Hollywood Threatens To Stop Selling DVDs In Spain In A Push To Increase Unauthorized File Sharing?

from the confused dept

Thu, Apr 1st 2010 1:13pm — Mike Masnick

Robert Ring points us to the news that Hollywood studios are now threatening to stop selling DVDs in Spain, and are blaming "piracy." Specifically, Michael Lynton, of Sony Pictures, the guy who insists that nothing good has come from the internet, is claiming:

"Spain is on the brink of no longer being a viable home-entertainment market for us."

I'm really curious how Lynton keeps his job when his response to a market challenge is to leave the market entirely, shifting the unauthorized rate from whatever it is all the way up to 100% by choice. This is the same guy who claimed that the internet was killing the movie business, in the midst of a year with more movie releases than ever before and the largest box office take ever. He's also in charge of the company that wouldn't even support one of its own movies for the Oscars because it was afraid that the Oscar reviewer copies would end up online, even though the movie was already available for download.

This is a CEO who seems to want to blame everyone else for his own failures in giving people a reason to buy. He's blaming the internet when the real issue is his own inability to figure out how to provide scarce value that people want to pay for. I can't imagine how the board meetings go: "Hey, so how are you capitalizing on this massive increase in movie interest?" "Ah, well, we're dropping out of markets because the kids download." How do you manage to lead a company when your response to a boom in interest in your business is to take away one of the reasons to buy and then to blame the people who want your product? It's astounding.

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Filed Under: dvds, hollywood, piracy
Companies: sony

40 Comments

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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:22pm

Question
Why dont the studios set up RedBoxes type units at groceries and a netFlix instant access for movies online? Then they could compete with infringing material. Mix that with the laws on the books and people might actually pay if its being offed at a fair vaule. Use an Amiee street type of model to determine fair value. Start at 25 cents and make the price fluctuate up and down based on demand.
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Dementia (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:22pm

I know (new catch phrase) Lynton logic!!!!
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Ima Fish (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:23pm

But refusing to meet the demands of music fans certainly helped the music industry sell more plastic discs, right?
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weneedhelp (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:25pm

Balls
Im gonna take my balls and go home. I dont want to play with you anymore.
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NAMELESS.ONE, 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:26pm

ok then they shuld legalize filesharing
yea solves the problem
get bent is the real answer
awwww

maybe they should talk to home builders in spain too
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:27pm

And another thing ...
" How do you manage to lead a company when your response to a boom in interest in your business is to take away one of the reasons to buy and then to blame the people who want your product? It's astounding."

Some one should tell this idiot that if he does this there is no going back. Once people become acustomed to downloading they wont stop even if there is a non-infinging alternative. Nothing good will come of this "I am taking my marbles and going home" attitude.
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NAMELESS.ONE, 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:28pm

lets see
if they just stopped everywhere then it might work BUT ya know it would backfire as the hardware makers get annoyed and ya know what this does folks
REALLY DO YOU

it creates a market for whats already out there
and it creates the HOME USER SCI FI MOVIE MAKING KIT
on sale now at kmart
only 99999.99
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:36pm

Re: And another thing ...
"Some one should tell this idiot that if he does this there is no going back."

I'm not sure he even actually has to follow through, I think this effect might already be done simply because of the threat.

Think about it. You're on a basketball court playing with a bunch of people, and the guy who owns the ball keeps getting fouled by a bully. He pisses and moans, but the bully doesn't stop. So the guy threatens to leave and take his ball with him. What do you do?

I've been on that playground, and I can tell you that w/o fail EVERY time that scenario happens, all the people that WEREN'T the bully tell the kid to shut the fuck up and leave. We can find another ball. Or we can play something else. YOU aren't going to hold us ALL hostage.

Half the time the threat was enough to get US to kick THEM out....
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The Infamous Joe (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:38pm

Re: And another thing ...
Do people even play marbles anymore?
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Michael (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:55pm

Dishonest Manipulation
Stop trying to analyze this decision at face value. Obviously, Sony doesn't plan to make more money by only pulling out of a market.

This is about scaring people into protecting their business model for them. That's all.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 1:56pm

Re: lets see
I can't make sense of your posts. It seems like you took a bunch of random retarded statements and threw them all together. Then you added some CAPS LOCK for fun.
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Ryan, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:06pm

Re: Re: lets see
I'm growing increasingly suspicious that this poster and the guy who writes the Zippy comic are one and the same...
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CMK (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:10pm

Sony Pictures?
Who are/were Sony Pictures?

