Boycott all the RIAA crap. If you absolutely need to have a major label release, get a used copy.
Even that's not enough, though, since for every one person who does boycott the bastards, you'll have dozens of people who will not. The next piece of the puzzle is to convince others to boycott, which won't be easy. It probably won't sink in right away, but if they begin to hear it from enough people, it could potentially change their minds. (Although, be warned - it's an uphill battle. The large record labels have a great deal of propaganda constantly bombarding people. For instance, try turning on a television set and see how long you can last without hearing a song from a major record label artist.)
Sony is probably the easiest of the big four to scare people away from. Sometimes the truth hurts most of all - I mention the DRM rootkit scare from 2005. If they tried pulling a stunt like that once with their audio discs, how do we know they won't try similar stunts going forward?
If you really feel the need to kick the major record labels in the groin every time they make a comment like this, head over to Youtube, and give the minimum rating to all their 'official' videos. Sure, it won't change the world, but it feels really, really, really good when you do it. (Also, if enough people do it, you can at least mod their pristine video ratings to oblivion.)
In fact, they make it really easy: Universal Music Group and Warner both have 'official' channels. All you need to do is subscribe to those channels, and they'll tell you every time they post a new video that they're promoting. Here are the links:
Also, if you go to the videos link from their main label page, you can often catch new videos that they're trying to release quietly without much fanfare, since they know they probably won't do very well.
Yea, because that post was totally measured, objective, and not at all obnoxious. You're entitled to your opinion. I'm entitled to mine. After watching the RP supporters hijack many comments section threads on Youtube, many of which had nothing to do with politics, my venting is more than justified.
If you feel what I say above is not on the mark, by all means - visit Youtube and see for yourself.
Me calling them a church is sadly very accurate. Most of the comments are little more than touchy-feely emoting. It drives left-brained people like myself crazy. We're not sold on a feeling. We want to know what his platform is.
It was either a rival trying to make Ron Paul look bad, or it was one of Ron's diehard missionaries trying to 'spread the word of Ron Paul' in a way that irritates the largest number of people possible. Some of his disciples are very, very prone to doing that.
I know the Church Of Ron Paul has infested Youtube like a VD sort of plague. Don't get me wrong - I don't think Ron Paul is a bad guy, but some of his followers are absolutely obnoxious if you dare criticize their messiah in any way. I questioned if he may be too old for the Presidency, and got some pretty mean responses. (Some at least tried to give a rational reply, but there also was a lot of ad hominem and strawman fallacy getting tossed around.)
your problem is that it's not the juries job to calculate the conceivable losses, but the actual losses. the reasoning being that it's conceivable that the RIAA lost NOTHING due to her pirating. $9000+ per song is nonsense, the music industry would do far better if they took a more generous stance in these matters The RIAA is not seeing the big picture. IMHO, their divebombing reputation is going to cost them more money in the long run than filesharing ever did.
I can only speak for myself, but right now, I'm so infuriated by them, that I will NOT be purchasing ANY albums from any of the RIAA-affiliated labels.
We should all do that, and see if we can cost them more than the amount they're trying to hit the defendant with.
I know it's a pretty tall order, but do you have friends? Co-workers? Relatives? Peers? Associates? Pass the word along. Convince them to stop buying large record label releases.
Before somebody goes into the whole "But I want to support my favorite artist!!" whine, just remember that the RIAA label is like a parasite between your money and the artist. It takes most of the money before the artist even sees it, and then uses it to fund the crap lawsuits like the one we're discussing here.
If you really want support your favorite artist, why not buy a t-shirt or go to a concert? If you absolutely do need to have a big label release from your favorite artist, buy a used copy. At least that way, you're not giving record labels money for newly-pressed copies of the discs.
I think capitalism will be Comcast's undoing, assuming that consumers start to get annoyed with the diminished results, and begin to express their discontent.
Other DSL providers will naturally begin try and use the fact they don't interfere with the internet as a selling point. Assuming this happens, the only places that may be affected are any in which Comcast has a monopoly by being the only source for DSL.
