They had a series of strips several years ago where a sports team got a new owner who wanted a "revenue flash flood" and planned to put little boxes for quarters next to the water coolers so that anybody who discussed "his team" would put in a quarter for the privilege the discussion.
"It'll be on the honor system." (long pause) "At first."
"harms everyone... except the lawyers, of course."
Oh, it harms the lawyers as well, in the long run. Fewer product choices, more environmental damage, slower innovation also deprives them of the benefits of the progress. But that's what happens to anybody who uses a weapon (and lawyers and patents ARE weapons) to do their thinking for them.
If you have anything on your computer you don't want others to see, whether it's illegal, financial, or just plain embarrassing, encrypt the hell out of it.
This genie is LONG out of the bottle. At dinner last year with an under-25 I know, he spoke openly of "trading briefcases" (500GB drives) full of movies with his buddies. It's only gonna get easier.
ATTN: MPAA 35TB = 85 thousand movies. Assuming roughly 2 hours per movie, that's two YEARS worth of movies. Swap time Thoroughly. The gummint won't save you because it won't be able to do so without a police state that would make Joseph Stalin drool with envy and even then, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
In John Hemry's story in the latest issue of Analog
the lawyer for the defense remarks that the whole mess had happened because nobody with any sanity found out about what was going on in time to prevent it.
Sounds like the guy or girl at KFC who holds the company sanity token finally found out what was going on.
Ran over and listened to the album. Some good stuff there. If it's available without DRM infestation, I think my wife might like it. So... I'll keep an ear out.
I'm reminded of Baen Books' response when the author accidentally released an almost-completed version of his latest novel. They released it as the "Oopsie" Advance Reader's Copy(ARC), available for a small fee. If you later bought the "Official" ARC, you could also get the oopsie as part of the package. If you bought the eBook, you got all three.
Wanna guess who did buy all three? And Baen is and has always been DRM-free.
*THIS* is coming from the same industry that had a teenage girl arrested for camcording twenty seconds of "The Transformers" in a theater and afterwards said "We don't distinguish between good and bad stealing."
Pricing the customers out of the market isn't new.
Several years ago, Comcast tried to blackmail me into buying an expensive "package" of five channels, four of which I couldn't have cared less about and one channel I wanted: the SciFi channel. I was told in no uncertain terms that I could not get just the channel I wanted but that I had to buy the package. I ended up cancelling Comcast entirely.
This was so long ago that recently, when I discovered that the cable running around to the back of my house was sagging in several places, I simply clipped off a stub at the entrance, and took down all the cable back to the front of the house.
I still don't miss TV. Books, DVDs and YouTube have replaced it.
I'm curious as to whether anybody in the entertainment industries is conscious of two things:
1. Good marketing is the art of making people want to give you money.
2. Once people get out of the habit of buying what you're selling, getting them back may be almost impossible.
If they're stupid enough to destroy their industry with copyrightus maximus, let them learn the hard way. Let's face it, if people want to play Russian Roulette with semiautomatic weapons, there's not a lot you can do about it.
"Experience is a harsh school, but fools will learn in no other."
I've heard "Sir" Paul's longer works. The man is simply incapable of putting any coherent music together that will take longer than three minutes fifty-nine seconds to play.
He had Susan Boyle-level fortune, in an era when that was a lot less accessible than now, and got rich on music the best of which was composed by his fellow Beatle John Lennon. But if the Beatles showed up now they'd be lost in the flood of better musicians with internet access.
The studios long ago gave up telling stories and started assembling big "CG fests" and gosh-wow effects shots and calling them movies. As far as I can tell, Wolverine is another excuse to blow a hundred million dollars on everything but the writing and storytelling, and rake in money from people who want their brains deadened by big bangs, noisy fights, and CG special effects that are physically impossible in the real world.
One good thing about Netflix, it lets you find and watch movies that are movies. Most of the good stuff these days is coming from foreign studios where the art of storytelling hasn't been buried by studio blockbusteritis.
Maybe if we ignore those idiots they'll finally go away.
The Japanese announced something called a "transistor radio" and the Americans announced a follow-on to the Model-T, and the Vatican announced Galileo's rehabilitation. (Oh, wait, that last one's true!)
