I see once again the Slashdotter fails to RTFA.
Since Zero Gravity Football take places on an airplane, Amateur tournaments would not be going to space.
You are referring to the Zero Gravity Sports League, which my company is building. We're also looking to make amateur Zero Gravity Football tournaments happen for those who sign up at http://spacechannel.tv/
How long until DivX is cracked? I rather be a smaller target than DivX. Besides, by going with the DivX DRM we might not be technologically able to allow our videos to be resold. We might use their SDK to add the burn-to-DVD feature though.
With the release of unencrypted video 12-18 months after the encrypted versions, I hope that is a satisfactory solution. I will think on other possible solutions.
Except for the "all you corporate media types" part, I agree with the spirit of everything you said. We are changing the paradigm, I hope, but it will take some patience to get there. We might not have a business to compete with the big media distribution corporations without changing the paradigm, so we have every motivation to do so.
There is a strong reason not to go immediately for what you describe. That is that while some of the videos we will offer is owned completely by IPX Entertainment, others are not. We will have to bring them along slowly, convincing them the business model of what you describe, and what we will offer for our own products, is sound. If we are to grow our video library we will need to address the concerns of content producers.
Based on your input, I am asking the contractors who have built our video player for a new feature. It may be a burn-to-DVD feature, or a localizing feature so the video can be made to work on computers without connecting to the internet, or both. A burn-to-DVD feature however would make it impossible to resell rights on our site. A localizing feature would require connecting to our website once to generate a local key unique to the user. It might require the whole file to be played to localize it. I'll see what my contractors say about this. If this works, I believe it will address the concerns of everyone who has criticized our current process.
The other thing is that we plan to release unencrypted versions of some of our videos 12-18 months later, so those may be copied freely and distributed by other networks on a Creative Commons License. The Reality shows and recordings of Zero Gravity Sports League games will have a short shelf life, so it doesn't make sense to restrict rights indefinitely. We plan to produce some science fiction movies and series, which should have a longer shelf life, so that these might provide a rationale for not releasing those unencrypted. Only the encrypted files will require our custom video player. People can wait for the unencrypted versions 12-18 months later if they don't want to bother with the custom video player.
To create value, as you say, what we will be doing having a customer loyalty program, probably called SpaceMiles. With SpaceMiles you may accumulate points to put towards products like Zero Gravity flights, or discounts on suborbital flights, or other products or services we will offer. SpaceMiles won't be transferable except for charitable causes, or for Team accounts. Team accounts will be able to pool SpaceMiles so these may be redeemed for big ticket items, like a team of players on our Amateur Zero Gravity Football tournaments.
I'm glad you like our plans for credit-for-ads. This is another program to create value for our customers. It is going under the name SpaceDimes. We have had a request from another space entertainment company to allow SpaceDimes to be used on their site. So we will be building SpaceDimes.com to allow for this. This is what has been getting me so excited lately I can't sleep. If you look at the advertiser-entertainment complex, there are two main sides to it. There are the advertisers and the ad networks; and publishers and publishing networks (aka distributers). The audience has the power to ignore ads while enjoying content from publishers. We are changing another paradigm by using SpaceDimes.com to establish an audience network. This will be an opt-in program where we represent the interests of the audience, to earn them SpaceDimes that can be used on any site in our network. We will be extending the concept out of the space industry to the general consumer goods and services market. It might take advertisers a while to accept, but publishers and audience will love it. The general program will go under the name AdDimes, at AdDimes.com. We will have a way to protect against automated credit aggregation.
By the way, I don't consider ourselves as in the business of selling content. We are in the business of creating
I appreciate your concerns. Yes, video players will have to connect to the website prior to playing, every time. If there is a better solution out there that lets you view it without logging on to the internet every time, and protects us from priracy, I'd like to here it so I can tell my tech people. This is the best solution they could work out. But we will be working to improve this in the future.
SpaceChannel.TV will be doing this too. We're rolling out next week a download site (specific to the Space Entertainment, Space Sports, and Science Fiction market) where our programs may be purchased to own. AND -- 6 to 12 months later you'll be able to RESELL your copy through our site. Videos will be encrypted, and you'll have to be online for just a few seconds for our custom video player to grab the decryption key -- after a few seconds you can go offline and continue watching the video.
We're not delivering DVDs, but perhaps we could in the future.
Another thing we're working on: videos are purchased through a credit exchange system. You can purchase credits directly, or watch ads to be given credits by our system. We collect revenue from advertisers whose ads you watch, and pass on the value to you. In the first six months, that value is passed on at par!
As someone entering the online video market, perhaps I can offer a different perspective. Advertisers pay money to content distributers; who make their content available to the public at a subscription or for free. Advertisers are not paying for distribution, but for access to the viewers. Those viewers are customers of both the media companies and the advertisers. Viewers are also like part-time employees of the advertisers, because the viewers are agreeing to view the ads at about $2/hour for 15-18 minutes of commercials, which the media companies collect in exchange for access to their programs. It is a barter system for the viewers, trading their attention to ads for their right to entertainment. It's the world's most efficient barter system.
Slashdot Mirror
I see once again the Slashdotter fails to RTFA. Since Zero Gravity Football take places on an airplane, Amateur tournaments would not be going to space.
