NukeItGood

Feel like I'm talking to a legend here. Godspeed, my friend.

How exactly did that fateful conversation with the MPAA go? I imagine since you are in NZ there wasn't too much they could actually do, but I would think that they would try to be a little harder on one of the most prolific international releasers. Was it an "oh shit" moment or more of an "about time"? Was it basically a cease and desist or did you have to go totally dark and cover your tracks?

Just wondering what they realistically could've done to you and how you felt when the hammer came down. I imagine the e-peen goes kind of limp when something like that happens; your name was synonymous with pirated movies for so many years

Btw... thanks

This will be a bit more general than just focusing on TPP, do forgive me.

First off, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for what you're doing, what you've already done, and what we will all hopefully end up doing. For a scarily large amount of people, it does not seem to fully register that the results of these continuing fights will be pored over in history books for centuries to come. History books about humankind, global. Not in back issues of Paranoid Hacker Activist Times. This is a very blind corner we're going to be turning soon.

I greatly appreciate any answers to any (but hopefully all) of my questions.

Am I wrong in thinking this dramatically, or am I reacting appropriately to what we have in front of us? If I had it in writing from you guys, perhaps I can convince some of the people around me that this isn't tinfoil-hat Dale Gribble nonsense. This is a major change between how we once were and what we will become as a species, right? Toddlers learn and can perform detailed smartphone and gadget tech before they learn three words. Your parents or grandparents couldn't have done that at the same age. Instantly connected to the entire world from a young age, and they have no conception of the time very recently where this wasn't so. We are already moving quickly enough to see this kind of developmental shift with our own eyes. It will take many years and many generations, but the Internet is going to become somewhat of a home for us, in a far more intimate capacity than it arguably already is.

I don't think we realize precisely how much fun it will all stop being when we are not comfortable in our own "home". And when we have no choice in the matter because the damage has long been done. So it is of dire importance that we really thoroughly fuck them up now, rather than later, correct?

First real question, many people wonder: does calling representatives ACTUALLY work? Do they really not know what they're voting on some of the time, and do they really tend to vote differently based on a few eloquent but direct phone calls? Is there a list of "good ones" who we know are open to the suggestions? Because if so we need to keep those people in office and throw them money, support, and publicity. You know, we can't let the big boys have all the fun; I'm more than certain we could sway elections too!

My next, perhaps more serious question: when can we ever stop fighting this stuff? I'm sure you get this question a lot but it's a good one. Will it ever get to a point where we can legally establish some sort of precedent that prevents them from vaguely rewording the same bills and pulling the trusty abhorrent strip 'n' slip method to get the stuff quietly gilded within unbreakable bills? What the hell could we have done about the Omnibus monster? And now what? How do we destroy it? Can we? Do we have any sort of legal footing or anything else that could overturn it?

My last question is by far the most important. How do we WIN? Big picture, rival dojo on top of the mountain style? This constant desperate rallying of already disheartened followers is what's keeping our heads above water, but let's look at endgame. Do you guys or anyone else have a room full of lawyers figuring out the weak point in the armor as we speak? Or will this have to be fought strictly in Congress or the Senate? Can we get creative and come up with some brand new type of public service or international heritage designation for the Internet that prevents them from touching it or regulating it? We need to build it up to be invincible, and if that is impossible we need to come up with a new kind of internet.

So my friends, thank you for reading and please do me the honor of letting me pick your brains about this stuff. I could talk for hours about this issue. We have to figure it out.

I'm not ever going to shut the fuck up about it until we do. Let's start fighting dirty. Because the future will surely not judge us, as long as we don't fail.

Have a nice day!

Edit: strikethroughed answered question to make it easier on the others

Hi Jared, big fan, thanks for doing this AMA!

I really like your answer from earlier: "I'm an artist." So paint me a picture, Jared. What was the catalyst that caused you to be such a piece of shit to everyone around you? Was it the disappointment in realizing that most of your fans are casually pseudodepressed teens who have not yet developed the stability of mind to chew on that first hit of acid, or was it the acceptance that despite your unexplainable success, you'll never be able to produce any actual meaningful art? I can definitely understand how each of those discoveries would be rough, but I would assume that either of those circumstances would only steer you to be nicer, and easier to deal with, instead of causing you to devolve even further into a pretentious, ever cascading turdstream of deliberately oblivious diva sebum.

Do you ever truly deal with those thoughts, on those particularly challenging nights: captive within the ethers of indistinguishable hotel rooms, when only one or two yesmen remain, long after your "real friends" have tired of you for the night, not long at all after realizing it's too late/early to obtain any more artistically necessary substances with which you could pad your sense of purpose?

Again Jared thanks for taking the time, I loved you in Suicide Squad

Excellent, thanks for great answer, keep on fighting the good fight.

Speaking on the need for public communication to representatives, I highly encourage y'all to check out the work of this guy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/42mahh/iama_former_house_staffer_who_hacked_the_us/

He's working to streamline communication with lawmakers through, essentially, social media apps. Trying to make the whole process more direct and get everyone to actually be able to see results, be encouraged to do more, etc. I think it's an absolutely fantastic idea and I really hope it keeps gaining steam.

Could you go into a bit more detail specifically as to why you're either for or at the very least indifferent to the TPP? Don't usually hear much in the way of public support of this thing, always curious to see different points of view.