Slashdot Mirror

There already are hardware Mpeg4 players. KiSS DV-450 was the first and more is certainly coming

KiSS Technology DP-450 and DP-500. There are even efforts underway to dezone the 450 and 500.

KiSS Technology DP-450 and DP-500. There are even efforts underway to dezone the 450 and 500.

KiSS Technology DP-450 and DP-500. There are even efforts underway to dezone the 450 and 500.

A link to the company's website?

Let me explain to you. In the back of their minds, most Slashdot readers ("Slashbots") know that they simply don't want to pay for anything which they can get illegally for free. Most people are exactly the same way. KaZaA et al allows them to get music for free, so they use it

Okay, now let me explain to you why you are wrong. KaZaA et al. don't allow you to get music for free. Time is money, and it takes time to search for songs, download them, listen to them to make sure you have a good quality mp3, and burn them onto CD. Hence, you pay for your music one way or another, regardless. I predict that most Slashdot users would gladly pay for a way to conveniently get the music they want which is competitive with the cost of their time. The problem is that the music many people want is either not legally available at all (demos, discontinued releases) or available at a prohibitive price (CDs with one good song on them, imports,)

To be sure, other trends have moved society steadily toward file-sharing. More and more people don't even bother to burn their mp3s -- they simply listen to them directly from their PCs, which have become home media hubs. This change of habit effectively makes buying CDs more expensive because now you must take the time to rip the tracks instead of just getting them off of KaZaA (and remember, time is money.) And copy-protected CDs, which make it impossible to rip the tracks you want into your home media hubs, only drive people further into the hands of file-sharing services.

Notice that the MPAA doesn't have a fraction of the same problems (yet), because the time (money) it takes to successfully download and burn a bootleg movie is better spent by simply coughing up the 20 bucks for the DVD. This may change as DVD players start to be able to read MPEG4 files.

Ultimately, the last, best plan for the RIAA will be to come up with some kind of co-branded version of KaZaA, which allows people to trade their music collections freely, but charges them for the transfer. Royalties would be automatically allocated, and the whole file-trading industry could be made legal overnight. In fact, transfers would be encouraged because they would generate more royalties, and consumers would also receive targeted advertising encouraging them to buy music DVDs, posters, concert tickets and the like.

KiSS DVD Player DP-450

and on a side note:
2002-10-27 05:10:41 The new Ultimate DVD player (articles,news) (rejected),
no really, i'm not bitter...