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MPAA Considers Major Changes After Sony Hack
Earthquake Retrofit shares this story about changes that may be coming to the MPAA prompted by the Sony hack. "Fissures revealed by the hacking at Sony Pictures Entertainment have raised the prospect of profound change at one of Hollywood's oldest institutions: the Motion Picture Association of America. In a behind-the-scenes drama, the Sony Pictures chairman, Michael Lynton, last month told industry colleagues of a plan to withdraw from the movie trade organization, according to people who have been briefed on the discussions. He cited the organization’s slow response and lack of public support in the aftermath of the attack on Sony and its film The Interview, as well as longstanding concerns about the cost and efficacy of the group. Reversing course in mid-January, as the Oscar nominations were being announced, Mr. Lynton stayed in. But he and other studio executives are now discussing proposals that could alter the structure, mandate and governance of a 93-year-old organization that has been the policy front for Hollywood’s major film studios."
Disbanding is the only postive change the MPAA could make, IMHO.
Anybody taking bets if this will be good or bad for the customers and what are the odds? I am going for 1000:1.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Have you folks read TFA and seen the annuals fees due the MPAA by it's members? I am stunned. What value does the MPAA possibly offer that could come anywhere close to commanding such regal sums annually?
From the sound of it Sony wants a Meaner and leaner attack dog that does more damage and costs less.
You want to make a small fortune in Hollywood start with a large one.
I was, of course, talking from my own point of view. I am not talking better DRM, I am talking about getting rid of some corporate idiocy. We are all drowning in it.
Insiders are reporting a shift in the hierarchy are being proposed such as allowing Satan to step down as CEO and having a board of directors take his place with possible suggested applicants being Lucifer, called the Lord of Light by some for his personality and ability mediate conflicts effectively, Babylon The Great Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth...a possibly good PR move to appeal to women in the field and a relative newcomer named Nyarlathotep who is unknown in many circles and seen as charismatic Middle-Eastern troubleshooter that "gets things done with everybody happy".
Well I agree about too much corporate and idiocy in general. I just wouldn't hold my breath on this guy. Just how did he expect the MPAA to come to his aid when his company was too stupid to properly secure it's network ? Strikes me as someone who is adept at blaming others for their mistakes.
We already have enough DRM, region coding, forced commercials on our blu-rays and DVD's, etc. to annoy our OWN customers. Why do we need the MPAA harassing them too, when we do it so well already?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
If I was Sony I would be splitting the company into 3 pieces, one for the movie and music operations, one for the consumer electronics division (Bravia TVs, CyberShot & Alpha cameras etc etc) and one for the PlayStation division and their video games empire.
A 3-way split means the consumer electronics division will no longer be restricted by the need to not do anything that would piss off the guys over in the content creation division. Also people who hate Sony and refuse to buy their products due to the crap their content creation division does (come on, they made & sold a whole pile of audio CDs that installed malware on basically any Windows PC you put the disk into) would be able to buy from the (presumably no longer super-evil) stand-alone consumer electronics company knowing they aren't supporting the super-evil content creation part of the company.
From the sound of it Sony wants a Meaner and leaner attack dog that does more damage and costs less.
I fear that you are correct. The only possible bright spot would be if Sony realized (bear with me here, this is purely hypothetical, not a prediction) that an attack dog that spends all its time throwing lawyers at the next advance in content distribution(in the fine Valenti tradition of accusing the VCR of being the Boston Strangler of the film industry) is actually not as useful as an attack dog that doesn't roll over and wag its tail the moment some rag-tag band of competent but not extraordinary hackers make one of the world's larger movie publishers cry, in public, for weeks on end, with effectively no response from anyone else in the industry.
I doubt that they'll actually do this; but if they decide that the MPAA is better used to protect them from real threats, then even a toothier version of it might actually be good, or at least indifferent. I'm not holding my breath, though.
I always thought that Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures and CBS Records were long-term colossal mistakes.
