Boycott the RIAA for a month?

Gizmodo is declaring the month of march "boycott RIAA month". WOOO!


The whole idea behind the boycott is that if you stop being fucking worthless consumers for a month, things will miraculously get better. This is, of course, a logical fallacy. How about instead of practically fellating yourselves because you were able to stave off this incessant consumerism for 30 days, you just do what you feel is right, all the time. First and foremost, you need to realize that if you drop their profits for one month, things wont change. I take offense with the idea that these people are even in business. Even if they 'change' and see the folly of their ways and remove DRM and pay artists fairly and stop suing people...well, guess what? Nothing has changed in my mind. they were bastards then, they're bastards now. There is nothing they could do to get a single god damn dime from me.

The idea that you need to set a timeline for yourselves gives me the impression that this boycott is somehow difficult for you. And if it truly is that difficult for you to kick the RIAA habit indefinitely, then maybe you aren't in the right mindset to boycott them in the first place. Perhaps you dislike them because its the 'cool' thing to do, rather than having any ideas or thoughts of your own.

I'll tell you what though, my ideas on intellectual property have changed significantly over the years. I can now appreciate the fact that hard work goes into an artistic piece, and perhaps an artist needs to be compensated for that work. Ive got every intention to buy 2 of my 3 favorite Coheed CDs (good Apollo was released under an RIAA label, so i wont be buying that one). Either that or buy a hoodie. Either way, a good chunk of money is going to go to an artist that I believe in, and I feel good about that. But you can also bet your ass that had I not "stolen" this music in the first place, I wouldn't have given it a second look. Buying a CD based on one radio ready track is stupid. The music they play on the radio is usually the weakest, shallowest, least artistic example of poppy bullshit they can come up with. I wouldn't say that "the suffering" is representative of the majority of Good Apollo, and if it was, the CD probably wouldn't have the addictive qualities that it does.

I guess what im trying to say is that boycotting them for any length of time is a step in the right direction. Im glad people are finally doing something. But don't expect anything to change either. If after march, you feel the need to resume this rampant consumerism then you are most certainly part of the problem, and your participation in this boycott was little more than a symbolic gesture of the "me too!" variety.

A nice link to check out is RIAARadar dot com Its a cool little website that lets you throw in an artist name and it'll tell you which of their CDs are labeled under the RIAA.