The problem with the networks is the same problem every other old-line business seems to have when they dip their toes into a "not the way it's done" business model.
Barnes and Noble's eBook selling mechanism is shoddy and slipshod. They bought into "click on EACH book to buy," just like Amazon, while I've been buying books in bulk from Fictionwise and a shopping cart for ten years. You have no idea how nice it is to say "give me all the books in a series" and then be able to check them out with a shopping cart.
The networks still have their eyes on the "captive audience" they used to have, where there were three big networks and effectively nobody else. An audience with *choice* is just not something they think about. Or want to.
As an example, I regularly send $100/month to my two favorite webcomic artists. One of them, Bill Holbrook of "Kevin and Kell", "Safe Havens", and "On the Fastrack" fame, has a patronage program for Kevin and Kell. Donate certain amounts, and get extra goodies, including appearing as a character in the strip. My guest appearance will be on August 24.
The other artist, Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary doesn't have a patron program, but I donate anyway, and hope the support will encourage him to make PDFs of the collections available for purchase.
I consider these donations as nothing more than saying "Thank you" for work well done and hugely enjoyed.
There was a case many years ago where an innocent man was arrested, tried, and almost convicted for armed robbery, kidnapping and rape. He underwent an ordeal at the hands of police and judges that ruined his marriage and darn near landed him in prison (and remember, rapists do NOT do easy time in any prison) for crimes he had not committed.
The real culprit? A completely unrelated man who almost looked as if he were the innocent man's twin brother. There was even a movie based on this: Blind Justice.
What the newspapers forgot to ask, in their frenzy to bludgeon Google into "respecting" them, was "How much is the information (web pages) worth, and to whom?"
So they demanded, and got, a court order, requiring Google to remove their valuable web pages from Google's indexes, link sets, etc.
Now they complain because they forgot to ask "How much is information worth IF NOBODY CAN FIND OUT ABOUT IT?"
Google provides an incredibly useful service, linking interested parties with information that is useful to those parties, and the ability to locate relevant information makes each indexed page more valuable in an overall sense.
Now they're complaining that, as a direct result of their own actions and demands, their websites have suddenly become less valuable, because they have forbidden people to find them.
Re: Gov't regards "laws" as specifically TO make people into criminals!
They've already succeeded. It's been pointed out that in the modern era, you can't go through a typical day's activities without committing several felonies. If "they" want to come after you, they just pick one from Column A or one from Column B and voila!
Re: Re: Making People Hate You Is A Lousy Business Model
I don't purchase movies anymore, either, whether as VOD or DVDs [cough]Netflix DVD[/cough].
I am all "ebook all the time." However, since the publishers went to war with Amazon and burned Fictionwise almost to the ground, I'm buying a LOT fewer eBooks, with Baen being my sole remaining "buy 'em by the bunch" resource.
But that seems to be the one the MAFIAA and most book publishers seem to subscribe to.
Turn internet providers into their "copyright gestapo," use Homeland Security as armed muscle, and *of course* the people whose eyeballs they're stomping on will come flocking to them, waving money.
For details, read Eric Frank Russell's celebrated novel Wasp.
"Mail would be examined, and all suspicious parcels would be taken apart in a blast-proof room. There'd be a city-wide search with radiation-detectors for the component parts of a fission bomb. Civil defence would be alerted in readiness to cope with a mammoth explosion that might or might not take place. Anyone on the streets who walked with a secretive air and wore a slightly mad expression would be arrested and hauled in for questioning."
Somewhere in hell Bin Laden's ghost is grinning and saying "I love it when a plan comes together."
The business of business (and government, which is merely a business with legal access to force and violence), is owning your customers and, to the maximum extent possible, sucking them dry at the lowest possible cost.
As Gary North pointed out over a year ago, Facebook's major hope of making money is monetizing their users' information. And the scandals started rolling in...
ABOUT GROUPM
GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation.
In other words, they're a bunch of accountants and lawyers, not people who want to provide anything useful or do anything except demand money at gunpoint (The root word for "enforcement" is "force.") who won't be satisfied until they own your wallet.
On the post: A Response To Felicia Day On How Video Gets Funded In A Fragmented, Digital World
Re:
Barnes and Noble's eBook selling mechanism is shoddy and slipshod. They bought into "click on EACH book to buy," just like Amazon, while I've been buying books in bulk from Fictionwise and a shopping cart for ten years. You have no idea how nice it is to say "give me all the books in a series" and then be able to check them out with a shopping cart.
The networks still have their eyes on the "captive audience" they used to have, where there were three big networks and effectively nobody else. An audience with *choice* is just not something they think about. Or want to.
