Philip just wrote a comment to my latest copyright rant that got me thinking:

Protecting users from overzealous right holders, and eliminating the giant middle man of an industry that formed to take advantage of many copyrighted works…

I think we need to protect users from overzealous rights holders to an extent, just like I think we need to protect rights holders from overzealous users.

But more than protecting users, I think we need to educate users. Don't like what Sony's doing to restrict your ability to play with their stuff? The answer is not laws. The answer is not bitching and moaning. The answer is not copyright reform. It's simple: stop buying Sony products. If you are pissed at Sony that much and yet you still buy their stuff, then you are their bitch, basically.

The only way the companies like Sony (and even Hasbro) learn is if it costs them money. If we reward those who play like we want them to, and punish those that don't…well, guess which behavior you'll see more of.

Users need to gravitate away from control freaks and move towards the folks who actually want to see the creativity of their customers.

So here's my question: who are our friends?

There's the obvious people who spring to mind like Cory Doctorow, but who are the Cory Doctorows of the music world? Of the film world? They must exist, surely. We've seen some bands throwing their stuff online for free download. And I'm not just talking Creative Commons-users like myself. I'm talking anybody who's willing to give up some control of their stuff in order to engage their readership/listenership/viewership…or at least not piss them off. Is there a list somewhere that people can point to and say, "I need to give these people my money"?

And I'm not talking a website here, a website there, I want a big ginormous one-stop shop of folks so next time you or I hear somebody complaining that they can't remake Steamboat Willie, we can throw them a URL and tell them to go play with these folks instead.

Surely there must be one. Somewhere. If not, I'll start one. Help me out here.