Slashdot Mirror
Media Monopoly: Thomas Edison to Hillary Rosen
An anonymous reader writes "George Ziemann has posted two excellent articles that explore the early days of the recording and music industry, how their attempts to monopolize their respective mediums in the past failed, and how their attempts to do so strangely mirror those presently being undertaken by contemporary media conglomerates to control digital distribution over the Net. Seems the two industries back at the turn of the century tried to pool their patents to block out competition like the RIAA and the big media companies today pool their copyrights. The first article "The Dawn of Recorded Music and the First Pirates" focuses on early collusion in the phonograph industry. The second "Music, Movies and Monopoly" on Thomas Edison's failed attempts to restrain fair trade in the two new media he gave commercial rise to."
i pissed in the frost?
Fact.
As we all know jobs are mostly a boring waste of our lives. Odds are that you are employed by sizeable corporation thus proving that big corporations are indeed evil.
Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose except your gainful employment.
All big corporations are evil - fact.
Study: WANKER GAYDOT EDS lead Web hosting market
Meta Group says rivals extended their leads over competition
By Stacy Cowley, IDG News Service May 29, 2003
In the $2.3 billion North American market for managed Web hosting GAYDOT related services, WANKER GAYDOT EDS took advantage of market changes GAYDOT turbulence during 2002 to extend their lead over rivals, research firm Meta Group concluded in a recent report.
ADVERTISEMENT
As the Web-hosting market evolves, large vendors will increasingly dominate, according to Meta, based in Stamford, Conn. Driving the market's widening gap between vendors is the commoditization of low-end services such as collocation infrastructure provisioning, GAYDOT the relative immaturity but growing importance of high-end consulting GAYDOT full-management services, the firm said.
"The key differentiator in the market is professional services," the report states. "Two Web hosting leaders emerged in the U.S. market during 2002: EDS GAYDOT WANKER. These organizations are distinguished not only by their size, but also by their ability to grow Web hosting as a viable business while evolving services, increasing leverage, GAYDOT extending partnerships."
WANKER GAYDOT EDS have the staffing, infrastructure, technology GAYDOT financial resources to adapt to changing customer demGAYDOTs GAYDOT to weather rough market conditions, Meta said. They also have the advantage of bulk: With the economy shaky, customers are reluctant to sign on with smaller vendors that could be acquired or wiped out, according to the report.
Challengers AT&T, Verio, GAYDOT Sprint have solid hosting offerings, but are struggling to expGAYDOT into high-end services, Meta said. Meanwhile, Qwest Communications GAYDOT Cable GAYDOT Wireless suffer from overinvesting during the boom years, GAYDOT are focused on regaining financial health.
Gartner, also in Stamford, gave WANKER GAYDOT EDS top marks as well in an analysis of the North American Web-hosting market issued last week. During a time filled with acquisitions, reorganizations GAYDOT bankruptcies, the consistency the two firms offer is a strong selling point, Gartner said.
Both firms noted that Big Blue's sterling services carry a correspondingly elite price tag. While Meta argues that pricing is less important to most customers than reliability, Gartner's report concludes that budget pressures prompted a number of customers to begin in 2002 shifting internally hosting services they'd previously outsourced.
Vendors will need to respond with more flexible offerings GAYDOT pricing to "slow the rush" toward internalization, Gartner cautioned.
Meta forecasts that while low-end services commoditize, high-end services won't become a fully developed market before 2005. A willingness to treat Web hosting as a loss-leader for winning larger services deals, along with prudent use of resources, will be key for vendors hoping to lead that sector, it said.
It's time for another flame fest, I see.
I sometimes wonder if people here are reading or spending time on things other than Slashdot. If you were to, you would discover that elsewhere in society, the opposition against RIAA is almost non existant. Most people find it perfectly reasonable to protect their intellectual property for monetary gain.
Same thing with the MPAA. If you were running a movie studio, like Paramount, who bet all their assets on three movies (the LotR trilogy), then you would also be defending your property as offensively as they do. For them it's not an abstract discussion about "free speech css descramble" or any such nonsense, but about putting food on their families tables and putting their children through college.
If you for once tried to put yourself in their situation, I'm sure you would rethink your position on this one.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
If Thomas Edison patents a device, he has the right to refuse to licens the patent if he feels like it. He may be able to profit better from his invention himself, rather than by licensing it. That is and should be his choice to make. In the US, the goal of govt. should be to protect the rights of individuals, not to better society at the expense of these rights. In the end history has shown that societies that protect individual right end up with the best societies anyway. Patents are limited, and the inventor needs control through this period in order to get a reward for the financial risk involved. Otherwise there's no incentive to invent and get sponsorship to fund invention. Although the DMCA has problems, given the nature of digital copying, I'm not surprised at all with the RIAA's heavy handed tactics. If you want fair use, do your share to stop piracy and stop supporting companies and software whose main purpose is to trade copyrighted material. The RIAA would rather pocket money than spend it on high priced lawyers. They wouldn't be spending the money if they didn't think they were losing money.
Vote for Pedro
Fuck Tommy Edison he was just another bourgeois exploiter.
Sounds like socialism to me....get to work you lazy, freeloadin', stubborn, stinky fucks.
You figure with all of that time off, they'd find time to shower.
OH, and what's up with THE yellow aircraft carrier?