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.
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.
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.
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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
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).
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!)
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 :) )
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.
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
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.
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.
At least, that what's the RIAA is going to say.
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.
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...
Buy second hand stuff. Its cheaper, and it doesn't support the industry (RIAA/MPAA).
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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.
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.
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'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
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.
-AThe 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.
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.
So why are you AC? Afraid a friend might see you getting popcorn for the late showing of LOTR?
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'
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
That's silly. It takes no energy to boycott. It takes energy to support them (going to movies, buying cds). So...if people are lazy the boycott would be automatic.
In other words, people as a whole are selfish.
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
--
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
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 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.
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Manifesto for the Peoples of the Third Millennium
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.
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)
The Big ten
Without the flash BS intro. (which did not come up in my Mozilla Browser)You keep going until you die..."Me".
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
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.
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.
Proving thier other point that we are all just a bunch of thieves in the process. Somehow I just think that would push thier agenda.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Isnt that kind of the side effect of monopolization? Has anyone ever considered that they dont have any *competition*?
Amen. This boycott shit is as stupid as the Bush commercials saying that buying pot promotes terrorism.
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. :)
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.
That's pretty interesting, since it's not a felony to circumvent something for a fair use purpose. It's not covered by criminal law, and it's not even illegal under civil law.
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.
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."
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"
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.
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.
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 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
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
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.
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.
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 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!
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?
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.
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.
If your cds last you 3 to 6 minutes, you should reconsider your cd-purchasing abilities. Here's a hint: don't buy a cd just because you saw an advertisement for it. Do rational things like: listen to a song or two on the radio or download them (p2p or from the band's website). You can even borrow a friend's cd! Then there are further possibilities such as attending a concert to asking the opinions of friends with similar tastes.
"A good conspiracy is an unprovable one." -Conspiracy Theory
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.
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 ?
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
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.
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?
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.
And guess who owns the media?
I wonder...
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Amen to that! Read more about it at Dontbuycds.org The recording labels are the real pirates.
How ya like dat?
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.
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
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.
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
------------
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
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.
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
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
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.
It's actually the Music CD-R Blanks, not the data. But the do get a 2% cut of the CD-R burner, paid by the manufacturer under the AHRA (Audio Home Recording Act)
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.
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.
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!
I feel bad now--I only donate one times the ticket price to the EFF.
I don't believe I did.