DefectiveByDesign Supporters to Call on RIAA Execs

johnsu01 writes "DefectiveByDesign.org is organizing a call-in campaign for today. People around the country will be calling high-ranking RIAA officials to deliver the message that DRM is an unacceptable restriction on the freedom of consumers and citizens. DefectiveByDesign will provide the numbers to call when you sign up. This action should attract the people who thought that Apple was not a good target because it is the RIAA that requires DRM and those who think that wearing HazMat suits is obnoxious. Everyone can vote with their dollars, but that doesn't tell the RIAA why they aren't getting the dollars. With a few thousand people signed up already, they will undoubtedly know after today."

Real-world DDOS

[quokkapox]

I think it's inevitable that we'll see this technique used more and more frequently. Even a small group of people can use the internet to organize and even mediocre marketing/writing skills can be used to gather a large (overwhelming) group of people who will do something that annoys a company (calls to complain about something, buy a CD with DRM and immediately return it unopened, etc.)

Imagine if every Wal*Mart in a given city had a swarm of "customers" walk in, fill up a cart with goods and then abandon it. You can bet it would make the local news if it were done right. Even the national news. Look how that guy who recorded his "cancel my account" AOL experience. He managed to get digg and slashdot to cover it, and then it spiralled out onto the cable news networks. That one story could have profound effects on the entire AOL customer service staff.

Alternatives!

[FoaadH]

Instead of just complaining about DRM someone should suggest an alternative method.
Let's face it the industry want to protect their products from piracy but obviously DRM isn't the best way to do this.
So are there any Alternatives?

Re:Mr. Asshole isn't in right now...

[__aaclcg7560]

They don't. They want to pull a Denial of Service attack on the switchboards to force the Mr. Powerful RIAA Person to use their own personal cell phone minutes to make outgoing phone calls and hopefully get them to "feel the pain" of paying through the nose to talk. Unfortunately, Mr. Powerful RIAA Person can use that as an excuse to jack up retail prices and blame the "pirates" for the need to do so.

Re:Good luck with that

[Anonymous Coward]

Managers are usually happy when people call up and complain and explain why they're not getting peoples' money.

The RIAA might be very surprised to hear that they're actually losing money to DRM, and how DRM actually PROMOTES piracy.

If I have the choice between for-pay content, and pirated content, I'll take for pay, because it's neutral re functionality, and thus I make the moral choice. If I have the option between pirated and DRMed, I will select pirated, because pirated is superior (no restrictions).

Voting with Dollars

[professionalfurryele]

"Everyone can vote with their dollars, but that doesn't tell the RIAA why they aren't getting the dollars."

I do love this idea. Has any one else noticed that if we reduce ourselves to voting with our dollars, then ordinary people get about 37,000 votes a year if they are lucky, while Corporations and the super rich get millions or billions of votes?

Boycotts may or may not work, but they should not be the primary means of collective bargaining for the people. The collective bargaining agency supposed to stand up for the rights of the people is called the government. Or at least, that was the impression I got.

Re:DRM is the new Vietnam?

[kjart]

Culture is as essential to humanity as air, food, shelter and water, and like it or not the RIAA and their related organizations have a near monopoly control over the most popular and dominant expressions of our culture. If we do not own our culture and have a right to participate in it I say our "sentience" is highly overrated, and we need to go back to the trees where we belong.

Holy hyperbole batman. Culture is not as essential as air, food, shelter or water. Try not buying a CD or DVD for a month and then try not breathing, eating or drinking anything for a month. Why in that order? Because the second will kill you whereas the first will - what? Make you a little bored? I wouldn't even go that far. There is far more to culture then what the major music and movie companies offer - and that's not going to change anytime soon.

Why not? Because people _are_ free to participate in culture. If what exists sucks (or at least does in your opinion) you can go out and create your own works or, if your talents don't lay in that area, can support someone who does make something to your liking. Modern technology has even made this (arguably) easier to do nowadays then ever before.

Seriously, you need to stop over-dramatising DRM - sure, it sucks, but you dont have to deal with it.

Re:Good luck with that

[repvik]

It would help a bit to tell them why we're not buying the products. If they've lost a sale to me because of DRM, they don't automatically know, you see. If enough people tell them that "I won't buy your DRM'ed shit", they might even listen!

I'm no longer buying CD's, for two reasons:
1. I don't like having to check each CD I buy to see if they're DRM'ed
2. CD's are old-fashioned anyway.

I like buying music online, but I don't use stores that enforce DRM, simply because I want to be in control of my music collection. So, where does this leave me? I can buy from AllOfMP3, and hope that some money goes to the artist(s), or I can download for free using various filesharing apps. If I didn't have a credit card, I would have no option but to pirate.

