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.

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

[imadork]

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 you almost have it.

What is the "job" of the executives of these content companies? To keep the stock price up.

How do they keep their stock price up? Keep the company growing at a decent clip.

How can you keep the company growing if your business model is solely based on producing and distributing other people's content? Make sure that creators of content have no other options for production and distribution.

I don't think that Hollywood studios are afraid that garage directors will put them out of business. I do think they're afraid that the next Great American Director will be able to edit the next Great American film on his Powerbook, stream it himself on the Internet, and not have to use their distribution system to get known. There will be many other content creators that do use the studios. But their oligopoly will be broken, and their will be more competition. At least, you won't be able to see the next Great American Movie in theaters, and more people will associate the Internet with movies.

This won't put Hollyood out of business. But it will erode their control over the content distribution of the process, which will lead to reduced profits and no growth. Which, from the Executives' perspective, is just as bad.

Re:Time for TIME

[Lonath]

Now let's see an article like this in TIME magazine. Something more mainstream.

Not gonna happen. TIME is part of AOL/Time/Warner, a giant MEDIA company that makes its money by generating copyrights. Err generating stuff that's protected by copyright.

This is the biggest problem we face when fighting this. There aren't any giant media corporations that are independent of the content industry.

FOX likes the law and makes TV shows and movies. Vivendi owns CBS (I think) and makes records and movies (Universal). Disney owns ABC, and GE owns NBC. Finally AOLTW owns CNN. The only possibility I could see is NBC owned by GE which makes machines, not strings of bits.

So, the problem is that the government has let the media concentrate itself into a few giant corporations and they are filtering this news. This is something that most people would hate if they knew about it, but most people don't read and if they do, it's one of the major magazines or websites that are already owned by the giant media conglomerates. That means that most people will not be able to find out about this. I wonder if people here paid for a PSA about this whether the networks would even run it. :P

To me this is proof that there isn't the major media companies aren't watching out for the "little guy" because if they were, this would have been page-1, top-of-the-hour news in every corner of the media world. Especially since this kind of law will cause loss of privacy and give corporations an extreme amount of control over peoples' lives.

So, don't ever expect the "media" to take our side in this and actually report this stuff. The "media" is just another arm of the "content industry". Also, it isn't even that I want them to take our side in this. All they have to do is accurately report it, and even if they're putting a positive spin on the bill, people will figure out how bad it is. So, the only option they have is to never report on this at all. Hence, it will not happen. Remember that, and spread the word yourself.