Please join the RIAA boycott in March.  Just for the month of March don't by any music released by the major record labels represented by the RIAA.  It will be good for your soul.

The RIAA is one of the biggest, richest and ugliest of the corporate organizations trying to keep a stranglehold on the conversation of culture.  The RIAA has spent millions of dollars taking kids to court for sharing copyrighted music over the Web, essentially trying to criminalize an entire generation, and is now trying desperately to shut down local wireless hot-spots by promoting a bill that would make any wireless network provider legally liable for any activity that occurred over that network, including the sharing of copyrighted work -- which would effectively end local wireless service.  No local provider could ever hope to match the RIAA's legal and financial resources -- just responding to one of their lawsuits, even a groundless one, would put the provider out of business.

I don't advocate piracy but the RIAA is trying to create a world in which the state enforces a monopoly distribution system owned and controlled by large corporations.  The willingness of the record labels represented by the RIAA to destroy local wireless service in its infancy is a sign that they've become some of the most vicious mad dogs of corporate tyranny -- blind to any values or any new technology which might interfere with their desire to perpetuate outdated business models and gain total control over the distribution of culture.

What does the boycott mean?  Well, at its worst, for one month you don't buy any Bob Dylan albums, since Sony belongs to the RIAA -- but you can still go see him in concert.  At its best it means that you can buy all the White Stripes albums you want, because they don't release through an RIAA affiliate.  Go Stripes!

At its very best it means that you can look for and buy new music by artists who reject the madness of the corporate distributors . . . on MySpace or at Internet music distributors like eMusic.

If you want to find out what music is covered by the RIAA just go to RIAA Radar and do a simple search.

It's only a month, it won't bring the RIAA to its knees -- but it's a start.  Do it and tell everyone you know about it.

For more info on the RIAA and the boycott, go here.