The Silent Number

Posted: 2010-01-19


We're all pirates. The situation is similar to that of marijuana use, but even worse. Not everyone smokes pot (i personally don't), and policy reform seems to finally be coming along now. Piracy on the other hand, is something hardly anyone isn't "guilty" of, including anti-piracy and copyright advocacy groups, yet public awareness isn't rising and it seems nothing is being done about it.

I would like to announce the Download Disobedience campaign which aims to raise awareness of the misinformation concerning piracy, dispel myths, and spread the truth about copyright and other forms of intellectual property by and while encouraging the act of piracy as a civil disobedience. I've chosen to host the project on the infoAnarchy wiki which was co-founded by Erik Möller, Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

There are currently two ways to get involved with the campaign. Firstly, i have created a couple of flyers that can be distributed in the real world. One is a general handout which provides lots of information about piracy and debunks many myths surrounding it all in bullet form. The other is targeted towards US universities and reads as a letter to school administration while meant for circulation by students. It contains some of the information from the first flyer and tells students to download as a civil disobedience. I also used a comic along with some action ideas for a page which can be used as the back side of either flyer. I hope some artist will come along and "steal" them to pretty them up! Please print them out and hit the streets.

Secondly, you can make your opinion known and raise awareness of the issue by singing Happy Birthday against copyright. Time Warner claims to own the copyright to "Happy Birthday" so it is actually illegal to sing it in public unless royalties are paid. Post recordings of yourself singing the happy birthday song to YouTube and other social media sites as a protest against copyright insanity. here's mine: