I agree completely. 90% of Florida is within 100 feet of sea level, and the more Hurricanes come up the gulf, the more that will flood out SE Texas. Perhaps evolution works more subtly than we usually suppose!
"Company's who wish to provide Hi-Def content to PCs won't want to do it if it gets stolen/copied easily. With a secure copy-protection mechanism, far more companies will be willing to offer content."
Last I checked, Hi-Def is really not that much better except for a few select movies. And there is so much content already floating around out there, both legal and illegal - what makes you think that if the ability to copy it was truly restricted, there would be this vast flowering of fresh output of quality content?
"This will create a large marketplace with lots of competition because it won't be just the big companies that can swallow the piracy loss entering the market."
Assuming that the ENITRE world goes along with the plan to spend loads of money on cripple-ware, your statement still is senseless. I work with people who make small, independent films (we're talking budget less than $50,000) - and they LOVE to let the film loose in the world, have it spread around friends, copied, downloaded, etc., because that is the only way they will bring attention to themselves, and perhaps get a real budget to make a real film. This "piracy loss" concept is the biggest load of horsehockey ever invented. What makes you think that anyone would pay a CENT for most of the entertainment out there today? T.V.? Remember that? Free? The movie theaters raised a hue-and-cry about that one; 60 years later, they are still making movies and money. VCR's? TV execs made a stink about them, too. Yet I turn on a TV 30 years later and there are still new shows being made! Amazing! "Piracy Loss" MIGHT make sense in the context of "must-have" business software, but in entertainment, in our content/entertainment saturated world? Get real.
"So your choice isn't really between viewing this hi-def content as you wish or viewing it on a secure setup. It's a choice between content or no content."
Uh, no. See previous. The content will get out one way or another. Visit southern China someday and see how seriously they take copyrights. Good luck on your sales pitch to them.
"Wouldn't you rather have at least the option of content that you wouldn't normally have?"
Maybe it's because I'm old, but the content that I want is usually not released on DVD because the market for it is too small, so they figure it's not worth the cost. I like a lot of small movies, old movies, and other things that would make the present rights-holders of that content little money. So, they keep it in a vault somewhere and let it decay, rather than let the world have it for free. I don't think it's going to increase in value over time. The things that tend to get pirated the most (and make the studios the most money) are the latest Bruce Willis/Batman battles the Nosegoober/etc. type films. I don't think the costs of this will suddenly make studios say, Hey! Let's release all these old films now! I'm sure we can make money now because nobody's going to pirate them!
"So please, stop crying that Microsoft is out to get you and that they're infringing on some rights you think you have. Since when did the consumer of a service have the right to dictate how the company in question provides the service? You either use the service, or you don't... if it sucks and nobody uses it, the company will change the service or go out of business. Simple as that."
So simple! Ah yes, in your little world, if oil triples in price, the world will stop using oil! Simple as that! If people drive cars that occasionally stick a steering shaft through their chests in accidents, eventually, people will stop buying that type of car, and the company will go out of business! Simple!
Where is it written that the only two rights consumers have is to buy or not to buy? Oh right, since we became CONSUMERS instead of CITIZENS. Well, before this transformation, CITIZENS used to object to companies foisting products that did not do what they advertised
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I agree completely. 90% of Florida is within 100 feet of sea level, and the more Hurricanes come up the gulf, the more that will flood out SE Texas. Perhaps evolution works more subtly than we usually suppose!
You haven't observed history much, have you?
"Company's who wish to provide Hi-Def content to PCs won't want to do it if it gets stolen/copied easily. With a secure copy-protection mechanism, far more companies will be willing to offer content."
Last I checked, Hi-Def is really not that much better except for a few select movies. And there is so much content already floating around out there, both legal and illegal - what makes you think that if the ability to copy it was truly restricted, there would be this vast flowering of fresh output of quality content?
"This will create a large marketplace with lots of competition because it won't be just the big companies that can swallow the piracy loss entering the market."
Assuming that the ENITRE world goes along with the plan to spend loads of money on cripple-ware, your statement still is senseless. I work with people who make small, independent films (we're talking budget less than $50,000) - and they LOVE to let the film loose in the world, have it spread around friends, copied, downloaded, etc., because that is the only way they will bring attention to themselves, and perhaps get a real budget to make a real film. This "piracy loss" concept is the biggest load of horsehockey ever invented. What makes you think that anyone would pay a CENT for most of the entertainment
out there today? T.V.? Remember that? Free? The movie theaters raised a hue-and-cry about that one; 60 years later, they are still making movies and money. VCR's? TV execs made a stink about them, too. Yet I turn on a TV 30 years later and there are still new shows being made! Amazing! "Piracy Loss" MIGHT make sense in the context of "must-have" business software, but in entertainment, in our content/entertainment saturated world? Get real.
"So your choice isn't really between viewing this hi-def content as you wish or viewing it on a secure setup. It's a choice between content or no content."
Uh, no. See previous. The content will get out one way or another. Visit southern China someday and see how seriously they take copyrights. Good luck on your sales pitch to them.
"Wouldn't you rather have at least the option of content that you wouldn't normally have?"
Maybe it's because I'm old, but the content that I want is usually not released on DVD because the market for it is too small, so they figure it's not worth the cost. I like a lot of small movies, old movies, and other things that would make the present rights-holders of that content little money. So, they keep it in a vault somewhere and let it decay, rather than let the world have it for free. I don't think it's going to increase in value over time. The things that tend to get pirated the most (and make the studios the most money) are the latest Bruce Willis/Batman battles the Nosegoober/etc. type films. I don't think the costs of this will suddenly make studios say, Hey! Let's release all these old films now! I'm sure we can make money now because nobody's going to pirate them!
"So please, stop crying that Microsoft is out to get you and that they're infringing on some rights you think you have. Since when did the consumer of a service have the right to dictate how the company in question provides the service? You either use the service, or you don't... if it sucks and nobody uses it, the company will change the service or go out of business. Simple as that."
So simple! Ah yes, in your little world, if oil triples in price, the world will stop using oil! Simple as that! If people drive cars that occasionally stick a steering shaft through their chests in accidents, eventually, people will stop buying that type of car, and the company will go out of business! Simple!
Where is it written that the only two rights consumers have is to buy or not to buy? Oh right, since we became CONSUMERS instead of CITIZENS. Well, before this transformation, CITIZENS used to object to companies foisting products that did not do what they advertised