If You Can't Beat Them... Almost Join Them; Warner Offers Cheap Movie Downloads In China

from the but-nowhere-else-of-course dept

Well, at the very least, you have to hand it to Warner Bros. Studios for recognizing that pretending that it didn't have to somehow compete with pirated movies wasn't going to succeed as an overall strategy. The major Hollywood studio has now unveiled plans to offer a variety of movies for download in China priced at a dollar or less. Of course, it's unclear if the movies will have annoying DRM or any other inconvenience as well. Considering that unauthorized movies are already available pretty much anywhere, if Warner makes it difficult or annoying in any way, people are going to just stick with the unauthorized copies that don't create such problems. Still, this is definitely a step in the right direction: realizing that it isn't effective to pretend you can ignore unauthorized copies and still charge high prices.

Filed Under: china, downloads, movies, piracy
Companies: warner bros.

Should Proprietary Software Companies Be More Concerned About Open Source Or Piracy?

from the take-your-pick dept

We see various software companies and their representatives like the BSA complaining constantly about the damaging impact of piracy on their business, but reader Jon sent in an article that explores how piracy of proprietary software often does just as much, if not more, harm to open source alternatives. So, for example, when people make an unauthorized copy of Photoshop, doesn't that hurt open source providers of the GiMP just as much as Adobe? And an unauthorized copy of Microsoft Office hits the Open Office crew.

Of course, this inevitably raises the question: should proprietary software companies be more worried about piracy... or open source competitors? After all, if the proprietary companies crack down on piracy, it often leads potential buyers to simply switch to open source providers instead. So, cracking down on piracy actually helps open source providers, while piracy hurts them. So, wouldn't it make more sense for proprietary software companies to stop worrying about piracy and focus on competing with open source providers?

Filed Under: open source, piracy, proprietary software, threats

Microsoft Celebrating Antipiracy Day

from the not-as-much-fun dept

It's been just over a month since the International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and yet, that's all I can think about when I hear Microsoft announce that today it's celebrating "antipiracy day", during which it will try to highlight everything the company is doing to combat unauthorized file sharing. Odd, then, that this would be the same company that in the past has admitted that it greatly benefits from piracy of its own products, in establishing worldwide standards and in competing against open source alternatives. The company, apparently, is a bit conflicted. In the meantime, anyone have tips on "talking like an antipirate?" I'm guessing it will include such strawman phrases as "it's just like stealing a physical product!," "all content creation would stop," and "content creators deserve to make money!"

Filed Under: antipiracy, piracy
Companies: microsoft

MPAA's Suit Against Real About Control And Innovation -- Not Piracy

from the clarifying dept

As we've been writing about the MPAA's odd lawsuit against RealNetworks for its RealDVD DVD ripping product, we've pointed out (multiple times) how it doesn't make much sense. The problem was that there are tons of much more effective DVD ripping products out there. Unlike RealDVD, they don't hobble the ripped copies. So, shutting down RealDVD doesn't do anything to stop piracy -- and if anything only increases it, as those who want to rip DVDs are more likely to just download one of those free products that don't encumber the resulting rip with more DRM. Thus, people will still be copying DVDs, and will do so in a way that is a lot more "piratable" than if the MPAA let RealDVD live.

So why is the MPAA doing what it's doing?

The EFF has stepped up with theory that makes a lot of sense: this has nothing to do with stopping piracy, and everything to do with controlling how innovation happens in the movie market. The movie studios that make up the MPAA believe that they own the movie business, and thus any innovation in the industry needs to come through them and get their approval. What Real is doing with RealDVD is ignoring the MPAA's "approval" process, and effectively taking the path of innovation out of the studios' hands.

If this sounds familiar, it's because this has what's been going on with almost all of the "anti-piracy" battles over the last decade. Napster wasn't so much about stopping piracy (which of course, didn't work in the slightest), but about the RIAA record labels freaking out that someone else (a college kid, no less) had established a much better and more efficient distribution mechanism without getting their approval and running it through their filter first.

Effectively, the Big Content players believe that they own their industries, and innovation should come from the top down through the paths that they choose. Thus, these sorts of lawsuits will continue until the management of these firms recognize that innovation is a bottom-up phenomenon. Or, the big firms go out of business. Whichever comes first.

Filed Under: control, lawsuits, piracy, realdvd
Companies: eff, mpaa, realnetworks

Ubisoft Says It's Delaying A PC Game Due To Piracy; But That Makes No Sense

from the a-little-logic,-please dept

Ubisoft, the video game company that has a history of doing exactly the wrong things in response to unauthorized sharing of its video games, is at it again. A bunch of readers have sent in some odd quotes from Ubisoft exec, Michael de Plater, who blames PC game file sharing for a delayed release of the new game EndWar on the PC platform:

To be honest, if PC wasn't pirated to hell and back, there'd probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two. But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you're doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy's basically killing PC."

Now, Plater may believe that, but it's hard to square up with reality. The video gaming experience on a console is quite different than on a PC. And you'd be hard pressed to find a serious console owner who would focus on playing a good game on their PC rather than on the console. You could potentially make the argument that if the game really sucked some might test it out on the PC and decide it's not worth paying for -- but unless he's saying the game sucks, it's hard to take the claim seriously.

Filed Under: delays, endwar, michael de plater, piracy, video games
Companies: ubisoft

Piracy Is A Part Of The Market

from the it's-not-the-enemy...-and-it-may-not-be-competition dept

Out-law.com has an interesting discussion with a so-called "anti-piracy expert" where he tries to make the point that pirates are not the "enemy" but are "competition." This is a step in the right direction -- though, one ignored by many industries threatened by unauthorized file sharing. As the MySpace Music offering shows, very little thought is given to actually competing with piracy. Most of these solutions simply try to pretend it doesn't exist -- which is a pretty difficult way to compete.

