BBC p2p file sharing farce: II
p2p news / p2pnet: In January, Britain’s BBC ran a useless Q&A session on digital music with various music industry vested interests providing the responses.
Of course, it was really about file sharing and DRM.
There was no input from the online music community and the resulting ‘answers’ were predictably heavily biased and completely self-serving.
Now, it’s a month later and the Beeb has the repeated the exercise with, "the eight sharpest and most pertinent questions" being put to a, "virtual panel" made up of, "Some of the leading figures in the global film industry," namely:
- Dan ‘Jedi’ Glickman, who runs Hollywood enforcement agency the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America)
- Lavinia Carey, director general of the British Video Association (BVA)
- Curt Marvis, chief executive of CinemaNow, billed as the "leading legal movie download service"
- John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, which represents US cinemas.
Below are four of the eight questions.
Why am I made to sit through fluff at the start of DVDs I bought with no option to skip it? The most insulting is the "Buy movies don’t download them" one. I did buy the movie, and now I’m being made to sit through a video aimed at people who don’t buy their movies! Stephen Moore, Lisburn, UK
Glickman: On some DVDs, there are trailers to educate and encourage people not to steal copyrights. While not everyone who buys or rents a DVD is going to commit acts of piracy, we are trying to spread a message.
Protecting movie copyrights is vital to this industry and we hope that we can reach some people and that others will fast forward through these announcements and realise we are not focusing on them.
Carey: UK research shows that, on average, downloaders are film fans who view the same number of legitimate films (cinema, rented and bought DVDs) as the average active DVD consumer (24).
On top of that, they also consume illegitimately acquired movies. So even though they buy fewer legitimate DVDs, showing the anti-piracy trailer on a DVD is a good way to reach them with the message that file-sharing is a crime.
Why would I pay to go to a cinema with uncomfortable seating, high prices, even higher priced food, bratty kids and high gas prices when I can sit at home with my family and friends in front of a 60" plasma screen eating my food on my comfortable couch and watch a brand new movie I just downloaded for $0? Ersal Cahit, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Glickman: This kind of a question is very interesting to me. I myself love to go to the movies and I love being in the theatre with other viewers and sharing the communal experience of watching a movie with several other strangers.
But it is clear that some people also like to stay at home and watch movies on their couches or their personal home theatres. Theater owners are experimenting with different kinds of options for moviegoers and I continue to believe that lots of people will always love going to the theatre and some won’t – everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Carey: I can see why someone who is completely unaware of the consequences would choose to watch a new movie for free if that’s the alternative! But you won’t get great movies for much longer if everyone moves to that business model as movies need to be paid for. So if you enjoy watching movies, please switch to a legally supplied source straight away.
Fithian: Enjoy your couch friend. You earned it.
The cinema experience, however, continues to be an important alternative for people who, in director M Night Shyamalan’s words, relish the communal experience of films on the big screen, which remains the best and most powerful platform for the full range of cinematic art.
Marvis: Most people are not illegally downloading movies, so even at home you should assume there will be a fee. That said, it is still less expensive to watch a movie at home than to go to the theatre.
But I think people will always go to the movies. People do like to leave the house. Mom and dad want to get away from the kids. The kids certainly want to get away from mom and dad. Of course, certain movies are better for home viewing while other movies are better in the theatre.
Why am I made to sit through fluff at the start of DVDs I bought with no option to skip it? The most insulting is the "Buy movies don’t download them" one. I did buy the movie, and now I’m being made to sit through a video aimed at people who don’t buy their movies! Stephen Moore, Lisburn, UK
Glickman: On some DVDs, there are trailers to educate and encourage people not to steal copyrights. While not everyone who buys or rents a DVD is going to commit acts of piracy, we are trying to spread a message.
Protecting movie copyrights is vital to this industry and we hope that we can reach some people and that others will fast forward through these announcements and realise we are not focusing on them.
Carey: UK research shows that, on average, downloaders are film fans who view the same number of legitimate films (cinema, rented and bought DVDs) as the average active DVD consumer (24).
