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MPAA Plans To Launch Movie Links Site
eldavojohn writes "To combat piracy, the MPAA's latest idea involves a site that would allow users to search for a movie and then provide links to legit legal downloads or ticket purchases for it. Why are they doing this? Because their research showed 'many users have a hard time differentiating between legal and illegal content online.' And all this time I thought people pirated movies because it was cheaper to do! Turns out they were just confused."
Normally, I would pirate a movie because it's free, has no DRM, and is available at any time (even while the movie is still playing in theaters). Then when it came out on DVD or Blu-ray later, I would buy it and give the filmmaker their fair cut (I'm not not looking to rip them off, I just want a copy of the movie to play at home).
But now that the MPAA has given me a chance to pay money to download from a piss-poor selection of movies that are all crippled by DRM, all I can say is "Thank God!" I mean, what I really want is a poor quality copy of a movie that requires me to connect to the internet and get the studio okay every time I watch it, won't let me make copies or share it with friends, and costs just as much as if I went and bought it on DVD (with the added bonus of none of the DVD extra content).
Yep, the MPAA finally gets it!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Yes, because whenever I'm downloading movies, I'm always confused where I should insert the quarters...
As it turns out, the floppy drive isn't such a good idea.
One reason many people commit copyright infringement of movies is because the p2p programs provide a simpler, faster way to find what you're looking for, all from a central location. If this really indexes everything available, and is quick and simple to use, I think it might actually see significant use.
Obviously it won't stop all infringement, but it's a much saner response than suing your customers.
Is it just me being paranoid or have I learned my lesson from the whole MediaSentry debacle?
The ability for MPAA to log your IP and your search query gives them a precise target to look for in whatever data they collect from various filesharing networks (with the help of either MediaSentry or someone else).
I know I am sounding paranoid, but at this point I would not be surprised.
A year ago I was working on a PDA based Media PC controller. I could, from work, on my wifi-enabled PDA, pull up the week's line up for all of my local cable channels, set up reminders, flag shows for recording, change the media PC's channel, start up DVD's, change the volume, etc... on the media PC sitting in my living room.
But what I really wanted was a reliable and LEGAL way to download content. Sure, I'll pay $3 to rent a movie with a 72-hour DRM on it. Heck, I used to pay $3-5 to rent movies off of Charter's on demand system. If a movie is worth watching twice, I'll go buy it, if not, I'll rent it for a night, enjoy the show, and not clutter up my house with yet another DVD that I'm not going to watch. I'm fine with that, so long as it plays with out difficulty, and allows ample time to see the movie. But, at the time, there was no functional way to achieve this.
If this new service offers that opportunity, even if it is just a standardized public listing, I'm all for it. Open up an API and let us integrate it into other systems.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
People don't download copies of movies because they're free, but because they're free.
When you get a download from a P2P network, you get no DRM, no country restriction, no copy restriction, no media restriction, no troubles, no fuss, just a movie.
When you buy a movie, there's a chance that your player won't read it (because it's a DVD-Rom drive instead of a standalone player, which I don't have and don't see any reason to get), a near certainty that you can't put the movie on your server (which makes it much more convenient to play than to search for the DVD every time you want to play it), a good chance that a "foreign" movie gives you some headaches and no chance to put it on your mobile device (and for some odd reason, I don't see the reason to pay twice for content).
Here's your reason for copying. It's convenience, that's all. Care to tell me how I should explain people to pay for something AND have more hassle using it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.