Cargo Cult Reverse Activism: Maximalists Think That If They Use Social Media They Can Counteract Public Concerns

from the yeah-that's-how-it-works dept

Wed, Apr 18th 2012 11:23am — Mike Masnick

We've talked in the past about cargo cult science and how a rather superficial understanding of complex situations leads people to only copy those superficial elements in the belief that they are why something works. Then, of course, when it doesn't work, they're confused. It's why South Pacific islanders thought that if they staffed the airport, American soldiers would return with supplies. It's why GM thought that if they just rebuilt the NUMMI plant inch-for-inch, they'd get the same production elsewhere.

I'm left thinking about this as I read about how some IP maximalists at a gathering about how to "counter" the public are discussing the importance of social media and their own usage of it. Even reading about the discussion sounds oddly stilted -- like your parents trying to sound cool by using youth slang:

The role of social media in promoting IP will be a key topic. For example, both USPTO Director David Kappos and EPO President Benoit Battistelli regularly write blogs about their respective offices.
The offices represented on the panel also use Twitter and Facebook as well as conventional media such as TV to communicate with users and society generally.

Oh my goodness. Can you believe it? They blog? They use Twitter and Facebook? They must know everything!

Perhaps, at some point, they'll realize it's not the usage of social media that made a difference, but the fact that the people using social media find these issues to be serious and important, and don't believe the official explanations for why they have to lock down content.

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Filed Under: cargo cult, copyright maximalist, social media

57 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:28am

"The offices represented on the panel also use Twitter and Facebook as well as conventional media such as TV to communicate with users and society generally. "

Unfortunately, thanks to wrongfully granted government established monopolies, IP critics are not allowed to voice their criticisms over broadcasting spectra or cableco infrastructure. Effectively, the government has managed to pass laws that abridge free speech into the hands of the government-industrial complex. It's unacceptable and it's something we need to correct. Abolish government established cableco monopolies. Abolish government established unidirectional broadcasting monopolies for commercial purposes.
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ahow628 (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:39am

In your face, Mike...
Boy are you going to look stupid when their millions of blog readers, Twitter followers, and Facebook likers stand up and say, "We want - NAY, DEMAND - the content we consume be more expensive, less convenient, and of lower quality!"

Egg. On. Your. Face.
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fogbugzd (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:39am

They do a marvelous job of illustrating why they have adapted to the Internet so poorly. They appear to be even more clueless than I had thought they were.
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MrWilson, 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:47am

So basically instead of getting absurd soundbites and article quotes from the IP maximalists, we'll just be seeing screenshots of twitter and facebook feeds.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:49am

Re: In your face, Mike...
Millions? We already have trillions of unique followers on our main blog alone, and upwards of 16 billion spread across social media sites.

You Technotards have no chance.

-- RIAA Chief Accounting Officer
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:53am

Re: Re: In your face, Mike...
And if you account for ripple extended internet effects, our twitter following is about 3x the population of Earth! Clear evidence that extraterrestrial intelligence is on our side, as we are right.

/shill
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Tor (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:53am

Unless it's really social (as in open-minded discussions rather than one-sided campaigns) it's just media - not social media.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:58am

Re:
I don't think that's right.
Broadcast media and Publishing are effectively unidirectional, if however you use social media which by it's nature is not but don't engage, surely then, it becomes anti social media, or Aunty Essandem as I like to think of it.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 11:59am

Re:
Well, as long as they don't start creating pictures of cats with captions saying "I can has SOPA?", I think we'll be fine.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:00pm

Stop this, you're gonna get grounded
"The adults in the room" are putting capes and playing superman, they'll be flying before you know it
To the sky
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Glen, 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:01pm

I can't wait to see how badly this will go for them. I'm gonna go now and get some popcorn and a Mt. Dew ready.
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Chosen Reject (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:05pm

Re: Re:
Aunty Essandem? Weird, that's my safe word.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:13pm

Re: Re: In your face, Mike...
RIAA math at its best. Congrats!
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yeeeaaaah...., 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:16pm

Re: Re: In your face, Mike...
i think thats called a virus....
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Ima Fish (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:17pm

Robin: "Holy Piracy Batman, the evil Democratic Pirate Nazis are beating us using their evil Social Media weapon!"

Batman: "Well, then young ward, we have only one course of action to take: To the Bat Social Media Mobile!"
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BentFranklin (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:27pm

Let those maximalists use social media as much as they want. Soon they'll become netizens themselves and realize what fools they've been.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:43pm

Steakholders
It's rare for any medium to have an impact, unless it's well done.
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DannyB (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:53pm

Can't the maximalists just exclude everyone else's point of view?
Oh, wait. This is the internet. Not broadcast TV. Not a smoke filled room closed door meeting that excludes the public.
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DannyB (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 12:56pm

Re:
I doubt that will happen.

