Time for us to band together and change the law.

[RM115]

For those concerned about the RIAA/MPAA witch hunt and wish to help stop their abuses here are some suggestions.

The politicians are getting worried about what they have created (DMCA). It also worries them that this law is being used to pursue P2P users in ways not originally anticipated; P2P users who are being used as scapegoats due to reduced CD sales, but the reality is those lost purchases are because the RIAA refuses to change its business model to mirror current events and because of a down global economy. Therefore, now is a great time to contact your elected representatives in Washington. Lawmakers don't give a rat's patooie about what is written on a BBS but do pay attention to what is written to them!! So make your voices heard where it really counts and will make a change. There should be one house member and two Senate members for your district. That is who you're trying to locate. It's easy to find who they are. Go to these sites and type in a zip code for the list of each representative's name, address, phone number and district location where you live.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

http://www.house.gov/writerep/ house REPRESENTATIVE

http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

If this seems intimidating, call the local county clerks office, usually under county government, and ask for the names, addresses and phone numbers of your elected congress persons. If you don't want to write, call their offices. Each one should have a local office in your home area.


Moreover, Nearly all use email so writing to them is easier than posting on this board and costs absolutely nothing. Snail mail is another option. If you are a registered voter, include your registration number in the letter. It lets your representatives know you mean business. Also, anyone who is not registered should either write or call, too, and I reccommend you register to vote before the next election. Moreover, not being old enough to vote is not an excuse, write anyway, because one day you young people will become voters and this is good practice at learning how to fight for what you believe in...your voice matters now as it will then. Pen what is on your mind but be nice. Don't make comments like, "The RIAA can eat my shorts," just stick to your concerns. There is no limit on the number of letters you can send about issues dear to you. The more the better. Everyone must pay attention to where their reps stand on P2P & DMCA issues then use your vote accordingly during the next election. Nothing scares politicians more than angry constituents, most especially in a bad economy as we are experiencing now; that is because angry voters fire an incumbent leader and put someone else in that seat. No amount of money from a special interest group changes that. True power still rests with the people.



Further, our elected "village idiots" in Washington quietly passed the DMCA, which is the big hammer now being used by media companies to nail accused copyright infringers to the wall. When one has a hammer, everthing is a nail, as is evident by the innocent people that were recently accused of wrong doing by the RIAA. How many more innocents will be fingered is anyone's guess. The scary aspect of this law is the ease anyone has for obtaining a user's name, address, phone number and other personal information from an ISP by simply alleging copyright infringement. All should be very concerned about the loophole -- parents most especially!! This has very ugly consequences should someone intent on mischief, a stalker or murderer for example, use the law's provision to get personal information about vulnerable users: people who live alone, children, single women, single mothers, etc. This information is given out by an ISP without one's knowledge of its release. One would be totally unaware of any dangerous factions that might be tracking a target at this very moment. My question, where are the "protect our children" special interests on this issue? Many people, kids especially, are very trusing while using the net, and God forbid one of them come to harm because of a misguided law created out of greed. Should that happen any blood stains are on the hands of the politicians who made the law and those who influenced its passage - RIAA/MPAA.

Write to the "Voices of the people" columns of your local newspapers and other publications in your area. Make the DMCA dangers known to people unaware of them and of the potential consequences to all internet users, not just P2P and file traders.

Folks, make your votes count and your voices heard!! Turn the heat up under your lawmakers, together we can make a huge difference. Give them a chance to correct an injustice or sack them.

[Caitlyn Marble]

yes, I agree, something must be done, and being a minor doesn't mean you can sit back and twiddle your thumbs. I've written to my representative (ages ago though) about how I felt about the psychotic webcasting royalty crap. It took about five minutes, and if you can't spare five minutes to tell your congressman what you think, you need to get off the computer and get your frickin priorities sorted out.