My only fear is other DSL providers will see that Comcast is getting away with tactics like this, and try to pull the same stunt. For that reason, I honestly hope Comcast gets sued bigtime over this. Comcast needs to be made an example out of.
Yes. I think the music portion of their corporation is in 'deep poo'.
Will Sony as a whole go out of business? Of course not.
Although, I don't see them involved in music much longer with that kind of scar on their record. At very least, it's going to seriously hamper their sales. I was thinking about my comment. Sadly, the responder is probably right. Your average music consumer doesn't even put a second thought into what record label releases the discs that they buy. So, Sony is probably going to get away with the crap they constantly pull.
However, I think it's our job to remind people about the Sony rootkit fiasco. (I generally warn my relatives, since I don't want to be the person that has to fix their computer when it gets infected by one of Sony's rootkits or the successor to the rootkit that Sony will inevitably create.)
You actually think that Sony is going to go out of business in "3 to 5 years" because of the dumb thing they did with the root kit? Are you out of your mind, or are you REALLY that ignorant? Yes. I think the music portion of their corporation is in 'deep poo'.
Will Sony as a whole go out of business? Of course not.
Although, I don't see them involved in music much longer with that kind of scar on their record. At very least, it's going to seriously hamper their sales.
I'll never trust them enough to buy ANYTHING form them again. One of the "features" of their trojan was degradation of other software; software I used for legal purposes. I ranted about it is quite some detail a couple of years back when my daughter, who worked in a record store at the time, played a Sony-BMG title in the computer. It was moronic for Sony to do that. They pretty much signed their own death warrant for the piece of their corporation that deals with music. I honestly think they're toast in the next three to five years. I warn people to not let Sony discs even remotely close to their computers. (I actually discourage them from purchasing the Sony discs at all, but some people are gluttons for punishment.)
Universal Music Group is another one that really deserves to be eradicated. They may survive, though - because of their current market share.
Warner is kind of on the line. You sense that they may realize they screwed up in suing consumers, but I'm not sold they're apologetic for the right reasons. I think they're sorry THAT they pissed consumers off, and not sorry for WHY they pissed consumers off.
EMI will probably survive. Of the four big labels, they've probably generated the least bad press (as far as I'm aware).
Actually, piracy is one of the biiggest reasons I stopped buying RIAA music - I'm boycotting the majors because of their suits against their "pirate" customers. Of course, since I don't like much of what's on the radio these days either that nmakes boycotting that much easier. I've found that the local bands and their CDs are hgeads and shoulders above the RIAA dreck, while 1/4 to 1/2 the price. Bingo. I don't think it's exclusively piracy killing the major record labels. It's merely the basic rules of business coming back to bite them on the derriere. If a competitor can put out a superior product at a lower price, it does stand a chance of taking away potential revenue from your substandard product with the ludicrously high price.
Furthermore, bad PR is harming the large record labels. When corporations act like a bunch of unapologetic dicks, it obviously turns some people away from wanting to support them. I find that periodically, I will come close to forgiving the large record labels, only to have one of their CEOs come out and say something that reminds me exactly why I hated them in the first place. Some of these CEOs REALLY should just insert their foot in the mouth, and LEAVE IT THERE. (UMG, for instance - remember the dreaded 'all iPod owners are thieves' speech?)
As far as Sony goes, I will never trust them enough to purchase an audio disc from them again. They got caught putting rootkit malware on their discs back in 2005. The malware was intended to limit the copying of the album, but virus-makers took advantage of a security hole that the rootkit opened up. Sony added this malware behind the backs of everybody. They only came clean with it when they were caught red-handed. They claim to have stopped doing this, but how can we know they're being honest with us? When you break somebody's trust, it takes a long time to win it back.
I will contemplate no longer boycotting EMI releases, provided they do cut RIAA funding. Emphasis on -contemplate-.
I like that EMI finally has 1) admitted that the lawsuits were a bad idea and 2) are actually planning to do something about it.