It will go more like this.

Clueless record/movie industry executive tells PR drone what he wants to say. PR drone writes it up in the typical language that is instantly detected by the masses as Bovine Excrement. Then they post it to social media sites, but in a way that does not allow comments -- or they remove comments they don't like.

Now the clueless original executive thinks he is an internet netizen.
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Jim G., 18 Apr 2012 @ 1:08pm

I'm sure they are a fun lot to follow.

@BIGCOMPANYGUY remember kids, getting a copy of some music from a friend is just like stealing money from a homeless grandmother and makes baby jesus cry.

@BIGCOMPANYGUY plus you will end up in jail and the American economy will collapse on your bloated corpse. But we do this for the benefit of all. Plus you deserved it.

@BIGCOMPANYGUY I don�t understand why you kids don�t feel more grateful for the Transformer movies and stuff you are always copying. Plus, GET OFF MY LAWN you rapscallions!
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terry (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 1:18pm

The strength in the opposition to these extreme proposed laws isn't as much in the delivery system as it is in the content. The content that is nothing more than simply exposing the content of the proposed legislation especially the most major flaws.

You have to wonder about people who represent content interests that can't see this.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 1:55pm

Re:
case in point, you cannot comment on the RIAA blog at all and twitter doesnt seem to be getting much action. oh well.
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Richard, 18 Apr 2012 @ 1:58pm

I'm looking forward to this. It should be hilariously funny!
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 1:59pm

http://twitter.com/#!/TweetCDuck

Check out these tweets, they are the best :D
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Hephaestus (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 2:28pm

Re: Re:
I was going to point the same thing out about the MPAA blog. They seem to treat blogging as a set of press releases and think it will make a difference. If they did open up their blogs to commenting, the sheer quantity of negative comments would be a nightmare for them. Especially the comments from their own artists.
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 2:31pm

Re:
the interwebs has a habit of using those screenshots against those who said them...

so in this case, i welcome our new mind-numbingly stupid overloards!
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 2:44pm

Re:
thanks now I have lie poisoning
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Watchit (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 2:47pm

Re: Re:
wow, the thought of the RIAA trying to "make memes" to support stricter IP laws is hilarious!

I can just imagine:

"I used to pirate, then I took a DMCA takedown notice to the knee"

"Piracy, Piracy everywhere"

"One does not simply share music"

"Y U NO buy our blu-ray?"
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Watchit (profile), 18 Apr 2012 @ 2:52pm

Re:
not sure if serious... or trolling
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 2:53pm

i use to sell music until i took a stolen mp3 to the knee
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 3:17pm

Re:
Thanks, those are hilarious! I actually looked up the report mentioned by the "40 million jobs" tweet. Turns out their claim uses the very scientific principal of "every industry is an IP industry, so we just picked the top 75", which presumably includes the farmers that grow the corn for movie theater popcorn, etc.
Unless I'm misreading it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report they mention lists "motion picture and sound recording industries" as actually employing about 360,000 people. The U.S. Postal Service employs over 600,000. Perhaps we should start cracking down on e-mail?
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Chris From Poland, 18 Apr 2012 @ 3:42pm

Check out the pathetic "Creative America" Facebook "fan"site... "Creative America" is of course known on TechDirt for being the lickspittle of RIAA and other such groups of interest, though it describes itself as a "grassroots" group. Check out their social media profile on FB, it's full of what I believe to be misguided propaganda.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 3:50pm

Re:
Well I wouldnt mind if they jump out of the window
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Digitari, 18 Apr 2012 @ 3:59pm

Re:
I used to listen to music, then I got a DRM right to the FACE
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The Moondoggie, 18 Apr 2012 @ 5:07pm

This should be interesting...
I can't wait to see them online and throw tomatoes at them after the very first post.
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AC Cobra, 18 Apr 2012 @ 6:02pm

Dont underestimate this...
I perceive a lot of mocking, even to the point of conceit, in these comments. Maybe we shouldn't get so cocky. These lobbyists are just beginning to use very powerful tools. Sure, they seem ridiculous now trying to "use youth slang" and act hip and all, but they will learn. This effort will have a small effect at first, but will become more effective with time. This demands a serious response, and it is a war, not a battle.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 8:07pm

Re: Dont underestimate this...
Honestly its kind of hard to take them seriously, its been what 16 years since Napster and I'm yet to see them run a campaign that doesn't inspire either outrage (ridiculous lawsuits) or mockery (Those copyright advisory notices and ads) in the general public.

