I found this list of fifty people in Congress and the Senate that have received money from the RIAA for their campaigns very interesting and dismaying. Some people took more money than others and while some names in the list hardly surprised me, I was pissed to see (or annoyed by my naivety) politicians I was not expecting to be taking money from what I consider to be the single worst trade group/organized crime syndicate in recent history.

• Barack Obama - $2,000
• Hillary Rodham Clinton - $2,000
• John Conyers - $2,000
• Henry Waxman - $3,000
• Diane Feinstein - $4,000

I counted three member of Congress that represented districts in New York. Joseph Crowley and Louise Slaughter both taking $1,000 and Edolphus Towns receiving $1,500. I’m grateful that at least my district’s representative wasn’t on that list. Historically, I’ve always voted for the lesser of two evils when it came to deciding on candidates. I’ve always had a lot of respect for John Conyers and Henry Waxman. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will likely get my vote for president in 2008, unless Al Gore runs. It’s disappointing to see that they are taking money from such slimy thugs.

I’ve been reading that gizmodo.com is declaring this March to be “Boyccott the RIAA Month“, asking readers to refrain from purchasing any and all music represented by the Recording Industry Association of America—an attempt to hit them where it hurt the most, which would be the wallet for those not in the know. Personally, i find the whole thing a little on the weak side.

Thirty days without purchasing any big-label vomit? Big fucking deal. It’s like it’s Lent or something. After thirty days, it’s back to scarfing cheeseburgers and buying DRM-crippled Justin Timberlake shit. I get that the main point of Gizmodo’s boycott call is to make a statement, increase awareness to what’s going on and what kind of alternatives are there (like eMusic, which i’m liking a lot), but I think limiting the call to one month is wrong.

The RIAA is evil. One month is nothing. Any label that sleeps with them should be subject to boycott, for life. Or, at the very least, until they wisen up, ditch the RIAA and their bullshit DRM scams and stop treating their customers as thieves by default. Fuck them. Fuck their music. Fuck Windows DRM. Fuck iTunes DRM and fuck the RIAA.

If you can’t live without it, steal it. Other than that, use sane and reasonable music stores like eMusic that sell music from labels that don’t have their heads shoved too far up their asses. Don’t give anyone who uses DRM or hangs with the RIAA a thin fucking dime. If you pay money for that shit, you’re being taken for a ride by a company that assumes you’re a criminal and knows you’re a sucker. Every penny they gain in sales is proof to them that people are sheep and furthers this insane business model of lawsuits, inferior products and consumer abuse.

Here’s a very comprehensive and searchable database of albums released by members of the RIAA. Use it as a tool to know what not to buy and what to steal, if that’s your thing.