The record companies/riaa need to know that their distribution methods are getting too old, and that DRM doesn't work the way they want it to. What they need to do is to make their music easier to access/buy (And screw prices that makes an album online cost the same as a jewel-case in a store!). And they should be told so. By enough people to be heard!

Re:Good luck with that

[Aim Here]

No, it's not that simple. The idea is to change their behaviour so that they stop trying to inflict DRM on consumers. For that, they need to know WHY you're not buying their music, because otherwise they might just carry on saying 'these people aren't buying our music because uhhh, they're a bunch of pirates who need to be policed'. If we can boycott the fuckers out of business, yeah, fine, wonderful, but it's hardly likely to happen, so other tactics might be necessary.

"It sounds more like a bunch of people are going to be calling up and harassing people."

Bingo, you've got it in one. The whole idea is to make it more trouble than it's worth for these fuckers to take away everyone's freedom. Whenever two groups of people disagree over something, the side that can harass the other past the point where it's not worth it to fight any more wins. That's how politics works. That's how war works. That's how all human conflict works.

Re:Alternatives!

[Lumpy]

Yes there is a very VERY effictive alternative they refuse to use.

I pirate music like a maniac, I have 2 300 gig drives full of mp3's from friends, relatives and friends of friends as well as the rarer stuff I need to pirate bay for.

I will happily buy CD's when they are at a value I am willing to buy at and that number is $10.00.

I have been looking for good CD's of TUBES music for nearly a decade, the completetion backward principah has not been released on CD. I found a "best of" that contained almost all of that album at a local store for $9.99 and I snatched it up. I also troll the Used CD stores as they typically sell for $6.00 to $8.00 and I will happily buy a used CD at that price (it also keeps cash out of the RIAA hands.

The ONLY time I buy a CD above the $10.00 mark is at a concert. as I know all the cash is going to the band. If you are so famous you can have 10,000,000 cd's pressed then you are saving so much on pressing that you can easily make insane cash at $10.00 a disc retail.

That is the answer. the RIAA and record labels dont want it because that means they have to work a tiny bit harder to make the same obscene profits while raping the artists as hard as they ever do.

at $10.00 it's not worth my effort to find the CD on a torrent or elsewhere online.

Re:DRM is the new Vietnam?

[GundamFan]

Hold on... Since when is the homoginized, processed, bleached and dary free material produced by the record companies culture?

The tail is waging the dog here... the entertanment producers have figured out how to tell us what to like, our "culture" does not reflect a greater truth about our humanity other than how it has been diminished.

Having said that, I am a hypocrite, I have a modes music collection, I watch some TV and I enjoy movies. I at least try to form my own opinions about what to like and not like.

Re:Good luck with that

[paralaxcreations]

There is a large difference between what you can do with/to a celebrity (agencies, politicians, and public companies fall under this category) and what you can do with/to a private citizen.

Even if that weren't the case, the RIAA makes their number public (because they're a public company). Private citizens tend not to (because they want to remain private). It's called a customer service option.

Having said that, I think this is the lamest protest ever. "What are you doing to protest?" "Calling customer service." Riiiiight.

Re:Ugh. Why can't they just post the damn numbers

[IAmTheDave]

So limiting the idiots and morons that screw things up helps make the ration of intilligent to idiot much higher.

BugMeNot has basically destroyed that mold. I wonder if the "sign-up" thing is like, a DefectiveByDesign is actually an RIAA shill that's trying to collect the names of people who call in who are likely pirates...

Sorry, what with the NSA and State Secrets and such, these days, anything that requires me to give personal information has me second-guessing motives (as implausable as this one probably is.)

Re:Ugh. Why can't they just post the damn numbers

[Asphalt]

My guess is they want people to register for the same reason that internet petitions aren't worth crap -- anonymity is ultimately a form of obfuscation, and when you're trying to tell someone something they don't want to hear, they'll jump on any excuse to devalue the legitimacy of your position.

I just don't understand whatsoever how "registration" is supposed to make anything more credible by making people use "real" information.

Name: Joe Blow
Email Address: [e-mail]
Postal Code: 12345

It's a ilttle silly to assume or even expect people to give real information on "registration" forms these days.

BTW, my real name isn't Asphalt.

Re:Mr. Asshole isn't in right now...

[rickardl]

One clever DefectiveByDesign volunteer called in, got bumped to a voicemail system by the secretary, then used the last four digits of the number he had called to dial directly back to the exec's mailbox. It was a sweet trick -- guessing that the mailbox numbers are the same as the phone numbers. I've been reading through the reports on the site, and it's pretty funny to read the responses they get.

