having discovered that The Matrix was censored for British cinema release, I'll be checking what happens to The Matrix Reloaded before I consider watching it in the cinema.
In all these cases, it's easy for me to maintain the `boycott'. Every time I vote with my wallet by ot buying somthing I was considering buying due to one of these objections to it, I have the satisfaction that I've avoided buying something that'll annoy me (crippled or mutilated content in these cases) as well as the satisfaction of having effectively expressed my preferences. I urge you all to follow this simple maxim: don't buy stuff that pisses you off.
There's been articles about this problem in the past. EFF and others can't fight unless they are supported - financially.
Simple solution folks - watch all the Big Media garbage you like, listen to Britney Spears; whatever. For every dollar you give to the Evil Empire just donate one to the good people who are fighting to protect your freedom. $1 too much? then try 50 cents, whatever. You get to see Two Towers AND your conscience ic clear.
but it pisses me off when i pay $8 to watch 3 hours of commercials. the last movie i went to had commercials before the previews. i really dont like paying money to see advertisements. then when you watch the movie you see product pacements everywhere.
-- john
We at the MPAA have spent millions lining the pockets of Congress to ensure our property is protected from the likes of you freeloaders who think some yellow piece of paper written hundreds of years ago should grant you the right to steal our property. Grow up. Learn how the system works.
If you think you should have the right to use OUR property, go and buy your own legislation! We dare you to out-bid us!
You see, we know all the tricks in DeeCee. We know who to give envelopes filled with money to and which representative prefer hookers to cocaine. We are professionals who know how to throw a junket to Barbados with such style that any member of Congress will sign the laws we write. You can't even imagine the creativity of the parties we've thrown down in Alabama to help buy votes... elephants in white sheets, fire, actors in black face etc. We swayed dozens of senators that one night!
See, you are disorganized idealists. It's pathetic really.
To quote a film owned by one of our members:
"Good loses because good is stupid." - Spaceballs
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The above is written as SATIRE. The author is not a member or in any way connected to what the author believes to be the Cesspool of Sedition ( aka the MPAA ). It's a joke, a giggle, a freaking attempt at humor. So don't sue me you sick twisted fscks!
Oh, and John As*croft can lick my bunghole.
i went looking for a list of MPAA members a while back, but i couldnt find one. the riaa was nice enough to put their list on their website, but i haven't been able to find a list of the mpaa members. i know the big ones, but i wanted to know the smaller compaines they own.
if you have a link i would be grateful.
-- john
It isn't just us, the consumers who should support a boycott, but also the artists and actors who should be convinced to STOP WORKING with the members of the MPAA and RIAA. Alot of them say on websites that new artists and actors get shit on while the established acts just get more and more money. And it does cost the new acts. Its like George Ziemann says in his article here http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html that the majority of releases make nothing and the others are what make profits. And i think his idea is good, that new artists should boycott the record companies in favor of having control of their own music. Cause Metallica may make great music, and may even own, but they don't have control of it and THAT is why the RIAA was formed. To protect Big Corps control of artists music!
Boycotted the RIAA since 1998 when the DMCA was passed, and I stopped buying CDs. I don't support the RIAA in any way, nor do I support the artists that support them.
The MPAA is hard to avoid. I love movies. I go to the theater, watch the movie, go home, download the movie, burn the movie to VCD, then wait for the DVD release & buy it, so I won't have to continue to watch the camera-in-the-theatre.
How is this pirating the MPAA? I can't figure that one out. Pirating the RIAA? Yes, and it doesn't bother me. I don't liek the MPAA, and think that producers could do without them (EX: George Lucas).
I watched EP II in the theatre. I have it on VCD (DivX too), and on DVD. I havn't bought a CD since the DMCA was passed, and Im quite happy with that decision. DMCA be damned.
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Is this a sig?
