“Speaking out” can involve any number of things, and it will take a combination of them to succeed in this particular battle (see my earlier reference to DIVX). The importance of resisting things like this as “actively” as you can is that otherwise the general public will come to accept it as the way it has to be without knowing any better, and allow the corporations to become so entrenched that it will be more difficult to force them to change later, assuming the public wakes up and realizes it wants them to.

Posting this here, along with all other possible avenues of discussion, does hopefully serve to raise awareness of the issue, which I think is an important component of “the fight”.

The other is, of course - as I also stated above - economic pressure: voting with your wallet.

Dan, to your point, I do in fact “boycott” the products you mentioned (Vista & MCE) personally - I don’t use them at all and I advocate free software alternatives. As you’re (sometimes painfully) aware I encourage you and others to do the same.

This also extends to other similar forms of perpetual-producer-ownership restrictions like DRM, which I also refuse to economically support, and actively discourage others from supporting as well.

Jared,
You tried awfully hard to correlate DRM with recording free content but it’s clear to me they’re different; DRM as it is now involves copy protection.

Regardless, you might want to apply you’re logic of not voting for DRM with your pocketbook by advocating a boycott against Vista or Windows MCE.

Honestly the only solution I see is informing the common consumer. Like copy-protection it should than work itself out–because only after copy-protection went mainstream; people complained; the right companies petitioned against it did things start changing for the better.

It seems like you think this is fundamental rights issue rather than just a consumer preference but I don’t understand. I don’t see how Sony vs. Universal established any right.

I don’t care not because I’ve been conditioned to except my rights being disrespected but because I don’t understand why it’s very important. I mean I’ll take into account as a consumer but I don’t get why I should/can do more?

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s the best tasting, but since I’ve been drinking so much more of it, I’ve been going for the 20 pack of large (1L) bottles from Costco for $4, and have gotten quite used to the taste; it’s a perfectly fine alternative.

However, I did just witness another one this weekend that I can post about shortly… This is getting a little weird.