and we need major press coverage. we need to fight the image of the poor performer geting screwed because thier CD's are collecting dust in the shops. no one actually belives in that, but we can't just let the RIAA try to trick impressionable, computer illiterate types like grandpa moses into voting for idiots like berman. We need to get the artists speaking out more. Fuck madonna, britney spears, eminem. everyone knows they live in mansions and have more money than most working class people have in a lifetime. We need to get the other musicians an audience. They are speaking. Look at Radiohead, Blur, The Streets. They are all pro-sharing, but half the fucking country doesn't know it, because no one publishes what they say, mainly because they don't sell as much as metallica. let's give them an outlet on some big network like NBC and let them spout off for a two hour special. The country will love it, people will tune in, because for once someone will be giving them the straight up truth on something that actually has an affect on them . Half the media goes on about the artist getting screwed, but no one ever talks about the consumer. no one talks about how we've been getting screwed, how we've had to pay for overpriced shit. (yes the masses know it in the back of thier head, like how they know about the national debt and are silent about it) or if they do it gets on page 15 sandwiched between a paragraph on the fattest sumo contest and a report on what george dubya's favorite food is.
which brings us to another point. the struggle of p2p is only talked about on the internet and on newspapers. since alot of voters are the older folks, outdated, unintouch with technology (kinda like the riaa), the internet won't be influening them anytime soon, and most people don't read newspapers. WE NEED TO GET ON TV. and we need the raw opinions all over. not just one pasty five minute story on how easy kazaa is to use. TALK ABOUT THE CONSUMER, TALK ABOUT THE DISADVANTAGED ARTIST, AND TALK ABOUT CORPORATE GREED. AND MAKE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE ABOUT. but make it all easy to understand so the common voter, a music customer, who has never touched a computer in his life understands. make him wanna vote for correct change.

and if getting sued for filesharing is grounds for a TV sob story, take full advantage of it. we need to sacrifice some to gain some, and if any of you (god forbid) end up a victim of the gestapo roundups, use it to your full advantage. this will ensure the RIAA digs its own grave.

[GPA]

The RIAA is a bussiness, they have money, congress likes money.

You know, I have no idea if we can change it or not, then again, I'm Aussie, congress isn't my thing. I guess I could barge into parliment, grab a few hundred friends and charge, I'm sure they wouldn't be ready for the supprise bombardment, and I would get in because of this, then speak out loud to the parliment, but I guess that idea would get me in jail.

-BoY

[CTC Command]

The biggest hurdle we (P2P filesharers) have to face legally is the "copyright" issue. It is probably unlikely that Congress would ever completely decriminalize copyright infrigement, as the right to protect one's intellectual property is guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the recent efforts by the RIAA to make criminals out of filesharers should and can be thwarted, the abuses of the recording industry to musicans and consumers certainly should come to light and reforms be made, and recent changes to copyrighting laws which for example made it possible for Michael Jackson to buy the Beatles songs out from under Paul, Yoko, George and RIngo should be rolled back. We should organize politically--we haven't got anything to lose. RM115 is absolutely correct; complaining about the shit here is a nice way to vent, but writing to State and Congressional reps is more constructive. I pm'd some of the mods to see about putting a sticky on this forum with these sort of weblinks and info on voting on permanent access; still waiting to see what the powers that be think about that idea.

[FileHoover]

A PROPOSAL FOR COPYRIGHT FOR THE 21st CENTURY

Copyright violation is already not a crime, it's a tort. It's a civil wrong wherein private parties sue to redress the wrongs. There are some recent laws that make large violations criminal, but, this Hulk thing is the first time I've seen one of those used.

Copyrights are part of the constitution of the United States I believe, so, they aren't going away without a lot of change.

However, imagine someone inventing a way for people to go 600 miles per hour, safely. The whole idea of speed limits would be obsolete. That is what is happening with copyright. The technology of information transmission, storage and reproduction has made it possible to copy something a million times for virtually no cost.

Television and radio came up with a business model half a century ago to support their type of creative effort, advertising. They give away their content free, and make money from advertising. There is a way to give away your content free, yet keep your "ownership" of the content. You really don't need to keep the ownership however, and so, television and radio are not really going to suffer from the Information Age.

There are a LOT of ways music and movies could be made profitable. I can think of 10 ways to renew the industry to possibly make it just as viable, if not more so, than it is now, giving away the content virtually free.

