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Would a Boycott of the MPAA/RIAA Help Matters?

Posted by Cliff on from the captive-audiences dept.

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?

4 of 605 comments (clear)

  1. Donate to the library! by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Interesting


    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.

    1. Re:Donate to the library! by aiken_d · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, but it's only a matter of time before libraries are illegal. That's not an exaggeration; the MPAA, RIAA, and several publishing groups are working on it.

      Then you'd have to go buy more copies of the stuff you donated.

      Cheers
      -b

      --
      If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
  2. It could hurt us too by AtomicDog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. Re:Yep by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "It ain't that phricken difficult, folks.
    Movies: Only attend matinees, if you MUST see it in a theatre.
    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. Wanna support the artist? Go see their show, buy their ts-shirt or cd AT THE SHOW.
    I utterly REFUSE to give those fsckers another dime that I don't absolutely have to."

    This would not work. Period. All they'll see is that there's a decline in sales. Where do you think they'll place the blame? Hint: Their first assumption won't be that they're being boycotted.

    At best, it'd backfire. Ironically, it'd probably be useful to give them more money. As silly as it sounds, the RIAA sounded incredibly idiotic when they claimed that Napster cut into their sales while they were at the peak of their sales.

    I bet you a contributing factor to the dismissal of the SSSCA was that the MPAA couldn't make legitimate claims of losses. If people really did shift over to P2P like the *AA fears, then a different story might have emerged from that whole ordeal.