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It will work only if people who actually buy this stuff stop buying. Not if people who just whine about others making money stop buying (they hadn't even tried in the first place)
The reason the ??AA don't get my money is that my standards for what is 'good' are higher than 99% of the crap they generate. I'm just not interested. If they can find a way to make me interested, they'll get my money. This is the way most people think. The problem everyone seems to be having is that most people settle for what the ??AA is putting out, and it's not good enough for this crowd's tastes.
So what's your problem? Don't go to the movies. You won't be missed, and you won't miss it. Just don't whine about a useless and impractical boycott for ideology's sake. Heaven forbid, you might actually try doing something about it, like starting your own production house. But OMG, that'd require, like, getting off your ass and going outside. And being slightly intelligent and business-savvy. And dealing with liars, cheats, VCs, and all sorts of other unmentionables. Naw, much easier for you to sit down, bitch about how much life sucks on /., and munch Cheetos.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
We need some well laid out demands for our boycott. What exactly do we want to demand from the MPAA and RIAA? I suggest telling them to stop going after P2P networks, and charge reasonable prices. I guess for the MPAA, they could change the legal status of DeCSS. However, I also think they should lobby for the repeal of the DMCA, but they don't have complete control over that since congress has to act.
You might as well just forget about trying to boycott the RIAA/MPAA. Let's be realistic here.
It'd be akin to declaring a boycott on all Microsoft products out of the blue -- the zealots would gladly play along(or may already be..), but they'd be few and far between compared to the masses who would ignore you.
Want a real solution to combatting the power of the RIAA/MPAA? Give them some competition. Incidentally, same goes for Microsoft. Any kind of boycott, be it of buses or of media conglomerates, is centered on there being some kind of competition to turn to. If want to boycott British wool, weave yourself. Want to boycott a racist bus system? -- Organize carpools with friends. Want to defeat an international monopolistic media company? -- Set up competition that will pay the big bucks for rights to movies, and effectively market them via traditional theaters or even the Internet. Imagine if the MPAA didn't just take the rights to LotR for granted, but had to compete with a more benevolent media corporation that was actually -liked- by geeks.
Plus, then the RIAA/MPAA won't be able to blame everything on piracy, and might actually be tempted to shape up. Who knows, maybe even Valenti/Rosen would take a clue after having a run for their money from serious competition.
http://cltracker.net -- powerful craigslist multi-city search
The bottom line is this:
Maybe several thousand geeks boycotting the xxAA does nothing compared to the millions who will pay. Perhaps the solution is competition or a much more widespread boycott.
But that doesn't change this: You have no right to complain about the problem if you don't do anything to combat it yourself. Guaranteed, if even 5% of the customers boycotted the xxAA's products, you would see a difference. So set a good example, and do your part by withholding your couple hundered of dollars worth of movie rentals, tickets and CDs, voting, and telling your friends about the selling off of our civil rights. Otherwise, complaining about the problem would be hypocrisy.
~Ben
Lets face it, a boycott would never work.
You would need to get literally Millions of people involved.
Most people don't give a flying-fuck about RIAA or MPAA - most people don't know who they are.
I don't give a damn about it and most the rest of the world don't either.
And what would we be boycotting ?
Stopping Pollution ?
Halting the spread of Aids ?
An end to war, poverty, famine ?
Nope, we'd be boycotting something totally silly and irrelevant by comparison.
Entertainment Monopoly.
Big deal.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
It takes time and persistence. I used to play with technology until 2 am and know the routine. My lifestyle has changed a lot and most of my time is spent with pure artists at their gigs and in the studio with them. They are not clueless.
People are listening. Don't buy mainstream records or attend movies. It may be tough, but in the end, it will take the arts from the media conglomerates and give it back to the people.
It'll actually happen eventually regardless of that... People are smarter than geeks typically give them credit for. They just don't seem to care about these types of issues quite as much.
www.dedserius.com
VB != VisualBasic
I don't like the terms that music is offered for sale under, so I don't buy it. I don't download it either, because I don't like stealing. I just let it pass into obscurity unnoticed.