The first thing I would propose is what I call the 1/3 rule. That is, copyright ownership should be divided up 3 ways.

1/3 to the creator (creator)
1/3 to the owner (owner)
1/3 to anyone else (other)

The creator (be it a person, corporation or partnership) of a work can NEVER sell or be deprived of his 1/3 ownership. This means than any time the work is exchanged for value, i.e. sold or rented, the creator is owed 1/3 of the AMOUNT CHARGED FOR THE WORK, not just the profit, but the entire amount charged. The musician, writer, creator would always be paid 1/3 of any money generated from sale or performance of this work. He can never sell or give this away for any reason except his own death. This is to prevent unscrupulous business people from hornswaggling the creator and corrupting the spirit of copyright which is to reward the creator for contributing to society.

At the time of creation, the creator owns ALL of the work, but he can sell or transfer 1/3 of the work to another party who then owns 1/3 and is owed 1/3 of all the INCOME made by that work. Thus a writer or musician can give/sell this 1/3 to the record company in exchange for creating CDs and promotion.

The last 1/3 belongs to everyone else. This means any person could offer good quality mp3s on his web site, charge for them, and keep 1/3 of the GROSS INCOME, giving each of the other 1/3 to the creator and the owner respectively. The purpose of this is, new ideas and art are of no benefit to anyone if they are kept locked up. For example, the Church of Scientology believes its writings are so valuable they will not let anyone see them and they use copyright to enforce that. Record companies stop promoting older bands and musicians and their music is held virtually locked in vaults, never to see daylight again just because the record company does not think they are viable. However, this violates the constitutional purpose of copyright which is partly so that society can benefit also. Thus any person in the world would be able to publish a copyrighted work, but of course, he owe's 2/3 of the income to the other members of the copyright, the creator and the owner. This also allows many unwealthy, but ingenious people to experiment with new ways of making money from intellectual property which can not happen if the ownership is not shared like this. This could result in the copyright members making more money than they ever could from the old system.

Here are some examples:

If I as the creator do not sell the 1/3 owner part of the copyright, and sell copies of the work myself over the internet, I would be able to keep ALL the income because I am the creator, the owner AND the other all at the same time.

If I were a record company, and purchased the 1/3 ownership share from the creator, and sold the materials on my web site or via company record store, I would be able to keep 2/3 of the income because I am both the owner and the other. Record stores could sell any material they wanted, without express permission, but would of course own 2/3 of the price charged to the owner, and creator.

It is important that the amount which is divided up is the gross amount that the consumer or end user paid for the work, NOT the profit. Each party is responsible for their own expenses incurred while making money from the work.

I think if this kind of system were set up, sure, you would have a lot of free material being given away (remember, the other can simply give away the product free and if he makes no income, is not charged). However, giving away free mp3s on your web site should be viewed as a "performance" of the work, and performance royalties might be charged, so that in any situation where money was made by a performance of a work, performance royalties are owed on the 1/3 1/3 1/3 system. That would have to be worked out. Currently, you can perform a work for free I believe, such as a garage band playing for free at a party, but you have to pay royalties if you make any money. If mp3s and free movies are used to draw users to your for profit web site, you would owe performance royalties.

I believe that the creator's 1/3 should be passed to his family/estate into perpetuity (I think that is what they call it). Since this 1/3 is not a monopoly, it does no harm for the family of the creator to retain such ownership.

This system might of course need some adjustment, but, I think it should be considered. Perhaps giving away works for free will not work. However, I truly believe that any person should be allowed to freely publish and use copyrighted material as long as a percentage of the income goes to the creator and owner.

The apparent hole that copyright owners will see in this, is, the "other" clause. It means that people can give away the copyright work for free, depriving the copyright owner of his due reward, however, I believe that is just something that will have to be dealt with. There are many creative people who will come up with ways to make that free content profitable. For example, packaging it up in a nice box for christmas presents which silly people will still pay for. It will also let people experiment with free scenarios and move into pay scenarios. You may use free mp3s to attract a large customer base then begin charging for premium service. You see, with a little change of perspective, this entire debacle may become manageable.