I do feel EMI should go a step further, though - and cut ties to the RIAA outright. If they were to form a separate legal group to represent their interests, it would really drive the point home that they've learned their lesson. Right now, I still suspect what they're saying is merely rhetoric intended to repair their tarnished image.
Argggh.
I am NOT voting for Ron Paul.
I'm tired of his followers spamming propaganda for him everywhere. (Yes! SPAM is the correct word. If you want ample proof of that, head over to Youtube and go to any video with a political slant.)
You can find decent independent music available for download on the following sites. (I think the top two are probably the best.)
www.jamendo.com - You can download entire albums here, but it leans towards electronica. European acts also seem more heavily represented than American ones. There's a LOT to choose from, though.
www.last.fm - A lot of independent acts distribute their music through Last FM. Some will at least allow you to freely listen. Many go a step further, and let you download the songs outright.
www.soundclick.com - Some freely downloadable music here. One issue with Soundclick is many of the independent artists have been infected by the dreaded 'micropayment syndrome', where they try and charge you some minor amount for their work.
www.myspace.com - Some artists let you download their music from MySpace, but I find there are less overall than the other sites that I've mentioned.
www.virb.com - Similar to MySpace and Soundclick. There are artist pages here that you can download music from.
Internet Archive [http://www.archive.org/] - Lots of free music here, for those who have some time to browse through the archives.
Opsound [http://www.opsound.org/] - Creative Commons music available here. To find anything good, one has to sift a little bit, but if you have time to kill, go for it.
Over the past few years, I have come to consider the police as not-too-intelligent bullies. Actions reported can only be explained by a lack of rational thought (in favor of blindly following rules, or blind over-reaction), yet this extract from the article makes one rethink that assessment: I don't think it was the Boston police being moronic, in this case. I think it was the Boston and/or MA government that pushed this along. If I remember correctly, the police and bomb squad people considered it a waste of time, especially after seeing that the first device was little more than some elaborate lite-brite-inspired gizmo.
You have a number of points that I agree with, such as artists not shooting their mouths off, and boycotting major label artists. However, a point that I disagree with is the "pathetic fanboy lemmings". The simple fact is that I listen to a number of "underground" metal bands, and to see them become major label artists is fantastic. I will continue to buy their music, because in the end, that's what I enjoy. But that won't stop me from ripping said CDs to my computer and listening to them wherever, whenever I damn well please. That's the problem - if you continue to support the bands that are on the big labels, the middlemen gets their piece of the pie. They use that funding to pay their lawyers to sue everybody with a pulse on their behalf. You effectively add to their warchest.
Conversely, if you do not purchase the albums, but instead pirate them, then you open yourself up to the record label lawsuits. They either extort the money out of you (for those who want to avoid the legal process), or they take you to court, where you potentially can lose more. End result? They still end up getting money.
In my humble opinion, the ONLY way to effectively combat large record labels is to completely starve them of ANY means of making money. Boycott them outright. You're kidding yourself if you think anything less will work.
NOW is the IDEAL time to boycott them, since those companies that own BOTH record labels and television stations are going to be REALLY hurting economically as the writer's strike progresses. If they're already wounded, let's kick them while they're down, and add some salt to the proverbial wound. If you don't want to boycott them permanently, that's fine - but why not do it until the writer's strike is over, at least?
Drat. Formatting all messed up the first time.. Let's try again.
I was with you until you started bashing people who enjoy different types of music than you do. Who are you to say what is good and what is crap? Was this directed at me? It seemed to be a direct reply to my original comment. I never said any genres were better than any others. I merely said there are a lot of spineless lemmings out there who will cluelessly follow their favorite artists wherever they go. That isn't limited to any one genre.
You can't argue that Radiohead's selling approach worked for Radiohead on this album. Whether that approach is sustainable long term, or will work for all bands remains to be seen. I applaud them for trying it, but it's too early to say that this is definately the way of the future. You're right - it may not work for all bands, but it proves that there are definitely alternatives out there that are very profitable, for those willing to experiment.
