Look at what we can do

One of the major prooblems that I have with most underground movements is thier focus on the government. The government, while it makes for an easy scape goat, is really not the cause of all our problems. It is the cause of a good number of them I will conceed that. However, attacking the government is like attacking the person who is walking a savage dog by the leesh. You beat the person but then you have a dog mauling you unpleasently.

If you look closely at just where our rights are being the most voilently destroyed you are going to stat to notice a diusturbing trend. There is a corporation involved. Through hook and crook corportations have managed to win carte blanche. They can pretty much do whatever it is they want to with little to no fear of any sort of reprisals. Take a look at some of the stories surrounding the Micky Jail and see if I am just talking out of my ass.

However, I would like to take a couple of steps back from all of that and instead look at the world of computers, the internet, and the last real bastion of resistence...that comes in the most unlikelyest of forms video gamers. I have no idea why video gamers. Perhaps playing all thouse games makes us less likely to put up with someone elses shit, maybe it is just the sort of people who are drawn to video games, or maybe it is because we have the internet and we know that gives us an unignorable voice. Whatever the case may be the general attitude across most video game forums is "we will not put up with your shit" Computers are truely the current fronteer.

Example: The other day I noticed something which inspired all of this. I was changing the coke syrup for the machine and the top of the box said, "any alterations or modifications to the coke a cola formula is in direct violation of the rights of the Coke A cola company". My immeadiat thought was to laugh and to pour some salt into the bag and send it back to them. But see that's just it.

Ever read your end user liscense agreement that comes with every microsoft product. They don't gaurentee that the product you just paid for will work. This is because they won't even gaurentee that the product in the box is the one you bought. Sometimes they don't even gaurentee that there will be data on the cd that is in the box. The only thing you are assured of is that there is a cd and that it is in the box. The world of computers is full of people with lots of time who reads these sorts of things and yells about them, and rightly so. You would think a company would have the dignaty to stand beside thier own product.

Mostly though there is the war on SPORE. Digital Rights Managment is something that only a handful of people know about or understand. However, 90% of those people are pissed off. They have started a war on amazon giving SPORE a flood of one star reviews urging people to stay away from it. They have started a class action lawsuit that we will prolly win because what the makers of spore did was fucked up. Mostly though it is the fact that a huge number of people are getting pissed off about somethings fucked up and instead of bitching to the goverment about it, they are fixing it themselves.

So what's up with the whole DRM thing. I'll explain in case you don't know. DRM is better known as copy protection. So you go to the store and buy your game. Then you come home and instal it on your computer. YAY! Then you go to play it and it doesn't work. This is because the DRM doesn't like certain brands of cd rom drives, nor does it like certain anti virus software programs, nor does it like certain cd burning programs. So your choices are 1) Jump through a huge number of hoops to make it work, or 2) download a crack off the interwebs and become a criminal.

Then a little down the road you aren't playing your game anymore so you loan it to a friend, who will discover that he can't instal it because of DRM. For thouse of you who think that's fair imagine never being able to barrow a book again.

You can't sell your game to anyone else it is illeagal. Hell you never really owened the game in the first place you just sort of rented it.

This is what DRM is about it is worth fighting against. HARD. iTunes forces you to wait a year before you can transfer your mp3s from one computer to another. That is just another example.

On a basic level the problem with DRM is that it kicks honest paying custoimers in the nuts while pirates just sort of roam free without a care in the world. On a more important note though it is about control. It is about controlling where the data goes, who can see it and what happens to it. If I am not going to let the government control me I am certainly DAMN well not going to let some corporate asswipe boss me around telling me that i don't own the game I have clearly payed for.

For reasons unknown to me people brought tobaco companies to thier knees. But jesus christ kids there are so many other companies out there that derserve the wrath of a pissed off american people. Look at what we can do. A group of people, most of which have full time jobs, and extensive hobbies got a class action lawsuit going, and there are people clamouring to help. Not because they want a peice of a settlement but because they want this stupid DRM shit stopped. They want to stop being kicked in the face and they are getting it. Now imagine if we attacked someone who is doing real harm like the meat industry that shit would be banana's. '

Note: I love meat. To clarify I fucking love meat. The other day I ate a double stacked burger with 6 strips of bacon and the whole thing was glazed in bar b q sauce. Meat is the most amazing thing in the universe. It was better than 90% of the sex I've ever had. HOWEVER I would prefere if my meat didn't come from diseased animals who are on the verge of death you know? Lay off the damn steriods and antibiotics. Another day though.

Love you.