Ooh Baby It's a Rip Off

On the news today in Blighty was the little nugget from the British version of the RIAA, that we must all expect to be prosecuted, like our American cousins, for downloading freely available mp3. This Punch and Judy sideshow is really beginning to piss me off, as it has such blatantly obvious double standards. For example, BT and AOL have recently both ran separate ad campaigns extolling the virtues of broadband internet. They both tout the service with slogans like 'download as many films, songs etc as you want, before they hit the stores etc.' They do not stipulate any particular sites or technology. Likewise the previous campaigns by such dodgy operations as Rio, Sony, and even Ipod. The implication to the purchaser is that this material is easily available and must be legit. Do you remember the campaign by Sony advocating 'record,copy,burn...', I saw full size billboards all over the underground network for that gem. After the fantastic surge of interest that Grey Tuesday spawned, the industry must be reeling at its own total lack of cool and absolute unprepared-ness. Music is now completely out of the 'bag', and has returned to the people from whence it came. Or something. Here are some pertinent links......
Thanks to mp3isnotacrime.org once again.


Banned Music - full selection of banned music for your perusal.
Downhill Battle - activist site for protest in matters MP3 and similar.
Stop RIAA Lawsuits - All the info on how to protest.
Download the handbill PDF - print and distribute this factsheet protest.