Oh, that breaks my heart. I love music, and I feel that same way.
The other day I was going on the verge of buying some cds by Greg Osby, who is signed with an RIAA label, Blue Note. I don't think the label has been very good to fans (or artists, much), and I certainly don't trust them or their parent company.
I thought of emailing Osby cause I figure he's cool, and many of his friends record for independent labels. But what's there to say, really? I'm reluctant to tell a cat anything that might be taken as criticism, because I know what it takes to hit it, how vulnerable you make yourself by improvising.
So I'm just silent, waiting for the chance to hear Osby live again, but not buying any cds.
It just breaks my heart.
No, I'm just the dumb bass player and the geek who wanted to do a Star Trek band. We started out as a Hogan's Heroes band. That was the guitar player with weird sound effects on his voice. I sound like a 12-year-old girl when I sing.
MP3.com changes how much they owe us (both up and down), and I can't figure out how many cds they've sold (I really wish people wouldn't buy those by the way). I've sent them 6 or 7 emails asking for info, and always get the automated reply that says "we'll contact you in 7-10 business days".
I think my first email was around 9/1/02. I send them something once a month, but I'm going to start sending stuff more often.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
Rather than just a boycott, a boycott with a letter writing campagin to as many of the "pop-artists" as possible to let them know why as well. The main point there is that just like you write to your congress/senate persons, they are in a sort of way, senate/congress persons to the RIAA. Actually, write your favorite artist's label as well. (send multiple coppies of the same letter, one to the artist, and one to their label), so they know why.
We, the little people as it were, can only do so much. If those we enjoy/support, etc, realized how much more they are really appreciated, and how much less they'd have to give to RIAA, regardless of the recently announced "royalty payment process overhaul", by directly marketing to the masses, I think this level of organized boycott would be well heard.
The whole idea, is to have as much understanding on both sides of the RIAA Curtain as possible. Just because the artists may not directly get the letters, if enough people do this, they *will* get the *message*. Just as we would like to directly be able to buy music from our favorite artists, bypassing the RIAA since they're no longer really necessary, the communication channels need to be opened that way as well.
In a world where people are packaged, sold, and bought over and over, I'm sure artists feel left out in a way they can't understand, or are unwilling to discuss without fear of losing a label, etc.
Maybe the boycott is really "Recording Artists Appreciation Day?"
--SuperBug
I was going to post almost the exact same rant, so I'll just add a post backing you up.
Well, perhaps I'll add a little bit of rant. The people here that say things like "Never buy a CD!" and "Never see a movie!" really piss me off. They have the arrogance to think they are helping in any way, when in fact all they are doing is depriving some very talented people (like Peter Jackson) of some reward. For smaller artists (like one of my more favored bands, Dance Hall Crashers) it hurts them a lot worse than the MPAA when you do that boycott thing.
All we can do is help fight the laws that are unjust, the easiest way of course is to donate to the EFF but there are harder and more effective roads to take, like becoming a lawyer.
I'll continue, like you, to buy music I like (trying to find non-mainstream stuff where I can), and see movies that I think seem pretty good. And I'll continue to donate to the EFF. As for becoming a lawyer... my girlfriend forbids it. Oh well, I've done what I can!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The problem is a bit more insidius than that, I think. For example, a friend recently told me that the MPAA/RIAA get money for every blank CDR bought. Spending about 20 seconds on google, I found a reference ( http://www.nylug.org/mlist/nylug-talk_mhonarc/2000 -06/msg00092.html ) to that happening in Canada, but didn't spend the time to verify it or see if it is indeed happening here. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
So, let's say you are trying to be in direct competition with them... but they get money for every disc you burn.... makes it really hard to fight them...
To really boycott them, we would have to make sure not to spend money on anything they get revenue from.... that might take quite a bit of work.
http://www.google.com/profiles/malachid
Boycotts are very effective. Corporations are very sensitive to any decline in revenue. For recent examples look at NorPac and Aramark.
