I think the mature thing to do, as cynical as this might sound, is to realize that the government is obscenely out of touch with its constituency, and stop going to them for help. Instead, influence the influencers.

At the end of the day, all companies have is customers. If the customers stop utilizing their services, the companies are forced to stop pushing their anti-consumer agendas into legislation. Part of this is utilizing the Internet, as it now is, to circumvent the old ways of doing things.

Essentially, while it is free, startups should be focusing on helping consumers circumvent traditional industries.

We all hate banks as they are. Let's reinvent them.

We all hate telecoms. Let's try to create startups that can compete with them.

We all hate loan institutions. Let's disrupt the loan structure, allow people to privately invest in one another on a micro scale. Hell, it's already being done for 3rd world nations.

We have a real opportunity to change things and make them better. Get out from under the institutionalized world we grew up in. Why not?

I'm calling false dichotomy on this. Continue to lobby the government AND influence the influencers.

I love the idea of disrupting the loan structure. I think using things like Prosper or Lending Club is great. But I live in Pennsylvania where they are against the law.

We cannot ignore the ways in which government is broken.

>where they are against the law

Is there a reason for that? To stop loan sharks, for example? (Which is a highly valid reason).

I don't think GP was saying that the law had no reason for existing, just that its existence had an unfortunate unanticipated effect on microloans.

(If you wanted to outlaw loan sharking, you pass something like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, not an "only banks can loan money" law)

Agree that "the government is obscenely out of touch with its constituency." Also agree that it makes sense to stop going to them for help, and the influencing the influencers is prudent. But there is another lever: get rid of the government system that would be so easily influenced by money over and above policy. Turn 'em out. Withdraw consent of the governed.

Amen to all of that!

As far as loan institutions go and trying to create something that lets people invest in one another, the UK already has something along those lines: http://uk.zopa.com

I think the idea is great and wish Zopa got more press than they do.

Great call to action, well written, thanks.

I don't think it is that unrealistic to expect a shift away from TVs. In fact, number of households with a TV set is starting a downward trend which is accelerating.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/11/30/tv-ownership-declines/

It is certainly possible to buy DRM-free tracks, and indeed this should be encouraged. Creative commons music exists too. Movies are another matter, although I don't think discouraging people from movies altogether is too unrealistic, that could just be because I'm not big on movies in general myself.

yes but i say good luck with that because how big of a dent to the Comcasts of the world is this community?

For Godaddy this community is their market and thus we can force action by canceling our service. The market for Hollywood and the RIAA's products cover all walks of life.

You'd have to get your neighbor, aunt, 3rd cousin, etc to stop patronizing Hollywood and the ilk to hurt their bottom line. Your neighbor and grandma have never heard of SOPA nor do they care they just want to watch wheel of fortune or their favorite show.

Many in this community have canceled cable tv services, but again has your grandmother, father, 3rd cousin or neighbor done so too?

i think i could quite easily boycott hollywood. I would prefer to read a book any day of the week than induldge in that hype machine.

Occupy!

There's a lot of truth in these comments. The most effective change is productive change. Don't like something? Do something that's better. Look at startups like Square who are turning payment processing on its ear, or our project, Ting.com, promising to turn mobility on its ear. Doing a startup that tries to stick it to the man is probably the most effective means of achieving real positive change.

Occupy The Internet!

The problem though, with bills like SOPA is that if the incumbents don't like what you're doing they can just switch it off.

#define competition illegal

is bad, m'kay?

I think some good points are made in this post. People need to start implementing or at least, work toward implementation of changes to the status quo, whatever the industry/sector may be. Unless that happens, it is all moot.