Black March

Coming up is the event called Black March. With support from major players in the open source community like Mozilla, Black March will constitute a strike against the mainstream media in the US. The foundation for this action is to temporarily boy cut the big guns in the entertainment industry, so they will notice a month-long loss in revenue and reconsider how easily swayed their subjects are to their rule. SOPA, PIPA and to a larger extent ACTA have all proven that these players need to be kept in check or they will do away with liberties we have become accustomed to.

Instead of side tracking into another debate on piracy (read this post instead) I will go on with this Black March concept.

To join the Black March you simply need to stay away from the cinema and away from mainstream media channels on your television. Depending on the support for this idea, the goal is to create a black hole in their quarterly margins where they get lower support, lower earnings and a lower amount of costumer data to work with. All of this sounds great to me, and it should sound great to you too if you are concerned with your freedom of expression and opposed to be viewed solely as a consumer.

Check out the official site for Black March here for more information and a direct plan.

Now. I brought this up not only to try and get my readers interested in also supporting this activism, but also to highlight a very important side-effect such activism would have.

Consider how much mainstream media you consume in a month. Most of us visit the cinema regularly, some purchase movies instead of renting them and the vast majority spend most of their evenings in front of a television being spoon-fed what the media produces. Disney, Fox and ABC are right there in your home with you every day, and they are dying to tell you what's new. What's hot, what's not, what should you wear, how should you talk, how should you think and what should you laugh at. It is all orchestrated quite perfectly and my proof of this is how absolutely docile normal people are when it comes to taking actual action and a stand against what is clearly wrong.