Disney's Anthony Accardo: The Tech Community Owes Content Creators A Living
from the wronger-than-wrongy-mcwrongson-from-wrongville dept
Anthony Accardo, a senior research analyst (or "Imagineer") for the Disney Corporation, recently posted an article in response to another HBR writer's earlier post arguing that Big Content is stifling innovation. With wording that eerily echoes U2 manager Paul McGuinness' handout plea of a few weeks ago, Accardo posits that the stifling of creativity is actually due to recalcitrant techies and their unwillingness to craft a better world for content producers.There's a whole lot of suppositions in Accardo's 800-word piece, most of which range from "wrong" to "laughable." Accardo leads in to his point-by-point dismantling with this presumptuous sentence:
"While I agree that content owners need to be much more open to embracing technology and innovation, I can't help but point out some fundamental issues emanating from the tech community and 'copyleft' that obfuscate the real issues of copyright, digital monetization, and technology."
Well, now that one side of the argument has been marginalized as "obfuscation," we can go on to have a balanced discussion. Issue #1? Patents vs. copyright. And the techies are on the wrong side of this as well:
"A bias toward respecting the rights of patents over copyright exists in tech culture, and copyleft has sprung out of this."
Really? As a proud member of what I assume is the "copyleft" movement (i.e., anyone who isn't a member of Big Content?), I think I can safely say that we have as little respect for overzealous patent holders as we do for overzealous copyright holders.
Next, Accardo goes after our "bias":
"One feels a little like Jon Stewart watching Fox News when reading a public statement by Lawrence Lessig or a post on Torrentfreak.com. The villain, Big Content, is always trying to take away our freedom and privacy by preventing us from enjoying Lady Gaga's newest album."
I'm going to let that one ride (inlcuding the assumption that we equate freedom and privacy with Lady Gaga) because he tops it two sentences later:
"Big Content uses its limited power and influence to look out for the little guy's rights as well."
As an employee of the Disney corporation, I'm amazed he could type this with a straight face, much less allow it to be published unaltered. Even the most maximalist of copyright holders would have trouble with that sentence.
"Limited power?"
If being able to leverage the US government to alter other nations' copyright laws is "limited," I'd really hate to see what damage Big Content would do if they were bumped up to "adequate." Is having the power to shut down entire domain name servers too "limiting?" How about warrantless searches?
"Look out for the little guy?"
Since when? Since being shamed into coughing up a fractional percentage of the Limewire settlement? Did we get it all wrong and the midnight move from "artist" to "work for hire" actually make things better for your average musician, freeing them from the massive responsibility of owning their own recordings? Is opaque accounting a fringe benefit for artists under contract?
Honestly, Accardo should have ended it there. He can't possibly top that obtuse declaration. What he does instead is lay the blame for Big Content's failures at the feet of actual innovators:
"Imagine if the tech giants used their powers of innovation to better detect and control online copyright infringement rather than the bare minimum steps companies such as Google take - omitting an app from the Android market or omitting a few search terms? If they helped take the head out of the bell curve of piracy with some creative innovation, we'd be seeing licenses thrown around to the Googles and the Spotifys of the world."
Yeah! Imagine if! Imagine if the tech companies went ahead and did all your work for you! The only thing they've given you so far is every tool imaginable to create, promote and sell your digital product.
You use their innovations daily and yet you still have the audacity to blame them for not stopping piracy. Tech knows piracy can't be stopped and has moved on. It's only the holdouts from Big Content that are still thinking they can cut every head off with enough legislative pressure and the hell with the First and Fourth Amendments. Those are inefficiencies from a bygone age. Big Content has too many inefficiencies of its own to worry about.
And as for your precious "licenses"? Who wants 'em? Do you think these tech companies are dying for the chance to pay ever-increasing fees and get double or triple-dipped for every audio or video stream?
If you're finding tech leery of helping you, perhaps it's because you never stop taking. You want them to police the internet for you (along with the ISPs), push your products, crawl your news, find you new revenue streams and create new formats. And in exchange they'll get thrown under the legislative/judicial bus every chance you get. No wonder the techs have turned their back on you. They've already seen how you've treated your own content creators for decades and now have to attempt to innovate while warily watching you blunder around in search of a soft target.
The innovators of the world owe you nothing.
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Filed Under: anthony accardo, entitlement
Companies: disney
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http://www.cnbc.com/id/41356625/Piracy_Rules_the_Web_Dominating_23_8_of_Internet_Traffic
If you don't to pay the asking price for the content you consume...
Go make your own.
