Mainstream media is beginning to report on the RIAA subpoenas. The New York Times has an article today about it.
Within weeks, many, probably most of those subpoenaed will get a little letter.
Then it will be truly “put up or shut up” time. For those of you who are against these suits, are you going to help these people, or are you going to let them twist in the wind slowly?
Are They On Their Own?
A big reason why I can’t take the anti-RIAA folks seriously is their almost complete lack of organization and money.
For instance, there is a website called Boycott-RIAA.com. They are attempting to get groups together to protest, but over half the states in the United States don’t even have a single representative, and I think there’s been a total of one event so far. Most of the state “representatives” essentially say, “Well, I’d like to do something.”
OK, maybe they’re not the best example, but if not them, who?
The most publicly known advocacy group is the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
When we move into actual litigation, those who get sued first are going to look around for help, and so far, nobody seems ready or seems to want to get ready to help these people.
I think EFF should declare early on what, if anything, they plan to do for these people.
If they plan to help these people, fine, they should say so.
If they can only help these people up to a certain point, or only up to the point where they get public support for such actions, that’s still fine. They should say that, and set up a separate defense fund to which people can contribute.
If they don’t feel they can help these individuals (and there are legitimate reasons why they may want to do that), they ought to say that to leave the field free for others to pick up that particular burden.
In other words, say yea, may, or get out of the way.
The one thing they should not do is be quiet about it and let people assume their money will go to defending these people if it won’t.
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