>I was with you until you started bashing people who enjoy different types of music than you do. Who are you to say what >is good and what is crap?
Was this directed at me? It seemed to be a direct reply to my original comment.
I never said any genres were better than any others. I merely said there are a lot of spineless lemmings out there who will cluelessly follow their favorite artists wherever they go. That isn't limited to any one genre.
I like that they are finally acknowledging that the whole "sue the consumers" thing might be wrong. I find it pathetic that it took them this long to admit it.
I, as others have already said, believe actions speaker louder than words. If Warner wants consumers to truly believe it has seen the error of its ways, it should disassociate itself from the RIAA.
Either that, or the RIAA as a whole needs to change its stance, and REALLY mean it. (Will anybody ever believe the RIAA has turned a new leaf? Nope. The RIAA has tarnished its reputation for decades to come. The PR damage is probably irreversible at this point.)
Gene Simmons is a dinosaur. And, no - I don't mean that in terms of his age.
He's like the guy who still owns (exclusively) an eight-track player in a world of people who use iPods and compact discs. They fail to see innovation even when it's staring them right in the face.
He may criticize Radiohead's selling approach, but you can't argue with the results. How much did Radiohead's album make in revenue? The non-standard selling method itself probably generated them a ton of publicity that they wouldn't otherwise have had.
I honestly think a band like KISS could get away with giving their music away for free, since they have other avenues available to them to make a crapload of money. (Live shows and merchandising, for starters.) They should be distributing the music as a promotional tool, rather than having it be the revenue-generator itself.
These artists need to learn to stop shooting their mouths off against the very people who support them. I completely support boycotting all major label artists, but artists like this in particular REALLY, REALLY deserve it. (Sadly, we all know that many people will continue to support artists like this, because they're pathetic fanboy lemmings who cluelessly follow their favorite artists wherever they go.)
As far as I'm concerned, the 'new business plan' the record labels comprising the RIAA should follow is this:
1) Go bankrupt.
2) Die a painful corporate death.
--
Considering that some of these large record labels are companies that also make television and movies, and considering that there is currently a writer's strike which is going to be seriously hurting the revenues of the television arm of these companies, I consider this is a -fantastic- time to boycott all the major record labels. Let's financially kick them in the groin while they're already hurting.
This is the perfect opportunity to boycott the bastards - so why wait?
While I can definitely see that sort of tactic, I know in this case it was legitimately the politician doing it. I got him to admit it. He didn't deny it for one second.
I just checked my voicemail today - four political advertisements spammed there on the Monday and Tuesday of the election. Blah.
Amen - I had one politician repeatedly leaving automated messages on my voicemail. I politely emailed him and asked him to stop, and he basically said "No" because it's 'more cost-efficient than mailings'.
Did I vote for him in the last election? No. (He was all rhetoric and little substance.)
The problem is, all politicians feel the need to do this because they fear their opponents will. So, the only way to stop it is to ban it outright (for DNC list subscribers, at least).
(On a sidenote, SPRINT is one of the BIGGEST abusers of telemarketing. I've been on the DNC list for some time, and a few weeks ago, I had some overseas arm of Sprint calling me repeatedly, saying I 'won a free cell phone'. I got about three or four calls like this over a couple days. If they can confirm this was truly Sprint, they should fine the holy hell out of them. I'll NEVER purchase anything from them. They've been a telemarketing pain-in-the-rectum as far back as I can remember.)
The original PS2 I have still works. When it dies, I'll probably switch to the WII, not the PS3. (The PS3 is just too unrealistically expensive.)
Would I consider getting the $99 PS2 console so I can still play my old games? Yeah. In that regard, the streamlined PS2 could still win, in a matter of speaking.
Although, would it be able to challenge the WII as king of the proverbial hill? Probably not.
Slashdot Mirror
Boycott all the RIAA crap. If you absolutely need to have a major label release, get a used copy.