Signed,
Voice of the Future.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:11pm

Re: Question
They don't want to compete. They want the public to pay for shiny plastic discs at an average price of $14.99. End of story. Remember how great it was in the past . . . .

The future is hard!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:16pm

Re: Re: Question
Let's go shopping!
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COEmoney, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:17pm

Re: Question
well that would make sense..
Its just that the CEO's are paid all that $$$ to not think .
They have mastered the technique keep their head sooo far up their own a$$ that they are now masters at it - this alone is worth big $$$$ - run a company - keep up with technology -

ha ha small potatoes ...
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:25pm

It's so difficult for people in Spain to cross a border and buy their DVDs from another country, right? Or buy online from a private seller on Amazon, if for some reason, the DVD they want isn't available directly for purchase brand-new from Amazon. In a connected world, Sony isn't going to be able to stop consumers in Spain from buying DVDs - or keep them from downloading the movies off BitTorrent.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:29pm

Re:
ACTA says what?
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The Devil's Coachman (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:46pm

Hey, he's a CEO. You were expecting intelligence?
Quick - name a CEO in any of the major media companies who actually can use a PC to get work done, download a multimedia file of any type and watch it, or who can speak in anything other than a high-pitched whine about how those dirty, filthy consumers are doing them in by downloading their vastly overpriced, essentially valueless crapola for free? Didn't think you could!

This idiot, like all of his idiot contemporaries, has a feeling of entitlement that will never be satisfied, and will keep grabbing for more money for increasingly less value, no matter how unjustifiable, stupid, or irrational. Let him whine and squeal like the tantrum-throwing child he essentially is, so that the rest of the world may be amused by him, perhaps throwing him a sweet treat once in a while, so as to encourage repeat performances. He will eventually get his golden parachute, and Sony will hire a clone of him and repeat the same trail of mistakes. Unfortunately, in the C-Suite gene pool, it has gotten very, very shallow, and it now appears that a form of devolution is well underway.

I haven't bought any overpriced Sony garbage in either media or hardware for many years, having learned my lesson very long ago. They have been resting on their self-awarded laurels for so long that they have no hope of ever adjusting to reality, and when they are gone, nobody with an ounce of sense will miss them.

Shoo, Sony! Shoo! Begone!

There they go!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:55pm

Re: Re: lets see
He's kind of like the Techdirt Village Idiot. All of his posts are avalanches of gibberish.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2010 @ 2:59pm

Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I doubt they really have any intention of pulling out of a national market. This is just a PR stunt, a veiled threat against legislators in the country. It'll get brought up in congressional talks as a club (big industry wants to leave our country!) to try to push through the legislation that they want.
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Freedom, 1 Apr 2010 @ 3:06pm

If only...
If only the Government could take use the same logic:

Since I can't get 100% of your money, I'm not going to take any of it.

Freedom
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 5:05pm

Re: Re: Question
"They want the public to pay for shiny plastic discs at an average price of $14.99. "

Yes and this goes back to about 80 years of monopoly, entitlement, and corporate bureaucracy. The corporate bureaucracy trying to make money short term is one of the biggest problems. Windows and wanting to maintain the profits will kill the TV and Movie industry. They already have two examples of what is to come, South Korea, and Spain. This is history, this is fact, this is what will happen in other countries ACTA or not.

You know they should hire me and give me a real budget for a year and I will give them a new set of revenue streams.
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 5:07pm

Re: Re: And another thing ...
Not really but I do believe the execs at the studios have lost theirs...
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 5:17pm

Re: Re: And another thing ...
"So the guy threatens to leave and take his ball with him"

"tell the kid to shut the fuck up and leave."

"YOU aren't going to hold us ALL hostage."

Thats the short version ... and a really good point. But I go back to something that keeps getting drilled into my head by various people "Follow the money".

Who is this going to benefit? (ACTA legislation, lobbying efforts)
Who is it going to hurt? (retailers, renters)
Is there a behind the scenes reason for this? (or just stupidity or a bluff)

Any ideas on my 3 questions
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 5:22pm

Re: Re: Question
"Its just that the CEO's are paid all that $$$ to not think ."

