I always love when people think that writing or calling their elected official makes a hill of beans of difference. For me, all it generally does is give me a nice elated feeling when I receive a ‘signed’ letter in the mail thanking me for my opinion, and then a paragraph Or two about why their decision(s) will never change.

I’ve lately become a firm believer in wasting the time of the company that has used the power of government against me — like for instance, the content and distribution cartels (RIAA, MPAA). Instead of calling your elected official, call the companies themselves and keep moving up the ladder with the fact that you have a general complaint about their products. Don’t accept the underlings and don’t tell them exactly what it is you’re mad about. If that doesn’t work, call up their sales department and work your way up the ladder from there, requesting information, clarification, etc., about their services.

The ‘slashdot effect’ is great on the Internet, but it is even more powerful on the phones. Each and every server request you make costs any one company very little. Each and every phone call you make gets heard, at least in the bottom line.

I’m not telling people to do anything illegal — don’t hassle, don’t spam, don’t swear, don’t threaten — just call. Call and tell them you don’t appreciate their actions, you don’t appreciate their products, and you don’t appreciate their lobbying to create a more powerful Congress that bows to their favor.

I know my phone calls don’t make much of a difference — yet. But over time, as more people realize that voting with their dollars and voting with how they spend their time, we’ll see change being made through a free market of motivations.

To stay a bit on topic: I recently spent quite a bit of time researching the Swedes, and I’m very surprised at the amount of freedoms they have in a country that is typically considered socialist. I think they’d be a dream country for most Progressives (which means it would be a nightmare for me), but it surprises me how many rights they still retain that we Americans gave up in the US a long, long time ago. The freedom to do what you want with products you physically own is a great freedom; in fact, I believe it is the basis for freedom. The freedom to do what you want with your labor and your mind is included in that freedom, and that is why I am against intellectual property rights in almost every way.