Hollywood To Waste $30 Million Believing It Can Build Better Copy Protection
from the good-luck-with-that dept
For years, Hollywood folks have claimed that the tech industry is working against them, building all of these new technologies like music players, digital video recorders and file sharing networks that they believe are designed to destroy their business. What they've failed to realize is that these aren't attempts to destroy Hollywood at all, but to rejuvenate it by making it easier for people to consume content in the way that they most enjoy. It's why almost every entertainment technology invention has ended up helping, not hurting, the industry -- even as the industry tried to stop each and every one (examples: player pianos, radio and the VCR). However, since the entertainment folks swear that techies are working against them, they've decided to take the tech into their own hands. The six leading Hollywood studios are setting up "MovieLabs" a research consortium designed to create all this anti-copying technology that all of us techies have been hiding from the entertainment industry all this time. Apparently, our devious plan to not tell the industry how to stop copying will be foiled now! Not that they're going to figure this out for quite some time, but the simple fact is that some amount of copying is going to happen no matter what. Technology can not, and will not, stop it. Any attempt to do so is a waste of money (in this case, $30 million for the first two years). The industry would be much better off taking that $30 million and spending it on creative new ways to embrace what people are doing with their content. Of course, for the movie industry, $30 million is a tiny fraction of a bad movie -- so they'll just let it go to waste on this new project and not think too much about it.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Region Coding #2
Translation: "Delay or prevent Europeans from watching American programs". We're still waiting to see the final season of Angel on network TV over here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Region Coding #2
December next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast. I doubt it will survive a second hundred years, killed by greed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe Hollywood ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They just don't get it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hmm??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
Nobody forces you to consume TV programs, radio broadcasts, or any other traditional media out there.
There is enough technology floating around that people will get fed up with the prices, ads, and lack of quality and turn towards podcasts, fan-made movies (special effects are getting better all the time), and music from bands that don't have record company contracts.
Then there's always going to see a plays and operas, visiting a museum or even picking up a good book.
The airwaves are techincally a public resource, but until the public gets off their lazy butts and demands Congress and the FCC regulate it as such instead of turning it into one giant
pay-per-view tollbooth for the broadcast spectrum then you will continue to pay and pay for mediocre quality programming jam-packed with ads.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I can't wait . . .
Wanna take bets how long before it's busted?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Copy Restriction
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Copy Restriction
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Obvious flaw.
Person hooks perfect digital audio ouput to the input of a audio recording program, rips everything and .mp3's it.
Hmm.
Example 2: Person uses a program similar to fraps to create a 1:1 fullscreen copy of a film, at perfect quality with perfect sound.
Hmm.
Owned?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]