And, even if they don't like it, it is happening anyway and it seems like it will require the death penalty to stop people from doing it.

I never used to watch TV, why? Because, I am such a busy person that I am constantly getting interrupted and could never finish a television program if I had to sit and watch it straight through. However TIVO solved that problem and I watched a lot of TV after getting it. All those advertisers get to pump me full of their message where before, I was simply not a good customer. However, even the TIVO has now become obsolete. I cannot find exactly what I want when I want it, so it sits gathering dust while I now watch movies off Earthstation5 when and where I want, with 100 interruptions if that is required. The free content makes the material available to many, many more people and thus, the price per person being charged goes down dramatically.

This system should keep everyone happy. Artists will be happy that they can never not own the work they created. No lawyer or businessman can swindle them out of their work. Owners will be happy because they know that wherever the product is, they can get 1/3 of the income, even from uses of the product they never even thought of, and possibly make far more than they could have possibly done themselves. The general public will be happy because they can freely access these materials and even contribute to making them profitable by coming up with new and ingenious ways to make people pay for them.

[Jelsoft]

Originally posted by GPA
The RIAA is a bussiness, they have money, congress likes money.

Yeah, do you know where the RIAA get their money?

From us!

As for the politicians, I think it's time the file traders form their own lobby group to get their attention.

Just look at when the The Eletronic Frontier Foundation is doing.

[RM115]

My sincere thanks to each of you who published his or her opinion about this matter. I will try to comment on every one not necessarily in the order in which each was posted.

A few things to keep in mind about politicians, especially Congress.


1) The only thing on each member's mind is to get elected to office and stay there. From the campaign trail to the minute elections are over and he or she steps into office, they spend all of their time campaigning for support ($$$) to win the next election. Everything else is somewhere lower on the pecking order. But, GPA, while money buys politicians, in this country the voters still hire and fire them.

2) One or two constituent contacts about an issue is no cause for attention. But when ten or more arrive at a Senate and House member's office that causes concern. when hundreds or thousands of people call or write about the same issue (DMCA abuses), elected leaders panic. That is enough public interest to put a lawmaker on the street looking for real work.


With that written, Caitlyn, as a spokes person, do you think slipping a little truthful nugget here and there about P2P during your show is possible?

CTC, putting a spot on this board with instructions for contacting elected representatives and making our voices heard, collectively as well as individually, is wonderful thinking. That kind of out-of-the-box creativity is what makes things happen!!


Jelsoft, your idea of forming a lobby is great; another option is to support grass roots movements already in place. Contributions of time & resources,boycotting RIAA products, organizing petition drives, writing letters, emails, faxes, making phone calls, organizing political action groups or just spreading the word to others and asking they get involved are some examples. Everyone can do something to help!!

Contact organizations such as The Electronic Frontier organization and ask how you can help.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article.../06302003d.php


No contribution is too large or too small; remember what a mountain teaches us: it is made of not one piece but of many, from mighty boulders to tiny grains of sand. Each piece is necessary for it to be a mountain. Do what you can, for all donations are valued and important to further our cause. The following link is about an upcoming event where help is desparately needed by all.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article.../06302003b.php





Some other ideas:

Form mini lobby groups. An organizer can ask fellow P2P users, friends, realtives, neighbors, etc. to sign petitions then make copies and mail it with a letter to each of your elected leaders stating your concerns. In addition, everyone can send an email to follow up, using a standard letter format, again stressing your concerns.


For those of you in school who are taking political science or government courses, petition your teacher for guidance when forming and acting as a grass roots lobby group defending P2P against DMCA abuses. Also, ask if what you are doing would qualify as an extra credit class project. Talk about win/win!! Expressing your views, fighting for P2P and getting a few extra points to shore up the GPA...c'mon, only in America!

Be creative at getting your messages accross to our lawmakers that, as it stands, the DMCA is terribly skewed in favor of special interests and big business at the people's expense.




Filehoover, very good advanced points....very good, indeed. Hold those concepts, we have to get off the ground to fly.

