It should come as no surprise that the NY Times, who's principle readers are retired or elderly, would print an article bashing how dirty, sinful, and dangerous the internet is. It's stories like that that elderly people use to justify not learning how to use email, "That internet thing . . . it's all just porn, spam and scams."
Human nature just dictates that people will always like sex, advertisers will always cram ads down our throats, and criminals will commit crimes, no matter what the medium is.
I think "ahead of it's time, kick-ass, console gaming system from Atari that no one bought, forcing Atari out of the hardware business", but that's just me.
Software today, CDs and DVDs tomorrow . . .
on
CD Copy Stopper
·
· Score: 2
Damn, as if CD prices weren't high enough already, just think what they'll be if record companies start using this type of protection. The RIAA us just dumb enought to do it. If they use this protection for DVDs, we might see DVD movies actually cost more than their repective soundtrack CD.
The BSA says the industry lost something like $10 billion. Now, just because I (hypothetically) download Photoshop, doesn't mean I was going to pay for it but decided to download it instead. I would never have paid the $600+, (I just would have gone without, or used GIMP) so Adobe didn't really lose anything. They just didn't gain anything.
And my other point...
Some companies have benefitted from piracy in some ways. Because of the warez community we've got is a bunch of kids running around who are really, really, good with Photoshop, Flash, or Coldfusion.(maybe too good). That has to bode well for Adobe and Macromedia, because when they become adults in the workplace they will continue to use these products.
Sony has figured out a way to give us our fair use. We've always complained that we wanted to be able to rip mp3s so we can listen using CDRs in the car. Now we can rip straigh to the hard drive. It makes no sense for them though. Just think, the next time you are at a friends house and they just got a new CD, you can say "Hey lets go out to my car so I can rip myself a copy". Sure, it's acopy that you can't bring inside with you or give to anyone else, but you can still make a copy of your friends cd. Very strange. I would just like to see these companies make more cd players that play MP3s off CD-Rs. Unfortunately that will probably cease since they don't want to promote MP3 and all.
DVD Movie: usually over 3 hours of audio and video The movie itself (widescreen and fullscreen) The movie with a directors commentary Isolated score Trailers Deleted scenes Outtakes Music videos "The Making Of" Featurettes and Documentaries Actor bios Production photos and notes DVD-Rom material for your computer
Music CD: usually 30-50 minutes of audio only 8-15 Songs Sometimes some multimedia to view in your computer Sometimes will not play in your computer at all
So many people are just ripping into him because he's Jon Katz, that they are missing the point. You are here, reading slashdot because of the media issues he points out. By reading slashdot you are already agreeing with him. Why arent you reading CNN.com right now? Because if it's not on slashdot, then we don't need to know. If Jon Katz can be accused of anything, it's that he's preaching to the choir. It's a nice article nonetheless. He raises some great points that have been bothering me lately. Poor little rich girl . . .
What happened to those people who shelled out $100 at the beginning of WIndows 95s life.
They had to cough up another $100 for Win98, and then another for WinMe and then another for XP, so they can use new software.
They released OS after OS cutting off their user base for years, and now they're the biggest company in the world. We've heard this all before. And it worked beautifully the first time. But this time there is an alternative.
Once the software my company uses wouldn't allow access to my homepage hosted by adaptive.net. I emailed the dept and told them what the site was, and they emailed me back saying that it was blocked because the host hosts a lot of porn sites. He was able to change the settings so it allowed me access. No problem. Dont' forget, the admins are geeks just like us, and if they knew about it blocking sourceforge they would probably change it if they could.
An example.
I'm fairly sure that record companies make the majority of their profits from record sales, while in contrast, the artists make the majority of thier profit from touring ticket sales.
With that in mind let's assume: Artist 1: Madonna(non-techie users): Sells 1,000,000 albums and has 1000 songs per week downloaded on Kazaa. She is very profitable to her record company. Artist 2: College Indie Rock Band(techie users): Sells only 50,000 albums and has 5000 songs per week downloaded on Kazaa. They are able to make a reasonably good amount of money touring. However, they are not as profitable to the record company yet obviously more popular. The record company wants $ so they drop the College Indie Rock Band to pour more money into Madonna's next album. That is why the model is not good for (new) artists. Somebody needs to track who is getting downloaded and how much, so the bands who head that list will actually be considered the most popular. Then the record companies have to find a way to make them profitable (for instance, like Korn who is releasing a DVD).
Its scary to think that VHS might be phased out before a cheap/easy alternative way to record tv shows is available. You can't record the Sopranos for your no-cable tv cheapskate parents without VHS. I assume that eventually TV DVD players will also record but even that will probably be a write-once format, so it will mean no more using the same tape to record Friends every week. You'll need a new disc every time. Anyway I think that is why they will be selling VCRs for along time. Plus, everybody's wedding is on VHS.
