When can the "wrongfully" blocked sites start litigation?
I wonder if the wrongfully blocked sites and services can sue the ISP's for blocking them and directly harming their revenues?
Hey! Maybe if the ISDS resolutions in TTIP and the like get through, then companies can sue Cameron's government directly for the "lost" revenues due to erroneous blocking.
As it stands, I can't find any official position from the Producers Guild of America either. I asked for one on their Twitter stream, no answer yet; but don't expect one. It would be good to hear if we have one so I can hasten my exit;)
You should believe it. The communication channels from union leaders to their members is generally awful, and once in a while bubbles up to only slightly bad.
I've worked with a lot of IATSE members and they are regularly surprised by things their "leadership" does.
Also interesting to note that my own industry trade association (not a union), the Producers Guild of America, seems to have taken no public stance on this issue; which makes me wonder if they're using my annual dues to fund lobbying on behalf of SOPA... hm.
This comment is a little disingenuous; I've licensed a LOT of music for traditional television and film use, and the terms Mike's talking about in my experience have been similar in negotiations.
If you read the online music agreements at ASCAP or BMI (and that's royalty collecting only), you will see they are indeed structured as Mike points out above.
Oh, and I'll adjust my argument. Obviously not ALL network and studio execs think/know their business models are in trouble.
Some prefer life with their heads in their sand - most have 10, 20 years max until they're out, retired with lots of money or dead; so the longer they can keep their legacy gravy train rolling and then jump off and let the new guys figure it out, the better for them.
All good for them; but probably not so good for the long term sustainability of the companies they "lead."
THIS is THE fundamental problem with legacy media today.
I'm a Producers Guild member - and time and time again, the network and studio execs all know their business model is broken, but can't figure out how to fix it.
It all boils down to a business that requires 100% lockdown on every bit of IP and creativity; they *will not relinquish or share any lick of control* with content creators.
This is the #1 reason they will eventually fail.
Adapting means giving up some level of control, because they no longer hold *all the keys* to the kingdom of content distribution. And they are not (yet) willing to cede any level of control, even when doing so could be a big net benefit for them.
And while I understand that it's not in LoC's purview nor budget to catalog and archive what IS our ever-evolving digital culture at any given moment, it's a great point to be brought up.
I actually HAVE my 1995 original GeoCities website (Soho/8499) backed up on a data disc. It's hilarious, somewhat sad, and accurate to look back on the images and text included as a viable-to-be-cataloged moment in time of digital culture.
That said, how the heck would one go about that? I have no idea; other than to guess it would take a helluva lot of data storage and money.
Even worse (and slightly off-topic) is the number of old film & television series we are going to loose, that will never get to be public-domained because the studios and networks *literally* can't find the right paperwork that allows them to create digital copies. There's a LOT of this media, that is going to disappear.
What is this "internationally accepted" ad you speak of? ;)
It does not exist. There's a large # of reasons that international sales are just that, sales to territories. And while money is one of them, regionalization (think, digital personalization) is one of them. Subtitling, dubbing into other languages, culturally acceptable ad sales materials, etc. are others.
Now, that's not a defense of the way thing are now, but there really truly *are* things that can and should be "value adds" in regional sales of content in a global market.
But generally speaking, regional distribs/resellers (if you will) of content are far further behind the tech curve than we are; so to suggest these newer digital models to the middlemen (who really can add some local value), really threatens their own businesses, and on top of that, they're not technically capable of delivering to their broader audience in ways that provide good experiences to their audience and still satisfies tracking and reporting (at the very least, even forgetting DRM, which the US rightsholders are, of course, unwilling to do) requirements.
Anyway, it's a little thornier than we'd all like it to be for sure. It will, eventually get sorted out.
To add to this, I've done two indie films this way, with investors in LLC's. Adam's structure is about standard, though I'll add a bit more detail.
In indie-land, we'll usually pay back gross receipts minus some minor approved costs like very, very minimal overhead, accounting fees, and union residuals to investors first until they are made whole plus a set return (recoupment for the investors on my last film outperformed the S&P 500 by about 16% over 5 years from 2004-2010, which ain't sayin' much, but hey, at least it didn't *lose* money).
