It’s March! RIAA boycott month!
p2pnet.net news:- It’s March 1 and that means it’s the month for NOT buying anything put out by the people who pay for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) or any of the other Big 4 alphabet sue ‘em all organizations around the world.
Gizmodo proposed March as Boycott the RIAA month, and it’s a great idea.
EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US) are still suffering under the delusion that we need them, figuring they can get away unscathed as they try to sue us into buying their over-priced, low-quality downloads..
But they’re wrong, dead wrong, and on both counts.
Some people say, Why Bother? It doesn’t make any difference.
Who says it doesn’t? The labels claim all kinds of things are causing significant dips in their sales numbers, but you never see anything about the fact that thanks to the Big 4’s bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign, a new consumer base has been born: music lovers who wouldn’t touch corporate ‘product’ with a barge pole.
And that’s having an effect on sales. Bank on it.
Digital Copyright Canada’s Russell McOrmond had a few thoughts on the subject —– exactly five years ago to the day.
Here’s what he posted:
Piracy or Boycott: Can you tell the difference?
As I read my email today I read two interesting messages. One was a reference to an article from ITBusiness.ca titled, Steal this article which ended in the quote “The Internet has the power to make Hollywood and Big Music irrelevant.”.
The second was an announcement from Studio 2 about their show tonight including a segment called “Music Industry Woes”.
The Studio 2 announcement goes as follows:
Music Industry Woes
Napster may be dead, but thanks to Gnutella and Morpheus and a host of other file ’sharing’ programs, the downloading of copyrighted material off the Internet is alive and well. Video killed the radio star, will the Internet kill the record companies?
Producer: Kaly Vittala
What frustrates me about the Studio 2 introduction is that while I agree with the record companies that their revenues have went down recently, their analysis of the numbers are fundamentally flawed. Their revenues have gone down because they have started an assault on music fans with their lawsuits against peer-to-peer file sharing.
There is no way for the recording industry to tell the difference between lost revenue to people who are sharing big-label music on the Internet, or people like myself who have simply decided to boycott the big-labels.
In April of 2000 I sent out my article, “Bye, Metallica: a lost fan“, and created the URL of http://metallica.flora.org/. I wrote that URL onto all the Metallica CD’s I owned, and brought to a used CD store. As of that day I have boycott the products of any RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) or MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) member.
I made one exception last summer when I bought two DVD movies. In this case I bought the movies with the specific intent of playing them on my Linux computer using an Open-Source DVD player. I knew that this was in direct violation of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a controversial law in the USA) and I submitted details of this action to the Canadian Government’s copyright reform process as a reply to the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association (CMPDA) submission.
I do believe that revenue is being lost by these media cartels, and I am doing my part to help ensure that this continues to happen. These cartels will continue to claim that it is peer-to-peer networking that is bringing them down. I suspect that the Candle Production Association of our distant past also attempted to blame the invention of the light-bulb on their financial woes, and wished that they could have enacted laws to stop it.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
a great idea – March: Boycott the RIAA month, March 1, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 1st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
i mean, it is so hard to go out and buy the new britney spears album but i’ll show my support against the RIAA.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:31 pm
That article was written 5 years ago (March 1, 2002), and so much has happened since then. I didn’t predict http://www.musiccreators.ca/ , Canadian labels leaving CRIA, or the growing number of musicians and other creators opposed to DRM and lawsuits against their fans.
While times have changed, have our politicians noticed? Rather than boycotting the RIAA which won’t have much effect, why not spend the energy sending a letter to your Member of Parliament?
Canadians: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/letters
Americans: http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=271
March 1st, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I will not give these robber barons one thin dime. They have themselves induced me to “freely procure” the few bits of quality music that inadvertently slip through the cracks of their crap castles. They have collectively been fleecing the public and artists alike for DECADES. It’s time to let them die.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:51 pm
On the day the muzakbigbiz dies i say we demand a public holiday to celebrate the joyous event. Not just a once off, but an annual “Hooray they’re finally dead!” holiday. I’m having trouble thinking of a name for the holiday but here’s a few ideas.
Dead AA day?
Victory for Consumers day?
Justice at last day?
No more enslaved performers day?
No more muzak day?
March 1st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I’m afraid my contribution won’t make a dent in the weekly or monthly sales. I boycott them month after month and will continue to do so. They lost me as a customer when they lost touch of what the customer wants in return for payment of money.
I wouldn’t touch todays music as I simply don’t like it. It’s formulaic, tasteless as far as variety goes, and the blender homogeneous tunes just don’t do it for me.
I can’t hear new tunes on the radio like I did in the 60’s and 70’s so there’s no reason to listen to replay city. Lacking that exposure where else can I find new music to hear if I might like it or not? Only one place I have found and that’s p2p. I won’t pay for an album before knowing I will like it and there is no refund policy to return it. Heck digital sales doesn’t have a resale value for used no I am not going to even give that a chance. I’ve been burned far too many times already and have learned my lesson on buying something based on album art that I can now barely see on the cd cover format.
On the whole I’m a dissatisfied customer. The sue’em all put the cap on it all. I also don’t support companies and corporations whose business policies I disagree with. So for years now they haven’t received a penny from me for the purchase of new tunes.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Please, please, look over the AHRA… for US citizens…
In this case, the Audio Home Recording Act.
This act allows copying music … MUSIC, for personal purposes… non commercial personal use.
While the act of copying music for non commercial purposes is considered obtaining an illegal copy, it is not something that can be prosecuted under the law.
Think logically, of all the “cases” where the RIAA has gone up against users, have any been brought up on criminal charges? How many have SETTLED… how many were brought to JUDGMENT?
IMHO, Paying for copies of music is a voluntary effort and copying music for non commercial purposes… is not an enforceable crime.
-aicra