BLACK MARCH - Thursday, March 1st 2012 to Saturday March 31st 2012

[Reasonable Doubt]

 

[silverpig]

1. Not all companies' fiscal years start January 1. A March blackout might be in the middle of Q3.

2. Sounds a lot like the whole "don't buy gas on the long weekend" chain emails. Those never work unless you pledge to not drive on the long weekend. If you hold off buying music in March, but just buy it in April, it's a wash (which is exactly what the image says to do).

3. This will only fuel the RIAA's propaganda machine that:

a) The evil hackers of the internets are waging a geek war against them
b) OMG revenues are down and the internet is killing us with piracy!


I love the effort, and like the sentiment, but the tactic is flawed unfortunately.

 

[alent1234]

Didn't say anything about no Blu rays

 

[Jeff7]

They're going to pass this stuff anyway. (Not that I approve, or know of any legal ways of preventing it...:\)
- Change the wording slightly so it's not quite the same, but it does all the same things.
- Call it something different.
- Add it as various riders to unrelated legislation, and pass it a bit at a time.
- Wait a bit until people are more distracted by the presidential campaign.


And let's see, wait 4 weeks to buy the stuff.
So theoretically, the companies will still have the money anyway, and they'll have a lousy 1st quarter, but a fabulous 2nd quarter. Yeah, that'll show 'em.

 

[dabuddha]

Is this like the don't buy gas on a certain day sorta thing?

 

[edro]

"Do not download a single song, legally or illegally."

Why not illegally? 😀

 

[darkewaffle]

I bet this works wonders.

 

[amdhunter]

I don't do any of that anyway!

 

[PokerGuy]

Well, I don't buy any media (music, movies) etc anyway, I just pay my cable bill to watch TV.

 

[lxskllr]

1. Not all companies' fiscal years start January 1. A March blackout might be in the middle of Q3.

2. Sounds a lot like the whole "don't buy gas on the long weekend" chain emails. Those never work unless you pledge to not drive on the long weekend. If you hold off buying music in March, but just buy it in April, it's a wash (which is exactly what the image says to do).

3. This will only fuel the RIAA's propaganda machine that:

a) The evil hackers of the internets are waging a geek war against them
b) OMG revenues are down and the internet is killing us with piracy!


I love the effort, and like the sentiment, but the tactic is flawed unfortunately.

^^^

Want to hit them where it hurts? Stop using their crap at all. Use libre software, listen to libre music, read public domain books...

Cut them off completely, and support companies/developers that respect your rights.

http://libre.fm/
http://www.gutenberg.org/
http://www.archive.org/
http://www.jamendo.com/en/
http://www.fsf.org/

 

[ArizonaSteve]

I've been blacking out the RIAA/MPAA for years.

 

[GotIssues]

Ill-conceived boycott.

SOPA will pass in one form or another because Congress is a bunch of old geezers afraid of technology and being fed bullshit by media lobbyists, while the average person has no one looking out for their interests.

"Record sales and movie ticket sales are down because of internet piracy!" - riiiiight, it has nothing to do with the ever-increasing steaming piles of shit they keep releasing. Maybe it's because 90% of music is formulaic, unimaginative drivel or that the percentage of good movies is dropping drastically, while the price of going to the movies has sckyrocketed.

If my wife and I were to go to the movies, it would cost us ~$35 for 2 tickets and a pop + popcorn to share. Fuck that, I'll wait until it comes out on DVD in 6 months and buy it for $16 +$0.25 for a pop and $0.50 for popcorn and watch it as many times as I want on my TV/Soundsystem that is more than an adequate substitution for a theatre. I love going to the theatre, but frankly, it's just not worth it anymore, and forcing 3D down our throats to rake in an extra $3/ticket only serves to piss more people off.

/rantaboutsomethingIfeelstronglyabout

 

[WaTaGuMp]

What if people just do everything the next day?

 

[Linflas]

Ill-conceived boycott.

SOPA will pass in one form or another because Congress is a bunch of old geezers afraid of technology and being fed bullshit by media lobbyists, while the average person has no one looking out for their interests.

"Record sales and movie ticket sales are down because of internet piracy!" - riiiiight, it has nothing to do with the ever-increasing steaming piles of shit they keep releasing. Maybe it's because 90% of music is formulaic, unimaginative drivel or that the percentage of good movies is dropping drastically, while the price of going to the movies has sckyrocketed.

If my wife and I were to go to the movies, it would cost us ~$35 for 2 tickets and a pop + popcorn to share. Fuck that, I'll wait until it comes out on DVD in 6 months and buy it for $16 +$0.25 for a pop and $0.50 for popcorn and watch it as many times as I want on my TV/Soundsystem that is more than an adequate substitution for a theatre. I love going to the theatre, but frankly, it's just not worth it anymore, and forcing 3D down our throats to rake in an extra $3/ticket only serves to piss more people off.