And in response to the gist of the original comment: If enough people call in, I think this type of campaign can have a visible impact on an organization's daily productivity. If even 500 people call in, the RIAA won't accomplish much today. (Especially since we know that secretaries and other office staff are the ones who actually get things done.)

Re:Ugh. Why can't they just post the damn numbers

[IAmTheDave]

In fact, rumor has it that there is a book somewhere that has the name, address and number of every person in the entire city.

Really? Because my land-line is unlisted, and my cell phone doesn't appear in there either. So, how exactly does this "magical book" include me?

Re:Good luck with that

[Chosen Reject]

Too true. In this case if people stop buying the RIAA/MPAA stuff, they automatically assume it is because of piracy. You can vote with your money, but if you don't tell them the reason your not buying is DRM, they will assume it's because piracy is on the rise, use extremely silly numbers as lost sales, and do some more tweaking to the law book. It is a good thing to tell them why in this case.

Re:Ugh. Why can't they just post the damn numbers

[jamiesan]

It's an inclusion by exclusion. The RIAA is in cahoots with the NSA and the FBI and any other TLA I can think of. According to this government, since you are not in the phone book, you must have something to hide (besides your phone number). Pirate... Terrorist... What is it?!?

Re:Good luck with that

[StarvingSE]

Something tells me those with the money, but not the card, to purchase the music aren't sending checks to the artist after they pirate their music.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Download an artist's music off of limewire or whatever for free, and send a check directly to the artists saying "hey, I downloaded 10 tracks, here's a check for $10.00. F*** the RIAA." That would get the RIAA's attention real quick, and show that people aren't against paying for stuff, they are against being treated like criminals.

Re: What if the Big Mac had DRM

[ElysianAudio]

Actually, I just got the strangest mental image. Let's work on that analogy a little. (Slightly OT)

If McDonalds fell under the DMCA, you can choose to buy a Big Mac or not (see exceptions below). Regardless, you still have the option of finding food elsewhere. However, if you purchase the Big Mac, you will be bound by a very specific set of rules found on the inside of the wrapper: You are the only person authorized to consume the Big Mac, you may not sell it or offer it to others. You may not examine, disassemble or modify the Big Mac (e.g. you cannot take the pickles off, or add more mustard, cut the burger in half). You may not tell others how to perform these actions, or possess or traffic in tools to assist with these actions (e.g. a knife). You must consume the Big Mac from the original wrapper; it may not be placed on a plate, in a lunchbox, or in a fridge. The Big Mac must be purchased and consumed within the US, and the right to consume may be revoked at any time without warning. Violation of any of these conditions will make you subject to civil fines (upwards of $150,000US per instance) and possibly criminal penalties.

Re:Good luck with that

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

>You don't see me protesting McDonalds because the Big Mac is a piece of crap - I take my business elsewhere.

That would be a better analogy if McDonald's was trying to require that every plate and fork in the world refuse to work if the plates and forks thought you were eating McDonald's food in your car when the food was only licensed for home. McDonald's doesn't try to interfere with the plate and fork market. The RIAA and the Movie And Film Industry Association are, right this minute, trying to get an act of COngress to interfere with the consumer electronics market.

You don't have to buy their "music" but you may soon be forced to buy less functional toys because of them.

Re:Good luck with that

[Connie_Lingus]

Something tells me those with the money, but not the card, to purchase the music aren't sending checks to the artist after they pirate their music.

I've actually tried to do this at least 3-4 times, by going to the web sites of bands I've dl'ed, and each time they told me by contract with the label they are not able to accept money directly. Remember, CDs are made on borrowed money, and the label makes sure it gets paid back before the artists get anything.

Re:Good luck with that

[thc69]

That's something that I'd like to do -- but it's fraught with difficulty.

  --I don't want to be anonymous to the artists, but I don't want to be identifiable to the RIAA, having just confessed about piracy (Legally, it still is piracy, since the RIAA owns those recordings)...

  --Some artists would probably share a percentage with the RIAA...

  --Having thought of that, it occurs to me that the RIAA still deserves a cut for the marketing that they did which resulted in me discovering the music in question. I am very much beginning to dislike this road! ;)

I'm morally against the way they use DRM. If I'm trying to vote against it with my dollars, then I fail above.

I'm practically against their enforcement against piracy -- because, practically speaking, I bought a whole lot more music when I was pirating a lot than I did when I only pirated a little, just because of my excitement about the music. The end result was that more piracy caused them to get more of my money.

These days, I've gone cold turkey; I've got too much to lose (house, etc) and they're enforcing too strongly. I also have gone cold turkey on buying RIAA-related music. The only revenue they get from me now is their cut of my satellite radio subscription (from which I have NO interest in going to the efford of recording, for the record).

Perhaps I should find a way to let them know all of this, else they may think they lost the sales because of increased piracy.