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  • #1

    Too good to be true?

    Rep. Rick Boucher, a US senator from Virginia, is fighting against the RIAA/MPAA/Broadcaster in the file sharing arguement. He has introduced a bill that would balance out the fair use right of consumers and strike out portions of the DCMA (the main law used by US companies to sue file traders and companies). The bill would also protect companies that make software that can potentially used for illegal activities, such as DVD copying software which can also be used for legitimate fair use applications, when users use it for illegal activities.

    Wired has an interview with him. He's probably the most tech-savvy politician I've ever heard in my life.

    Page Not Found
    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,67853,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3


    Good read!

    Jammrock
    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Yeah, he's been doing it for a while now. If you read Lawrence Lessig's blog you'll see his name often.
    Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra 9, Opteron 170 Denmark 2x2Ghz, 2 GB Corsair XMS, Gigabyte 6600, Gentoo Linux
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    • #3
      It's good to see some politicians fighting to regain some of the freedoms we've lost or are in danger of losing in this area. This should be the norm and not the exception.
      “And, remember: there's no 'I' in 'irony'” ~ Merlin Mann

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      • #4
        All the DVD copying could be seriously reduced if they released films in the cinema at same time as when they release DVD.. I guess the only reason why films are delayed round the globe is the celebs cant be everywhere at once.

        Anyway the next gen formats will probably only be playable on DRM/TPM enabled PC's
        ______________________________
        Nothing is impossible, some things are just unlikely.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Fluff
          All the DVD copying could be seriously reduced if they released films in the cinema at same time as when they release DVD.. I guess the only reason why films are delayed round the globe is the celebs cant be everywhere at once.

          Anyway the next gen formats will probably only be playable on DRM/TPM enabled PC's

          That might be a good idea...Hollywood is a slump right now for the past 16 weeks and counting...people are tired of high ticket prices and crowded theaters.
          Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

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          • #6
            People can't be too tired of crowded theatres, else they wouldn't be, you know... crowded

            Now high ticket prices I can see being a major gripe, but then I can also understand why they are at the level they are.

            I don't, however, see releasing DVD's at the same time as their respective movies are released into theatres, being a solution for DVD copying. People who won't pay for a DVD aren't going to do so even then. As for why films are released when they are around the globe, it has to do with gauging the reaction the core, target audience has to the movie.
            “And, remember: there's no 'I' in 'irony'” ~ Merlin Mann

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            • #7
              Look, what it boils down to is that piracy isn't really hurting the industry like they claim it is. For them to curtail our rights in the name of "stopping piracy" is ridiculous.

              Theaters are packed. DVD sales are higher than ever. The entire concept is ridiculous, and I'm glad at least ONE politician thinks so. The DMCA has been a horror show since it was introduced... it has failed to stop the sorts of things it was intended to stop, and has instead allowed people to sue students, educators, and private citizens trying to make backups of their kids' Disney movies...
              The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

              I'm the least you could do
              If only life were as easy as you
              I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
              If only life were as easy as you
              I would still get screwed

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Jesterzwild
                People can't be too tired of crowded theatres, else they wouldn't be, you know... crowded

                Ok Let me be more specific...the are crowded with your typical teeniebooper set thats annoying as ****. Its so bad at one theater that they blast barry manollow to try to get them from hanging out in front of the theather. Wouldnt you much rather watch a movie in the confert of your own home, which normally has much more confertible seating? My ass goes numb after 2 hours in the theaters close to where I live. I haven't really enjoyed a movie at a theater in ages...
                Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

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                • #9
                  Now that I agree with.
                  “And, remember: there's no 'I' in 'irony'” ~ Merlin Mann

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                  • #10
                    Can't say I do, we have some of the best theaters. Comfy and all.

                    I find it weird that you say cinemas are packed while apparently attendance is low. I agree on the week-ends, but for the rest I find them far from crowded (mileage blah blah).

                    What I really can't stomach is the price of the ticket. I can't find what economics it relates to. Say, should I got with my wife to the cinema of buy the DVD? The DVD is cheaper. Oh well. Maybe I'll just rent it, it's not like I'm going to watch it as many times at to make it a good enough investment - I would have to buy a new one in a couple of years when the format changes...

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Kurt
                      Can't say I do, we have some of the best theaters. Comfy and all.

                      I find it weird that you say cinemas are packed while apparently attendance is low. I agree on the week-ends, but for the rest I find them far from crowded (mileage blah blah).