After making the investors whole "plus," the profit split shifted to a 50/50 with producers and investors (which, was as it turned out, just about um, zero... the film did no more business). But the deal itself was fair, and scalable.
The Studios CANNOT RELEASE much of their back catalog due to the fact they don't even know if their old rights deals allow them to release a lot of it digitally.
In particular, they are not sure that the music deals on old tv and films are cleared for digital releases, AND they are not willing to spend the legal $$$ (a lot) to find out. In many cases, the physical paper rights records simply don't exist anymore. And if they can't prove they have the rights, they can't get E&O insurance coverage, and if they can't get E&O on the digital releases, they simply won't release it. It's too big a liability for them.
I don't think you're going to see a lot of older back-catalog content until it falls into public domain, a very long time from now.
On the post: ISP Blocks For Copyright And Porn Denying Access To All Sorts Of Important Information
When can the "wrongfully" blocked sites start litigation?
Hey! Maybe if the ISDS resolutions in TTIP and the like get through, then companies can sue Cameron's government directly for the "lost" revenues due to erroneous blocking.
This whole situation is nuts.
On the post: Amazon Freaks Out About Sock Puppet Reviews And Deletes A Bunch Of Real Reviews
Sooo disappointed
On the post: Can We Count The Ways In Which Lowe's 'License Agreement' For Linking To Its Site Is Insane?
Thank you sir, May I have another?
Thanks for helping make my shopping decisions easy!
On the post: Is The US Meddling In Polish ACTA Voting?
Bring on the Popcorn
On the post: EA: We Have Never Taken A Position, Either Way, On SOPA Or PIPA
yeah, weird, neither has my "guild"
On the post: Hollywood Union Members Sign Petition Asking MPAA & Hollywood Unions To Stop Supporting PIPA/SOPA
Re:
I've worked with a lot of IATSE members and they are regularly surprised by things their "leadership" does.
Also interesting to note that my own industry trade association (not a union), the Producers Guild of America, seems to have taken no public stance on this issue; which makes me wonder if they're using my annual dues to fund lobbying on behalf of SOPA... hm.
I better ask.
(and let's see if anyone there responds: http://twitter.com/#!/MPGjon/status/154300218865754113
On the post: A Problem Worse Than Piracy? The Ridiculous Structure Of Online Music Licensing Deals
Re:
If you read the online music agreements at ASCAP or BMI (and that's royalty collecting only), you will see they are indeed structured as Mike points out above.
Here's the links for yourselves:
http://www.ascap.com/licensing/digital/reports/
http://www.bmi.com/licensing/entry/549 538
Convoluted JUNK.
Here's a fun one; my favorite - the Gross Revenue reporting form:
http://www.bmi.com/forms/licensing/newmedia/web_gross_rev_quarterly.pdf
On the post: Warner Bros. Buys Story That Was Written In The Reddit Comments; Then Tells Author To Stop Redditing
Re: Re: Fundamental Problem
Some prefer life with their heads in their sand - most have 10, 20 years max until they're out, retired with lots of money or dead; so the longer they can keep their legacy gravy train rolling and then jump off and let the new guys figure it out, the better for them.
All good for them; but probably not so good for the long term sustainability of the companies they "lead."
On the post: Warner Bros. Buys Story That Was Written In The Reddit Comments; Then Tells Author To Stop Redditing
Re: Re: Fundamental Problem
On the post: Righthaven Still Trying To Avoid Paying Any Legal Fees Of Those It Illegally Sued
Hey, Stephens Media, YOU got any money?
On the post: Warner Bros. Buys Story That Was Written In The Reddit Comments; Then Tells Author To Stop Redditing
Fundamental Problem
I'm a Producers Guild member - and time and time again, the network and studio execs all know their business model is broken, but can't figure out how to fix it.
It all boils down to a business that requires 100% lockdown on every bit of IP and creativity; they *will not relinquish or share any lick of control* with content creators.
This is the #1 reason they will eventually fail.