Old Sony: made cool stuff, fought tooth and nail for consumer rights (example: the Betamax case that went to the Supreme Court).
New Sony: all about DRM and lock-in, fights tooth and nail against consumer rights.
I liked the old Sony better.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
They're not saying this in terms of wide-open streaming of back catalogs and less obsession with DRM.
When they give back what was stolen from me.
Right, and I want a Unicorn, but thankfully we can't have all the things we want.
Except they don't want to "protect their rights". They want to steal ours.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I wonder how many young starlets were convinced they would be up-and-coming if they would get with a senator and be up-and-cumming?
They can't do that. The electronics side has only lost money for years (at least $8.5 billion lost over 10 years). I'm not sure if that includes the Playstation brand.
Film and music has brought in about $7 billion in earnings.
And the life insurance arm (that's right, Sony Life) brought in over $9.07 billion in that time. Life insurance represented 63% of their operating profit last year (2012 or 2013, I'm not sure).
So they need to shed electronics completely, it has proven, over a reasonable time period, to be a consistent way to lose money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05...
BlameBillCosby.com
My 2003 Sony plasma (still doing fine, thanks) is the last Sony product I've bought. If they're losing money, it's in part due to engineering mistakes (investing in plasma over LED) but also in part due to the film and music arm (makes my hate the company).
They need to get the hardware arm lean and mean and profitable and spin it if off. Actually I'd keep the Sony name on the hardware and gaming arm and spin off film and music and insurance. If I owned the company. Which I don't, not even slightly, because they suck and I don't want their stock in my portfolio.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
So they need to shed electronics completely, it has proven, over a reasonable time period, to be a consistent way to lose money.
Only after they began consistently shitting on what was once a respectable brand. The alternative, which I'll admit would be a loss for several years before people caught on and started buying again, would be to stop shitting on their own brand and start producing best-in-class products like they used to. Sony needn't be a brand for everyone; what they sell as high-end now should become their entry-level gear and they should start producing real high-end gear again.
I hate to say it, because I love my country, but catering to the American economy has ruined a once-great Japanese company.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
From the sound of it Sony wants a Meaner and leaner attack dog that does more damage and costs less.
Yeah, so they can ensure they stop all those evil pirates from streaming The Interview at home before it hits theatre...oh, Sony did what?!?
(Yeah, kind of a bitch to take that hypocritical stance now that Sony themselves have set precedent with first-run screenings, regardless of the reason.)
That's not a hypocritical stance. Their stance has always been that the movie owners dictate when and how movies are distributed. If they want to put it up on streaming before or during a theatrical release, it's entirely their choice and doesn't smack of hypocrisy.
Can we get some new ones where violence is bad and love is good?
Also people who hate Sony and refuse to buy their products due to the crap their content creation division does [..] would be able to buy from the [..] stand-alone consumer electronics company
Sorry to break this to you, and I've said it before, but too many people on Slashdot frequently make one (or both) of two mistakes; either:-
- Assuming that because a view is common- and oft-repeated- here (e.g. dislike of the Sony rootkit malware) that it's more representative of public opinion in general than it actually is, or
- Assuming that the Slashdot/geek-type demographic that holds those views holds more weight and is much larger than it is in reality.
Like it or not, I suspect that the vast majority of people don't care (and have never cared) about the Sony rootkit fiasco. They bloody ought to have, but I don't see any sign that this is the case.
This is why, for every geek that says (e.g.) "I'd buy a PSP (or whatever) if it wasn't locked down" is missing the point. It's not a niche product for nerds, and it never was. Locking it down lets Sony sell more overpriced content to vastly more people than any extra hardware sales to a small number of geeks would.
Plus, the fact that half those "principled" geeks complain on Slashdot, but when push comes to shove hand over their money anyway (rather than forego the latest shiny tech or game) makes their views even less significant- Sony doesn't care as long as it's got your money.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).