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Comment by grav1tas | Hacker News Reader

Mod me down, but part of me wonders how this is news. Of course the industry lobby that wants to end "music piracy" that cuts into industry profits is going to lobby for means to seize offending domain names. It'd be news if the MPAA/RIAA lobbied AGAINST this practice. As long as the RIAA/MPAA are behaving in a manner consistent with their interests, they remain an easily predictable player (anybody could see this coming from miles away). I'm pretty much fine with that, though. They're entitled to spout whatever BS they want to, really. The people who think they're wrong need to take steps to reign them in if they're running so amok. It's easy to complain about them, but harder to do something about it. I guess that's why we all complain.

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I'm absolutely with you here; this isn't surprising (or really interesting, either).

Just a reminder, from the HN Guidelines (in the footer of this page): "Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you."

Though I agreed with the sentiment of your post, inviting me to downvote you really puts a bad taste in my mouth. As long as you're contributing to the conversation, hell if I'd downvote you. People who use the down arrow as an expression of mere disagreement make this site a little less valuable.

Cheers!

Well said, though I would add that there are groups who are working to spread alternate viewpoints in the industry, the public, and on a policy level. It's well worth your time to check out the excellent policy work being done by the Future Of Music Coalition (futureofmusic.org) and I'd also suggest checking out the A2IM which has not-insignificant pull in some of the same circles as the RIAA.

It should also be pointed out that the RIAA works directly from policies set at very high levels of the majors. There are a lot of people who internally see things in a very different light. So turning complaint into education can be a very effective agent of change.

Individuals or even small groups of people are essentially incapable of accomplishing anything on the scale of taking down the media trusts. The only step individuals can take is to complain, and thereby try to spread their outrage to enough people that change becomes possible.

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