If you do a boycott make sure that you tell everyone why you are doing it, and that includes letters to your elected representatives. If you don’t tell elected representatives then anything you do will just be used against you.

The other question is: why just a week? I started my boycott of the major labels and motion picture studies in 2000. See: http://metallica.flora.org/

We should not be just doing this for a week, but opting out of funding people who want to sue everyone. You should stop not only purchasing this music, but downloading/distributing it as well. Live your daily lives as if this were the future and independent musicians who authorize P2P advertising are the only musicians making money – purchase/download/distribute only those independents.

If you want to take on an education campaign even further, do as DownHillBattle.org are doing with their r RIAA Information Awareness Activism (RIAA) site.

http://www.downhillbattle.org/riaa/

Russell McOrmond – http://www.flora.ca/russell/

Blah..!

All that said. I bought my last music cd a long long time ago – no plans on buying any within the near future….. but, I’ll tell you, artists whom (like the person who advertised, er um, told us about their wanting their music shared) understand our cause (to allow the old Betamax case to be where our copyright’s are based from instead of the DMCA/Patriot act crap) we p2p users should invest in them instead of the rat bastards of the industry who are suing our friends/brothers/kids/etc…..

In short:

Dear Mr and Mrs Musician and Movie Actor:

I love the value you give to us in your works but you need to understand that not all of us have your kind of bank accounts. To you, that steak dinner is trivial but for us we’re lucky to get Mac and Cheese. We’re not drinking name brand soda, or going to Fast Food restaurants every night – we’re mostly comprised of ‘average’ consumers…. We’re not out to destroy you but we’re also not going to ‘invest’ all our available money into your media products either.

I’ll give some examples here of what I mean. I ‘know of’ some people who frequently download media from the net – do they intend to harm the makers of said media? no.. in fact once they find something they really love they keep it aside (while normally deleting the crap that they’re glad they didn’t buy up front)… and in time, they occasionally go out and buy that media when its affordable (note: affordable is not $20 for a movie or music cd… the magic number for a dvd is closer to $9 and roughly $5 for a music cd).. and that’s including all the fancy cover art and crap you put on as ‘added value’….

I know the first thing out of the mouths of non-p2p users is normally that p2p users get what they deserve……that they bring it on themselves – but what if they, by watching or listening to that media they download, increase the number of sales they would have ultimately made – because if they had not listened or watched that media they would never have spent that hard-earned money on them, not even as a rental….. while that question is in line with the story here, it’s still the kinda thing I hear all the time.

As for the freedom in posting information on the net – it’s not so free – the people can post to a thousand sites and only have a few dozen people actually read it, while getting some reporter at the wall street journal to post an interview on a p2p user would more likely have a more profound effect…. good luck getting that printed, but point is the same.

I have high hopes that p2p will be freed from the crap the mpaa/riaa have put upon the various flavors it’s become… however, until someone stands trial and risks their lives being placed behind bars for the cause, we’re not going to get anywhere.

I call out to ANYONE sued by the onslaught who feel strongly about p2p and its survival to contact the EFF.org before signing away the waivers the media bastards get you to sign when accepting the settlement amounts. If you have the golden-case, you can set the precedent for all p2p defense…. If you’re case is doomed, please don’t goto trial because you again, will set a precedent, but if you’ve got a spitting chance, then fight the bastards…….please.

Ok, sorry, I rant now and then…. but we’re just spinning our wheels until there is legal changes instead of just a few hundred or thousand people holding back buying product a few days, only to go back to the store and buy the same media products they would have bought on those days they abstained anyway – it accomplishes nothing. If you’re going to help the cause in that way, do what I have done – vow to buy nothing EVER again until things change for the p2p betterment. anything less is half ass and you shouldn’t waste your time.

Just my $4.95.. lol

_-Jile-_

I think an other try should be to create an (annual) filesharing day, when we stand out to the mainstream media and everyone and try to tell them the same. We must create our own ‘weasel’. By the activity of some lobby-group (mainly RIAA and MPAA) average people can have a very dark stereotype about us. We should try to break down it, becouse when people realize that there can be an other way (and every day more and more realize do), the entertainment industry will have to make a step, without the words ’sue’ or ‘threat’.