[Lamourlady]

excellent posts people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
would those of us from other countries, outside of the U.S., do any good mailing to the links u provide?
i remember u had to put in a zip code or something.
and would writing our own governments do any good.
don't they just go by the WTO, which seems, mainly based on U.S. law, anyhoo???
i think i will write up an editorial for our local paper & then maybe mail them to the bigger ones.
worth a shot.

[Lucian]

That 1/3 idea is pretty good.

It has potential, we could take the place of the RIAA as distributor.

The only problem is it wont be easy to get people to pay.

I still think treating P2P like TV will be what ultimately works in the long run.

[RM115]

Yes!! By all means contact not only your elected representatives, where it's politically safe to do so, and if ambitious our leaders as well. You can write to our top people, the president and vice president. If their offices get enough contacts from around the world about something that is going on in the US someone will investigate. And trust me, a precedent is currently being set here and the outcome will affect everyone who uses P2P.

My next post is a sample letter , a goby example. Feel free to use it as your own or taylor to suit you. It's free to public domain. I am putting my convictions about holding elected leaders accountable where my post is (money where my mouth is).

There are a couple rules when writing to voice your opinions:

**Be nice. Don't go in with the attitude that downloading free music is a God given right. I believe when the media companies wake up they will provide all the music variety one can handle at a price anyone can afford, and probably use existing P2P infrastructure to deliver it.

**Don't flame anybody, including the RIAA.

**Stick to your concerns. You see the direction I used when writing. It deals with abuses from the DMCA that need changing now.

**Snail mail still commands the most attention and gets results. However, there are email and phone contacts, too.

Now for the head enchalada's:

***President George W. Bush.

Contact the White house web home page information source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Mailing Address:

President George W. Bush.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone numbers:

COMMENTS: 202-456-1111
SWITCHBOARD: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

Email (link is on bottom of web home page):

White House Web Mail
https://sawho14.eop.gov/PERSdata/intro.htm




****Vice President Richard B. Cheney

Contact the White house web home page information source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Mailing Address:

Vice President Richard B. Cheney.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone numbers:

COMMENTS: 202-456-1111
SWITCHBOARD: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

Email (link is on bottom of web home page):
vice.president@whitehouse.gov

[RM115]

This sample letter is for anyone to use as their own or simply as an example for those with writers block.

For those of you who might be critically inclinded, feel free to critique under the condition that you leave constructive solutions to help anyone who is here seeking them. I believe we all have the same interests or would not be on this BBS.

I firmly believe the system works but we have to use it. My convicitions are such that this is putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak.


See other posts for addresses or how to find who represents you in Washington, D.C.


The example follows.

YOUR LETTERHEAD (ADDRESS)

Your name: Mr.or Mrs. or Ms., your name.

Mailing Address:
Street no & name or Apt# or PO Box#, etc.
City, State, zip code.

Optional information:

phone number:
email:


SENDEES ADDRESS.

IF WRITING A CONGRESS/SENATOR PERSON:

Honorable: Representative's name.
their address.


IF WRITING PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT

President George W. Bush.

or

Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

same address for each.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


Today's date: (suggest you use month/day format): 11 July, 2003.



SALUTATION FOR WRITING A CONGRESSPERSON:

Dear Honorable (your elected representative's name):



SALUTATION IF WRITING EITHER THE PRESIDENT OR VICE PRESIDENT:

Dear President Bush:

or

Dear Vice President Cheney:


SAMPLE LETTER AND STRUCTURE.

I have a grave concern that merits your attention. In 1998 Congress drafted and passed the DMCA, a law that is currently being used by large entertainment companies, RIAA, MPAA and others to enforce copyright laws against "pirates" who use peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to swap files. Ethics of this activity will eventually be worked out; however, this correspondence questions other aspects that involve media interests using the DMCA to effect a witch hunt that in coming weeks will have very negative consequences for our country’s citizens, families and children.

