Hollywood and downloads
p2p news / p2pnet: "It’s not a question of right or wrong any more.
"People will do what they want to do in order to get what they want. What’s that line? ‘Behind every great fortune lies a great crime’.
"So the guys who started this business all cheated somebody to get there, and now they’re being cheated, perhaps, by all these crazy, geeky people all over the internet.
"I must say, my anguish level is not great."
The quotes are from actor/activist Richard Dreyfuss, and they come in a BBC item by Richard Taylor.
Earlier, "By some guesstimates, there are 17 million movies available for download out there in the so-called darknet, the internet underground," he states.
"The new film Poseidon is a new remake of the 1970s classic. While it is not even out in most territories, it is readily available for illegal download, if you have the inclination to look and a modicum of technical know-how."
BitTorrent has, "long been the scourge of movie executives everywhere because around 65 million people use it to share files, often ripped movies," says Taylor. "Now Warners has decided it represents a cheap way to distribute their films. They will still be heavily copy-protected and the same kind of price as High Street DVDs."
The piece goes on to highlight other corporate efforts to develop business models to develop the online movie business.
But what will succeed?
"I think businesses that can offer a hybrid solution, both the DVD and the downloading together, to give people choice and reliability as well as the technical convenience that comes from download, they’re the ones that are ultimately going to win in the marketplace," the BBC has Lovefilm’s Simon Calver saying.
Also See:
BBC – Hollywood copes with digital age, May 26 2006
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May 29th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Start offering movies for download that are in theatres. The theatre business model is starting to become stale as most of us have really fancy home theatre equipment that is far more enjoyable to sit down and watch than a stupid movie theatre, quit making it exclusive!
May 29th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
-= Disclaimer:This is just my opinion. =-
- As such I’m NOT suggesting any comment following –
- this preface is true. In fact I live in a fairy-tale –
- and nothing I say should be taken seriously. –
I can go along with that if …
1. The price is REASONABLE
2. NO DRM of ANY KIND.
I would pay a fair price for something I can do what I want
with for personal use, without the hoops of DRM.
As long as DRM is in the picture .. it is worthless at ANY price.
May 29th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
“Now Warners has decided it represents a cheap way to distribute their films. They will still be heavily copy-protected and the same kind of price as High Street DVDs.”
This shows they still don’t get it. people don’t want just to download. They want to be treated honestly. distribution is cheap, no physical copies that cost money, no shipping or hiring extra security, and they still want to charge the same high price? and make it full of DRM?
I went and saw the third X-men in the theatre yesterday with my son. I love the x-men series and just had to go. I got a good reminder of why I seldom ever go to the theatre anymore. matinee price was the same as regular ticket prices were two years ago. you have to mortage your house to buy some popcorn and all those endless comercials….. yech! It was an OK movie though. not as good as the first two. And I saw why diehard marvel comic fans didn’t like the movie.
Rick
May 29th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
The price of a legal download must be equal or less than the value a given individual assigns to the amount of time he/she spends downloading the same file elsewhere (read illegally on a p2p network).
May 29th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
It’s not that they don’t get it. It’s that they don’t want to hear it. Accustom to making money hand over fist and with little or no competition to prevent it from continuing; any sort of item or event that threatens this type of model is what they are dead set against. Hence the DRM in the picture of being an added “enhancement”.
Well here’s a clue to the media cartels. DRM infected materials aren’t worth paying for. You have removed the Right Of First Sale and done so without consulting legislature. In an effort to make an end run around it, you have removed one of the very reasons to buy. Ownership entails you have the right to get rid of it and recoup part of the cost if you didn’t like it. Since the business model does not allow refunds due to customer dissatisfaction the only recourse the customer had after purchase was to sell used. Being as that possibility no longer exists the item simply isn’t worth as much to begin with. Ignoring what your customers want, including cross platform transferring to adjust the “product” to the customers lifestyle also again reinforces the lack of value.
Now you can claim your product to be High Quality all you want. It doesn’t remove that the reasons to buy are no longer valid as the product is only worth as much as customers are willing to pay, not what you wish it to be. Buying an invisable, containerless, data is not the same as buying a physical product, nor is it worth as much, no matter how you dress the package nor how you try to justify the cost. Vague references to promotion, those that didn’t make the blockbuster status and the like aren’t the customers problem; it your problem and the customer has no obligation to pay you for your problems.
The continuing saga of sue’em all ensures that I will continue to boycott as a results. I have went from buying a minimum of 3-4 dvds a month to absolutely none. I refuse to support economic terrorism.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it from a dissatisfied excustomer…
May 29th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
well said, I have been a dissatisfied excustomer for 2 years now, untill they remove DRM and lower their over priced DVD’s I will continue to use bittorrent to get my DVDs illegally.
May 30th, 2006 at 12:37 am
The nature of online rentals lend themselves to DRM and all its restrictions ,but if you buy a movie you should own it outright without restictions of any kind .
May 30th, 2006 at 12:39 am
I was flipping channels today and watched a little of Fox news. gasp, horror) they were covering the summer box office hits and discussing (with Terri Keenan, business reporter) why Hollywood has had such bad years. the Reporter said they had losey movies then said that he needed to give some advice to Disney.
Get this…. He said that Disney needs to make friends with Steve Jobs to get their sales improved. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Rick
May 30th, 2006 at 12:42 am
If you don’t wish to bother with such large downloads, the middle way is to buy used for about one eighth of the original price – less than the hire price. Used DVDs are usually in excellent condition, so you get to watch the film and Hollywood etc. gets nothing. Wonder when it will become illegal to sell them used?
May 30th, 2006 at 10:44 am
So Hollywood want us to pay the same for a download as for a physical DVD, while giving us more restrictions, less added value and packaging?
I guess this is just so they can point at how they tried to make downloads work, but it failed because of those terrible pirates.
Here’s a clue Hollywood: if you give people less, expect them to pay less than your already exhorbitant, overpriced, poor quality products.
May 30th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Its called Netflix
May 30th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
No, the mpaa should start paying people to steal information from the pirates and use it as evidence as they are not a law enforcement agency they atre not bound by the laws that would prevent law enforcement professionals from doing so
May 30th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
Until you come across an encryption scheme that DVD Decrypter cant handle then you better be prepared to pony up the cash for AnyDVD .
May 30th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
Until you come across an encryption scheme that DVD Decrypter cant handle then you better be prepared to pony up the cash for AnyDVD .