On the post: Southeastern Conference Wants To 'Control Memories' Of Sporting Events; Limits Reporters & Fans
Tank McNamara Predicted This
"It'll be on the honor system." (long pause) "At first."
On the post: B&N Claims It Must DRM Public Domain Books To Protect The Copyright On Them
They're DRMing them to trap the stupid.
On the post: Great Moments In Marketing: Disney Pulls Movie Trailer Off YouTube For Copyright Claims
Re: A Caveat
*sigh* Another reason NOT to visit a movie theater and wait for NetFlix.
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"harms everyone... except the lawyers, of course."
On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Case Over Computer Tech's Right To Search Your Computer
And the moral of the story is:
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Sneakernet Rules
ATTN: MPAA 35TB = 85 thousand movies. Assuming roughly 2 hours per movie, that's two YEARS worth of movies. Swap time Thoroughly. The gummint won't save you because it won't be able to do so without a police state that would make Joseph Stalin drool with envy and even then, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
On the post: Have A Family Feast Tonight... And It Doesn't Have To Be From KFC
Reminds me of a remark in a story I just read
the lawyer for the defense remarks that the whole mess had happened because nobody with any sanity found out about what was going on in time to prevent it.
Sounds like the guy or girl at KFC who holds the company sanity token finally found out what was going on.
On the post: MPAA Points Out That Real Once Argued Against Fair Use Exceptions To The DMCA
If it weren't so serious, I'd laugh like hell.
Consistency is soooo hard to achieve. :)
On the post: Wilco Shows The Entertainment Industry How To Respond To A Leak
Not Too Shabby
I'm reminded of Baen Books' response when the author accidentally released an almost-completed version of his latest novel. They released it as the "Oopsie" Advance Reader's Copy(ARC), available for a small fee. If you later bought the "Official" ARC, you could also get the oopsie as part of the package. If you bought the eBook, you got all three.
Wanna guess who did buy all three? And Baen is and has always been DRM-free.
On the post: MPAA Shows How Teachers Should Record Movies By Camcording Their TVs
Hypocrisy Plus!
On the post: Will Content Company Greed Destroy The Pay TV Business?
Pricing the customers out of the market isn't new.
This was so long ago that recently, when I discovered that the cable running around to the back of my house was sagging in several places, I simply clipped off a stub at the entrance, and took down all the cable back to the front of the house.
I still don't miss TV. Books, DVDs and YouTube have replaced it.
I'm curious as to whether anybody in the entertainment industries is conscious of two things:
1. Good marketing is the art of making people want to give you money.
2. Once people get out of the habit of buying what you're selling, getting them back may be almost impossible.
On the post: Get Overly Aggressive With Your Trademark... And Watch Your Reputation Fall
Actually, Jeffers' reputation isn't in that much trouble.
On the post: Fashion Designers Hope That Michelle Obama Gets Them Copyright On Clothing Design
Protecting "patterns of language"? Being done.
On the post: Fashion Designers Hope That Michelle Obama Gets Them Copyright On Clothing Design
So what?
"Experience is a harsh school, but fools will learn in no other."
On the post: Paul McCartney's Confused About The Pirate Bay
Definitely lucky
He had Susan Boyle-level fortune, in an era when that was a lot less accessible than now, and got rich on music the best of which was composed by his fellow Beatle John Lennon. But if the Beatles showed up now they'd be lost in the flood of better musicians with internet access.
Lucky? Oh, yes.
On the post: Great Moments In AP Protectionism: Demands Takedown Of Videos It Purposely Shared With Affiliate
Re: Theft
On the post: Great Moments In AP Protectionism: Demands Takedown Of Videos It Purposely Shared With Affiliate
Stupidity is more abundant than hydrogen.
LOL
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Mattel, eh?
On the post: Fox Fires Columnist For 'Reviewing' Leaked Copy Of Wolverine
And this is important? Why?
One good thing about Netflix, it lets you find and watch movies that are movies. Most of the good stuff these days is coming from foreign studios where the art of storytelling hasn't been buried by studio blockbusteritis.
Maybe if we ignore those idiots they'll finally go away.
On the post: Perhaps The Major Record Labels Will Discover Twitter In 2015
And in more related news...
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