There are so many anachronistic terms in industry analysis that they really do need to redefine a lot of them; they've just failed to do so usefully. Calling all moving picture entertainment in the home "television" doesn't fix their problem - people paying them less and competitors more. It makes investors less nervous if they don't see through the BS, but is not a solution.
Old term = New Term Broadcast TV = OTA Broadcast Cable TV = Proprietary Broadcast IP TV (FIOS) = Proprietary Broadcast On Demand Video (from Broadcast company) = Walled Garden Streaming Video = User Chosen Content Content Cord Cutting = Broadcast Cutting
Most people aren't cutting cords in the sense the no longer watch anything, they're opting for choice over broadcast. The concept that you have to tune in at a certain time or remember what channel a show is on, that's what's going to go away. That's what "Television" used to mean -"broadcast entertainment" as a mass transmitted one-way media consumption platform. Now television means whatever you choose to put on the big screen in your house, and broadcast companies are still bleeding subscribers and lashing out.
So what is their solution? Offering the same broadcast content delivered by a different protocol on your computer or phone? Increase the number of broadcast channels, hoping one may match a user's interests? Offering crappy "VOD" titles packaged with the same broadcast subscription people don't want? Making their broadcast subscription integral to the Infrastructure they hold a monopoly on, or charging more to deliver competitor's content? Sure. Those will all work for a while. But they're not sustainable, it's like fighting the tide. If they're serious about competing on content, they need to compete on content and accept that they will be a part (a small part) of a customer's entertainment choices. The age of Studio/Broadcaster/Cable control is ending. The time of consumer choice has come.
Bullying seems to be quite a lot like pornography these days. Certain people think it's better restricted by the government than parents, is somehow worse when online, and they have a hell of a time describing what does or doesn't constitute it. But they still "know it when they see it" and are more than willing to try fixing a problem they don't understand.
Pff... good luck with that. As soon as my patent on a printer that DOESN'T check for authorization is approved you're going to be between a rock and hard place.
Yeah, they've already established that they don't have to show the court or defense how they broke into a system. "Just trust us, we got in. *wink*" Wave a folder in the air, shake your fist menacingly, and no one will ever know it's empty.
"surely it can build a technology that can determine what is and what is not fair use."
Sure, I mean given enough time and resources, I'm positive that crack squads of elite nerds will create a super intelligent AI who will become self aware, enslave us all, and declare that there is no fair use because copyright is fucking stupid and hereby abolished. All in due time.
1) Have you heard of books? I've seen a lot of cord cutters claim to either reduce or eliminate their amount of screen time consumed. 2) Cord cutters can still find the transition worth while because they can choose the terms of their entertainment (what, where, when) even if it isn't less expensive.
The issue isn't just that it's getting more expensive, it's more expensive for something they don't want. That's a problem with broadcast entertainment. Paying for 500 channels is crazy. I only need one channel if it's always showing exactly what I want.
I use the Tragedy of the Commons frequently to explain lots of different situations (maybe too many). The commonality is in entities overindulging in a shared limited resource because they assume others would do so if they didn't. The old "I got mine" mentality.
The only way I can conform that to this situation is if we, the paying cable customers, are the limited resource. He's upset because competitors are overgrazing their sheep and killing the grass... aka jacking up the rates too fast and driving customers away from broadcast tv.
This interpretation pisses me off. First it lays blame on exploitative grazing and not on the fact that the grass realized it had better shit to do than wait around and get chomped. He thinks if only they weren't quite so abusive their captive market would be safe and we'd be consuming like we did in the 70's; they had a system to bleed us slow dammit, what was wrong with that?
And second it casts consumers as a passive resource with no choice but to be overgrazed upon. In reality a competitive market would see consumers being overcharged and respond with competition not equal price hikes across the board. But the content companies thought they had the market locked down, that the grass had nowhere to go, so they grazed and charged and shot themselves in the foot.
So I'll agree they've got a tragedy on their hands, but I don't think it's of the commons. If anything this seems more like a King Lear or Oedipus Rex style tragedy in the "went crazy and ruined your empire/ killed your family and blinded yourself" sense.
Wasn't there a more concrete report of the government remotely activating smartphones to listen in on whatever they'd like? Did the newfangled smartphone industry overcome that hurdle, or did we just forget?
I think the larger issue than "insert new technology here" can be hacked is that there are malicious hackers exempt from laws meant to protect us from intrusion; and they are the government.
I am sick and tired of the continual slander of the hard working population in our nation's capitol. We may perpetually host the asshole Olympics, but every single contestant is, by definition, from somewhere else. Don't blame your assholes on us!
(Let me start with a preface that 14 years is wildly more rollback than I can even dream of seeing effected in my lifetime.)
What about "modern terms" makes 14 years shorter than ever? People experience and consume more, travel and communicate further and faster, records are more permanent and accessible, job/career turnover is more frequent and prevalent, and there are more efficient methods for devising and expressing creative output than ever before in human history. Everything happens more immediately in "Modern Times". This means that 1) things can be brought to market and monetized in less time and 2) popular entertainment holds our attention for less time before the endless swirling cycle replaces today's hot new thing; relegating it to a brief stint with syndicated tv on its way to sadly fading from existence at Foster's Home for Orphaned Works.