/rantaboutsomethingIfeel stronglyabout

Can't access image sites from work so I have to guess at what this is about from the responses but I fully support any boycott against content producers. The strongest message the public could deliver to them is a well publicized boycott of their product. Congress does do the bidding of lobbyists until it affects their re-election chances, and a popular boycott is one of the best ways to illustrate to them the risk to their jobs about an issue large numbers of the public feel strongly about. Why do you think they backed off SOPA/PIPA so quickly once it became known what they were up to?

 

[steve wilson]

Can't access image sites from work so I have to guess at what this is about from the responses but I fully support any boycott against content producers. The strongest message the public could deliver to them is a well publicized boycott of their product. Congress does do the bidding of lobbyists until it affects their re-election chances, and a popular boycott is one of the best ways to illustrate to them the risk to their jobs about an issue large numbers of the public feel strongly about. Why do you think they backed off SOPA/PIPA so quickly once it became known what they were up to?

Have to agree with this. The senitment is there with this boycott, but it won't work at all. Only way is to target the politicians. If they fear they won't be re-elected they will change their policies.

 

[Phoenix86]

Is this like the don't buy gas on a certain day sorta thing?

Not really, with gas you are going to use it anyways so you are just shifting your spending. With media consumption, if you go without for a month it's not like you have to spend 2x the following month to fill the tank.

It's a stupid idea either way.

 

[GotIssues]

Can't access image sites from work so I have to guess at what this is about from the responses but I fully support any boycott against content producers. The strongest message the public could deliver to them is a well publicized boycott of their product. Congress does do the bidding of lobbyists until it affects their re-election chances, and a popular boycott is one of the best ways to illustrate to them the risk to their jobs about an issue large numbers of the public feel strongly about. Why do you think they backed off SOPA/PIPA so quickly once it became known what they were up to?

The problem is that there needs to be a rallying point of some sort, and an internet petition isn't going to work. OWS gathered at a specific place, SOPA boycott had the backing of Google (among others) to give the rally some strength, but to prevent those gasbags in Congress from going through with it anyways, there has to be a focal point of the boycott, or it'll be an unorganized mess that accomplishes nothing. Some chain-letter saying "Blackout March" isn't going to accomplish that in any way, shape, or form especially if you consume in April what you would have in March.

 

[Cuda1447]

Unlike gas, if people wait the 4 weeks to get their shit... there is a chance that a good percentage of them just won't get it. The time will have passed for it being new and they won't really WANT it anymore and something else will have took its place. So this, unlike the gas scheme, might work a little bit.

 

[silverpig]

Unlike gas, if people wait the 4 weeks to get their shit... there is a chance that a good percentage of them just won't get it. The time will have passed for it being new and they won't really WANT it anymore and something else will have took its place. So this, unlike the gas scheme, might work a little bit.

That's true. It won't be perfect, but it will probably have some effect.

 

[GotIssues]

That's true. It won't be perfect, but it will probably have some effect.

I think it's hopelessly optimistic, but I'll continue not buying CDs in March, and doesn't look like anything interesting is opening up at theatres to even tempt me, so I'm in by default.

 

[mmntech]

The issue to me is not so much SOPA and PIPA, though they are despicable laws. They basically state that free speech is a barrier to business, and provide corporations vigilante power.

However, the real issue is how they came to be in the first place. In an interview on FOX News, Chris Dodd, the head of the MPAA, was outraged that senators and congressmen they had contributed financially to had not towed their line. This says quite clearly to me that the organization is bribing US representatives to get its way. There's really no other way to interpret what Dodd said. It's also worth noting that he was allegedly involved in some shady doings during the Sub-Prime crisis. A crisis allegedly caused by banking giants bribing US representatives to relax regulations on their industry.

The problem with American politics is it's too easy to donate vast sums of money to politicians, and therefore keep them in your pocket. Canada for example has very tight contribution limits. Individuals my only contribute up to $1,200 per candidate. AFAIK, the US has no such limits. Maybe it's time to consider changing that.

 

[lxskllr]

The problem with American politics is it's too easy to donate vast sums of money to politicians, and therefore keep them in your pocket. Canada for example has very tight contribution limits. Individuals my only contribute up to $1,200 per candidate. AFAIK, the US has no such limits. Maybe it's time to consider changing that.

Either that, or elect candidates with integrity. Yea, that's tough to find these days, but they're out there.

 

[Wyndru]

Was this thought up by the occupy hippies?

My sister-in-law is in her mid 20's and keeps babbling about this stuff. It's really annoying because she acts like all of the sudden she is this internet warrior out to protect. She now says things like "give me the IP, I'll check it out" instead of just asking for a website address. She doesn't even understand half of what is going on, she is just concerned that she won't be able to watch house online. It's pathetic, and I hope this doesn't turn into a joke like the occupy movement did.