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The Many Battle Fronts of Content Owners

Posted by kdawson on from the mapping-the-forces dept.

museumpeace writes "This community constantly chews on stories like the first sale doctrine and the endless maneuvering of RIAA, MPAA, follies of DMCA and DRM in general. I think of each of those stories as like trying to make sense of a particular earthquake. In the Huffington Post, blogger Jonathan Handel succinctly lays out six tectonic market and technology forces that provide a map for all of this. Sample his point #5, the media is the money: 'Fifth is market forces in the technology industry. Computers, web services, and consumer electronic devices are more valuable when more content is available. In turn, these products make content more usable by providing new distribution channels. Traditional media companies are slow to adopt these new technologies, for fear of cannibalizing revenue...'"

3 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Total Logical Disconnect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Every day... six billion people pay nothing for the air they inhale.. so by this writer's logic... we all find oxygen to be valueless. Every day, a billion children say "I love you daddy"... and the father does not fork-over a per-statement fee... obviously he does not value the experience. Every day, there a pleasurable experiences that make life worth-living... yet do not entail a cash transaction.

    No No No Sir,... content is valued as highly as ever before... what is NOT regarded as value any longer.. are the jack-bob's who try to make eighteen-layers of mark-up on SOMEBODY ELSE'S creativity!!!

    There are a thousand fat old white-guys in downtown NY and LA... are earmarked for obsolescence... and yet writers will always write, dancers will dance, painters will paint... because God lit up their soul with a spark that must be expressed.

  2. Re:What? by eldorel · · Score: 4, Informative
    I would like to point out that all of these links are using dollar amounts as a measurement tool, without accounting for changes in price.

    I can make more money selling 90 widgets at $6 than selling 100 widgets at $5.

    A quick google search for ("movie ticket sales" record high) comes up with about 600 items, most of which reference the same quote.

    "Moviegoers around the world pushed global box office revenues to a record $26.7 billion in 2007,
    • but rising ticket prices and a weakening dollar accounted for much of the increase,
    the Motion Picture Association of America said Wednesday." If even the mpaa has been forced to admit that the majority of the sales increase has been due to price increases, the odds are "Most" in this case means almost all.

    Another quote from the same article http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080305/120477504000.html

    Revenues in the United States and Canada increased 5.4 percent to a record $9.6 billion, with
    • admissions unchanged at 1.4 billion tickets sold,
    and ticket prices 5 percent higher at an average $6.88.
  3. When you shoot yourself in the foot you lose value by Prisoner's+Dilemma · · Score: 3, Informative

    Over all a good article, but could have mentioned other things the content companies are doing which devalue the content they have. Take movies. I used to enjoy going to the movies. Now it easily costs $30 per person (much higher admission and exorbitant charge for food) to be jammed into a theater of inconsiderate people and then herded out as quickly as possible so the next showing can start. While I'm waiting for the movie to start, I'm bombarded with advertising telling me how great of time I'm having or telling me I need to buy something. It's no longer worth it.

    For those that don't know, The studios (content owners) take almost all of the admission revenue and the theaters (content packaging) make their money on concession and other sales. In an effort to squeeze every last cent they can out of the goer (customer) they've lost many customers. To try to subsidize revenue, 'lost' from customers they drove away, they squeeze some more, driving even more away (snowball). How many mega-plexes have you seen closed down. Many drive-ins still offer a good experience for a reasonable price.

    When a customer no longer finds going to the theater worth the cost/hassle, they might wait till it is released on DVD. If they still remember they wanted to see a particular movie they buy the DVD, pop it in their player and are blasted with an advertisement telling them not to steal the DVD they just paid for. They then have to wait through another notices about not copying the movie before waiting through the same notice in another language.

    Do the studios actually believe that bombarding someone, who already paid, with irritating threats and warnings is going to increase the odds they will spend hard earned money the next time they want to see a movie?

    Now it's the next time and wouldbe customer has to decide it they want to
    1. Spend more money, which is harder to come by, to be inundated with advertisements and other baggage, just to have a less enjoyable experience seeing the movie. OR
    2. Download it where they won't have all the other bothers. They may think it's wrong, but it doesn't matter as much to them because the perceived victim (the studio) was trying to take advantage of them and the the RIAA is mean/greedy the way they aggressively go after poor college students

    The more the content provider does to irritate the customer, the more the customer will cease to be a customer.

    I used to be one of the movie business' biggest customers. Now I go hiking, and the Internet gets the blame.