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And companies want to hobble netflix because they didn't think of it first.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/netflix-traffic/
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Re: LoLz
I see you have an inability to detect lies. On that same thread, I will like to start out by saying I am far far less intellectually inclined than you are. Please ponder kindly the words of this poor simpleton:
Just because you see it in print or on the news, doesn't make it true.
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"A new stat on copyright infringement released today is shocking: 23.8 percent of all global Internet traffic involves digital theft with BitTorrent accounting for 11.4 percent. "
It assumes all bittorrent traffic is "digital theft" ignoring the, admittedly smaller, legal uses.
Check out the growth in legal real-time entertainment. The market is there to get inf ringers to pay, but the industry wants to get and scream and collect monopoly rents instead of adapting to the markeyplace.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/17/netflix-largest-internet-traffic/
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No he doesn't!
Every penny that so called "content producers" have ever made has been off the back of technology created by us techies.
Without techies "content producers" would still be in the world of aristocratic patronage and busking.
The techies gave - and maybe now they will take away - but like Job you should still say blessed be the name of the techies!
Talk about an ungrateful idiot biting the hand that fed...
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Don't spend it all in one place now ;)
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but no one would have invented all the tech that goes into making an iPod just for entertainment purposes. The tech that is entertainment specific is a gnat on the back of the elephant of general purpose tech that supports the rest of the economy.
In any case the fact is that the tech is the enabler, it is the necessary stuff that comes first and it would exist and make money without professional content producers. It isn't a symbiotic relationship, it's a parasitic one and content is the parasite.
All that this blog is trying to do is to remind the parasite that trying to kill the host is not a good idea!
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I buy an MP3 player because i want to listen to music. I choose an iPod as my MP3 player because of it's innovative features (especially when iPods first came onto the market). I consider that a pretty important distinction.
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http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/17/netflix-largest-internet-traffic/
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bias
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And don't get me started on the monthly maintenance fees over at the Pirate Bay.
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Maybe it's the other way around?
The content creators of the world owe the tech community a living.
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Re: Maybe it's the other way around?
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My argument boils down to: what's good for the goose . . . etc.
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Nah - they're just pissed that the antispyware community found and neutered their DSS Agent spyware back in the day and are looking to get back at us techies for killing off their ability to monetize the children...
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It looks like Anthony might still be part of the old guard that likes blaming things on others instead of looking deeper into what the customer wants and what they aren't providing. Maybe this guy should get together with John Lasseter and discuss the future, since John seems to have a much better handle on innovation and adapting to the future while honoring the past. Sad too, because I like Disney, even though they are Big Content and act like it.
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It is common for the members of a community to perceive themselves as very limited in their power while the rest of the world considers them to be extremely powerful. I am not going to try and google the research studies up right now, but for example people who work for the federal government will see themselves as being very limited in what they can do compared to private industry, while the folks in private industry believe that the government holds all the cards.
As for Disney, they are not comparing themselves to the folks here at techdirt. They are looking at the entire internet, and they know they are in trouble. They see how they are competing against a tremendous amount of free content and new providers. They don't FEEL very powerful, and this is reflected in their language. I am not saying this is accurate, but it shouldn't be too surprising.
It reminds me of how Obama was elected and more or less told "Congratulations! Now give us your blackberry!"
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It had a grasshopper running around singing 'Oh the world owes me a livin'. He kept laughing at the ant who was working to prepare for winter.
Then winter came and the grasshopper was out in the cold and came knocking on the ants door.
If I remember the ant told the grasshopper to piss off, the grasshopper broke as much stuff as he could before he died in the cold snow, and the ant had to pay for repairs and to get the body removed in the spring.
Ah, good old Disney cartoons. No parallel to this of course.
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I give that 6/5 stars.
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Why doesn't Disney or other content giants use their own powers to police their own content? Why is it the responsibility of the tech giants?
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It is just really hard to comprehend the audacity and hypocrisy of big content. The more I read drivel like this, the more I consider becoming a pirate.
BTW, the first post in this thread was mine as well, forgot to sign it.
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From the looks of it, it almost looks like they want others to stop piracy for them and in return they want those others to buy licenses from them.
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Nah, they would want a sandwich. The Pro IP guys who comment here are always wanting someone to make them a sandwich.
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If big content can't even identify what is infringing, then how is Big Tech supposed to identify it?
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What famous movie does this remind you of?
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Re: What famous movie does this remind you of?
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No problem, Tony.
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Screw Big Content!
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This is twice as funny knowing he interned at Sony and founded his own music website. I guess innovating was hard so he switched teams and complained people weren't innovating for him?
