a few words..

Firstly, i would like to acknowledge here that perhaps many posters have already contemplated the very points i’m about to make or have made. I have seen, however, alot of emotional back-peddling from this community, a community that simultaneously iterates its own confidence in our current technologies. In lieu of such an onslaught brought on by 'the evil ones' as of late, it was my opinion that pointing out 'what i perceive as' our virtual-invincibleness would help ease the blows we can only wait on--in fact, i concede that taking the fight to 'them' EARLY is a kind of over-extension of oneself, given the fact that we've already WON.

Tell me seriously, if your KING is sitting at CHECKMATE from the START! (for us file-sharers i mean), why move that little sucker then.

they show us they STILL have THEIR QUEEN

and it seems to me we kinna panic

Boycotting is premature, if you seriously want to boycott 'right now' - DO IT ON BEHALF OF THE ARTISTS - better i think to continue to buy albums you're willing to pay for and let the riaa know their money's comin no matter what--the data will back us up ‘that way’ if it comes down to 'he said' 'she said'.

Also why not skip boycotting the riaa for the moment and boycott those damn politicians backing those bills. Everyone knows the riaa ain't gonna listen to anything we do at the moment, BUT we have a chance to sway these bad politicians with PETITIONS.

Shucks a bunch of flyers wouldn’t hurt either in case anyone wants to better inform the public.

Now the one serious issue that seems worthy of panic is the threat of invasion into our computers and privacies--the possible dethroning of decentralized p2p doesn't help either i admit.

BUT:

that's some of the most fascist insane set of laws i ever heard of in my life,

yes ignorant (perhaps money-motivated) politicians may pass such bills because of the obvious PANIC over HOW TO SECURE COPYRIGHT LAWS

Peeps, they must think extreme cuz COPYRIGHTS are at stake and no one seems to be able to prevent widescale file-sharing.

BUT SEE HOW THEY ADMIT DEFEAT CONSTANTLY. All of this is an admission of defeat-YOU BEAT US, the keep saying - their panic admits defeat - their absurdities admit defeat (all these absurd bills, attempt to stop free-speech and technology in a technological age, making discs play but not play at the same time, hiring hackers, loaning out cds instead of selling them, hacking into personal computers).

YOU SEE HOW THEY ADMIT DEFEAT ON EVERY LEVEL - deluding themselves into thinking the public is so PASSIVE as to put up with computer spying. The one and only thing the american public will not let the government take is our RIGHT TO SPEECH AND PRIVACY - 'that's all we ask' they say, 'just stay out of my damn home'.

LET THEM EXHAUST THEMSELVES I SAY

doesn't hurt now to initiate some laws of our own right now

doesn't hurt to continue to educate the public about the 'real' truth of file-sharing and the corruption of the riaa - just do it in a calm orderly fasion

Screwing up the order of things with boycotts and hacking and defiant file-sharing will only PROLONG THEIR FIGHT - make OUR WAIT LONGER TO REACH OUR GUARANTEED FINISH LINE.

Taking the fight to them now ENTICES THEM and says to the outer public FILE-SHARING MUST BE SOMETHING WORTH FIGHTING OVER EVIDENTLY - no wonder 'they' call it a war, they'll think.

and when this sh*t hits the major news finally - we will look like the palestenians in the fight and 'they' the jews

not a good scenario

YOU KNOW WHAT I'D TREAT IT AS (cuz we can) a non-issue (anti-war). What's all the fuss about? I just don't get those people. "You're stealing," the public will explain. "No i'm not," i will casually say. THEN THEY'RE DYING TO KNOW WHY YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT STEALING - somethin don't add up they'll think - OVER HERE THEY'RE INSANELY TICKED OFF and passing absurd laws and invading people's homes and restricting technology, over there they're calm, orderly, even responsible, backing artists rights, consumer rights as well, proving to me file-sharing makes the riaa richer.

Lastly, which do YOU prefer to listen to my fellow music fans: two guys at a convenient store yelling at each other (no, you pay for your juicy fruit real quick and get the hell out of there). The other scenario: one guy yelling, the other guy calmly making him look like a fool (that you find interesting and easier to listen to, and whether he's right or not, you’re likely to assume the calm guy is the correct of the two).

some suggested reading for thumbtack: "mein kampf" - by hitler - why you ask? simply because it may distract him from boycotting LOL

just joshin wid ya thumb!