Your point makes me wonder if Time Warner will do the same with their RoadRunner, which I use. Time Warner is one of those media companies who wants us to stream movie trailers and music. Or have you ever noticed how many streaming videos there are of news reports on CNN.com? I tend to think that they want people to be able to access these types of media as much as possible. It creates a conflict between the companies that make the media and the companies who deliver it. In the case of Time Warner, they do both, which is why everybody hates them. But ironically in this case it could turn out better for the consumer. AT&T doesn't give a rats ass about what's getting transmitted. All they know is that's it's costing them more to transmit it, so they rape the consumer.
Here on slashdot a while back there was an interview posted with the founder of fightcloud.com, who had some interesting things to say about XM vs Sirius. Sure, it's just one's guys opinion, but he seems to have done his homework. Here were his quotes from the interview:
Q: Is the Net going to change radio at all do you think?
A: No, not yet. Not for a long time [because of the legal issues]. Greed is choking the Internet right now. It's definitely territorial. . . . The artists are greedy, they want their cut off the Internet, the record labels are greedy . . . . Everybody is so greedy that nobody can work on the Internet so there is going to be no radio on the Net, not even Internet radio stations. They all are going to start playing more independent. It's going to favor the independent artist; the unsigned artist really is who people are turning to because the unsigned artist isn't going to sue anybody.
They want the exposure, so is the Internet going to change anything for a while? No. There are so many court battles that need to be fought that haven't even been thought of yet. The only Internet radio I like listening to is Christian pirate radio. It's aggressive, it's all new bands that nobody ever heard of. Its great rock, great pop.
Another prediction is the success of satellite radio. The satellite radio companies that I invested in like two years ago are going to come sneaking up and they're just going to level local radio. Local radio will go under. . . . I'll pay $10 for commercial-free guaranteed. You start doing that and what is your local sponsors going to be saying? Why should I advertise on your radio when they're not even listening to you? They're listening to satellites, commercial-free; they're paying $10. When those numbers go up, so [does] XM Satellite Radio stock value, which Clear Channel has its fingers in. They own a big chunk of XM because they know better.
Q: Is that something that you're invested in as well?
A: Oh yes. Yes, I invested in it as soon as I heard about it. . . . When satellite radio kicks . . . there's going to be no more syndication. You put a talent like Howard Stern in the XM building and boom, he's syndicated instantly. All satellite shows are considered instant syndication. It's going to be like having cable TV in your car.
You're going to have so many selections. A&E has its own channel; Home Shopping Network probably has its own channel. There are 50 channels of music and 50 channels of news and entertainment. They're going to be able to fine-tune exactly what you want. If I want to listen to Hollywood gossip there's going to be one channel just for Hollywood news. If I want to just hear about the planet, there might be a Nova channel. Local radio is nowhere near that level. I don't know if you spend much time in Los Angeles, but we have some of the worst radio in the United States. . . . XM and Sirius are going to be really good if they play their cards right and Clear Channel is very smart for being apart of that.
Q: Do you see XM as the winner, as opposed to Sirius?
A: Yes and two reasons. Sirius had a lead when they first started with Cosby backing them and they were at the top of Rockefeller Center and they had three satellites instead of XM's two. The tables turned when Sirius wasn't ready to launch on schedule. The car dealers weren't ready for them and Sirius announced they had to up their rates past $10 before they even launched. XM launched before them and XM now is running commercials full time and XM has the lead. If you look at their stock, Sirius is at $5 a share and XM is at twice that. There's an interesting battle going on; XM would love to beat out Sirius before they can even get off the ground. You always see the David Bowie falling through the roof or B.B. King falling through the roof, those commercials. They're going hard. I see it being a huge thing; I see it being in every car and every radio in the next three years.
Once I was downloading the Scorpion King, and as usual I previewed it a couple of times during the download to make sure it was legit. Well, after I downloaded the whole thing, I looked at it, and it turned out to be just the trailer for the Scorpion King looping like 25 times. Much like pop music, those cheesy movies pretty much look the same all the way through so even if you previewed it in the middle of the movie/song you wouldn't know the difference.I never did get to see that movie but I heard that it's just a looping of the Rock doing the eyebrow thing.
Slashdot Mirror
It should come as no surprise that the NY Times, who's principle readers are retired or elderly, would print an article bashing how dirty, sinful, and dangerous the internet is. It's stories like that that elderly people use to justify not learning how to use email, "That internet thing . . . it's all just porn, spam and scams."
Human nature just dictates that people will always like sex, advertisers will always cram ads down our throats, and criminals will commit crimes, no matter what the medium is.
How many reviews of this do we need in a 24 hour period?
