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Wow. A friend of mine just pointed out that image 4.3.b (with the guy saying !@#$!#$) was lifted from fightclub.

as long as you live in a democracy the people can easily take back the power.

Not in a "democracy" where a significant chunk of people tend to vote for the candidate that the TV tells them to vote for. All major broadcast TV and cable news networks in the United States are owned by parent companies of major movie studios: CBS and UPN, ABC, NBC and MSNBC, Fox and Fox News, The WB, CNN, and Headline News, all MPAA members. Campaign contributions by five out of seven MPAA member studios are in effect offers of free advertising time, circumventing the FCC's "equal time" rule.

And all it would take is for someone major like FOX News to do a story

You'd be more likely to get a coverup than a story out of Fox "We distort, you comply" News because Fox News's parent company owns a major American movie studio.

MSNBC, on the other hand, is the only major American cable news outlet not affiliated with an MPAA member. Microsoft could even spin the story to push Windows Media over DVD as a "stronger digital restriction solution".

Don't forget project mayhem!

What are the Feenicksian lawyers lake?

Pretty tough, given that they have the full backing of Lucasfilm and News Corporation.

Could we take them?

Given that both those who are Fox and those who aren't Fox are out to get us, I don't think we have much of a chance against a movie studio.

Though this 'Digital Time Machine' technology allows for the complete opposite type of activity, reading this article immediately reminded me of the scene from 'Fight Club' in which Tyler Durden painstakingly "splices single frames of pornography into otherwise innocuous family-films..."

"So, when the snooty cat and the courageous dog meet in reel three, that's when you'll catch Tyler's contribution."

While I suppose this practice of trimming frames to facilitate the creation of additional advertisement time is a bit less immoral than Tyler's pursuits, I don't find it to be any more forthright or any less dubious in nature!

It's been out for a few months now in the UK. Damn the MPAA and region limited dvd players/decoders! Damn them to hell!*

*This paraphrase is copyright 1968/2001 by 20th Century Fox

Not. Every. Computer. Need. Be. Connected. To. The. Internet.

One way the digital method is cheaper for movie theaters is no need to ship and protect fragile movie reels. Another way is you, theater owner, can download whatever movie you want on the spot. This promotes choice but is unsafe for reasons mentioned above.

So you need an independent way to verify the film that's NOT a watermark. This calls for a human bean, who can travel around and 1) download your movies for you with some proprietary software or hardware or, 2) verify the copies you have downloaded. This is also a good way to insure payment of distributors and producers in the digital method.

Once the download is verified, put it on a LAN! You can still mess with Jar Jar, but it will require the active cooperation of theater staff. This is possible with film reels, which can be spliced to include split second shots of pr0n, or whatever (see: Fight Club )

Christ, I live in Scotland, and all we have to put up with is drunken thugs wrecking your evening's entertainment.

On a similar note however, I'm having much less of a good time than I would back home ;-)

It would also fit in with the "Party Tribe for Girls" theme.

And people, remember... there are some corporations that recognize that fan sites and parody sites keep your fan base alive *way* past when you'd expect them to die. Not all corporations are evil.

--
Evan

*Sigh*

I know just the type of site you are describing. Always makes me shudder. (OT, but speaking of shuddering, has anyone seen the site for "Fight Club"? )

Unfortunately, a lot of people do seem very impressed with the fancy Shockwave/Java stuff available that won't work for all users. We've had clients who couldn't understand why we'd want to include HTML-only versions of the pages for users who couldn't (or didn't want to) access the Shockwave pages. Some of them even said that it was a "waste of time and money", or that we didn't want to cater to people who wouldn't upgrade their software(!!!). Perhaps it is a form of "browser-snobbery", or maybe just ignorance. (Or possibly they've seen too many of those "cutting-edge" web developer sites!)

It can be difficult to argue with some of the more stubborn clients, and I am guessing that some web developers don't make the effort to stand up to them.

YS

So you've all seen the trailer for Fight Club, right? I'm sure you remember the part where Brad Pitt describes how our lives seem unfufilled because we've all been raised to think we're going to be movie stars and models. Or the part where Ed Norton evaluates his life in terms of an Ikea catalog, trying to figure out what message he's sending with his collection of consumer goods?

Sure sounds like Cringe is coping with the same issues. I think he should form his own Fight Club. I'd pay good money to see the Cringe and, say, Scott McNealy get into a no-holds barred down-and-dirty street fight.