I looked at the list of record labels who are members of the RIAA, and I saw none of the labels that have bands that I like on them: Touch-and-Go, Sub Pop, K Records, Kill Rock Stars, Matador . . . none of them are members of the RIAA.
Turns out, without knowing it, I'm already boycotting the RIAA - just because the bands they sign are too boring.
Yeah, I'm sure a bunch of you won't go see LOTR on wednesday because you're so upset at the MPAA. Why even talk about it... people won't commit when it's actually something difficult. Oh yeah, and I'm sure everyone will start buying shitty, scratched copies of Star Wars on ebay instead of buying the $900 collectors set from thinkgeek. I'll hold my breath. I think the best you'll get is a couple of e-mail at two in the morning to people who never actually read emails.
Yea... I give up!
I didn't mean to sound "cool". It's just that if they don't produce decent songs, I will not buy them. And so it came that my last album is really old.
But I have also discovered other music sources which don't have anything to do with these American institutions. I have radio and TV. They play enough music there. And for my special taste I have some music from Asia: Japan and Indonesia. This is also good music.
About 5 years ago, there was a huge drive in the church community to boycott Disney, their movies, and all things associated with Mickey Mouse and friends. The reasons were inane: they had marketing offerings for all types of Sexual Orientations at their theme parks, and had pro-orientation awareness politics in their workplace culture. Thousands of parents threw away their kids copies of the Disney Classics, forbid their kids from watching those movies and shows, and thought they could actually make a difference.
/. readers are huge, but we are still a small piece of the pie. Get something big enough to get on MSN, CNN or Yahoo that is not bias and you've done something. Support the artists through their website and concerts, though even there, you're feeding the beast (who do you think the artists have to buy their CDs from?) and not completely free from them. The key to this game is exposure, and getting some people that have power. All the negative press out there won't help until someone who can do something reads it, and then acts on it.
There is a difference here, of sorts, in that the MPAA actually has reasons to deserve the boycott and bad press. They're about as close to evil as a company can get. But it would still do no good.
We're not talking about something easy to get around. I cannot blame a company's product for actions on the company. I don't care how bad the RIAA is, I will still support the artists I love and get their CDs. Used isn't an option on New CDs, and that is the surefire way to guarantee that the artist will not get any money from your purchase. At least they get something from a retail sale.
As a proud member of the masses, I enjoy purchasing things like CDs, DVDs, and Video Games. There are incentives to buying a DVD these days. All those bonus features, deleted scenes, etc. There is no other medium that moves around the RIAA/MPAA that offers these things. This problem is not new, and will not go away, it just simply is part of capitalism.
There is no true alternative for a lot of entertainment venues out there. Movies are movies, and even if you download them, you trade quality and extras for that "freedom". And there is a rule... if enough people do it, and they actually lose money, then things will vanish. How many bands out there have been affected by poor album sales, and then been dropped by a label. There is no way that I can tell if they were killed off by KaZaA or the other Napster clones, but I'm sure at some point it helped. The same could some day be true with movies.
The problem is in what the RIAA does now, and how much of a drain they are. Boycotting perfectly good movies and artists will not make the RIAA/MPAA go away. It will strangle out the good artists, and we will be covered with every clone and "corporate success" artist out there. Even if the artists are only getting $1 a CD, they are still getting that dollar, and boycotting them affects that too.
What I would look at doing is trying, like some others, to bring the truth about the RIAA/MPAA to light for all to see. Passing around those articles, writing letters to congressmen, or making those visible posts. The
Is it a boycott if you don't spend money because you don't like the product?
If media conglomerates were charging half as much for their wares, would any of us even be having this debate?
I haven't gone to a major studio movie in years. Most of my friends are going to TTT tomorow, while I'm not. When I did the same for FOTR, I *dreamed* about it.
It hurts. It hurts to hear your friends laughing and going on about the wonders of this and that and the other movie. I *want* to see LOTR, movies made from books I love. I *want* to see Solaris, despite Lem's objections. I *want* to see lots of movies.