In many respects I agree with you, however I personally have been boycotting since July 11th, 2000. (the day Lars Ulrich whined in front of congress "Napster ripped me off". Did it slow my music prchases? for a while, but then I discovered the wonderful world of independents. Last year I bought about 50 CD's all from independent musicians. People like Fred Eaglesmith, Lady Jane Grey, Robin Hackett, Jack Hardy, just to name a few. More music than any other year previous (by about 5 times). Stew on that Hilary...

To me the boycott started out as a means to express my outrage at the DMCA, the CTEA (Copyright Term Extension Act, sometimes refered to as the Sony Bono Act). To this day, I still feel that Mp3, Ogg, WMA, or any other format (other than 44.1Kz 16 bit wav) is nowhere a good as a cd. To me these are acceptable (like radio) but still not as good as a cd. Earlier this year I did a test, in which I took a cd made a 44,100 16bit wav file from a song that was 46MB, I then made a Mp3 from the same song. It was 4.6MB. A quick listen to both and it was easy to tell the difference. The Mp3 misses the nuances of the music,
the point being that MP3 is not a perfect digtial copy as been touted by the RIAA. Acceptable yes, like radio but not the best musical experience. I consider digtial music files to be a promotional quality item only. Sure there is the statutory license, which is so restrictive, you can't play more than 3 songs by the same artist in a 4 hour period. Interactivity? forget it. Let the listener chose what they want to hear? No Way, that's why most webradio sucks. They don't even have the latitude to program that terrestial radio has. Oh you want an interactive license? Did you know it costs a million dollars, to even discuss it? That's what is required up front to get to the bargaining table. By putting artifical barriers to the entry of the last place an independent artist has to get a decent amount of play, the RIAA membership has sealed their fate, with me at least. But the main is reason is that they have distorted the copyright bargain that our forefathers struck. I own copyrights, extending the term doesn't encourage the creator to create, it encourages him to sit on his ass after one sucessful endeavor.

Does the boycott work? I like to think it is having some impact, as last year the RIAA member sales were down approx 5%, In January they (the RIAA) laid off 16 people.

As for Mein Kampf, I first read it when I was 13. My father gave it to me with a statement something to the effect of "there's something to learned from this. He was a carrer Marine. The maniac that Hitler was, he did know what he wanted, and how to get there. He planned it, he did it. Step by evil step. I have likened the RIAA to Nazis more than once. They didn't just go away, it took a lot of hard work, and dedicated men and women to end the regime. Check out http://www.boycott-riaa.com/images/RIAA_SS_3.jpg

You know what scares me the most about the RIAA and the MPAA? It's that they might actually believe the bullshit they spout.

thumbtack, i was joking and you read the thing LOL

you are a stickler for details and well-read it seems..i can appreciate your tenacity and integrity, taking a stand in the world, which is tough to do these days

mp3s, btw, seem to beat out cd-player music-i sware i checked it out one day and that's what i concluded-ever notice barely scratched cds skip easily in cd players, but a cd-rom can take about anything.

mp3s i suppose are unsubstantial at lower bitrates like you say, but you have to admit commercially mp3s are doing well enough to give the riaa alarm, not that i agree with their practices obviously

it does sound like the riaa, to a striking degree, has sealed the inde-artist's fates-i did not know those specifics about radio and such, WOW.


thumbtack: "You know what scares me the most about the RIAA and the MPAA? It's that they might actually believe the bullshit they spout."

yes it is scary isn't it, like some kind of bad fair-tale

holy fucking metaphors batman!

yes, i'll say it again..

I totally agree that fighting the politicians is a much better approach at this issue than trying to fight the riaa, the politicians HAVE to listen, the riaa can go on being ignorant shits about it all they want

lets gather a collection to save up for a super bowl commercial

hey terrific idea weaponzero! however, collections tend to denote small change> that's the priciest timeslot you can buy, anyone got a mill kickin round or anything

just felt like sayin this again

from 60 minutes:

file-sharin dude:if you're in the desert...and...your selling water...and suddenly its starts to rain...what then do you do???

Do you go around and start selling umbrellas???