Even that's not enough, though, since for every one person who does boycott the bastards, you'll have dozens of people who will not. The next piece of the puzzle is to convince others to boycott, which won't be easy. It probably won't sink in right away, but if they begin to hear it from enough people, it could potentially change their minds. (Although, be warned - it's an uphill battle. The large record labels have a great deal of propaganda constantly bombarding people. For instance, try turning on a television set and see how long you can last without hearing a song from a major record label artist.)
Sony is probably the easiest of the big four to scare people away from. Sometimes the truth hurts most of all - I mention the DRM rootkit scare from 2005. If they tried pulling a stunt like that once with their audio discs, how do we know they won't try similar stunts going forward?
In fact, they make it really easy: Universal Music Group and Warner both have 'official' channels. All you need to do is subscribe to those channels, and they'll tell you every time they post a new video that they're promoting. Here are the links:
Warner: http://www.youtube.com/user/warnerbrosrecords
Universal Music Group: http://www.youtube.com/user/universalmusicgroup
Also, if you go to the videos link from their main label page, you can often catch new videos that they're trying to release quietly without much fanfare, since they know they probably won't do very well.
If you feel what I say above is not on the mark, by all means - visit Youtube and see for yourself.
Me calling them a church is sadly very accurate. Most of the comments are little more than touchy-feely emoting. It drives left-brained people like myself crazy. We're not sold on a feeling. We want to know what his platform is.
I think it was probably one of two things:
It was either a rival trying to make Ron Paul look bad, or it was one of Ron's diehard missionaries trying to 'spread the word of Ron Paul' in a way that irritates the largest number of people possible. Some of his disciples are very, very prone to doing that.
I know the Church Of Ron Paul has infested Youtube like a VD sort of plague. Don't get me wrong - I don't think Ron Paul is a bad guy, but some of his followers are absolutely obnoxious if you dare criticize their messiah in any way. I questioned if he may be too old for the Presidency, and got some pretty mean responses. (Some at least tried to give a rational reply, but there also was a lot of ad hominem and strawman fallacy getting tossed around.)
$9000+ per song is nonsense, the music industry would do far better if they took a more generous stance in these matters The RIAA is not seeing the big picture. IMHO, their divebombing reputation is going to cost them more money in the long run than filesharing ever did.
I can only speak for myself, but right now, I'm so infuriated by them, that I will NOT be purchasing ANY albums from any of the RIAA-affiliated labels.
We should all do that, and see if we can cost them more than the amount they're trying to hit the defendant with.
I know it's a pretty tall order, but do you have friends? Co-workers? Relatives? Peers? Associates? Pass the word along. Convince them to stop buying large record label releases.
Before somebody goes into the whole "But I want to support my favorite artist!!" whine, just remember that the RIAA label is like a parasite between your money and the artist. It takes most of the money before the artist even sees it, and then uses it to fund the crap lawsuits like the one we're discussing here.
If you really want support your favorite artist, why not buy a t-shirt or go to a concert? If you absolutely do need to have a big label release from your favorite artist, buy a used copy. At least that way, you're not giving record labels money for newly-pressed copies of the discs.
I think capitalism will be Comcast's undoing, assuming that consumers start to get annoyed with the diminished results, and begin to express their discontent.
Other DSL providers will naturally begin try and use the fact they don't interfere with the internet as a selling point. Assuming this happens, the only places that may be affected are any in which Comcast has a monopoly by being the only source for DSL.
My only fear is other DSL providers will see that Comcast is getting away with tactics like this, and try to pull the same stunt. For that reason, I honestly hope Comcast gets sued bigtime over this. Comcast needs to be made an example out of.
Will Sony as a whole go out of business? Of course not.
Although, I don't see them involved in music much longer with that kind of scar on their record. At very least, it's going to seriously hamper their sales. I was thinking about my comment. Sadly, the responder is probably right. Your average music consumer doesn't even put a second thought into what record label releases the discs that they buy. So, Sony is probably going to get away with the crap they constantly pull.
