Protest Song Against Digital Coup | For Our Rights, They Are Worth Savin’ (Official Video)

Details
Title | Protest Song Against Digital Coup | For Our Rights, They Are Worth Savin’ (Official Video) |
Author | Marlyse McQuillen |
Duration | 3:22 |
File Format | MP3 / MP4 |
Original URL | https://youtube.com/watch?v=2EWD1MX18IM |
Description
This is a protest song designed to inspire those who think privacy is dead to fight for their digital rights and rights over their content and intellectual property. I realize the irony in using Suno to generate the music but my singing voice currently resembles Darth Vader operating a chainsaw to torture a moose. I will entertain any offers to have a human record this and humans do a proper job with the video. For now, I will donate any money generated to The Plunk Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that protects the privacy of marginalized groups. I wrote this in tribute to my hero, Bob Dylan and to the GenXer and Millenial parents struggling to right the ship and address the most urgent issue of our time and one that demands our involvement as citizens and stewards of analog to digital memory.
The stanzas address data brokers and personal data out of the hands and control of its users; content creation and IP infringement to build AI and the role of the judiciary in deciding whether paying to buy one book or image to train AI models that will generate trillions in value over time is truly fair use; the role in the U.S. of AI regulation, particularly in light of election disinformation and other harms that have arisen and are likely to harm and discriminate; the role of big tech and social media in designing for engagement among children with unknown impact on cognitive development; lastly, the extractive toll of the race for AI v. cooperative and responsible development that benefits humanity.
LYRICS: Marlyse McQuillen ©2025 All Rights Reserved.
Come gather round people, wherever you scroll
An’ admit user data is outta control
And accept it that soon, it won’t be your own
if your privacy is worth saving’
Then you’d better wake up
B’fore it’s not yours to loan,
For our rights, they are a fadin’
Come writers and artists whose work feeds the cloud,
All will be lost if fair use is allowed,
Now they pirate our voices, our style an' our sound,
We must stand united, waitin'.
As judges decide which of us will be drowned,
Or our rights, they are a-fadin'
Come senators, congressman, fight for us all
Don’t wait for the states, there is no time to stall.
For millions get hurt, while in line just you fall
There’s a battle online and it’s ragin’
That’ll twist our elections an’ make us all pawns
For our rights, they are a-fadin’
Come mothers an’ fathers who first knew broadband
With terms and conditions you can’t understand
Your children’s attention is at Big Tech’s command
It’s a digital coup that they’re stagin’
We all must band together, we all must lend a hand
For our rights, they are worth savin’
Empire of AI, your die is cast
Slow models now
Will later be fast
As the thieves in control
Echo crooks from the past
This voyage isn't quite maiden
And the first one now
Will later be last
For our rights, they are worth savin’
Come mothers an’ fathers who first knew broadband
With terms and conditions you can’t understand
Your children’s attention is at Big Tech’s command
It’s a digital coup that they’re stagin’
There’s a battle online and it’s ragin’
That’ll twist our elections an’ make us all pawns
For our rights, they are worth savin’
Come mothers an’ fathers who first knew broadband
With terms and conditions you can’t understand
Your children’s attention is at Big Tech’s command
It’s a digital coup that they’re stagin’
We all must band together, we all must lend a hand
For our rights, they are worth savin’