Never piss off an INFP.

[estirose]

I wanted to aim people in the U.S. at "No Safe Harbor", which is a set of essays that go into what the U.S. Pirate Party believes. (It's free, though you can order it, as I'm doing, from Amazon.)

Personally, while I haven't exactly joined the Pirate Party, I'm working to get it in my state as much as the law allows (this has to do with me and not them, due to my job; I'm subject to the more restrictive parts of the Hatch Act of 1939). I don't think a boycott is going to work - we need to do more. I need to do more.

I'm tired of Big Content using my government and others to go after online filesharing, about the erosion of Fair Use, the increasing length of copyright terms, the abuse of certain kinds of patents. I firmly believe if more of us push, like we did for PIPA/SOPA, that we can eventually make a difference. I'll be donating money to the US Pirate Party. We don't have to accept the status quo and our two-party system.

I firmly believe in using legal methods to take power away from those who abuse it and restore sanity to IP and privacy laws. I can't do it any other way. I know it's going to be a long, hard road, but I've got to do it.

ETA: On a totally random note, Rick Falvinge (the person who started the first Pirate Party over in Sweden) is only a few months older than I am. What a nice coincidence!

Comments

[ex_jaeger408]

I, on the other hand, have simply gone the boycott route.

For almost three weeks I have not done anything that directs money back to the US. No shopping at stores owned by US parents, or purchasing products made by companies with US parents. No seeing American movies at the cinema, no buying American DVDs. No coke, no McDonald's, no Power Rangers.

At this point I've drawn the line at giving the US money, but I am working towards minimal interaction overall. For example, if an American show appears on TV, and I want to watch it now, I will - as it costs me nothing. But I am aiming to not even doing that; to essentially ignore the existence of the US as much as I can.

Of course, certain business are exempt from this - those that have indicated that they oppose what I oppose (such as Dreamwidth).

[estirose]

The reason I support legislative action instead of a boycott is because our entertainment businesses are very, very fond of twisting "Nobody's buying our products, our profits are down" into "Help, help! We're getting pirated! Government, you must help us!" (And in the meantime, the people that really are wronged get ignored.)

And, incredulously, our government believes them and doesn't believe that this might because of boycotts of this awful industry, because of course they can do no wrong. It's why I will not be voting for my sentators this time around - they're both good people who I otherwise agree with, but this cannot go on.

[tilmon]

Oh, that's right...I have a dreamwidth account...

Did not even know there is a US Pirate Party. I'll be looking into it now, and reading their book.

Personally, I'll participate in Black March, and also make more of an effort to get acquainted with independent artists. But the long term solutions have to be political. If we can't sweep out the corruption that sells out free speech and freedom of association in the name of (intellectual) property rights, all the boycotts in the world won't save us from worse to come.

[estirose]

I think there are a lot of people who are suddenly remembering they're on DW, lately. :)

The 'support independent artists' is something I can get behind. I think it's a good idea - I'll have to check that out.

[tilmon]

My plan is to post each day in my LJ (and I'll reflect it in DW) a different artist for people to check out. I think we have to take control back, make sure that independence is respected and rewarded, and let ourselves be the advertisers and arbiters of culture.