You are referring to the Zero Gravity Sports League, which my company is building. We're also looking to make amateur Zero Gravity Football tournaments happen for those who sign up at http://spacechannel.tv/
Only if it has a Firefox extension to let me see it with a different Slashdot style.
How long until DivX is cracked? I rather be a smaller target than DivX. Besides, by going with the DivX DRM we might not be technologically able to allow our videos to be resold. We might use their SDK to add the burn-to-DVD feature though.
With the release of unencrypted video 12-18 months after the encrypted versions, I hope that is a satisfactory solution. I will think on other possible solutions.
Except for the "all you corporate media types" part, I agree with the spirit of everything you said. We are changing the paradigm, I hope, but it will take some patience to get there. We might not have a business to compete with the big media distribution corporations without changing the paradigm, so we have every motivation to do so.
There is a strong reason not to go immediately for what you describe. That is that while some of the videos we will offer is owned completely by IPX Entertainment, others are not. We will have to bring them along slowly, convincing them the business model of what you describe, and what we will offer for our own products, is sound. If we are to grow our video library we will need to address the concerns of content producers.
Based on your input, I am asking the contractors who have built our video player for a new feature. It may be a burn-to-DVD feature, or a localizing feature so the video can be made to work on computers without connecting to the internet, or both. A burn-to-DVD feature however would make it impossible to resell rights on our site. A localizing feature would require connecting to our website once to generate a local key unique to the user. It might require the whole file to be played to localize it. I'll see what my contractors say about this. If this works, I believe it will address the concerns of everyone who has criticized our current process.
The other thing is that we plan to release unencrypted versions of some of our videos 12-18 months later, so those may be copied freely and distributed by other networks on a Creative Commons License. The Reality shows and recordings of Zero Gravity Sports League games will have a short shelf life, so it doesn't make sense to restrict rights indefinitely. We plan to produce some science fiction movies and series, which should have a longer shelf life, so that these might provide a rationale for not releasing those unencrypted. Only the encrypted files will require our custom video player. People can wait for the unencrypted versions 12-18 months later if they don't want to bother with the custom video player.
To create value, as you say, what we will be doing having a customer loyalty program, probably called SpaceMiles. With SpaceMiles you may accumulate points to put towards products like Zero Gravity flights, or discounts on suborbital flights, or other products or services we will offer. SpaceMiles won't be transferable except for charitable causes, or for Team accounts. Team accounts will be able to pool SpaceMiles so these may be redeemed for big ticket items, like a team of players on our Amateur Zero Gravity Football tournaments.
I'm glad you like our plans for credit-for-ads. This is another program to create value for our customers. It is going under the name SpaceDimes. We have had a request from another space entertainment company to allow SpaceDimes to be used on their site. So we will be building SpaceDimes.com to allow for this. This is what has been getting me so excited lately I can't sleep. If you look at the advertiser-entertainment complex, there are two main sides to it. There are the advertisers and the ad networks; and publishers and publishing networks (aka distributers). The audience has the power to ignore ads while enjoying content from publishers. We are changing another paradigm by using SpaceDimes.com to establish an audience network. This will be an opt-in program where we represent the interests of the audience, to earn them SpaceDimes that can be used on any site in our network. We will be extending the concept out of the space industry to the general consumer goods and services market. It might take advertisers a while to accept, but publishers and audience will love it. The general program will go under the name AdDimes, at AdDimes.com. We will have a way to protect against automated credit aggregation.
By the way, I don't consider ourselves as in the business of selling content. We are in the business of creating
I appreciate your concerns. Yes, video players will have to connect to the website prior to playing, every time. If there is a better solution out there that lets you view it without logging on to the internet every time, and protects us from priracy, I'd like to here it so I can tell my tech people. This is the best solution they could work out. But we will be working to improve this in the future.
--
Rocky Persaud
President, IPX Entertainment
http://spacechannel.tv/
SpaceChannel.TV will be doing this too. We're rolling out next week a download site (specific to the Space Entertainment, Space Sports, and Science Fiction market) where our programs may be purchased to own. AND -- 6 to 12 months later you'll be able to RESELL your copy through our site. Videos will be encrypted, and you'll have to be online for just a few seconds for our custom video player to grab the decryption key -- after a few seconds you can go offline and continue watching the video.
We're not delivering DVDs, but perhaps we could in the future.
Another thing we're working on: videos are purchased through a credit exchange system. You can purchase credits directly, or watch ads to be given credits by our system. We collect revenue from advertisers whose ads you watch, and pass on the value to you. In the first six months, that value is passed on at par!
--
Rocky Persaud
President, IPX Entertainment
http://spacechannel.tv/
--
As someone entering the online video market, perhaps I can offer a different perspective. Advertisers pay money to content distributers; who make their content available to the public at a subscription or for free. Advertisers are not paying for distribution, but for access to the viewers. Those viewers are customers of both the media companies and the advertisers. Viewers are also like part-time employees of the advertisers, because the viewers are agreeing to view the ads at about $2/hour for 15-18 minutes of commercials, which the media companies collect in exchange for access to their programs. It is a barter system for the viewers, trading their attention to ads for their right to entertainment. It's the world's most efficient barter system.