Has Anyone At AT&T Ever Called AT&T Tech Support?

Entertainment Industry Again Says Everyone Else Must Protect Its Business Model

from the please,-please-help-us dept

Tue, Aug 19th 2008 4:25pm — Mike Masnick

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is hosting its annual tech policy conference in Aspen, and given that it's PFF we're talking about, it's chock full of entertainment industry folks without any input from anyone who questions the basic premise that the entertainment industry puts forth: that content creators need to charge for each individual copy of their works. Thus, it should come as no surprise that a panel of entertainment industry lobbyists fell into the usual routine of insisting that everyone else -- mainly ISPs -- be responsible for protecting the entertainment industry's business model.

The reasoning seems to be the same as always: the entertainment industry itself has found it too difficult to come up with a business model (even as those who have escaped the traditional bounds of the industry seem to be figuring it out on their own), and thus others simply must be responsible for propping up the business model. If you put them all on a panel together, of course, they're going to whine and complain that others have to fix their business model for them -- but that doesn't mean it's true. There are plenty of business models that they could embrace on their own, requiring no assistance from others. That they chose not to is their own mistake -- not the fault of companies in a totally separate industry.

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Filed Under: business models, entertainment industry, lobbyists, protection
Companies: progress and freedom foundation

11 Comments

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John Duncan Yoyo, 19 Aug 2008 @ 5:02pm

Well if the entertainment industry is willing to pay for protection they might really get the computer industries attention. Twist my arm and see a half hearted response.
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Jon L (profile), 19 Aug 2008 @ 5:07pm

Never has been an industry of innovation
I've been a part of the film & tv industry for over 10 years, and the innovation and change we've had have always come from outside our business.

Even technical advances like non-linear editing were fought tooth and nail for years (and in some cases, is STILL being fought), and again, were not advances created or moved ahead by business executives.

In terms of using technology to increase worker productivity, it amazes me how far behind and how much change is fought from top to bottom. While we use computers in offices to write things and send emails, we still have very poorly coordinated systems for managing productions and budgets, much less systems that give us new creative tools (and even if we had them, you'd be hard pressed to get people to USE them).

There's a lot of change coming, and it will take a long, long time for it to sink in or be changed from within by the new generations of people creating content with their own rules.

For a business driven by lots of folks who consider themselves "visionaries" it's amazing how short-sighted much of Hollywood really is.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2008 @ 5:30pm

A meeting of the mindless
I'm sure that some of their "ideas" could be mistaken for an article in the Onion.
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miket, 19 Aug 2008 @ 6:10pm

umchecked money and power
I've been in the mobile entertainment industry for nearly 6 years now and I can only say this:

They will keep blaming everyone for changing their industry. ISPs were their first target and easiest. They then went for content developers like us until they smacked into Steve Jobs. They played with that for awhile but then, once realised Apple wasn't kow-towing, decided to start their own music sites. That didn't go too well. Now they're back to the same bullshit blaming ISPs. Money and power. That's all they know. Look where it got the Superpower today?
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idontgetit, 19 Aug 2008 @ 6:38pm

Seriously - wtf ?
Jim Griffin -> Taking music without paying for it may not be "morally voluntary," Griffin says, but he admits it has become "functionally voluntary."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080818-paying-for-music-has-become-functionall y-voluntary.html

A little help here please, what the hell did that guy say ?
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Mike (profile), 19 Aug 2008 @ 7:29pm

Re: Seriously - wtf ?
A little help here please, what the hell did that guy say ?

He's saying that the industry doesn't know how to find its own business model, so it needs a "music tax" to solve the problem.
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Jim A, 19 Aug 2008 @ 7:35pm

You get what you pay for
If the entertainment industry will pay my ISP enough money to filter the illegal traffic AND I get cheaper internet service as a result I am in favor of filtering. They can keep their business model (or at least some of it) and I get cheaper internet.
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idontgetit, 19 Aug 2008 @ 8:30pm

Re: Re: Seriously - wtf ?
Mike -> He's saying that the industry doesn't know how to find its own business model, so it needs a "music tax" to solve the problem.

That's what I thought he was mumbling.
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muffler, 20 Aug 2008 @ 10:07am

Re: umchecked money and power
As they lose money they lose power. It's only time.
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Jim, 20 Aug 2008 @ 1:59pm

Government should protect businesses :-)
Government should protect businesses. To prevent shoplifting the government should pass a law requiring patrons entering any retail establishment to be strip searched and everything they have be inventoried and then strip searched again on exit and any additional items beyond what their inventory list says they carried in must have a receipt. Another alternative would be force every patron to strip and leave their clothing and other items in a secure locker at the store entrance which they can retrieve when they are done shopping. They will of course have to undergo a cavity search upon exit.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2008 @ 5:33pm

Re: Government should protect businesses :-)
Think I'll get a patent on a "Shopping Assistant"
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