Naw they are just promoted up a level to far ...
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Hephaestus (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 5:40pm

Re: Re: Question
"They don't want to compete. "

What competition I dont think there is a redbox or equiv in spain. At 2000-4000 USD per box, 200-400 movies per box, figure a 30% rental rate. With 200 DVDs thats $60 USD per day, $4000 USD per box, 66.67 days for each box to pay for itself. Even with location rental thats less than 3 months to recoup the investment.

Now lets go and build a P2P style boxee for video downloading. P2P to keep the infrastructure, server, and hosting costs down. Once a movie is out on the Spain Boxee it gets distro'd P2P and never downloads from the servers at corporate unless its not out in the wild (P2P land, Spin Boxee) or there is high demand. Cloud hosting of media reduces infrastructure costs. Encryption is easy so encrypt each spain boxee with a different set of keys. Dont worry about piracy because its going to happen no matter what you do.

Done ...
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Daemon_ZOGG (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 7:57pm

"Hollywood Threatens To Stop Selling DVDs In Spain.."
And when you through in the ever-changing, flip-flopping laws on (torrents) filesharing in Spain....
Ok kids, time to dust off the in-car WiFi proxy servers, tighten up the SSH config files, and fire up your favorite torrent apps! Lets go war-driving for movies! I'm sure there's plenty of WiFi locations to tunnel through in Spain. Especially the ones with the default router password still intact. Right! };)
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Chargone (profile), 1 Apr 2010 @ 10:45pm

Re: Re: Re: lets see
gibberish usually built around what appears to be good basic ideas, mind you...

just terrible execution in the posting department.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2010 @ 12:12am

Re: Re: Re: Re: lets see
They're probably the only poster who wouldn't have to sign their name and still have an amazing chance to be recognized as the NAMELESS.ONE.
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Yogi, 2 Apr 2010 @ 12:57am

Re: Question
I'm waiting for this.

Why can't I download and watch any movie I want instantly? The technology is available, why pretend that it doesn't exist?
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Alatar, 2 Apr 2010 @ 1:21am

Can they stop in France too?
Can those idiots stop selling plastic discs here in France too? That will be good for consumers (increased filesharing) and for the environment.
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Svante Jorgensen (profile), 2 Apr 2010 @ 3:51am

Re: Re: Question
I'm waiting for this.

Why can't I download and watch any movie I want instantly? The technology is available, why pretend that it doesn't exist?

With a high speed Internet connection this has been possible for years.
high speed 'net + torrent client + torrent search engine = all the movies you could ever want, before you can buy them on DVD/BluRay.
Hell, you can even set up a RSS feed for a release reviewing site like www.rlslog.net and be notified every time a new movie is released, so you don't even have to stay up to date with the newest movies.

The only drawback is that there is no easy way to support the people who make the movies you like. The studios have made that practically impossible, DVD's/Theaters or not.
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Another anonymous coward?, 2 Apr 2010 @ 7:27am

Who buys Sony anyway
I haven't bought anything Sony for years. Even before the rootkit fiasco their proprietary money grasping ways with Memory Sticks, PS region coding etc. pissed me off enough to say goodbye to them forever. I have a pretty good home entertainment system without one Sony component and not a single Sony product gets bought to play on it. Fuck 'em.
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Joel (profile), 2 Apr 2010 @ 7:41am

That'll work...
Yeah this will totally work!! This guy is a genius we should all understand where he is coming from...

end sarcasm
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luckybleu, 2 Apr 2010 @ 3:09pm

wow!
the music and movie industry deserve what they get,the logic is unbelievable.
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PaulT (profile), 3 Apr 2010 @ 1:16am

I currently live in Spain and buy plenty of legally produced DVDs...

...from the UK, where it's usually cheaper to import their DVDs than buy from Spanish sources. Also, thanks to the famously atrocious postal system, a Netflix-style system has not appeared for rentals and streaming services are conspicuous by their absence.

Of course, it's those evil "pirates" rather than the industry's hopeless attempts to rip consumers off and pretend it's still 1996 that's causing their problems...
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DanVan (profile), 3 Apr 2010 @ 5:30pm

Brilliant move Now, everyone who wants the movies will still see the movies but instead of Hollywood getting a sizeable amount of money from it...they will get none Brilliant
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Paul, 5 Apr 2010 @ 12:03am

Political Pressure
Unfortunately, as a resident of Spain I can see the effect that such threats are having. There will no doubt be new legislation passed to further criminalize downloading. Fortunately, Spanish politics is slow and enforcement is not what the IP industry may be expecting.
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