I think "ahead of it's time, kick-ass, console gaming system from Atari that no one bought, forcing Atari out of the hardware business", but that's just me.
Damn, as if CD prices weren't high enough already, just think what they'll be if record companies start using this type of protection. The RIAA us just dumb enought to do it. If they use this protection for DVDs, we might see DVD movies actually cost more than their repective soundtrack CD.
"I would go for one of those nipple things ..."
Actually, if you are going to be on a boat for a long period of time you might want to bring a pair of those nipple things.
Remember Armageddon? We'll just send Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck back up there. Only this time we'll make sure they both blow up with the asteroid.
The logo on the JPEG homepage is actually a gif.
iWant to iGet iMyself iOne of iThose iNew 17" iMacs.
I'll take a piece of duct tape and tape it to the screen just so it covers the bottom 1/4 where the ads are. So there.
The following is the obligatory flame:
That's wal-mart.com, not Wal-Mart, the store.
The BSA says the industry lost something like $10 billion. Now, just because I (hypothetically) download Photoshop, doesn't mean I was going to pay for it but decided to download it instead. I would never have paid the $600+, (I just would have gone without, or used GIMP) so Adobe didn't really lose anything. They just didn't gain anything.
And my other point...
Some companies have benefitted from piracy in some ways. Because of the warez community we've got is a bunch of kids running around who are really, really, good with Photoshop, Flash, or Coldfusion.(maybe too good). That has to bode well for Adobe and Macromedia, because when they become adults in the workplace they will continue to use these products.
Sony has figured out a way to give us our fair use. We've always complained that we wanted to be able to rip mp3s so we can listen using CDRs in the car. Now we can rip straigh to the hard drive. It makes no sense for them though. Just think, the next time you are at a friends house and they just got a new CD, you can say "Hey lets go out to my car so I can rip myself a copy". Sure, it's acopy that you can't bring inside with you or give to anyone else, but you can still make a copy of your friends cd. Very strange. I would just like to see these companies make more cd players that play MP3s off CD-Rs. Unfortunately that will probably cease since they don't want to promote MP3 and all.
DVD Movie: usually over 3 hours of audio and video
The movie itself (widescreen and fullscreen)
The movie with a directors commentary
Isolated score
Trailers
Deleted scenes
Outtakes
Music videos
"The Making Of" Featurettes and Documentaries
Actor bios
Production photos and notes
DVD-Rom material for your computer
Music CD: usually 30-50 minutes of audio only
8-15 Songs
Sometimes some multimedia to view in your computer
Sometimes will not play in your computer at all
The American consumer isn't that dumb.
CCs are designed for adults returning to college. You might find that most CC profs are your age and so they will be easy to talk to and learn from.
So many people are just ripping into him because he's Jon Katz, that they are missing the point. You are here, reading slashdot because of the media issues he points out. By reading slashdot you are already agreeing with him. Why arent you reading CNN.com right now? Because if it's not on slashdot, then we don't need to know. If Jon Katz can be accused of anything, it's that he's preaching to the choir. It's a nice article nonetheless. He raises some great points that have been bothering me lately. Poor little rich girl . . .
What happened to those people who shelled out $100 at the beginning of WIndows 95s life.
They had to cough up another $100 for Win98, and then another for WinMe and then another for XP, so they can use new software.
They released OS after OS cutting off their user base for years, and now they're the biggest company in the world. We've heard this all before. And it worked beautifully the first time. But this time there is an alternative.
Once the software my company uses wouldn't allow access to my homepage hosted by adaptive.net. I emailed the dept and told them what the site was, and they emailed me back saying that it was blocked because the host hosts a lot of porn sites. He was able to change the settings so it allowed me access. No problem. Dont' forget, the admins are geeks just like us, and if they knew about it blocking sourceforge they would probably change it if they could.
An example.
I'm fairly sure that record companies make the majority of their profits from record sales, while in contrast, the artists make the majority of thier profit from touring ticket sales.
With that in mind let's assume:
Artist 1: Madonna(non-techie users): Sells 1,000,000 albums and has 1000 songs per week downloaded on Kazaa. She is very profitable to her record company.
Artist 2: College Indie Rock Band(techie users): Sells only 50,000 albums and has 5000 songs per week downloaded on Kazaa. They are able to make a reasonably good amount of money touring. However, they are not as profitable to the record company yet obviously more popular.
The record company wants $ so they drop the College Indie Rock Band to pour more money into Madonna's next album. That is why the model is not good for (new) artists. Somebody needs to track who is getting downloaded and how much, so the bands who head that list will actually be considered the most popular. Then the record companies have to find a way to make them profitable (for instance, like Korn who is releasing a DVD).
