[kwlug-disc] Yesterday in C-32 news

[Johnny Ferguson]

On 11/04/2010 04:29 PM, Paul Nijjar wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 08:24:24AM -0700, Raul Suarez wrote:
>> --- On Thu, 11/4/10, Paul Nijjar<paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca>  wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks, big media! Thanks, Internet pirates!
>>
>
>> Blaming this on the illegal content sharing/commerce is aikin to
>> supporting the abolition of cash because some thugs rob cash from
>> banks.
>
> I completely disagree on both counts. Firstly, cash is becoming
> illegal (e.g. with passport applications).
>
> Secondly, pirating is a huge problem -- you know people who download
> TV and movies and music and so do I and so does everybody else on this
> list. Now we are paying the price.

I would happily pay for media if companies made it of sufficient 
quality, and weren't cancelling shows just as they started to get good. 
I'll pay $5 for every episode of a show provided I get to keep a copy 
indefinitely, and it's in a non-restricted format. I'll even agree to 
respect their copyright, and not redistribute the file.

A show that recently got cancelled had "1.2 million viewers". This is 
only counting people who watch on cable. If all of them paid 5 dollars 
per episode, they'd have 6 million dollars to make and distribute each 
episode. This isn't even counting the $5 you could get from all the 
viewers who are simply pirating out of convenience.

These companies want us to follow their outdated business model, when 
better methods are clearly available, so I have no qualms about not 
paying for them to take plots with amazing potential and drive them into 
the ground because they're 20 years in the past with no real metric for 
determining the real interest generated by a show.

I'll pay for a show that's good, but I don't care to pay $20-40/mo. for 
the chance that there might be a good show, and to be insulted by really 
uninspired advertising almost non-stop.

>
> Yes, Big Media is using piracy as a smokescreen to snuff out
> competition that would keep them honest. But let's not minimize the
> contribution of our casual approach to media that was produced and
> paid for by others, and then obtained without consent.
>
> This will do nothing to stop those pirates, and everything to stop
> people who are trying to redistribute open-source multimedia
> applications openly.

I don't think blaming pirates is the answer. I think blaming politicians 
who are unable to understand what they're talking about is a more 
reasonable course.

I think what the internet has done is turned media into a good (albeit a 
good that can replicate itself endlessly). It's up to the companies that 
distribute it to turn it into a service that's worth paying for (i.e. I 
can have a 1080p version of the latest episode as soon as it comes out 
over a rock-solid http connection).

The web is only a problem for big media because they're too stupid to 
realize its potential.

>
> - Paul
>