This article isn't about what the US is doing. Your comment is disingenuous because it implies that the author of the article is in some way ignoring the hypocrisy of the US.
A better, non-flippant, non-trolling comment would be something like the following.
"The US government was also hypocritical in condemning Russia over Pussy Riot at the same time of going after Assange."
NFLX should run their business as a profit-sharing scheme.
1. I = total income - NFLX operating costs
2. NFLX takes 25% of I as profit. P = 0.25 * I
3. the rest (I - P) is divided among among the content providers based on percentages of what NFLX users are watching.
This system is fair and everyone is rewarded for doing the "right" things. Content providers make more profit by providing more watched content. For NFLX it is easy to keep track of what everyone is actually watching. So take advantage of the technology.
The system they have now, where everything is fixed costs will never work. Every content provider thinks their content is the most-ut. So if they see NFLX making a bigger profit they demand a big fixed cost for their content. But NFLX can't afford to pay all the content providers what they imagine they are worth. Open the books, NFLX. Share the profits fairly. Can't argue with the actual numbers.
The one thing missing in this scheme is, how does NFLX set their costs to the customer. If some content provider's profits are less than what they think they can make by cutting off NFLX to increase sales of DVDs this system fails. NFLX somehow has to balance the costs to the customers with the amount of profit going to the providers such that everybody is happy. Not sure how that gets done. But they have that same problem now in the wacky fixed-price non-workable system they are using.
All games should be freely downloadable with no DRM. (or a nominal DL fee that could be bypassed by DLing from a torrent site) Then, on the main menu should be a button "Pay for this Game". When you click on the button it says "You have paid $X for this game so far." with another set of buttons: "Use Paypal", "Use Amazon", "Use itunes", ... You get where I am going with this.
All digital media should be, pay what you want, when you want. They can give you suggested price and/or what others have paid as a guideline or just leave it up to you. This is easy to implement for games because they have a built-in UI. It is tougher for mp3s or AVIs. But if they gave us a website to easily get anything we wanted that website could also be used to keep track of payments. That website would put itunes and netflix out of business shortly.
The problem with DRM is that it can always be circumvented. Thus, the only people that have to put up with the restrictions imposed by a DRM scheme are legitimate paying customers. Your paying customers should be the ones getting the best experience from your product, not the worst. Thus, DRM is in fact synonymous with "bad".
What needs to replace DRM is trust. Media companies should make everything as freely available (ie. no DRM) as possible and trust that people will pay for it if they find value in it. They also need to create ways for people to pay that include varying cost. When I was young, I valued music very highly and was willing to pay a lot for it. When I hit 30 something switched off in my brain and I stopped listening to music or caring much about it. Now I might value a song a 5 cents that they want me to pay $1 for, so they get $0 from me and I do without.
On the other side, in exchange for media producers trusting us, society needs to adopt an attitude that it is not ok to get something you value and pay nothing for it. ie., We need to replace law enforcement with a social stigma. Those that have the means to pay but choose not to need to be ridiculed for it. They are being nice, so we should be nice. Everyone should be good to eachother and stop fighting.
We can continue down the DRM, control, fight, enforce, restrict, greed, closed, path or the free, trust, cooperate, open, share, fair, path. The first path seems futile given the technology, and painful for everyone as it leads to anger, hatred, and conflict. While the later path leads to happiness, peace, love, and harmony among human species all over the planet. Choose!
Re: Re: ... Re: Why would you want to use those anyway?
You are forgetting the whole XBOX 720 angle. It will not be Win8-only. It will be a Win8-XBOX720-only version of DirectX. And this *will* happen. And developers *will* comply. It is all about the benjamins.
What is PEMDAS? I bet you don't know what BUAWIOFO is. Before using an acronym, write it out fully once. I don't know what you mean by AC, either. You are speaking a foreign language. One that is in your own mind. Oh, Anonymous Coward. But there are a lot of those around. If you had said OP I would have known what you are talking about immediately, though.
Re: how-can-they-not-get-it? It may be you that doesn't get it.
You don't get into the position of Drug Czar by being in favor of ending the War on (some) Drugs. You don't get into a position of IP Czar by being an IP minimalist. The people in these positions don't think in terms of how they can do the right thing for the people especially since it means their position may no longer need to exist. They only think in terms of enforcing that area which they preside over and hence increasing their own power and influence.
So I don't think "removing the toadies" will ever work as the only thing you can replace them with is other amphibians. What has to happen is that the positions themselves have to be removed as being unnecessary. But that will never happen because govt bureaucracy always grows, never shrinks. Bureaucrats always add positions beneath them to increase their own power and influence. This is why large organizations always become bloated with middle managers.
Problem is that it is local. There are pockets of stupid people that are able to keep idiots in office. Hence we get Dodds and Smiths. Also, the parties will use gerrymandering to keep party incumbents.
"A system whereby the means is applied to the means and with sufficient force the means is turned clockwise relative to the means thus fastening the two means together into a single means."
I have been a software developer for over 30 years and I cannot tell what that patent is even talking about.
People like to assume that once the old content industry is gone all our problems go away. But I suspect techdirt will be in business long after the *AAs are dead. The fact that they are able to push things to a point where it concerns us at all is a sign of systemic corruption. The systems are broken and they will be continuously abused until we do something about it.
On the post: Just As Ecuador Grants Asylum To Assange, It Prepares To Extradite Blogger For Exposing Corruption
Re:
A better, non-flippant, non-trolling comment would be something like the following.
"The US government was also hypocritical in condemning Russia over Pussy Riot at the same time of going after Assange."
On the post: Now NBC Execs Are Just Trolling: Claim They Regret Not Tape Delaying More Of The Olympics
how do they know what the ratings were?