Its scary to think that VHS might be phased out before a cheap/easy alternative way to record tv shows is available. You can't record the Sopranos for your no-cable tv cheapskate parents without VHS. I assume that eventually TV DVD players will also record but even that will probably be a write-once format, so it will mean no more using the same tape to record Friends every week. You'll need a new disc every time. Anyway I think that is why they will be selling VCRs for along time. Plus, everybody's wedding is on VHS.
They will have to change the name to not-so-perm-afrost.
Your point makes me wonder if Time Warner will do the same with their RoadRunner, which I use. Time Warner is one of those media companies who wants us to stream movie trailers and music. Or have you ever noticed how many streaming videos there are of news reports on CNN.com? I tend to think that they want people to be able to access these types of media as much as possible. It creates a conflict between the companies that make the media and the companies who deliver it. In the case of Time Warner, they do both, which is why everybody hates them. But ironically in this case it could turn out better for the consumer. AT&T doesn't give a rats ass about what's getting transmitted. All they know is that's it's costing them more to transmit it, so they rape the consumer.
How much is it to get a direct T1 to my house? Try to cap that!
Here on slashdot a while back there was an interview posted with the founder of fightcloud.com, who had some interesting things to say about XM vs Sirius. Sure, it's just one's guys opinion, but he seems to have done his homework. Here were his quotes from the interview:
Q: Is the Net going to change radio at all do you think?
A: No, not yet. Not for a long time [because of the legal issues]. Greed is choking the Internet right now. It's definitely territorial. . . . The artists are greedy, they want their cut off the Internet, the record labels are greedy . . . . Everybody is so greedy that nobody can work on the Internet so there is going to be no radio on the Net, not even Internet radio stations. They all are going to start playing more independent. It's going to favor the independent artist; the unsigned artist really is who people are turning to because the unsigned artist isn't going to sue anybody.
They want the exposure, so is the Internet going to change anything for a while? No. There are so many court battles that need to be fought that haven't even been thought of yet. The only Internet radio I like listening to is Christian pirate radio. It's aggressive, it's all new bands that nobody ever heard of. Its great rock, great pop.
Another prediction is the success of satellite radio. The satellite radio companies that I invested in like two years ago are going to come sneaking up and they're just going to level local radio. Local radio will go under. . . . I'll pay $10 for commercial-free guaranteed. You start doing that and what is your local sponsors going to be saying? Why should I advertise on your radio when they're not even listening to you? They're listening to satellites, commercial-free; they're paying $10. When those numbers go up, so [does] XM Satellite Radio stock value, which Clear Channel has its fingers in. They own a big chunk of XM because they know better.
Q: Is that something that you're invested in as well?
A: Oh yes. Yes, I invested in it as soon as I heard about it. . . . When satellite radio kicks . . . there's going to be no more syndication. You put a talent like Howard Stern in the XM building and boom, he's syndicated instantly. All satellite shows are considered instant syndication. It's going to be like having cable TV in your car.
You're going to have so many selections. A&E has its own channel; Home Shopping Network probably has its own channel. There are 50 channels of music and 50 channels of news and entertainment. They're going to be able to fine-tune exactly what you want. If I want to listen to Hollywood gossip there's going to be one channel just for Hollywood news. If I want to just hear about the planet, there might be a Nova channel. Local radio is nowhere near that level. I don't know if you spend much time in Los Angeles, but we have some of the worst radio in the United States. . . . XM and Sirius are going to be really good if they play their cards right and Clear Channel is very smart for being apart of that.
Q: Do you see XM as the winner, as opposed to Sirius?
A: Yes and two reasons. Sirius had a lead when they first started with Cosby backing them and they were at the top of Rockefeller Center and they had three satellites instead of XM's two. The tables turned when Sirius wasn't ready to launch on schedule. The car dealers weren't ready for them and Sirius announced they had to up their rates past $10 before they even launched. XM launched before them and XM now is running commercials full time and XM has the lead. If you look at their stock, Sirius is at $5 a share and XM is at twice that. There's an interesting battle going on; XM would love to beat out Sirius before they can even get off the ground. You always see the David Bowie falling through the roof or B.B. King falling through the roof, those commercials. They're going hard. I see it being a huge thing; I see it being in every car and every radio in the next three years.
Once I was downloading the Scorpion King, and as usual I previewed it a couple of times during the download to make sure it was legit. Well, after I downloaded the whole thing, I looked at it, and it turned out to be just the trailer for the Scorpion King looping like 25 times. Much like pop music, those cheesy movies pretty much look the same all the way through so even if you previewed it in the middle of the movie/song you wouldn't know the difference.I never did get to see that movie but I heard that it's just a looping of the Rock doing the eyebrow thing.
Jon Katz makes a few cents everytime someone clicks on that link he put in the story. Slick bastard. He probably made $50 already.