Tech Industry Versus Content Industry

gambit3 writes "Business 2.0's Cover Story this month asks whether Andy Grove is a Pirate. Interesting read on the mainstream media about the battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Read about in Business 2.0"

Comments

Positive feedback and IP

[xxSOUL_EATERxx]

The central problem of the Tech vs. Content industry conflict is the postive-feedback mechanism involved.

To wit: "pirates" use some technological device to "steal" copyrighted material, which leads to an intrusive technological "solution" to the problem (i.e., CD's that break your computer and damage your speakers), which leads to some ingenious workaround, which in turn leads to an even more cumbersome technological countermeasure...

What the Content folks need to realize is that eventually, this fedback mechanism will hit a point of diminishing returns, and the anti-"piracy" measures will make the media more trouble than it's worth to purchase and use, and consumers will simply stop buying, and seek out some other form of entertainment, like going outside and playing softball...

You know, maybe the Tech v. Content struggle isn't so bad after all... :D Seriously, though, it would probably behoove the Content industry to try rethinking the idea of intellectual property as it is presently understood, before their frantic efforts to protect their "property" end up wiping out their source of profit.

I don't know about Grove...

[j09824]

But I do know that Eisner is a pirate. His company has been stealing from the public domain and denying people their legal fair use rights.

Disney's Michael Eisner and others say Hollywood will defend its intellectual property at all costs

It's obvious that he will do whatever it takes: he is already going as far as bribing our politicians, giving free speech rights only to the wealthiest, and destroying our democracy.

And what for? Disney rarely if ever produces anything other than useless fluff. The company is optimizing the same thing the drug industry is optimizing: a quick, addictive product that gets our children hooked early and lacks intellectual content or social merit. Disney shouldn't be censored, but we certainly don't need to make any special effort to protect their trashy content beyond the minimum.

Quid Pro Quo, then...

[pedro]

Let the tech producers that enable such products as Toy Story, or whatever else CGI driven film, or even, say, a CD that exploits a sonic effect, or a book that utilises a typesetting tool charge these media bozos a per-frame, or per-second, or per-page royalty.. enforceable via the very hardware protections that they are clamoring for.
Even better.. how about a CGI actor's union that charges a per-actor fee for all of the 'extras' in the background of scenes in films like The Mummy, or Star wars?

If we choose to strike back along these lines, the Eisners of the world will be begging for mercy by the time we're done with them. Just go crazy with licensing terms, and let 'em bend over.

Fire with fire, I say.

Mainstream

[blankmange]

One of the earlier posts mentioned that Time needs to cover a story like this - and then it dawned on me how very true that is. The mainstream media have covered very little of the consumers' side of issues such as Fair Use, DCMA, or any other "us vs. them" issues, especially those involving their advertisers ... We will never see our side of the story covered by Time or on CNN because their paychecks are by the media/recording industry/producing industry. Unless we (the users/consumers) start making all kinds of noise about our rights and how we want to use music and digital media, nobody will hear a damn word except for the blather from politicians like Hollings or whats-her-name from the RIAA... mainstream media only reports what is important to their parent companies...

My thoughts on reading this article

[Catiline]

While reading this article, I stopped at one point and thought:

If I go and buy a washing machine- pay all of the cost up front and it is 100% mine, once I've left the store (assuming the vendor isn't going to install it for me) they don't care what I do with it. I could never use it to wash clothes, just as a big drinking fountain, and nobody (except maybe those who saw me do so) would care.
If I walk into a car dealership and buy a brand new Porche (or whatever)- again pay all of the cost upfront- the dealer doesn't care what I do with it. If I drive it home and disassemble it for parts, there's no issue someone else will take up with me (except the police when I try to drive said car on the roads after its' no longer street legal, ofcourse).

So what does Hollywood really want? They can do the "we care" controls: as the article stated, streamed content alone could handle that. As of today, the technology exists to prevent consumers from working their will on Big Media's content even after it has arrived in the home. So why did the have the CBDPTA introduced? What has them so scared of even their own shadow they want DRM in every device, including handhelds too small for media and camcorders? What is the real point of the restrictive legislation?

The only answer I can think of is very, very frightening. They realize that their billion-dolar studio lots could very easily be turned into housing subdivisions right now, because computer technology has advanced so far that anyone with a decent new machine and some rather easily obtained software & hardware can make movies to the same quality as they do, but at a far lesser cost. And no doubt, this keeps Eisner (& co) awake at night: I'm sure he knows the difference between Disney's Peter Pan and his Peter Pan 2 leave poor Walt doing 1 million RPMs in his cryogenic chamber.

What the big Hollywood studios fear the most from technology isn't piracy (or at least, that isn't their main concern right now); I am rather certain they wake up each morning, wondering what they're going to do to keep their trust alive when everyone with a camera and a PC can be a movie studio. I think they believe they've gone this far by buying up all of the big talent in both producers and actors, and I don't see why they're so worried that some amatuers might up stage them (after all, Blair Witch didn't do all that well, did it? Only grossed a few millions, not the hundred millions of the blockbusters.)

Re:My thoughts on reading this article

[GospelHead821]

Your comparrison of entertainment media to a washing machine or to a Porsche is erroneous. Allow me to explain. If you purchase a washing machine, you may rightfully allow anybody to use it, that you wish, as often as you wish. There is a finite limit to the number of people who can use your washing machine. The same goes for a Porsche. If you buy a CD, and immediately rip an mp3 of it, which you then make available on the net, the "finite limit" to the number of people who can use that mp3 is the number of computer users with access to the internet. And furthermore, because the mp3 is readily reproducable, it may be used by many of them all at once.