On the post: A Response To Felicia Day On How Video Gets Funded In A Fragmented, Digital World
Patronage isn't a bad model, when it works
The other artist, Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary doesn't have a patron program, but I donate anyway, and hope the support will encourage him to make PDFs of the collections available for purchase.
I consider these donations as nothing more than saying "Thank you" for work well done and hugely enjoyed.
On the post: When Everything You've Ever Said Can & Will Be Used Against You By Anyone... Forever
"Six Lines"
Give me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will find enough in them to hang him.
Given data mining and searchability, we are all looking at a noose, sooner or later.
On the post: Former Google CIO & EMI Digital COO Guy Explains How File Sharing Is Good For Artists
Re:
1. Destroy all possibility of "try before you buy" so the customers don't discover what's on their taste buds before they eat it.
OR
2. Give away a free jug of mouthwash with each sale.
It's pretty obvious which one the MAFIAA are stuck on.
On the post: Kim Kardashian Sues Old Navy For Hiring Actress Who Looks Like Her
Re: I can tell the difference
On the post: Kim Kardashian Sues Old Navy For Hiring Actress Who Looks Like Her
The REAL reasons for the lawsuit
2. And if the screen presence is any indication,
there's a real human being there, not just a
hollow attention-whoring shell.
On the post: The Failures Of Facial Recognition Software: Drivers Losing Licenses For Looking Like Terrorists
Justice has been there before
The real culprit? A completely unrelated man who almost looked as if he were the innocent man's twin brother. There was even a movie based on this: Blind Justice.
On the post: Newspapers Win Suit Against Google, Get Their Wish To Be Delisted, Then Complain
Value Is Relative
So they demanded, and got, a court order, requiring Google to remove their valuable web pages from Google's indexes, link sets, etc.
Now they complain because they forgot to ask "How much is information worth IF NOBODY CAN FIND OUT ABOUT IT?"
Google provides an incredibly useful service, linking interested parties with information that is useful to those parties, and the ability to locate relevant information makes each indexed page more valuable in an overall sense.
Now they're complaining that, as a direct result of their own actions and demands, their websites have suddenly become less valuable, because they have forbidden people to find them.
Does this count as karma?
On the post: EU Considers Banning Ratings Agencies From Warning That Countries May Be In Financial Trouble
Shooting the Messenger
What's really upsetting the Powers That Be is that the ratings agencies are calling the officially-ordained liars like Trichet liars.
On the post: Turns Out Some Police Like Being Filmed While On Duty
Just remember. "The innocent have nothing to fear."
On the post: Why PROTECT IP Will Fail: Cultural Acceptance, Not Fear Of Punishment, Makes People Abide By Laws
Re: Gov't regards "laws" as specifically TO make people into criminals!
On the post: Why PROTECT IP Will Fail: Cultural Acceptance, Not Fear Of Punishment, Makes People Abide By Laws
Re: Re: Making People Hate You Is A Lousy Business Model
I am all "ebook all the time." However, since the publishers went to war with Amazon and burned Fictionwise almost to the ground, I'm buying a LOT fewer eBooks, with Baen being my sole remaining "buy 'em by the bunch" resource.
On the post: Why PROTECT IP Will Fail: Cultural Acceptance, Not Fear Of Punishment, Makes People Abide By Laws
Making People Hate You Is A Lousy Business Model
Turn internet providers into their "copyright gestapo," use Homeland Security as armed muscle, and *of course* the people whose eyeballs they're stomping on will come flocking to them, waving money.
On the post: TSA Planning New, Even More Invasive Security Measures In Response To 'Threat' Of Implanted Bombs
Science Fiction Predicted This in 1957
For details, read Eric Frank Russell's celebrated novel Wasp.
Somewhere in hell Bin Laden's ghost is grinning and saying "I love it when a plan comes together."
On the post: Social Networking Wars 2011: Everyone Cutting Off Everyone Else
The Business of Business
If you think otherwise, read history.
On the post: Can Google+ Succeed Merely By Being Not Facebook?
What did Facebook expect?
On the post: Details Emerge On Best Buy's 'Music Cloud' Service
Re: Since nowhere do you disclaim this as "humor",
On the post: Copyright Holders Claim That They Should Get To Decide Any Copyright Exceptions
Oh, wait.........
On the post: Universal Music Goes To War Against Popular Hip Hop Sites & Blogs
The Bottom of the Press Release Tells the Story
In other words, they're a bunch of accountants and lawyers, not people who want to provide anything useful or do anything except demand money at gunpoint (The root word for "enforcement" is "force.") who won't be satisfied until they own your wallet.
Meh.
On the post: Recent Law School Grad Gets Berated By Judge, Then Sues Nearly Everyone Who Discussed The Case
Some Old Wisdom Applies Here
And knows not he knows not,
He is a fool,
Shun him."
Laughing like hell isn't a bad response either.
Next >>