But I don't see them.
I know that few of my friends want to hear about why I'm not going. Sure, it's partly cognitive dissonance -- they care about fair use, but not enough to do anything. It saddens me that few care enough to consider the point. But I still get joy out of not doing wrong. And I still have many wonderful books and used or independent CDs.
I know that I am quite unlikely to change the minds of anyone at the movie or recording industries. But as long as there are laws like the SSSCA and CBDTPA, policies like those proposed by BPDG, and cases like DVDCCA v. Pavlovitch and Okokrim (sp?!) v. Jon Johansen, I cannot give any support to the organizations that lobby for them -- the eight companies that make movies, and the five companies that make music.
To those who say that a drop in movie viewership would give weight to the studios' arguments, I merely point you to 1998 and 1999, when music sales were *up*, and the recording industry blamed Napster for its decline. And anyway, one can hardly be responsible for the lies of one's political enemies.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
It's good to see that people are actually talking about this again. As the founder of boycott-riaa.com on July 13, 2002, I've been at this for quite sometime. When the original threat of Napster being shutdown loomed, people got incensed and it made difference. That lasted right up until other file sharing programs became available.
We still get a large number of visitors who drop by the site on a daily basis, to check to see what the news is. Some of the most recent articles include: "RIAA's Statistics Don't Add Up to Piracy" (article) and The RIAA's response to "How many CD Burners were there actually in the Queens Bust?"(article) seems there were a heck of a lot less than the equivalent the stated. Straight from the horse's mouth
My personal boycotting lead me to start buying independent music and I've actually been buying more music than I ever did from RIAA artists and labels. Partially because its often cheaper, around $8.00 -$10.00, and partially because the music is often much better, than what the majors are putting out.
In 2001 RIAA sales were down 5% and they RIAA laid off 16 people in Jan 2002. This year the sales are down 7% to 9% (depending on whose numbers you read) hopefully we can look forward to more layoffs. Less staff less impact. The RIAA membership dues are a portion of the labels sales, lower sales=smaller budget=less impact.
Those that say there is no affect on the RIAA and MPAA are misguided. In the past 2 1/2 years I've bought over 150 CDs from independent musicians, money that went to them, not to RIAA labels. But the largest affect that has taken place is that people are begining to discover independent music, are buying it, ignoring the majors offerings, and as a result the RIAA is becoming the Maginot Line of the music industry. We make them irrelvant by bypassing them. What else is happening is that artists are beginning to wake up speaking out as well, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Elton John, The RAC headed by Don Henley, just to name a few. The RIAA's positions coupled with a loss of sales, has come to the attention of Congress, The DOJ to name but a few and many former backers in congress are finding that the RIAA isn't always right or even telling them the truth. Unethical business practices are coming to light that have been the industry standard for years, that are forcing changes in the way the industry works, in their actions toward artists and consumers.
This is not an if/then type of thing, there are a lot of varibles involved, that each action has an effect somewhere, maybe very subtle, but the overall result is that while the RIAA is winning the battles, they are losing the war. And their desperation is showing.
Lucas and P.J. are two of the worst targets an anti-MPAA crusader could pick on, considering all they've given to us as geeks. Lucas in particular has always pushed technological development with his money. Anyone else remember "Habitat", the 300bps Commodore 64-based MMORPG from Lucasfilm Games? Doesn't anyone remember how ILM changed the special effects industry? Or how Lucas is changing the very way films are distributed as we speak by partnering with Boeing for satellite-based distribution?
There are hundreds of thousands of geeks employed today because of Lucas alone. He might want to control his property, but he's chosen to take the "we'll protect it ourselves" route rather than the "we'll rely on LEOs to protect it" one. He may have cooperated with the MPAA, but so what? I can be against the government and still obey traffic laws to get to work without feeling like a hypocrite. Lucas is a saint, not a sinner, no matter what you think of Han shooting first.