However, I think it's our job to remind people about the Sony rootkit fiasco. (I generally warn my relatives, since I don't want to be the person that has to fix their computer when it gets infected by one of Sony's rootkits or the successor to the rootkit that Sony will inevitably create.)
It couldn't happen to a more deserving group of bastards.
However, I'm not going to crack open the champagne unless some sort of criminal prosecution actually comes out of this.
Will Sony as a whole go out of business? Of course not.
Although, I don't see them involved in music much longer with that kind of scar on their record. At very least, it's going to seriously hamper their sales.
Universal Music Group is another one that really deserves to be eradicated. They may survive, though - because of their current market share.
Warner is kind of on the line. You sense that they may realize they screwed up in suing consumers, but I'm not sold they're apologetic for the right reasons. I think they're sorry THAT they pissed consumers off, and not sorry for WHY they pissed consumers off.
EMI will probably survive. Of the four big labels, they've probably generated the least bad press (as far as I'm aware).
Furthermore, bad PR is harming the large record labels. When corporations act like a bunch of unapologetic dicks, it obviously turns some people away from wanting to support them. I find that periodically, I will come close to forgiving the large record labels, only to have one of their CEOs come out and say something that reminds me exactly why I hated them in the first place. Some of these CEOs REALLY should just insert their foot in the mouth, and LEAVE IT THERE. (UMG, for instance - remember the dreaded 'all iPod owners are thieves' speech?)
As far as Sony goes, I will never trust them enough to purchase an audio disc from them again. They got caught putting rootkit malware on their discs back in 2005. The malware was intended to limit the copying of the album, but virus-makers took advantage of a security hole that the rootkit opened up. Sony added this malware behind the backs of everybody. They only came clean with it when they were caught red-handed. They claim to have stopped doing this, but how can we know they're being honest with us? When you break somebody's trust, it takes a long time to win it back.
I will contemplate no longer boycotting EMI releases, provided they do cut RIAA funding. Emphasis on -contemplate-.
I like that EMI finally has 1) admitted that the lawsuits were a bad idea and 2) are actually planning to do something about it.
I do feel EMI should go a step further, though - and cut ties to the RIAA outright. If they were to form a separate legal group to represent their interests, it would really drive the point home that they've learned their lesson. Right now, I still suspect what they're saying is merely rhetoric intended to repair their tarnished image.
Argggh. I am NOT voting for Ron Paul. I'm tired of his followers spamming propaganda for him everywhere. (Yes! SPAM is the correct word. If you want ample proof of that, head over to Youtube and go to any video with a political slant.)
You can find decent independent music available for download on the following sites. (I think the top two are probably the best.)
www.jamendo.com - You can download entire albums here, but it leans towards electronica. European acts also seem more heavily represented than American ones. There's a LOT to choose from, though.
www.last.fm - A lot of independent acts distribute their music through Last FM. Some will at least allow you to freely listen. Many go a step further, and let you download the songs outright.
www.soundclick.com - Some freely downloadable music here. One issue with Soundclick is many of the independent artists have been infected by the dreaded 'micropayment syndrome', where they try and charge you some minor amount for their work.
www.myspace.com - Some artists let you download their music from MySpace, but I find there are less overall than the other sites that I've mentioned.
www.virb.com - Similar to MySpace and Soundclick. There are artist pages here that you can download music from.
Internet Archive [http://www.archive.org/] - Lots of free music here, for those who have some time to browse through the archives.
Opsound [http://www.opsound.org/] - Creative Commons music available here. To find anything good, one has to sift a little bit, but if you have time to kill, go for it.
Conversely, if you do not purchase the albums, but instead pirate them, then you open yourself up to the record label lawsuits. They either extort the money out of you (for those who want to avoid the legal process), or they take you to court, where you potentially can lose more. End result? They still end up getting money.
In my humble opinion, the ONLY way to effectively combat large record labels is to completely starve them of ANY means of making money. Boycott them outright. You're kidding yourself if you think anything less will work.
