RIAA is trying to get some legislation through that would let them play vigilante on P2P networks. When we first heard of this, even we thought it was a stupid legislative idea.
Even dumber, though, was launching a DOS attack a few weeks ago against the RIAA website after they endorsed the legislation.
You can see it really scared them off.
If you want to take on RIAA in the political arena, you’d better realize that politics plays by its own set of rules.
If I were a legislative strategist for RIAA, I would have been delighted by that DOS attack, and would have used it to full advantage to to persuade Congresspeople that they needed to fight fire with fire.
In the rather unlikely event RIAA ever gets to be legal vigilantes, it will make for a very interesting “war.” It’s one that RIAA would likely lose technically, and likely wants to lose technically. That’s because they think they can’t lose politically if they do.
A loss would just let them say to Congress, “You see what those little outlaws can do? You have to do something to stop them!”
I can see the ads with an insolent geeky teenager sneering, “Laws are for old people. I can do anything I want, and you can’t stop me.”
If that isn’t quite strong enough, you can have another ad with the geek telling his Middle Eastern friend Abdul how to hack American computers, then ask, “What’s al-Queda?”
It’s hardly the way to get your vote, but what about all those old fogies, say, over 35? 45? 65? There’s more of them then there are of you. And they all can vote (unlike many of you), and most do vote (unlike most of you who can).
You got an answer to that Granny will swallow? You got the money to put your answer to that in print or on media to match this?
I’m not saying it can’t be done, just saying the day is coming when serious political hardball is going to get played and trying to insult them to death in articles is not good spring training.
You don’t need to get the geeks on your side. You need to get Granny.
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