On the post: Netflix Provides 'Knock-offs' After Contract With Disney Ends
Re:
NFLX should run their business as a profit-sharing scheme.
1. I = total income - NFLX operating costs
2. NFLX takes 25% of I as profit. P = 0.25 * I
3. the rest (I - P) is divided among among the content providers based on percentages of what NFLX users are watching.
This system is fair and everyone is rewarded for doing the "right" things. Content providers make more profit by providing more watched content. For NFLX it is easy to keep track of what everyone is actually watching. So take advantage of the technology.
The system they have now, where everything is fixed costs will never work. Every content provider thinks their content is the most-ut. So if they see NFLX making a bigger profit they demand a big fixed cost for their content. But NFLX can't afford to pay all the content providers what they imagine they are worth. Open the books, NFLX. Share the profits fairly. Can't argue with the actual numbers.
The one thing missing in this scheme is, how does NFLX set their costs to the customer. If some content provider's profits are less than what they think they can make by cutting off NFLX to increase sales of DVDs this system fails. NFLX somehow has to balance the costs to the customers with the amount of profit going to the providers such that everybody is happy. Not sure how that gets done. But they have that same problem now in the wacky fixed-price non-workable system they are using.
On the post: Seven Reasons Why Google Is Making A Mistake In Filtering Searches Based On DMCA Notices
Re:
On the post: Why Copyright & Patent Laws Go Against How We Create
Re:
(I stole that.)
On the post: It's Never Enough: Both RIAA & MPAA Aren't Satisfied With Google Punishing 'Pirate' Sites
Re:
All digital media should be, pay what you want, when you want. They can give you suggested price and/or what others have paid as a guideline or just leave it up to you. This is easy to implement for games because they have a built-in UI. It is tougher for mp3s or AVIs. But if they gave us a website to easily get anything we wanted that website could also be used to keep track of payments. That website would put itunes and netflix out of business shortly.
On the post: It's Never Enough: Both RIAA & MPAA Aren't Satisfied With Google Punishing 'Pirate' Sites
Re: Re: Re: Hold on a minute
The problem with DRM is that it can always be circumvented. Thus, the only people that have to put up with the restrictions imposed by a DRM scheme are legitimate paying customers. Your paying customers should be the ones getting the best experience from your product, not the worst. Thus, DRM is in fact synonymous with "bad".
What needs to replace DRM is trust. Media companies should make everything as freely available (ie. no DRM) as possible and trust that people will pay for it if they find value in it. They also need to create ways for people to pay that include varying cost. When I was young, I valued music very highly and was willing to pay a lot for it. When I hit 30 something switched off in my brain and I stopped listening to music or caring much about it. Now I might value a song a 5 cents that they want me to pay $1 for, so they get $0 from me and I do without.
On the other side, in exchange for media producers trusting us, society needs to adopt an attitude that it is not ok to get something you value and pay nothing for it. ie., We need to replace law enforcement with a social stigma. Those that have the means to pay but choose not to need to be ridiculed for it. They are being nice, so we should be nice. Everyone should be good to eachother and stop fighting.
We can continue down the DRM, control, fight, enforce, restrict, greed, closed, path or the free, trust, cooperate, open, share, fair, path. The first path seems futile given the technology, and painful for everyone as it leads to anger, hatred, and conflict. While the later path leads to happiness, peace, love, and harmony among human species all over the planet. Choose!
On the post: Gibson Guitars CEO Calls Out The Government For 'Regulating Business Through Criminal Law' [Updated]
overheard in a Justice Dept bathroom just before the raid
On the post: Game Developers Concerned About A Potentially Closed Windows 8
Re: I'm not surprised
On the post: Game Developers Concerned About A Potentially Closed Windows 8
Re: Re: None of this matters
So you do understand!
On the post: Game Developers Concerned About A Potentially Closed Windows 8
Re: Re: ... Re: Why would you want to use those anyway?
On the post: Would US Education Be Better If We Replaced Algebra Requirements With Stats & Logic?
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: US And EU Still Clueless About What The SOPA And ACTA Defeats Really Mean
Re: how-can-they-not-get-it? It may be you that doesn't get it.
So I don't think "removing the toadies" will ever work as the only thing you can replace them with is other amphibians. What has to happen is that the positions themselves have to be removed as being unnecessary. But that will never happen because govt bureaucracy always grows, never shrinks. Bureaucrats always add positions beneath them to increase their own power and influence. This is why large organizations always become bloated with middle managers.
On the post: Yes, The IPAA Is A Serious Problem: Both In Process & Substance
Re:
On the post: Yes, The IPAA Is A Serious Problem: Both In Process & Substance
Would you buy it, Lamar?
You Texans that keep voting this Smith moron back into office are rightly viewed as stupid backwards hicks by the rest of the world.
On the post: MPAA Points To Its Roster Of Crappy Online Services And Asks What We're Complaining About
This comic sums up the situation nicely
Maybe this is at a level she can understand.
On the post: FBI Wants To Make It Easier For You To Tell Your Customers They Might Be Felonious Pirates
Re: Re:
On the post: Hipmunk Raises Money... And Is Immediately Threatened By Patent Troll
Re:
I have been a software developer for over 30 years and I cannot tell what that patent is even talking about.
On the post: Lamar Smith Looking To Sneak Through SOPA In Bits & Pieces, Starting With Expanding Hollywood's Global Police Force
Re: Re: Lamar Smith - on the take
On the post: ACTA's Back: European Commission Trying To Sneak In Worst Parts Using Canada-EU Trade Agreement As A Trojan Horse
Re:
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