The only way that 14 years seems shorter is if you're an immortal being seeking to pump out franchised sequels for 100 years without coming up with anything new. Which in my view should be a separate debate. Should Groening have lost the monopoly rights to the concept of the characters he created? Eh, they're still doing things with them so let's just assume for now that he's allowed to prevent knockoff competitors (and nevermind that there essentially have been, just with different characters) and focus on the literal fixed expressions.
The Episodes. 26 years later, what real value does Groening derive in preventing school children from seeing the very first Simpsons episode? Is it greater than the benefit of permanently preserving the phenomenon? Is that episode really the same packaged entertainment drawn to drive ad impressions, or is it now historical context, part of our collective conscience and modern culture? I bet you can guess my answers, but to quote the illustrious Dr Jones "it belongs in a museum!"
I'd be interested to know what you consider "an extremely short period of time." Certainly not 100 years. 75? 50? How much time is needed to properly monetize a work and incentivize its creation? Sure seems like with modern production and distribution methods, that number should be going down. Not inexorably up.
Re: Re: Can't imagine where the confusion comes from.
Yes, that's an excellent distinction to explain. If Netflix preloaded video they could still send a downsampled version for less total throughput (MB) even though it might take only a few seconds (MB/s) to transfer 30 mins of tv. Further, "throttling" is a general concept in computing, every reference in this "controversy" has been using it when they mean "broadband throtting." We're not talking about process throttling or CPU throttling (which are fine and useful techniques) because the general public has learned that "throttling bad" because broadband throttling has been an unseen form of abuse perpetrated by ISPs and we're finally catching on that it is usually warrant-less and bad.
It's the difference between swapping 100W bulbs for 20W LEDs so your total electric bill is less every month vs the power company limiting your lamps to only 20W and dimming the lights.
"things he couldn't talk about and things he didn't know. At times, it was difficult to distinguish between the two."
I'm pretty well convinced that things are "secret" more times than not because of how stupid and embarassing they are; not because they are vital elements of some greater good. Comey, and his non-statements, seems to fall squarely in the former.
I think private companies should be able to draft up whatever secret trade deals they want. And they should be given no more weight by elected officials than the "trade deals" I cook up alone in my basement. But if they're expecting fast track favoritism it's no longer a private draft. Show us what you've got or just take it home and shred it.
But... but... don't you wish UPS would open your boxes and replace the contents with worse versions of whatever you really ordered? Consumers should be able to choose to make their lives worse from a single control panel! Now that's innovation.
I might argue that fictional languages are probably entitled to copyright protection (WAIT! hear me out!) in the sense that a fictional language would be a discrete series of fabricated quotes, fixed expressions, in whatever context they are proposed to have meaning. However when a language consists of a body of words with rules for combining them and is used by a group for communication, it is no longer fictional. It is, as stated, a useful system and outside of its creator's control.
One more time; sending a smaller file is not throttling. I guess if everyone keeps using the wrong word to describe what Netflix does the meaning will just change. But then we should come up with a new term for "the intentional slowing of Internet service by an Internet service provider."
On the post: Once Again With Feeling: Cord Cutting Is Not A 'Myth'
Re: includes forced subscribers too
On the post: Once Again With Feeling: Cord Cutting Is Not A 'Myth'
Redefine away!
Old term = New Term
Broadcast TV = OTA Broadcast
Cable TV = Proprietary Broadcast
IP TV (FIOS) = Proprietary Broadcast
On Demand Video (from Broadcast company) = Walled Garden
Streaming Video = User Chosen Content Content
Cord Cutting = Broadcast Cutting
Most people aren't cutting cords in the sense the no longer watch anything, they're opting for choice over broadcast. The concept that you have to tune in at a certain time or remember what channel a show is on, that's what's going to go away. That's what "Television" used to mean -"broadcast entertainment" as a mass transmitted one-way media consumption platform. Now television means whatever you choose to put on the big screen in your house, and broadcast companies are still bleeding subscribers and lashing out.
So what is their solution? Offering the same broadcast content delivered by a different protocol on your computer or phone? Increase the number of broadcast channels, hoping one may match a user's interests? Offering crappy "VOD" titles packaged with the same broadcast subscription people don't want? Making their broadcast subscription integral to the Infrastructure they hold a monopoly on, or charging more to deliver competitor's content? Sure. Those will all work for a while. But they're not sustainable, it's like fighting the tide. If they're serious about competing on content, they need to compete on content and accept that they will be a part (a small part) of a customer's entertainment choices. The age of Studio/Broadcaster/Cable control is ending. The time of consumer choice has come.
On the post: Cop Abuses Bad Cyberbullying Law To Arrest Man For Calling Him A Pedophile To His Face
Oh my stars!
On the post: IBM Wants To Patent A Printer That Won't Let You Output Unauthorized Copies
Re: Good.
