Is the game up for the RIAA types?
Interesting take via Slashdot…
You are starting to talk huge political downside if you start directly publicly advocating for the RIAA now (except perhaps in a few Hollywood districts). You have tons of pissed off students and tons of pissed off academic administrators who have let it be known they are very unhappy with the heavy handed RIAA techniques and threats to academic freedom. I’d say in at least 80% of political districts advocating for the RIAA would be akin to advocating for Big Tobacco. Judges don’t like to be hoodwinked and humiliated either.
More and more this whole issue is threatening to blow up, and no doubt there will be massive political collateral damage if it does. Just ask the Republican Party how the Ron Paul supporters did with barely any organization and time in the political primary process. It will be a hell of a lot more targeted, organized, and effective the next time four years from now.
But let them buy all the unconstitutional laws they want. Those exact same laws can be confiscated and used against them (1 million or 10 million people can be copyright trolls for very little expense, and it could pay, just like it pays for patent trolls), and when the tide of public opinion turns, it will turn hard (they are a cast full of sleazy and greedy lawyers, executives, and overpaid artists with almost no redeeming sympathetic propaganda figures). Their propaganda campaigns arouse contempt. And an Anti-Copyright Abuse Political Action Committee might be able to raise Ron Paul amounts of money to run targeted negative ads against a list of the 20 worst bought Congressmen, and possibly defeat 50-75% of them. I could see such targeting swinging election results a good 5-10% in those districts, well enough to cause effective change. And it’s an issue that can slice without regard to political party affiliation. You have a huge untapped younger voter base that is mobilizing, that would certainly go out and vote to defeat pro-RIAA candidates. And Senators up for re-election would be even easier State-wide targets.
The game is up, and everyone knows it. The RIAA is going to start sustaining a more and more egregious reputation even in sell out DC city, especially as legal abuse losses start mounting. Congressmen aren’t politically stupid. Don’t think they haven’t noticed the rising up of student legal groups and independent academic institution mobilization. Don’t think they didn’t notice Comcast bend over just now on targeted throttling (even under an alleged anti-”piracy” justification).
And keep not buying or buying less music. Why should you care about any artists? Did any of those artists give the slightest damn when bribes stole away from you the contemporary limited bargain return of the advancement of arts into the public domain, even as you gave up your First Amendment free speech rights to copy and were forced to welfare subsidize their campaign of artificial monopoly scarcity greed and abuse through the resources of your government? They are all greedy fucks, wanting to milk you continuously for stuff that is 30 and 40 years old. Starve the bastards.