Their danger tends to lie in their political reach (and ability to get buy in to some really interesting interpretations of laws) rather than their social swiftness, heck these are the same people who have a major line of business selling movies about Small bands of good people triumphing over the Evil Empire and have not yet deduced that they've become the Evil Empire, they are stacking the cultural viewpoint on themselves.
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Edward Teach, 18 Apr 2012 @ 8:37pm

Re: Re: Dont underestimate this...
*and ability to get buy in to some really interesting interpretations of laws*

Don't you mean "ability to buy some really interesting interpretations of laws"? Possibly even at the highest levels of the US Judiciary?
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Edward Teach, 18 Apr 2012 @ 8:40pm

Re: Dont underestimate this...
I'm not at all sure that "they will learn". Isn't that the lesson of corporate speak? Just about anyone can read a press release and their spidey-sense will start tingling. Will the lobbyists be able to shed their corporate forked-tongues and actually write real stuff, or will they just continue to write double-speak, bromides and jibber-jabber?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2012 @ 9:17pm

Re: Re: In your face, Mike...
All that matters is that your billions have pictures of George Washington on them.
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PaulT (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 1:15am

Re: Can't the maximalists just exclude everyone else's point of view?
They're still working on making it that...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2012 @ 1:35am

Copyright maximalists using social media? Great, now we can have more people mocking students who use Wikipedia.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2012 @ 4:08am

Nice to see Masnick embrace the 'maximalist' meme.

So much easier to demonstrate the zealotry inherent in these lines of "discussion".
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PaulT (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 4:19am

Re:
2 sentences with no real point except to attack the author, and an adherence to the most recent AC troll meme of attacking the word "maximalist" without ever addressing the reason why it's used?

+1 for pretending you're interested in a discussion, I suppose...
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abc gum, 19 Apr 2012 @ 4:59am

Re: Re: Re:
I don't always pirate.
But when I do,
I simply apologize.
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lexieliberty (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 8:34am

They Won't Expect Us
If they become really visible in social media realms, they are gonna get their shit torn apart by all us users. lol
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Niall (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 9:18am

Re: Re: Re: In your face, Mike...
So you don't want my nice notes with pictures of the Queen on them? Ok!
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Al Bert (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 10:56am

it's all and always meaningless
Until they expose themselves to an actual open forum --
either online or in a political meatspace,
they cannot pretend to know what the fuck they are pursuing.

As producers of indefensible lies, they cannot exist without a local absence of dissent.
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hmm (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 11:56am

well
It all goes swimmingly, as the RIAA sets up a facebook page and a twitter account, then refuses to let anyone except the heads of the major record labels follow them.

THEN they sue a member of the public who accidentally gets added to their friend list for "copyright infringement" when their PC displays the RIAA's wall....
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hmm (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 11:58am

Re: Re: Dont underestimate this...
Except its BILLIONS of good people vs the tiny evil empire......

7 billion Jedi vs a thousand stormtroopers = no contest.....
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hmm (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 12:00pm

Re: Dont underestimate this...
Except for one vital thing:

If you tip the public too far, basically a massive mob of millions of people turns up at your corporate HQ and burns it to the ground......this is a war the MPAA and RIAA cannot possibly win, they just haven't realized it yet.
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hmm (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 12:02pm

Re:
I am a moron. I am in a hurry. I thought "creative america" was "captain america" on first glance.

I therefore demand that creative america be shut down and gives hundreds of millions of dollars to DC comics (or marvel (or whoever) just so they get punished).
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DannyB (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 3:40pm

Re:
Thank you for that excellent example of copyright maximalists using social media.
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BentFranklin (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 8:57pm

Re: Re:
Hah! You're probably right! But soon enough said executive will check to see if anyone responded to his comments and then he will wander around and learn some memes and so will become a netizen anyway.
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TtfnJohn (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 9:34pm

Re: Re:
don't give them ideas!

The subspecies LOLfeline will rise up in revolt, I tell ya!
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Chargone (profile), 20 Apr 2012 @ 7:26am

Re:
not the mooon?
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icedtea (profile), 20 Apr 2012 @ 3:43pm

It doesn't matter if its businesses or public officials - most of them don't have a clue about what people want to see on social media - stuff that benefits them. That's it. The reason that so many brands are struggling with converting fans to actual activity and sales is that they don't really get social media. Too many companies are of the mindset that all they really have to do to succeed is set up a Facebook page, throw a few bucks into Facebook ads, maybe use one of the types of companies at BuyFacebookFansReviews and that will just automatically catapult them to success. Things don't work out that way online. They have to be able to offer something to people that they value and listen to their customers. This is the best way to achieve long-term success.Also pictures of cute animals are always viral online, so good for them for taking advantage of that fact and using it to their advantage. The additional factor here is that while Facebook offers features to increase engagement, those features are really only designed to increase engagement on Facebook pages themselves. You have to go out and offer people something of value on Facebook to really find a way to get success.
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