Here is the plan. Everyone who hates the DMCA has to illegally copy a movie or a song, and then tell both the Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office exactly what they did. We need 10 million or so confessed and unrepentant intellectual property pirates. That's too much illegal behavior to ignore (What could 10 million pirated copies of "Debbie Does Dallas" be worth?), but too many individual criminals to be prosecuted. Then, having pirated our movie or song, we also need to turn ourselves in to the authorities, clogging every hoosegow in America, facing our potential $10,000 fine, each of us demanding the jury trial we are guaranteed under the Constitution.

If we all do this, REALLY do it, the DMCA will be gone in a year. This follows the simple principal that if you or I drive 100 miles-per-hour on the highway, we get a ticket, but if EVERYONE drives 100 miles-per-hour, they change the speed limit. "They," whoever that is, can't afford to annoy so much of the population. We are, after all, the folks who elect all these officials who keep telling us what we can and can't do. But it isn't enough to just threaten to vote against your Congressman. To make the system really change we have to work it to death by all becoming criminals.

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Most of Cringley's article this week ties back to last week's treatise on BayTSP, but this point is very intriguing. If something like this was coordinated properly, it probably would have an effect. Every system has its bounds, yes? Personally, I'm not willing to become a felon for something I don't believe in (leeching copyrighted material illegally) but if anyone is willing to wager their United States voting rights on something like what Cringely details, more power to you.

Here's an idea for a jamming mechanism for BayTSP's technology. Hit up some of the CDDB servers and grab all the titles, artists, song lengths, you name it. Encode complete garbage that sort of signatures like what it's supposed to be (spectrograms are your friend here...) and share it. Peer to peer this to death at every conceivable opportunity. Angelfire it. Geocity it. Just jam the fucking system, who needs it?

I could care less about downloading mass market consumer drivel copyrighted material, be it games, movies, music, goat porn, whatever. While BayTCP programmers and their ilk make robots to live out their fucking alpha male syndrome jack off fantasies, people in the know will quietly be building their own trusted networks well above the fray.

By the way, record companies that have been hit with the CLUE STICK (TM) such as warprecords.com are thriving. They give generous clips of all songs, they embrace new technology with a passion, and they are cool. That's what it takes to survive and keep your head above water these days if you want to play the game online. It's called "evolution."

Criticism Won't Change the DMCA, but Breaking the Law Will