Targeting these two is wrong-headed, and like you said, stupid. They're the ones that are working from within to change the system - Lucas has even put his flabby neck on the line time and time again coming out in favor of innovative and revolutionary distribution methods that would make the MPAA obsolete if popularized. These two in particular are the ones that have actually gotten things done "on the inside". When was the last time you saw a big-budget studio film that was as passionate and well-made as Jackson's rendering of LOTR? When was the last time you heard Richard Donner or Brian de Palma investing their salaries back in the movie industry in order to improve it and extend the boundaries?
There is no defensible reason for boycotting LOTR or Star Wars. The original author obviously chose them because of their geek-resonance, but didn't actually stop to think whether the accusation/implication (that geeks are hypocrites) was valid based on the specific facts of the situation.
One letter, of course, is dismissed easily. A hundred -- probably too. A thousand -- well, it will be reported to the boss. Ten thousand -- CNN has 35sec long mention of "mail campaign". A hundred thousand -- RIAA's eye flash with "$18.00 x 5 x 100000 = 9 MILLION DOLLARS! WE LOOSE 9 MILLION DOLLARS!" :)
Hyperom.com
It is possible to do a partial boycott, you know? Simply don't purchase/consume as much as you might otherwise. Don't go to as many movies as you used to. Don't buy as many DVD's as you might want to if you agreed with the MPAA's stance against playing discs on unlicensed players. I already completely stopped buying new music because I decided it was a waste of money.
Just wear your "Got DeCSS" T-shirt when you go to Best Buy to buy the Two Towers DVD in a few months. The irony will make people's heads explode.
Hipocracy is a necessity.
My other first post is car post.
lets support the bands that support us. dave matthews, string cheese incident, yonder mountain string band, etc on archive.org/audio there are over 1500 concert recordings of over 70 bands (collected by the etree.org folk). These folks are actively Internet friendly. Lets be friendly to them. Try them. Go "open source" for music. -brewster (from archive.org)
Doing so, that is, "ignoring" what RIAA/MPAA sell to you means ignoring the work of the artists behind all that stuff....so yes. It harms the RIAA/MPAA, but it harms the artists even more....and it's the artists that are essential for the industry, or your interest in music/movies/snips to survive.
The solution is the other way around, "artists and producers" need to "ignore" the RIAA/MPAA and find alternative distribution models, alternative promotion models, and change the way they deal with customers....as of now....every customer who pays $14 to a retailer, and gets one CD, is paying the retailer around $2, and the rest goes to RIAA distributors, who keep another dollar and a half, and pass on the rest to the record company. So the record company gets around US$ 10.5 per CD sold at full price.
Out of that, depending on how good a deal the lawyers of the band managed to cut out, the artist gets somewhere between US$1 to US$3 per disc, plus the check they got for recording if they were lucky. Record studios keep the rest, and account for production/promotion costs.
Let's say "Public Enemy" did an album, got paid US$2 a disc ("good" payment), and a bill of US$ 0.5 million for recording it (highly unlikely), and they sold a million copies, then overall, RIAA managed to get US$ 8 per disc, let's deduct US$ 1 for production (too much, but then let's take the worst case), and put a hefty big promotion worth US$ 1 million for the overall project, then too, the record label made a total of US$ 6 million on this recording in just the base first week/month sales of the album. Whereas artists made US$ 2.5 million, but then that's the best case for the artist, and the worst for the company.
In real world, not only do the artists get paid far less, they also loose the rights to their own work, and that means being unable to "re-sell" their own old music to another company, when their contract with one company expires, or breaks out.
The artist got only US$ 2.5 (in an optimal case) for 1 million copies of his album, lost his music; fans got Costlier CDs, RIAA got rich.
Let's say the artists did everything all by themselves, produce, market, promote and then sell, one album for US$ 7 for a physical "CD", and an electronic download for US$ 5.5 for the entire album download, or US$1.5 for the "best singles".