First, the law denies citizens due process, violate their right to privacy and makes them vulnerable to criminal intent. Using loop-holes in the DMCA, anyone with or without probable cause can allege copyright infringement and without a judge’s review or consent request a subpoena from a court clerk, serve that instrument to an ISP and thereby force that service provider to release the name, address, phone number and any other personal information about a customer without that individual’s knowledge. Anyone including predatory elements, a stalker, murderer, rapist, pedophile can do this to target a potential vicitim, then prey upon vulnerable citizens, such as children, young persons, single mothers, etc. This means could also be employed to commit other crimes such as identity theft and fraud. I do not think the framers of this law realized how misguided facets could easily manipulate the legislation to be so destructive when under criminal control. Here is a thought. A young one is sent off to school, but somewhere in the round trip he or she is intercepted by a stalker who used the internet to make the mark then obtained necessary information from your ISP to close in for....... Meanwhile, the parents are unaware until it's too late. who is to blame? DMCA passed by Congress protects everyone in the loop. Hopefully the law is changed very soon to allow judicial oversight of this process.

Second, media companies, such as the RIAA, intend to use loopholes in the DMCA to indescriminately file lawsuits against alleged violators, again, while circumventing judicial review. Their current publicized strategy is to sue first then ask questions later so as to make examples of "copyright material pirates" then put them on public display with the intent of scaring P2P users away from the system. How would you feel if suddenly sued because one of your children out of curiosity and ignorant of his or her actions, made a mistake while exploring a P2P application ? Worse yet, what if you were wrongly accused and the only recourse were to prove otherwise in court. How would you deal with the decision to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees at the sacrifice of providing food, clothing and shelter to your family because a multimillion-dollar corporation wants you as an example. That parent's "worst" nightmare will be reality within the next few weeks if RIAA makes its threat of mass lawsuits a reality. American families and children suddenly facing persecution and financial ruin by an American company misusing DMCA while ignoring other avenues to resolve "pirating" of copyrighted materials. How many of those folks vote? How would it look if the gory details behind DMCA were published in media headlines just before and during an election year? Questions worth thinking about since 2004 is an election year.

In sum, [ name of to whom you are writing] the ethical controversies surrounding P2P will resolve themselves when media companies become sympathetic to the message P2P users are sending. Currently, in the U.S. alone, there are 50 million of them and growing; the bulk of those millions of real live people are also voters and retail consumers who purchase music, movies and other entertainment. Meanwhile, until media companies start acting on the premise that the customer is always right, is allowing the financial and physical slaughter of American citizens, their families and our children so that American corporations can pursue avarice and prove a point the best answer? Is violating a person's privacy the answer? Hopefully, not in the civilized democracy we profess to live in. DMCA is the product of a few large special interests and U.S. lawmakers; in my opinion it requires immediate attention by each one of you to remove the harmful way it is and will be used against American citizens. May I count on your support to correct this injustice? May I count on your support to represent the best interests of American families and children?


Respectfully,


Your name signed.

your name typed.

optional, list voter registration number.

[PowerMan57two]

i personally don't think us p2p users would stand a chance against them, but we don't know until we try

[Lucian]

Howard Dean may be the answer.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...2/1725210&tid=
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/...7.shtml#001348

[RM115]

I posted the following news article a few days ago. It's a piece about how innocent P2P users will be caught up in the RIAA dragnet (witch hunt) but failed to go front page. Odd, don't you think?

RIAA lawsuits could target innocent users
By Joe Cotellese

The RIAA is in the beginning stages of a campaign to stamp out music piracy by bringing civil lawsuits against consumers. While many question the advantages of suing your customers, I'd like to point out how this policy could potentially devistate innocent users.

full story: http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/7156

Use the following link to find information about how to write your elected representative including a sample letter.
http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=120

[ROMANTICGUY50]

I have always said that the RIAA & MPAA has paid off our elceted officials ( as lease some of them) There are 56million of us in the US alone. (THAT IS ONE HELL OF A LOUD VOICE) I wrote to my senators about two - three weeks ago. Haven't heard anything yet. Some of the Democrats ot to call themselves Replubicans. They are so damn ass conserveitive. I am a Democrat, but I believe the power belong's to the people (US). Not just a few lobyists that kiss their fucking asses and take them to parties and what not. It doesn't matter where you live.The RIAA & MPAA pays their asses off big time and who get's screwed, We Do..The power does belong to the people.
PEACE