In my eyes, it's easy to sympathize with both sides of the conflict. On one hand, I agree that obtaining music without paying for it just because the technology to do so is available is theft. Is it right to use a cable descrambler or coin-sized slugs to buy things from vending machines? And if the providers of cable television or of vending machines design technologies to prevent you from doing so, are they violating your rights?

On the other hand, Hollywood wishes not only to control possible theft of content, but also the precise form in which we receive the content. I don't think that they are not within their rights to do this, but obviously, as a consumer myself, I don't appreciate content holders failing to provide content in the form I prefer (mp3, for example) because they are ignorant and paranoid. If every song currently on my playlist were available for download at a fair price, I would gladly bust out my credit card and pay for the music (assuming I didn't already own a tape or CD with the song on it). However, content providers are so mistrustful (perhaps with good reason; I really don't know) of consumers, they're unwilling, to a large extent, to do this. Perhaps the solution to this quandry is, in addition to informing our congress-critters of our opinion in these matters, so that we aren't shafted, legally, we should also consider informing content-holders, by mail or by petition, of how we feel about this matter. I suspect if Disney were to have tangible evidence of how many people there are who would be willing to pay a fair price for a professionally-designed digital copy of one of their movies, they might soften toward the idea of not giving their customers (who are not pirates) the shaft.

Re:My thoughts on reading this article

[GospelHead821]

You're right that it would take a massive, coordinated effort. In fact, when used for distribution of any sort of information, be it a news article or an illegal copy of a piece of music, that's exactly what the internet is. Suppose I copy that piece of music to one other computer every minute. But also assume that half of the people I spawn also copy the music to one other computer every minute, and that half of each . In two minutes, there are two people distributing music. In four minutes, there are four. In six, eight. It grows exponentially. No, it's not finite, but it grows very fast. Supposing the model I just described, that song will be in distribution by more than 4 billion people (and will be in the hands of twice that many people) in a little more than an hour (32 iterations, 2 minutes per iteration).

Who need�s em?

[Xamdam_us]

I for on have just about given up on the Movie, TV, and Record industry. When I was in High School I used to watch a lot of TV, buy lots of CD's and go to the Movies.

Now I'm hard pressed to find anything worth my time to watch or hear. All the big Networks seem to rush to make copies of the crap that the one of their competitors made. The recoding industry keeps pushing crap out onto the market. The Movie industry keeps pushing out crap.

For the past five or six years I've just about completely stopped watching TV or buying CD's. I rarely even go to see a movie in theaters now.

As far as I'm concerned the only thing that will hurt me is the crippling of technology that will come from the Disney bill.

I can live with out the media companies. Can they live with out the consumer?

Re:Just noticed this bit...

[two_socks]

"Surprisingly passable copies can be obtained simply by aiming a digital camcorder at a cinema screen -- especially if the pirate has access to the projection booth, with a head-free view and a direct link to the sound system. It would be awfully tempting for a low-paid movie theatre projectionist to accept a few bucks from some quick-thinking pirate, and sneak a high-quality digital video camera into the projection booth for some quick-n-dirty pirated videos of first-run movies!"

Although it's not common in the U.S., I've seen tons of first run movies ripped to the VCD format just that way. It was nice seeing tomb raider months before it was available in theaters (where I was). The added bonus - subtitles in languages like Chinese, Thai, Hindi, Bangla, Tagalog, etc. And, a REAL LIFE laugh track. You can't turn either of them off, though.

The best part of the VCD format (for us, at least) is that it can be played on a tiny PS1 with a flip-up LCD screen with the install of a mod chip(total_cost&lt$100). Who needs a $1000 portable DVD player?

Re:Time for TIME

[weave]

Not gonna happen. TIME is part of AOL/Time/Warner

According to a disclaimer in the story in that magazine, Business 2 is owned by AOLTW...

Re:The Celine Dion phenomenom

[morgajel]

my favorite is when artists who support the stuff START gettting big because they're doing it.

John Mayer is this posterboy of this phenomenon. he started off locally and posting mp3s on mp3.com, and the next thing he knows, he's on conan obrien, leno, vh1 mtv, etc...
check him out if you get a chance. his 2 cds are the only one's I've bought in the last 4 years- I mainly listen to hippie music from the 60's and blues.

The war goes on...

[potnoodle]

Looking for a political alternative ? Maybe we, the "knowledgeable few" should start acting responsibly, and above all in a united manner against the corporate enemies of progress. By progress I'm talking about the free exchange of cultural "goods" worldwide so that even the poorest can - enjoy/learn from - all these massive resources that come from those of us who have access to permanent links to the Net. It doesn't mean that new content will disappear, it means that those who can afford it, share it! The middleman has to go and that is why he is fighting tooth and nail to keep his privileges through legislation that he is trying to get passed thanks to money-based lobbying. I am no commie retard but it is about time that we, the tech heads, took over some of the power whose abuses we are always complaining about! Of course they wield big bucks and, as they say, money talks. The only way around this is to encourage (inform!) artists to refuse any arrangement with the middleman, and make sure they are appropriately rewarded. Rewards nearly always come in the form of royalties on sales. What are we waiting for to create an independant paypal-like micro-payment system based on what people actually "consume" ? You can bet the major pigs are busy trying to make sure they set it up first and then lock us into it. Nothing can change if you don't start by BOYCOTTING these companies. For me, this doesn't mean punishing yourself and your friends by not going to see the latest movie in a theatre, but getting more out of what is already spreading through alternative networks (and which is what you really want, not what some marketing asshole has decided to let us see). Not starving the creators of content, but pushing them to realise their own responsibility in the current situation. Digital Rights Management ! HAH ! How many times do I have to pay for something before I have the right to download a copy of it in a different format because the medium has changed ?