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A boycott against Big Monopoly will not work. Any noticeable drop in profits will cause them to throw a tantrum at policymakers and complain how their profits are dropping due to piracy, and request harder enforcement of their copyright monopolies at the expense of our civil liberties and the freedom of the net.

Buying more of their products (yeah, right) will not work. Any noticeable raise in profits will cause them to commission reports to policymakers illustrating their grandiose importance to the economy as a whole, suggesting that they are the direct reason for at least several hundred per cent of the gross national product. Therefore, they will argue, they need additional protection as a national interest.

Doing nothing will not work either, as we are constantly on the retreat in civil liberties.

There is no course of action or nonaction that the net or its individuals can take that would cause Big Monopoly to behave differently from today.

Attacking Big Monopoly is simply barking up the wrong tree. It’s a complete waste of effort.

Also, I’m quite concerned at the overall attitude. I see many on the net somehow trying to please the copyright industries – if they weren’t as obnoxious, would the copyright industry perhaps show a more lenient attitude…?

As if!

This attitude, I fear, is one of the most dangerous of all, for it puts the individual in a subservient position to the corporations. Reality is quite different, but we are only as powerful as we believe ourselves to be. Those who see themselves in shackles will behave with restraint. On the other side of that coin, those who refuse to accept any limitation placed upon them will find that most, if not all, limitations can be broken.

Obviously, the copyright industry’s dream is having us – the people – seek its consent for everything we do, just like they have trained politicians to do for over a century. When you discuss boycotts, you are playing straight into their game of thinking that it is the copyright industry’s desires that matter for the task of building a sustainable society.

They don’t. Their desires are irrelevant. As are they.

They are just one entrepreneur among many. The role of any entrepreneur is to construct a use case and a business case that allow them to make money, given the current constraints of technology and society. They don’t get to dismantle civil liberties, even if they can’t make money otherwise.

The target for any action isn’t the copyright industry. That’s just playing into their hands as imagined kings of the hill.

Rather, the target is – and must be – the policymakers. They are the ones who are actually cutting down on our civil liberties, not Big Monopoly. Normally, they see issues like the copyright monopoly and freedom of the net as totally peripheral to policymaking; the topics du jour are the same as they’ve been in the past 50 years: healthcare, schools, energy and defense.

This is both a problem and a blessing.

It is a problem, as they don’t realize the gravity of the situation. Most governments in the West would be completely baffled to realize that people are actually holding rallies for freedom of speech: they would not understand why. As in, “we have that already”. In their minds, we do. In ours, however, it’s being cut away.

But it is also a blessing, as they’re not politically entrenched on the issue, thinking it is peripheral. As most political parties haven’t identified themselves with one side or the other, thinking everybody were in agreement already, the policymakers can be made to turn quickly at little internal cost of prestige.

At the end of the day, there’s just one single thing that politicians care about, and that is their job. Their job must be put on the line over our freedoms of speech, or change will not happen. This was the (very successful) formula behind founding the Pirate Party in 2006.

This is also what we saw with the SOPA/PIPA battle in the United States, as politicians realized that there were a serious amount of votes to be lost or harnessed over freedoms of speech on the net. As that realization sunk in, the copyright industry’s efforts were dead in the water.

In Europe, 250 million people preserving and sharing contemporary culture in disrespect of an immoral and overreaching copyright monopoly is not “a business problem that you can put an end to”. It is a power base of 250 million voters. This is the message that policymakers must be sent in the loud and clear.

Once the policymakers get that message, the copyright industry can make their money any legal way they can or go bankrupt in the process, and nobody will care whichever way they go, not any more than you would care about the tire industry or the glass blowing industry.

Source: The Target Isn’t Hollywood, MPAA, RIAA, Or MAFIAA: It’s The Policymakers

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Would you look at that? According to PhotoRumors, that chunk of retro beauty is purportedly a full-on snap of Olympus' new OM-D Micro Four Thirds shooter (from an Amazon Japan listing that's since been pulled) affixed with its optional battery grip (adding what appears to be a secondary shutter button). That, or someone knows exactly what makes us go "Oooh." The chunky '70s stylings make us fear we'd abandon our career to go become a war photographer if one of those was placed in our hands. 43Rumors believes the unit will hold a 16.1 megapixel EDR CMOS, beefier than the 12.3 sensor inside the PEN E-PL3, but we hope this new body (however beautiful it is) doesn't spell the end for the dinky PEN series. If that wasn't enough, a that Amazon listing we mentioned also pointed out a 1.44-megapixel electronic viewfinder, a tiltable OLED display on back and a total weight of 454 grams with its kit lens attached. We've got a few more shots in the gallery below, with others rocking some serious cropping, but each is more deliciously teasing than the last.

Gallery: Olympus OM-D E-M5 leak gallery

Continue reading Olympus OM-D E-M5 shots orchestrally maneuvers out of the darkness

Olympus OM-D E-M5 shots orchestrally maneuvers out of the darkness originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Micron appoints Mark Durcan as new CEO

Micron appoints Mark Durcan as new CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corning looks to the future, mainly right through it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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