Rant time!

(Nick's joke of the day: Difference between a rant and an essay? You edit essays! Haha!)

This story has been all over the place the past few days.. Infact, I blogged one of the articles in this story a few days ago. There was also a Slashdot story earlier this week talking about a boycott of media outlets that back the RIAA/MPAA and their attacks on the information enabled public. Numerous articles detailing the RIAA's bullshit number analysis have popped up all over the place.

This all falls in line with what I've been saying for at least three years now.. Comsumers have found their channel for feedback to the media outlets.. Piracy. Boycott.. Whatever you want to call it, its taking form as we talk, type, and sleep. Slowly..

The messages the consumer is trying to convey are simple in many ways, yet they rarely come across clearly or directly. There are several things this can be blamed on, not the least of which is the complex nature of the situation. We can't expect the media to educate the public about it, its not in their intrest. So its all grass roots. It takes large numbers of people a fair amount of time to come to the same conclusions, given the same stimuli. Thats what we are seeing now. Only its faster then in the past, because the people pissed off are the information warriors. Us. We communicate wider and more frequently (and less formally, like this), hence our grass roots resistance to the tyranny of the big media is coming together in a mere several years, not several decades.

Normally, when we discover a problem, the media talks about it, educates the public, the public thinks about it, and eventually the public acts. Look at the way we tackle problems like environmental pollution, drunk driving, civil rights, drug use, etc.. The media has played a large role in driving the public to the conclusions they came to and acting the way they acted. Its not a mirror to mirror relationship, as we might believe. There is a degree to which those who program, determine the direction of the public's opinion and angst. You are what you eat. The media probably has more effect on the public then the school system. In American culture, the media is important. In a way, its a central part of our governmental structure. Often, its what drives our government's actions. Whats going to cause Lott to give up his seat? Congress or Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC? (Ok, the people will.. But who lead them?) There is alot to go into here, but its digression..

Right now the messages are a jumble.. We want the media to operate on our terms, not theirs. We are unwilling to ignore technology advances because they screw up someone's business model. We value our tools more then your profits and we will create, evolve, and maintain them regardless of persecution. Decentralization, decentralization, decentralization. Open tool chains and the power of shared knowledge.. Openness of co... [ Read More (0.6k in body) ]

Rattle rants up a storm on media revolution (Link: Slashdot | Still more RIAA news)

] "If that assumption is correct, then only 2,480 out of
] 36,386 titles from 1927-1946 are available, or 6.8%.
] 93.2% are commercially dormant."

While this result is hardly surprising, its important, because the Copyright club has argued that copyright protection for old works is the best way to ensure their distribution. Obviously, its not working very well.

Proof that Valenti is wrong...

"It appears that many corporate network users are taking advantage of fast Internet connections at work by publicly uploading and downloading infringing files on P2P (peer to peer) services, and also distributing and storing such files on corporate intranets," the groups wrote. "The use of your digital network to pirate music, movies, and other copyrighted works both interferes with the business purposes your network was built to serve and subjects your employees and your company to significant legal liability."

CNET: Studios, RIAA threaten CEOs on file trading

Andre added, "Asking me to make it so you or anyone else can bypass copy-content-protection is out of the question. If you do not ask the device to do bad things, then it will not do bad things back at you." He went on to add, "I agree this is silly but the DMCA/RIAA/MPAA and company are out to hurt people and their rights. [...] These people are sneaky and in the dark." The problematic drive in question was manufactured by Sony, a company notorious for its "aggressive anti-piracy stance". Andre went so far as to suggest, "Make a note, DON'T BUY SONY CDRW Products."

KernelTrap: Copy-Protected Audio CD's Causing Kernel Panics

In what may be a first for the recording industry, Maverick Records and Vivendi Universal's online division are asking listeners to pay just under a dollar for an unprotected MP3 version of a new single.

When I worked for MongoMusic, VivendiU always proved the most resistant of the major labels to online music distribution. They didn't want to play ball with anyone.

Vivendi Universal playing with MP3 singles

Rodale Press, the publisher of Runner's World magazine and many other prominent health-oriented publications, sent a stiff note to a hobbyist website this week, demanding it delete a hyperlink to a "printer-friendly" version of a runnersworld.com article or -- face the consequences.

Another Deep-Link Suit

The judge ordered that the information be turned over to the television networks and movie studios that are suing Sonicblue for releasing the ReplayTV 4000, a recorder that allows people to "AutoSkip" over commercials and trade pay-TV shows with people who might not have paid for the content.

They Know What You're Watching

darnellmc writes "See this News.com article which cites a study that shows file swapping increases music purchases . I guess it all depends on who is paid to do the study and how they carry it out, but this report would counter the study performed by an RIAA backed group, which noted that file swapping lowered music purchases. You would have to be one cheap individual to want to download all the music in your life for free and this study proves that. Because most people are obviously using file sharing to find new music to purchase. A concept the RIAA can not comprehend. If future major music releases are copy protected, it will be interesting how the RIAA will respond if they sell less." Well, if they sell less, it will be due to pirates, of course. A few weeks ago we mentioned Wilco, who released their album on their website for free. The strategy appears to have paid off.

Slashdot | Sharing Increases Music Purchases?

Vivendi's legal counsel sent Internet Gateway, a regional ISP, a letter late last month demanding that the company stop offering downloads of bnetd, volunteer-created software that allows individuals to run servers to host several popular online games. Games supported by bnetd include "Diablo II" and "StarCraft," both published by Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Vivendi.

EFF Responds to Vivendi DMCA Based Attack on Gamers

"``This technology is not going to be put back in the bottle,'' he said. ``They can slow down progress, but they cannot stop it.''"

The IT guys make a shitload more then the media guys. I think they have enough power to stop the SSSCA dead in its tracks.

Intel backs consumers over Hollywood