Adapting means giving up some level of control, because they no longer hold *all the keys* to the kingdom of content distribution. And they are not (yet) willing to cede any level of control, even when doing so could be a big net benefit for them.
On the post: One More Time, With Feeling: Winklevii Lose Yet Again
Positively Winklevossian
On the post: How Important Is It To Preserve Our Digital Heritage?
Ephemera = Culture
And while I understand that it's not in LoC's purview nor budget to catalog and archive what IS our ever-evolving digital culture at any given moment, it's a great point to be brought up.
I actually HAVE my 1995 original GeoCities website (Soho/8499) backed up on a data disc. It's hilarious, somewhat sad, and accurate to look back on the images and text included as a viable-to-be-cataloged moment in time of digital culture.
That said, how the heck would one go about that? I have no idea; other than to guess it would take a helluva lot of data storage and money.
Even worse (and slightly off-topic) is the number of old film & television series we are going to loose, that will never get to be public-domained because the studios and networks *literally* can't find the right paperwork that allows them to create digital copies. There's a LOT of this media, that is going to disappear.
On the post: TV People Realizing That The Internet Is Global
Re:
It does not exist. There's a large # of reasons that international sales are just that, sales to territories. And while money is one of them, regionalization (think, digital personalization) is one of them. Subtitling, dubbing into other languages, culturally acceptable ad sales materials, etc. are others.
Now, that's not a defense of the way thing are now, but there really truly *are* things that can and should be "value adds" in regional sales of content in a global market.
But generally speaking, regional distribs/resellers (if you will) of content are far further behind the tech curve than we are; so to suggest these newer digital models to the middlemen (who really can add some local value), really threatens their own businesses, and on top of that, they're not technically capable of delivering to their broader audience in ways that provide good experiences to their audience and still satisfies tracking and reporting (at the very least, even forgetting DRM, which the US rightsholders are, of course, unwilling to do) requirements.
Anyway, it's a little thornier than we'd all like it to be for sure. It will, eventually get sorted out.
On the post: Kevin Smith's Red State Movie Nearing Profitability... Even Prior To Regular Theatrical Release
Re: Independant film financing
In indie-land, we'll usually pay back gross receipts minus some minor approved costs like very, very minimal overhead, accounting fees, and union residuals to investors first until they are made whole plus a set return (recoupment for the investors on my last film outperformed the S&P 500 by about 16% over 5 years from 2004-2010, which ain't sayin' much, but hey, at least it didn't *lose* money).
After making the investors whole "plus," the profit split shifted to a 50/50 with producers and investors (which, was as it turned out, just about um, zero... the film did no more business). But the deal itself was fair, and scalable.
On the post: Yet Another Study Shows That Students Inherently Know That File Sharing Is Not Theft
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lies!
Wow, this is deep. Heh.
On the post: Newspaper Tells Reporters Not To Engage With Community
Robots
On the post: Hollywood Continues Its Plan To Kill Netflix
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Our relationships in general with the Networks and Studios have been painful and acrimonious; there are very few exceptions to this.
Many of us would far rather pitch nerds than MBA's.
On the post: Hollywood Continues Its Plan To Kill Netflix
Re: Re: Consequences?
The Studios CANNOT RELEASE much of their back catalog due to the fact they don't even know if their old rights deals allow them to release a lot of it digitally.
In particular, they are not sure that the music deals on old tv and films are cleared for digital releases, AND they are not willing to spend the legal $$$ (a lot) to find out. In many cases, the physical paper rights records simply don't exist anymore. And if they can't prove they have the rights, they can't get E&O insurance coverage, and if they can't get E&O on the digital releases, they simply won't release it. It's too big a liability for them.
I don't think you're going to see a lot of older back-catalog content until it falls into public domain, a very long time from now.
On the post: Hollywood Continues Its Plan To Kill Netflix
Re: Re:
Yep. And I have friends who are queuing up to pitch original content series to Netflix like there's no tomorrow.
If producers can get better production financing deals, and less pain from a Netflix deal they'll go there in a hurry.
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