It costs US$ 0.5 million to get two weeks for a final recording in a good sound studio. It costs US$1 to make a CD with jewel case and covers, a nice poster and a nice lyrics booklet. Let's say they spent US$.5 million in making and spreading a music video, US$0.5 million in promos and adverts, and outsourced distribution from one of the underground low-price distribution networks, pay them US$ 1 per CD sold, the total cost, other than the artistic talent, comes to around US$ 3 to produce an album.
Let's say they sold 1 million CDs, because other than their talent, the marketing was better because they spent more money, and went the right way, and then, the album is cheaper, and has more goodies. They still own their music, they earn from the online sales in "full", and that single the public really fancied will sell so much for US$1.5 that it would make them even more money to pump into promos. This lands the band on a cash pit of over US$ 5 million, while making it cheaper for customers to acquire their music.
Now, obviously, a new artist won't have so much money to pump into all this, so the established ones need to begin on this first, and the others will soon latch on. Obviously, there will be other music companies, those who will be the "breeding ground" for new upcoming artists, invest in their effort, and overall, make money, but then, the internet makes it so much easier to begin small, and then grow up big for any artist.
Now, the dynamics for the movie industry are a little different, and i'm not so familiar with those, but i guess similar things apply there too, specifically in the DVD sales area.
So guys, it's the artists who need to "ignore" the RIAA/MPAA alliance, and find alternative means to reach their audience. Not the other way around.
Would the result of a successfull boycut, not just be blamed om piracy? I doubt there is any way the RIAA would acknowledge that loss of sales where anything but the actions of kids with cd burners.
Resistance is not futile - www.gnu.org
5-10% profit?
So why do they claim they almost never make money on a movie?
Yes, I know it's all an accounting scheme, but how can they claim that piracy is cutting into their profits when they say they never make a profit?
I was considering this just the other day as I purchased 2 CDs, one was from an independant UK label - no problems there, but the other was Blackalicious who are signed to Universal. I ended up buying the CD, I've already dowloaded a fair few songs by them and I'd like to see them get some of my money, even if it is only a dollar or two. How else can we donate to bands like this who are unlikely to tour near me any time soon?
Tim Brown
...for movies is commonly reported as 1/10. So for every big blockbuster smash that rakes in millions for the movie industry, there are 9 films that cost the industry several hundred million dollars.
Where do you think that money is going? Mostly actors with ridiculous appearance fees, but several million goes into rental of equipment, technicians, catering companies, etc...
Whether you like it or not the movie industry pumps a lot of money into the pockets of the not-so-wealthy, and I don't mind that at all. I don't think that we should throw all our money into over-priced limited edition DVD's and T-shirts, etc, but there are tangible benefits to supporting movies. If you like it, go watch it!
Note that I suspect this doesn't really apply to the music industry, as their money goes into pressing the CD's (company-owned factories), professional advertising and million dollar copy protection that can only be defeated with the latest in Sharpie technology.
The underlying undemocratic problem, of which RIAA and MPAA are just two examples, is the failure to protect the political rights of individuals by limiting the anti-individual political activities of corporations.
When corporations are allowed to use their income stream for political purposes, this creates a defacto tax on consumer dollars which is used to fund political activities without their consent. Usually, these political activities represent interests in direct opposition to the persons so taxed.
This situation is only a little less of a disenfranchisement than being rounded up by the authorities, taken to a polling place, and forced to vote for "the Boss". It's at least as effective, and alot more subtle. So subtle in fact, that most people have never even articulated the issue in their minds as to what is really going on.
Until and unless we achieve "One person, One Vote, One Hundred Dollars" as the bedrock standard of our democracy, all the energy spent to achieve the various and few single-issue victories for the true heart/mind consensus of the population will be about as useful as an umbrella in a hurricane. Good luck keeping dry!
My wife really wants me to see movies occasionally. My personal rule is that wheneve I go to see a movie, I donate twice the ticket price to the EFF. It's not enough, but it's better than nothing.