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Aww, you didn't quote the best part!
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"It would be much easier for content owners to explore innovative suggestions about pricing, distributing free content for promotion, and using distribution technologies such as bitTorrent, if they saw any material steps taken by the tech community to help them, not challenge them, in the copyright arena."
.....that makes sense....
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Let me try to paraphrase that:
it would be easier to explore the innovative suggestions from the tech community if they would just offer some innovative suggestions that don't jeopardize our monopoly or ridiculous profit margins.
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Awesome article
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So let me get this straight. You want others to stop piracy for you and in exchange you want them to buy licenses from you?
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Sure, I had a choice to CHOOSE MY OWN PRICE (starting at free!), but I still paid. And because I liked the artist and knew they had just quit their "real job" and was giving it a go as a pro musician, I added a few bucks to the "suggested" retail.
It was still less than I'd pay for a comparable album from an established artist.
13 songs, with a bonus MP3 for the digital dl.
You could dl for free, or you could pay. I dl'd for free, then liked it so much I went back and paid.
Funny how that works.
Give me something worth having, price it where I can afford it, don't be a greedy poophead and I will pay you.
Try to take advantage of me, be greedy and I will ignore your artist and spend my money on nurturing new acts and talents.
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Copyright and creation
This of course does not mean that artists shouldn't be compensated, my point is that payment is something that comes along with artist’s efforts as a measure of appreciation, but never as an initial incentive.
You may call me a copyright minimalist.
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So yeah, maybe if the tech sector would stop needlessly butting heads with content (Google claiming they will honor no licensing agreements is not doing anyone any favors) and if big content could figure out an economic plan that didn't involve going ballistic over every little infringement maybe we could move forward (Aside: How is it that Time Warner delivers cable AND internet, yet streaming television on their own network is better accomplished by a 3rd party (Netflix)? Do you understand how dumb this is? Netflix is better at delivering cable TV along the same network lines the damn cable company is feeding me!).
If you ask me, old media/content needs to go, but also, old tech needs to go. Google, Apple, etc have proven, as far as I'm concerned, that they will never be able to work out a sustainable option that positively serves creators, producers, and consumers. They seem overly obsessed with their own legacy and masturbatory back-patting. We need a new player in the game, but unfortunately the tech sector doesn't have a stunning record on allowing competition from start-ups.
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well thats going in Bing image search when i get home
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First you say, "Google, Apple, etc " then you imply that competition is not allowed? Competition is allowed, it's there.
What are they supposed to do, fund the competition too?
Competition is allowed, no one is stopping it. If new competitors wish to enter the market, there are no laws stopping them.
Where competition isn't allowed, thanks to big corporate efforts, are on things like the ability to use broadcasting spectra, the ability for competitors to use existing cableco infrastructure (or to build new infrastructure) to offer more diverse programming and opinions, the ability for independent performers to perform at restaurants and other venues because those venues would get faced with big collection society fines (or expensive lawsuit threats) under the pretext that someone might infringe, the ability for taxi cab competitors to open up competing taxi cab services, etc... Those, and many many others, are the sectors that competition isn't allowed.
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There is quite a bit of patent lawsuits that claim otherwise but yes technically no laws prevent competition, there are just a few to stifle it. I definitely would say industry leaders, no matter the industry, do their best to squash on new innovate competitors as quickly as possible.
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I agree here, and I am (an intermittent) patent abolitionist.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2070093/apple-kills-ebook-company-pricing-greed#ix zz1MOZbXCdS
(full disclosure I didn't read this article, not sure where i read about it, techdirt?, but I am off work and need to head to my train so I cant look into it further. but the story, even if this article isnt good, is a wonderful example of big business using their clout to destroy competition and corner a market
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Let me see if I got that straight...
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Re: Let me see if I got that straight...
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Innovation to enforce copyright, eh?
I make it a point to sell my talent, not my output. My output can be copied and reused eternally, and that is a desirable trait! My ability to create such useful output is obviously a scarce good, and I find myself able to sell it accordingly. :)
The reason the "tech community" (such a ridiculous generalization of a term) refuses to support Big Content in its endeavor to lock down content is that the end result would be a ridiculous sense of entitlement.
If Big Content had its way...
A TV would refuse to function, because it detects too many viewers.
A camera would not shoot, because it would sense a "no cameras" signal in the area.
An application would fail to launch, because the keyboard detected fingerprints other than those of the original licensee.
A Blu-ray would not start, because it senses you exceeded its viewing quota, and you need to go buy the movie again.