But it's important to recognize that the market shift goes further than just seeing unauthorized file sharing as competition. To succeed in the marketplace, it shouldn't even be viewed as competition, but as a tool that can be used to your advantage. The business models that embrace file sharing and use it to drive business to other parts of a business model are doing great, realizing that file sharing isn't the enemy and isn't competition, but is a great, efficient distribution mechanism that reaches a lot of people very quickly and effectively. Ignoring ways to make use of that seems pretty dangerous.

Filed Under: competition, markets, piracy

Court Tells Echostar It Doesn't Get Access To Customer Lists Of Satellite Receiver Company

from the chalk-one-up-for-privacy dept

Recently, we wrote about how satellite TV provider Echostar had been sending out subpoenas demanding customer lists from resellers who had sold satellite receivers made by a company named Freetech. Freetech's satellite receivers can be used to receive perfectly legal over-the-air satellite TV signals. Echostar's complaint was that many also used Freetech's receivers to pirate its own DishTV offering. However, that doesn't give Echostar the right to then demand the contact info on everyone who ever bought a Freetech receiver, as many could be using them for perfectly legal purposes. And, historically, with DirecTV, we've seen a similar situation where the DirecTV forced plenty of totally innocent smart card device buyers to pay up by threatening them with lawsuits over pirated satellite TV.

Luckily, it looks like the EFF helped convince the judge that Echostar was out of line, and the judge has said that the buyers' privacy trumps Echostar's right to the info. As the EFF notes, this is a big ruling, in that it's "the first time a federal court has explicitly rejected a third-party subpoena on the basis of the privacy interests of nonparty consumers." Chalk one up for the right to privacy.

Filed Under: eff, piracy, privacy, satellite tv, subpoenas
Companies: directv, echostar, freetech

NBC Proud That It Made It More Difficult For People To Watch The Olympics

from the really-didn't-think-this-through dept

We've already explained how screwed up NBC's Olympic coverage policy on the web turned out to be. Its use of proprietary technology and annoying restriction severely limited its online audience -- even though the company admitted that its own research found that the more people watched online, the more they watched it on TV as well. So, given all that, you have to wonder why NBC Universal's Rick Cotton is somehow claiming a "victory" in preventing other sites from showing Olympics coverage. After all, his own company admitted that online viewing didn't cannibalize TV viewing, but only encouraged more of it. By that measure, Cotton's efforts to prevent clips of the Olympics being shared elsewhere on the web actually shrunk NBC's audience. Yet, according to Cotton: "It was a great, great success." Then again, this is the same Rick Cotton who once tried to convince Congress that it had to stop movie piracy to help poor corn farmers and claimed that no one at NBC Universal could come up with a working business model for TV content without government help, so logic might not be a strong point.

Filed Under: olympics, piracy, rick cotton, web video
Companies: nbc universal

Convenience Matters: People Will Still 'Pirate' Content That Is Available For Free In Less Convenient Packages

from the stating-the-obvious dept

About a year ago, some commentators were positively shocked that tons of folks still got the latest Radiohead album via BitTorrent rather than the band's own pay-what-you-want site, which allowed people to get the music for free. However, the real point (which many seemed to miss) is that the reason people will often access the content via unauthorized sources isn't just because it's free, but because it's more convenient and doesn't require leaping over annoying hurdles. Plus, for many, it's a single interface and a single source for all the content they want.

So, it should come as no surprise at all that plenty of folks are still downloading unauthorized versions of TV shows that are available in authorized streams for free. First off, downloading the content lets users watch the content when and where they want -- and allows them to archive it or watch it on other devices. Second, it's just a lot more convenient for many users to get the content that way.

Once again, it looks like the entertainment industry got hung up on that whole "free" bit, when that's hardly all there is to the equation. Just because they put something up for free doesn't mean they've effectively competed with the alternatives. When the alternatives offer more and better "features" and much greater convenience, the "free" part is only one of multiple selling points. Simply putting content up for free without matching those other features means that plenty of folks are still going to get the content elsewhere. Rather than fighting it, it's about time companies learned ways to use this to their own advantage.

Filed Under: authorized, convenience, free, piracy

UK Band Admits It's 'Utterly Dependent' On Piracy

from the except-they-call-it-viral-promotion dept

At some point, it won't make sense to post these sorts of examples any more because it will just be common sense that bands can and do benefit from so-called "piracy," but every time we post one of these stories, we get people complaining that this couldn't possibly work for others. When a band is big, then it will never work for small artists. When they're small, it'll never work for big artists. Once we even had a commenter complain that it might work for big artists or small artists -- but it was the all important artists in the middle that it would never work for.

So, here we go again, with yet another example of a band that isn't worried about piracy. It's an award-winning acoustic folk duo out of the UK, called Show of Hands, where one of the members admits that one of the most popular ways that people find out about the band is when others share the band's music, and this often drives them to come out to shows and buy CDs as well. The band points out that "piracy" is a bad description of what happens:

You may call this process 'piracy' if you wish - for me it is an act of generosity and it both increases our audience size and record sales. And as I always say on the night - if you're going to do it anyway you may as well feel good about it! I believe the official term is 'viral marketing', and we depend utterly upon it.

Yet, if he listened to the RIAA or the IFPI, apparently, all this viral marketing that the band depends on would be "no different than common theft."

Filed Under: piracy, viral marketing