Otherwise, in order to boycott the RIAA, I'd first have to become a customer. And that strikes me as needless masochism.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Hmm...
Someone just posted a reply comparing the MPAA/RIAA to the Red Army, and boycotters to a resistance movement. So, apparently at least some slashdotters think that boycotting their cable television provider is the same thing as blowing up military command posts and such. Fascinating, as Mr. Spock would say. Fascinating.
Well, "comrade", I think that's a little silly. But, it's interesting, so in reply I verily say this unto thee (ha ha, I really dig this whole archaic speech thing):
The companies that are members of the RIAA and MPAA are also involved in numerous other businesses, and it is impossible to truly boycott them without separating yourself from your own society. Additionally, they won't even notice the boycott because the markets involved are so enormous that even a significant boycott will only appear as a momentary blip to them, a tiny dimple in their profits. Thus, in my opinion, boycotting the companies in the RIAA and MPAA is a pointless act of self-abuse.
What I was trying to use humor to point out is, boycotting them is not the answer. It won't do any good and it'll only make you miserable. You're giving THEM a weapon to use against YOU, i.e. you're letting your feelings about them shut you out of the culture. It's as if a high school jock shoved his way into the chess club and as a result, you all quit playing chess in retaliation. Think the jock cares? He'll shrug and go back to hitting on cheerleaders. The only people that are hurt are the poor geeks who don't even have their chess club anymore.
My suggestion is to do things that will enrage and annoy the people you want to annoy, and make a horses ass out of each one individually. I suggested a game mod that would be embarassing and humiliating for some of the people involved, because that's something that might just get into the news. Imagine Barbara Walters asking how he feels about being represented as a cross-dressing Hitler-mustached cyber-demon-lord in a popular game mod. Picture her asking him pointed questions about how, exactly, the game became so popular and why so many geeks seem to really relish blowing him up. Now, don't you think that would do a lot more good than a silly boycott? And, hell, plenty of Germans read slashdot. They could translate a bunch of ridiculous trash-talk for the game ("I've got your pirate CD right here, you hacker!" with the exec grabbing his crotch, for example -- or "I'm gonna DMCA your ass" -- run with it).
We slashdotters are supposed to be technically sophisticated and well educated. Were any of you paying attention in political science or history class? Do any of you know how powerful ridicule and propaganda are as weapons?
Sigh. I'm SO DISAPPOINTED in my generation.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
The best way to boycott is to get out and go to live performances of local groups, musicians, drama groups, art exhibits etc. You are also then spending your money on a local venue and keeping much more of your money in your own community where it supports local governments, charities and the local economy.
Why send your dollars to conglomerates halfway across the planet when you can vote with your wallet locally? We also try to buy local products from locally owned and operated merchants whenever possible.
We should look around and learn. The NRA made a national "ammo day" where everyone bought a box or two of ammo. Another tactic was to not buy on a set date.
..." why did sales go thu the roof on Wed???" "why are sales fine this week dead the next and fine again..." We can not expect a full boycott- many already don't buy that much, but a boycott followed by a controlled flood will get them to ask how they can get the big money. keep it broad short and WELL ADVERTISED....
Our best attack may be to boycott buying for 1 week and next week on a certain day buy from one channel only to really wake up the marketing department
Tazanator
I feel bad now--I only donate one times the ticket price to the EFF.
The RIAA is made up of pretty typical people; some wonderful, some awful, and most somewhere in between. But like any of us, they respond better to pain in the wallet than any other stimulus.
Who was the pundit that said "I don't care what you SAY about me, just spell my name right!"? Point well taken. Screaming about the injustice does little. Walking away from the deal does a lot.
Sending a complaint about the problems you have playing a cd in your car on on your pc, directly to the artist, may also help in making sure the next release is a regular cd again. This already happened with Covenant's "Northern Light" album. People can now hand in their copy protected version of the album for one that doesn't suffer from this defect.
I don't believe I did.