A song would not play, because the attached speakers are too awesome, and you are not licensed to hear so much bass.
A book would erase its words, because its GPS would detect that it is being read in a country where the book is not released yet.
Yeah, I am very comfortable over here NOT on your side, Big Content.
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Re: Innovation to enforce copyright, eh?
You need to write a psychic program.
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Re: Re: Innovation to enforce copyright, eh?
nononononononono thats called skynet
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Maybe I should patent the idea.
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Re: Innovation to enforce copyright, eh?
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Re: Innovation to enforce copyright, eh?
I like it. The corrollary is that Big Content has no talent, just output, and they know it. It matches nicely with my experience.
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WOOHOO!
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Re: WOOHOO!
By "mail," I mean the Netflix envelope I stuffed it in to remind me to put your check in the mail whenever I decide to return this DVD I've rented for about 90 days at this point.
But if I do that, they'll just send me another DVD and I'll put that DVD up by my player and look at it every so often and think that I should really get around to watching that at some point.
And then I'll fire up their streaming service and the weeks kind of turn into months and sooner or later, I blow the dust off the DVD and promise myself I'll watch it within the next two weeks (promise!) and then later I remember I still have it and another month has gone by and it hardly seems worth it to relocate the envelope and mosey down to the post office, just to start the vicious circle all over again.
Long story short: your check will be in the mail eventually. Very eventually.
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The Tech Giants do help stop piracy
This is silly because tech companies have provided content suppliers with many tools to stop piracy, it's just that people find ways to around them. If there's someone at Google that could think of a way to stop all piracy, then there's someone out there who figure out a way around it. Just look at the history of it. They introduced DVDs with encryption to prevent copying, and then someone cracked it. They introduced DRM, and people found out ways to crack it; they have locks on PDfs and those are easily cracked. They've got all types of copy-protection on software, and people find ways around them. Apple even went so far as to craft the OS for its iPhones so that you couldn't transfer any files except through iTunes and couldn't install any apps except through their App Store, which would completely prevent piracy, if someone hadn't figured out ways to jailbreak the iphone.
And, of course, the more crack-proof you make your anti-piracy measures, the more it has to inconvenience users. Just think of how much a pain DRM is, and it's not even uncrackable.
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Innovation? Get a clue Mike
The operating systems? Windows is pretty much the same, semi-secure product that it's been since 3.1. Heck, the same software usually runs because the APIs are only marginally better. They've fixed a few of the security holes but that's more patching than innovation. I still admire their diligence and love their product, but I don't think it's innovative. After Doug what's-his-name invented the mouse, there hasn't been much innovation, just copying. Ask Steve Jobs.
So yeah, the movie industry makes the same plots again and again, but so do the hardware companies. Heck, even the Macs run on x86 now just like the first Altairs.
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Re: Innovation? Get a clue Mike
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Re: Innovation? Get a clue Mike
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Re: Innovation? Get a clue Mike
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Re: Innovation? Get a clue Mike
-- Sent from my iPhone
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Re: Innovation? Get a clue Mike
Read a few tech papers about what is actually required to do this and you will realize that is isn't as simple as you pretend.
Let me quote a typical abstract at you:
In the present work, a high aspect ratio process (HARP) using a new O3/TEOS based sub atmospheric chemical vapor deposition process was implemented as STI gapfill in sub-65-nm CMOS. Good gapfill performance up to aspect ratios greater than 10:1 was demonstrated. Since the HARP process does not attack the STI liner as compared to HDP, a variety of different STI liners can be implemented. By comparing HARP with HDP, the geometry dependence of nand p-FET performance due to STI stress is discussed
See - it's not just simple shrinkage.
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Re: Innovation? Get a clue Mike
an unfortunate side effect of the "legacy system effect" that has saddled us with the qwerty keyboard.
However if you look inside a modern x86 processor you will find a completely different processor being fed by a translation layer.
You really don't have a clue do you?
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Since no one else is willing
I publicly and whole-heartedly apologize for not helping the internet to be your source of revenue. Back in the day, while we were working out ways of using this new tech, I was obsessed with:
1) Sharing knowledge on Optical Character Recognition
2) Creating an Ascii based Pac-man with semi-intelligence for the ghosts
3) Figuring ways to spread the marvelous talents of Ms. Annie Sprinkles in 8-bit rendering.
I'm very sorry I wasn't thinking of you and Disney. (Then again, I don't think you'd support Ms. Sprinkles' talents)
I sincerely apologize,
Max, the Vaguely Disreputable.
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Wut?
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