NOW is the IDEAL time to boycott them, since those companies that own BOTH record labels and television stations are going to be REALLY hurting economically as the writer's strike progresses. If they're already wounded, let's kick them while they're down, and add some salt to the proverbial wound. If you don't want to boycott them permanently, that's fine - but why not do it until the writer's strike is over, at least?
>I was with you until you started bashing people who enjoy different types of music than you do. Who are you to say what >is good and what is crap? Was this directed at me? It seemed to be a direct reply to my original comment. I never said any genres were better than any others. I merely said there are a lot of spineless lemmings out there who will cluelessly follow their favorite artists wherever they go. That isn't limited to any one genre.
I like that they are finally acknowledging that the whole "sue the consumers" thing might be wrong. I find it pathetic that it took them this long to admit it.
I, as others have already said, believe actions speaker louder than words. If Warner wants consumers to truly believe it has seen the error of its ways, it should disassociate itself from the RIAA.
Either that, or the RIAA as a whole needs to change its stance, and REALLY mean it. (Will anybody ever believe the RIAA has turned a new leaf? Nope. The RIAA has tarnished its reputation for decades to come. The PR damage is probably irreversible at this point.)
Gene Simmons is a dinosaur. And, no - I don't mean that in terms of his age.
He's like the guy who still owns (exclusively) an eight-track player in a world of people who use iPods and compact discs. They fail to see innovation even when it's staring them right in the face.
He may criticize Radiohead's selling approach, but you can't argue with the results. How much did Radiohead's album make in revenue? The non-standard selling method itself probably generated them a ton of publicity that they wouldn't otherwise have had.
I honestly think a band like KISS could get away with giving their music away for free, since they have other avenues available to them to make a crapload of money. (Live shows and merchandising, for starters.) They should be distributing the music as a promotional tool, rather than having it be the revenue-generator itself.
These artists need to learn to stop shooting their mouths off against the very people who support them. I completely support boycotting all major label artists, but artists like this in particular REALLY, REALLY deserve it. (Sadly, we all know that many people will continue to support artists like this, because they're pathetic fanboy lemmings who cluelessly follow their favorite artists wherever they go.)
As far as I'm concerned, the 'new business plan' the record labels comprising the RIAA should follow is this:
1) Go bankrupt.
2) Die a painful corporate death.
--
Considering that some of these large record labels are companies that also make television and movies, and considering that there is currently a writer's strike which is going to be seriously hurting the revenues of the television arm of these companies, I consider this is a -fantastic- time to boycott all the major record labels. Let's financially kick them in the groin while they're already hurting.
This is the perfect opportunity to boycott the bastards - so why wait?
While I can definitely see that sort of tactic, I know in this case it was legitimately the politician doing it. I got him to admit it. He didn't deny it for one second. I just checked my voicemail today - four political advertisements spammed there on the Monday and Tuesday of the election. Blah.
Amen - I had one politician repeatedly leaving automated messages on my voicemail. I politely emailed him and asked him to stop, and he basically said "No" because it's 'more cost-efficient than mailings'.
Did I vote for him in the last election? No. (He was all rhetoric and little substance.)
The problem is, all politicians feel the need to do this because they fear their opponents will. So, the only way to stop it is to ban it outright (for DNC list subscribers, at least).
(On a sidenote, SPRINT is one of the BIGGEST abusers of telemarketing. I've been on the DNC list for some time, and a few weeks ago, I had some overseas arm of Sprint calling me repeatedly, saying I 'won a free cell phone'. I got about three or four calls like this over a couple days. If they can confirm this was truly Sprint, they should fine the holy hell out of them. I'll NEVER purchase anything from them. They've been a telemarketing pain-in-the-rectum as far back as I can remember.)
The original PS2 I have still works. When it dies, I'll probably switch to the WII, not the PS3. (The PS3 is just too unrealistically expensive.)
Would I consider getting the $99 PS2 console so I can still play my old games? Yeah.
In that regard, the streamlined PS2 could still win, in a matter of speaking.
Although, would it be able to challenge the WII as king of the proverbial hill? Probably not.