On top of that, they also consume illegitimately acquired movies. So even though they buy fewer legitimate DVDs, showing the anti-piracy trailer on a DVD is a good way to reach them with the message that file-sharing is a crime.
[NOTE: file sharing is NOT a crime - Ed]
In retrospect, how would you say the VCR affected your ability to function as a profitable business? At the time of its release, it was declared to be the death toll for the movie industry. Would you say that declaration was accurate? Michael Wainwright, Austin, Texas, USA
Glickman: It is clear there is a huge market for home video rental and home entertainment products either rented or purchased. I personally think that there is nothing harmful about finding new and more ways for consumers to see movies how they want and when they want and I think our companies recognise that too.
Carey: History shows that the VCR re-awakened the public’s interest in movies and far from dealing a blow to the film industry, it spurred the cinemas into improving their offering at a time when the box office had fallen to an all-time low in the UK.
Cinema admissions in the UK are more than twice today what they were 20 years ago and the video industry contributes four times as much.
Fithian: Obviously the VCR did not doom the film industry, just as the earlier and even greater peril of television did not doom the film industry.
The cinema industry never believed that either of these technological tidal waves would doom our part of the industry. We simply saw them as new ways to bring more films to more people, and thus to enhance the overall popularity of and demand for films – following, however, the critical distribution pattern of sequential release that has made the film industry so profitable and popular all over the world.
Also See:
useless Q&A – BBC p2p file sharing farce, January 25, 2006
most pertinent questions – Digital film: Industry answers, February 9, 2006
February 9th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
2 of the questions are the same… what’s up with that?
February 10th, 2006 at 12:22 am
“Glickman: …encourage people not to steal copyrights.”
Surely stealing their rights would mean they would be deprived of those rights? Is anyone depriving them of their rights? Infringing maybe but certainly not stealing.
It is clear the man is talking a load of rubbish and is probably best ignored.
February 10th, 2006 at 1:57 am
I love the last one where they’re all pretending that their industry was never ever frightened by tv or vcr’s.
Yeah right.
The truth is they are terrified. They’ve finally woken up and realised their whole industry is just one big middle man, and we all know what happens to the middle man.
February 10th, 2006 at 11:15 am
All the site operator really cares about is the revenue from the advertisements on the site, not the editorial integrity of the stories. Most of them are just rants anyway.
Having said that, I keep visiting this site.
It’s like a train wreck … horrifying, yet I can’t look away.
Go figure
February 13th, 2006 at 7:15 am
“I love the last one where they’re all pretending that their industry was never ever frightened by tv or vcr’s.
Yeah right.
The truth is they are terrified. They’ve finally woken up and realised their whole industry is just one big middle man, and we all know what happens to the middle man.”
Tony, you are absolutely right. You may remember the Sony Betamax case. the movie studios sued Sony to try to get them to stop selling VCR’s, saying that it allowed people to break copyright laws and make illegal recordings of tv shows and movies. thankfully, the courts made the right decision, saying that the legitimate uses of a vcr greatly outweigh the illegitimate uses. they also said that “fair use” laws allowed consumers to tape shows. can you imagine a world without VCRs and DVD’s? sales and rentals of movies account for a huge percentage of the market. theaters are losing money every year, but rentals and dvd sales continue to be strong.
if the studios had gotten their way, they’ve would’ve not only deprived consumers of a very useful and beneficial tool, they would’ve deprived themselves of a huge business opportunity. this is the EXACT same kind of short-sighted, narrow-minded BS that the RIAA is pulling right now with all these p2p lawsuits.
the RIAA are idiots if they think p2p is going away. they want to take rights away from us, and we have to fight back. they realize that they are quite rapidly becoming irrelevant so they’re filing all these ridiculous suits against people to scare us all into submission.
i am not unsympathetic to the RIAA. I support honest businesses, rewarding hard work and innovation, however, I cannot tolerate liars. the RIAA has demonstrated that they don’t care about decency and the truth, and for that they deserve to be extinguished. As I’ve wrote in my article, we’re not the enemy, but treating people with contempt and disrespect will not go unpunished. It’s time to hammer in that final nail in their coffin.