Skip to main content

After SOPA/PIPA?

There is a host of information regarding SOPA/PIPA on the web today, during this "blackout" You can find more information on Wikipedia or Google. This post is my take on what needs to happen next. -- Douglas

takeaction.png

What truly needs to happen next is direct action against the sources of funding for the MPAA/RIAA. Without their funding they cannot be effect lobbyists for bills such as SOPA/PIPA (and surely more to come down the pike).

It is time to starting working our way through the MPAA/RIAA membership lists and taking action to convince their members that associating themselves with the MPAA/RIAA is no longer a good deal, nor it is in their own best interest.

Further, if people want to stop bills such as SOPA/PIPA being produced, we all need to stop supporting/funding these bills with our movie, television and music listening choices. It can be hard to face the fact, but we ourselves have funded the bills that we are now protesting against.

"Follow the money" was Deep Throat's advice and it still applies today. The money flowing to MPAA/RIAA members flows to their lobbyists and directly into our elected representatives coffers. Think about your actions next time you go to the movies or pick up a CD/DVD. Do you really want to be funding legislation that actively seeks to criminalize your Internet activities? Do you really want to have to protest bills that you yourself funded?

For myself, I find that I can more easily live without MPAA/RIAA member content than I can without the Internet and all that it provides. If it comes down to a battle between the two, and today shows that it has, I know where my loyalties lie. Close the theaters and studios and the record companies. It won't hurt me one bit. I have many choices in music and entertainment these days beyond MPAA/RIAA. We are not longer living in a world of entertainment scarcity and it is time that these old guard companies learned that lesson. Innovate or get out of the way.

If we have truly awakened from our slumber, we need to understand who and what is funding these bills and cut off that funding at the source. Close your pocketbook to those entities that think maintaining their out of date business model is more important than benefits the Internet provides. Show them that they have truly been supplanted with so many alternatives that they no longer matter.

This is the way forward.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Microsoft release Outlook.com email services to replace Hotmail

Today Microsoft released its new email service Outlook.com to replace its Hotmail brand. This new streamlined Metro interface design looks good and functions well so far. You can use your existing Microsoft account to log in and then choose an email alias (i.e. douglaswelch@outlook.com) for your new email address. Here are several articles that discuss Outlook.com... Goodbye, Hotmail; Hello, Outlook.com [REVIEW]  Outlook Is a Completely New, Feature-Filled Webmail Service from Microsoft Go Get Your @Outlook Email Address Quick Before Someone Else Does I will post links to more articles and reviews as they appear.

TechIQ Gift Guide #15: Sams Teach Yourself Wordpress 3 in 10 minutes

#15 Sams Teach Yourself Wordpress 3 in 10 minutes Chuck Tomasi , fellow Friends in Tech member and co-author of Podcasting for Dummies , along with another Friends in Tech member and podcasting partner, Kreg Steppe , have a new book out that would be a great gift for anyone interested in blogging and New Media. Wordpress is my first recommendation when someone wants to get started with blogging, but it can be a little intimidating. It is very powerful and with power comes complexity. That said, this book can help to jumpstart your Wordpress knowledge and help you be productive. There is also a companion podcast to the book, Wordpress in 10, available from the author's web site. From Amazon.com... "Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes gives you straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results. By working through its 10-minute lessons, you’ll learn everything you need to build great blogs with WordPress and WordPress.org, and reach any audience by web brows

Shared calendars are one part of an organized family

by Douglas E. Welch , techiq@welchwrite.com 206-338-5832 Reader/Listener Line As a parent with a school-age child, I often hear other parents bemoaning their disorganized existence. Along with the busy schedules of two working parents you might have art classes, karate classes, Little League, soccer and more. Add in more than one kid and organizing your life can quickly become a nightmare. This is exactly why one of my most important organizing devices is a shared calendar that reflects all the activities and events for everyone in the household...and I do mean everything. If someone -- is required to be somewhere -- at sometime, it goes into the calendar. If we are given a calendar that reflects all the events for a particular activity (say, Little League), all these events immediately go into the calendar, along with notations on whether we are providing the team snack, working in the snack bar, etc. Even events that occur anytime during the day, like family birthdays, and other rem