NY Times: AARP's New Hangout: KaZaA, Web's Mosh Pit (reg req)
Should an organization, whose membership is easily scammed, each of whom sometimes wear their technology illiteracy like a badge of honor and whose individual understanding of technology is difficult to assess, be advertising on a file piracy and porn site?
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In a million years, I never thought I'd see this: one of the most venerable and well-regarded organizations in the world, the AARP, has purchased banner ads on, of all places, KaZaA.
Seniors are the fastest growing part of our population, and are also the fastest growing technology user segment. I get calls on the weekend show, where the bent is more towards hobbyists and problem solving, from young and old alike, but the senior citizen is likely to be coming to computers late. When they do, they are presented with a series of unfamiliar paradigms, none of which can be solved with good old fashioned hard work: it takes a left-brain to solve most of the logical issues that pop up. And trying to slowly describe the complete back and front tech story to a geriatric is a balancing act for me, between needing to serve as many listeners as possible in a three hour show, and not giving anyone the short shrift.
Enter into this their leading lobbying organization, the America Association for Retired Persons, a huge institution and the publishers of Modern Maturity magazine.
The AARP truly is the voice of the American senior citizen, and it is doubly confounding that such an organization would cast off the values of fair play, hard work, ambition and protection of ownership, and support a site like KaZaA, whose sole purpose, despite their protestations to the contrary, is to feed off the popularity of stealing music.
The AARP ought to be ashamed of itself. Its General Counsel, Joan Wise, political operatives, CEO Bill Novelli, Current President James Parkel and Future President Marie Smith should be ashamed of themselves, and should immediately review and reverse this decision. It's an immoral decision, and it's sending a message to its vast membership that stealing is OK. It's saying that the values that AARP espouses in Chapter 13 of The Policy Book: AARP Public Policies 2002, really don't amount to much. They state:
AARP's policies on personal and legal rights are guided by the following principles:• Protections against discrimination - strong and expansive legal protections against discrimination;
• Freedom from exploitation and abuse - strong legal protections against and effective protective services addressing all forms of exploitation and abuse of incapacitated and vulnerable adults;
• Safeguarding rights - strong procedural and substantive safeguards to protect the rights of the incapacitated and of vulnerable adults;
• Choice - legal sanction for the right of competent adults to protect their wishes and desires in the event they are no longer able to make or express their own decisions;
• Enforcement - rigorous enforcement of civil rights and other statutes protecting the rights and safety of individuals; and
• Redress and Support for Victims- full availability of the court system to obtain redress for violations of rights, not limited by circumstances such as disability or ability to pay.
Apparently, that doesn't include musical artists over 50 - they have to fend for themselves when it comes to the exploitation and theft of their works of art.
You can tell them how you feel here, or you can write them at:
AARP 601 E. Street NW Washington, DC 20049
or call them at:
1-800-424-3410 Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. ET.
Further, with the easy availability of online porn on KaZaA, it's hard to imagine their decision process clearly. I doubt it was positioned like this: "Hey, let's advertise on a porn site...it doubles as a site that lets anyone download music that doesn't belong to them!"
But that's exactly what the AARP is doing, plain and simple.
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After a 30 year career on radio in markets from New York to San Francisco to satellite and network, David H. Lawrence XVII decided to make a change. He hung up his headphones and retired from hosting 3 network/satellite radio shows to head to Los Angeles, to concentrate solely on acting in front of the camera.
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