                      What I really can't stomach is the price of the ticket. I can't find what economics it relates to. Say, should I got with my wife to the cinema of buy the DVD? The DVD is cheaper. Oh well. Maybe I'll just rent it, it's not like I'm going to watch it as many times at to make it a good enough investment - I would have to buy a new one in a couple of years when the format changes...
                      Well they're PACKED on the weekends. Attendance IS low during the week, but in the summer even during the week they're ... not SUPER busy but reasonable. Of course, the cost of keeping it open during the week might be part of the problem.
                      The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                      I'm the least you could do
                      If only life were as easy as you
                      I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                      If only life were as easy as you
                      I would still get screwed

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                      • #12
                        That wasn't the case before. *Could* it be that the CONTENT is not up to snuff?

                        /me wonders...

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Kurt
                          That wasn't the case before. *Could* it be that the CONTENT is not up to snuff?

                          /me wonders...
                          That's part of it. Most movies, especially "blockbusters", are formulatically created. Most of the time you can tell when they are. FOr example, ... anything Joel Silver and Michael Bay do. All of their movies follow the same formula.

                          1) Introduce characters in some action-like sequence.
                          2) Introduce female lead. She is pretty and seems delicate, but has some edginess to her.
                          3) Small romance with some sexual tension flares.
                          4) bad thing happens.
                          5) Enter the hero.
                          6) SMall action occurs.
                          7) romance ensues, typically involving some type of sex scene and a love trianlge/tension.
                          8) Bad guys come back with avengence.
                          9) Large action scene occurs.
                          10) Both male and female protagonist survive, but just barely.
                          11) Romance ensues.
                          12) attempt at a witty ending, often an attempt at a trick ending with the bad guy coming back, or "opps, we got the wrong bad guy, let's finish off the real monster."

                          The attempt is at making a movie with the right blend of action to attract the male population, and the right amount of romance to attrract the demale population. So they make the action "hardcore" and the romance "sappy sweet." The end result is a movie that they get a lot of people to watch in the first 3-4 weeks of release, but not much after that.

                          Traditioanlly movies were made so you would keep coming back. And with low boxoffice prices it was easy to do so. Think about Titanic. How many women went back to see that 3 ...5 ... 50 times at the theater? And it was 3.5 freak'n hours long! Titanic came out right before adult theater tickets skyrocketed past $5 a ticket. It made it easy to watch a movie 2-3 times when you were only dropping $5 a show + $3-$4 for snacks. Now it costs $35 just to get 2 tickets, a tube of popcorn and two drinks.

                          WHo wants to pay that even twice to see a moive. I'm a Star Wars freak and I've only seen RotS once in the theater...and I thought it was better than Return of the Jedi, bad dialogue and all.

                          The third part of the equation is NOT piracy, it is home theaters. My buddy spent $1500 buck and got a 32" HDTV and a surround sound system that sound pretty decent. My carpool buddy has a home theater with an 2.5 m screen, projector and surround sound, with theater seating and the works. Only ran him $5k. Why fight the crowds when you can sit in the comfort of your home and get the same "big screen" experience? People aren't. And so sales are down. The MPAA and theater companies need a patsy for their stockholder and P2P is the perfect one to blame.

                          Eventually I think that theaters will die out, once home projection and surround technology gets cheap enough that you can build an incredilbe high resolution (both audio and video) system in your home for under $1k.

                          Just my $0.02

                          Jammrock
                          “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                          –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Jammrock
                            The third part of the equation is NOT piracy, it is home theaters. My buddy spent $1500 buck and got a 32" HDTV and a surround sound system that sound pretty decent. My carpool buddy has a home theater with an 2.5 m screen, projector and surround sound, with theater seating and the works. Only ran him $5k. Why fight the crowds when you can sit in the comfort of your home and get the same "big screen" experience? People aren't. And so sales are down. The MPAA and theater companies need a patsy for their stockholder and P2P is the perfect one to blame.
                            That was exactly what I was thinking when I purchased my projector and sound system.

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                            • #15
                              I used to supervise at a movie theatre so I'll try clear a few points up on the economics of the situation.

                              The movie theatres make close to NO money off the ticket sales. It works on a sliding scale:

                              Week 1: movie company gets 90% of the sales, movie theatre 10%
                              Week 2: 80/20
                              Week 3: 70/30
                              Week 4: 60/40
                              .....
                              Week 9: 10/90 and there it holds

                              Now with a movie like Titanic that was in the theatres for ever and still sold out the theatres made money hand over fist. Unfortunetly the movie industry has gotten really good at churning out big budget movies that they market well that make $100million the first week and then fall off the map because everyone warns their friends not to see that garbage. So the movie theatres are only making money off the concessions and if anything the movie industry has been shooting themselves in the foot in the long term for short term games (after all people can only be tricked so many times... just more than we'd like to think).

                              So... high ticket prices, that's the movie industries idea far more than the theatres.
                              Last edited by Claymonkey; 17 June 2005, 10:06.
                              Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
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