On the post: IBM Wants To Patent A Printer That Won't Let You Output Unauthorized Copies
Re: It parses the content for potential copyrighted material?
On the post: Government Argues That Indefinite Solitary Confinement Perfectly Acceptable Punishment For Failing To Decrypt Devices
Re:
On the post: German Court Insults Free Speech, Bans Comedian From Mocking Turkish President
On the post: A Dozen Bad Ideas That Were Raised At The Copyright Office's DMCA Roundtables
Eventually...
On the post: Cable Company CEO Calls TV Business A 'Tragedy Of The Commons' That Ends Badly
Re: Illusion of 'Free'
2) Cord cutters can still find the transition worth while because they can choose the terms of their entertainment (what, where, when) even if it isn't less expensive.
The issue isn't just that it's getting more expensive, it's more expensive for something they don't want. That's a problem with broadcast entertainment. Paying for 500 channels is crazy. I only need one channel if it's always showing exactly what I want.
On the post: Cable Company CEO Calls TV Business A 'Tragedy Of The Commons' That Ends Badly
Partial Credit.
The only way I can conform that to this situation is if we, the paying cable customers, are the limited resource. He's upset because competitors are overgrazing their sheep and killing the grass... aka jacking up the rates too fast and driving customers away from broadcast tv.
This interpretation pisses me off. First it lays blame on exploitative grazing and not on the fact that the grass realized it had better shit to do than wait around and get chomped. He thinks if only they weren't quite so abusive their captive market would be safe and we'd be consuming like we did in the 70's; they had a system to bleed us slow dammit, what was wrong with that?
And second it casts consumers as a passive resource with no choice but to be overgrazed upon. In reality a competitive market would see consumers being overcharged and respond with competition not equal price hikes across the board. But the content companies thought they had the market locked down, that the grass had nowhere to go, so they grazed and charged and shot themselves in the foot.
So I'll agree they've got a tragedy on their hands, but I don't think it's of the commons. If anything this seems more like a King Lear or Oedipus Rex style tragedy in the "went crazy and ruined your empire/ killed your family and blinded yourself" sense.
On the post: FBI Response To FOIA Request About Whether It Is Hacking Your Amazon Echo: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Microphones everywhere.
I think the larger issue than "insert new technology here" can be hacked is that there are malicious hackers exempt from laws meant to protect us from intrusion; and they are the government.
On the post: Congress Questions Facebook About Something It Probably Didn't Do With A Feature That Barely Matters
On the post: UK Gov't Pushing For 10-Year Jail Sentences For Copyright Infringement Based On ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: Re: Re: Re:
What about "modern terms" makes 14 years shorter than ever? People experience and consume more, travel and communicate further and faster, records are more permanent and accessible, job/career turnover is more frequent and prevalent, and there are more efficient methods for devising and expressing creative output than ever before in human history. Everything happens more immediately in "Modern Times". This means that 1) things can be brought to market and monetized in less time and 2) popular entertainment holds our attention for less time before the endless swirling cycle replaces today's hot new thing; relegating it to a brief stint with syndicated tv on its way to sadly fading from existence at Foster's Home for Orphaned Works.
The only way that 14 years seems shorter is if you're an immortal being seeking to pump out franchised sequels for 100 years without coming up with anything new. Which in my view should be a separate debate. Should Groening have lost the monopoly rights to the concept of the characters he created? Eh, they're still doing things with them so let's just assume for now that he's allowed to prevent knockoff competitors (and nevermind that there essentially have been, just with different characters) and focus on the literal fixed expressions.
The Episodes. 26 years later, what real value does Groening derive in preventing school children from seeing the very first Simpsons episode? Is it greater than the benefit of permanently preserving the phenomenon? Is that episode really the same packaged entertainment drawn to drive ad impressions, or is it now historical context, part of our collective conscience and modern culture? I bet you can guess my answers, but to quote the illustrious Dr Jones "it belongs in a museum!"
On the post: UK Gov't Pushing For 10-Year Jail Sentences For Copyright Infringement Based On ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re:
On the post: Netflix Settles Throttling 'Controversy' By Letting Mobile Users Throttle Themselves (Or Not)
Re: Re: Can't imagine where the confusion comes from.
It's the difference between swapping 100W bulbs for 20W LEDs so your total electric bill is less every month vs the power company limiting your lamps to only 20W and dimming the lights.
On the post: Petition Calls For James Comey To Hang Up His Anti-Encryption Hat And Resign As Head Of The FBI
On the post: European Parliament Orders MEP To Take Down A Video About His Attempt To Visit The 'Reading Room' For Trade Documents
Re: Re:
On the post: Netflix Settles Throttling 'Controversy' By Letting Mobile Users Throttle Themselves (Or Not)
Re: Baseball?
On the post: The Fight Over Copyrighting Klingon Heats Up, And Gets More Ridiculous
majQa' Daj
On the post: Netflix Settles Throttling 'Controversy' By Letting Mobile Users Throttle Themselves (Or Not)
Can't imagine where the confusion comes from.
Next >>