Criminalizing the Consumer

[Lemur]

I'm not in entire agreement. Free can be inconvenient, which it is. People will pay for convenience and an attractive interface. Think of the Starr Report as an example; you could download it for free from a government website, but people still paid to buy it in convenient book form.

It's an issue of knowing what business you're in. Music and moviemakers have existed in a scarcity market for decades, and it's very hard for them to realize that they're now in a convenience/trust market.

[Gregoshi]

Point taken on the convenience factor Lemur. I still question the distrust issue. Since you seem more knowledgable on this issue than I, do you think this is really an issue for Joe Blow consumer? I suspect it is more important to the younger, more tech saavy consumers though - a generalization, I know. I can't say I've ever felt like a victim buying and watching DVD/CDs, but am I just blissfully ignorant that I'm being taken to the cleaners by the industry?

[Husar]

Oh, the issues of trying to copy my movies onto my smartphone(yes, also legal movies, my smartphone has video playback capability but no DVD drive unfortunately).
I'd love to get rid of such stupid restrictions, most people have the same movies illegally anyway and if I used their illegal DVDs, I'd probably have my movies on my phone already...

Concerning the trust issue, that depends a lot, I've had people call me stupid because I actually pay for my software/CDs/DVDs. I don't think they will buy anything for money as long as they can get it for free(or almost free).

[KukriKhan]

I know we've been over this repeatedly in the past; but just to level out the discussion, I'll re-point out that the original content maker (writer, musician, filmer, coder) ought to be compensated for his/her effort.

The 'taken to the cleaners" bit seems to happen when the content supplier-marketer gets involved. Then, often, the maker gets less than he deserves, and the product buyer pays more than he deserves.

Many of us thought the internet would solve that dilemma, but it hasn't... yet. The content-makers still seem tied to their marketers, and I don't know why.

[drone]

Point taken on the convenience factor Lemur. I still question the distrust issue. Since you seem more knowledgable on this issue than I, do you think this is really an issue for Joe Blow consumer? I suspect it is more important to the younger, more tech saavy consumers though - a generalization, I know. I can't say I've ever felt like a victim buying and watching DVD/CDs, but am I just blissfully ignorant that I'm being taken to the cleaners by the industry?

Google "Sony rootkit" for a good intro into why some people distrust the industry. Sony, in particular, just loves to screw it's customers.

DRM will not stop piracy, and the industry has to know this. Before the intraweb, fairly simple techniques could be used to prevent "casual" copying. This would not stop the real pirates, but they still had to go through the hassle of distributing the content. Now, all it takes it for one person to break a DRM scheme, and the content is out there for anyone to get on the net. The industry still has the mentality that it has to stop people from copying CDs for their friends (there's a forest somewhere in all of those trees...), and DRM just makes it harder for the paying customer to enjoy the content. I know a few people who buy CDs/DVDs, leave them in their shrink-wrap, and download the content just so they can eliminate some of the crap (the FBI warning being one of them) and use it in whatever format they want.

[Blodrast]

Some of you may be interested in this.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

We have just learned that the RIAA made an ex parte application to a district court in Denver, Colorado -- where the RIAA's lawyers are located -- asking the Judge to rule that no court order is needed in order for an ISP to turn over confidential subscriber information to the RIAA.

The gov't still needs a warrant to get info on you, but the entertainment industry shouldn't need one... Does that answer your question on distrust, Greg ?

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Would anyone like a copy of Spiderman 3?

Their about already.

But to me their crying over nothing the greedy bastards. Like their not making enough money?

I know we've been over this repeatedly in the past; but just to level out the discussion, I'll re-point out that the original content maker (writer, musician, filmer, coder) ought to be compensated for his/her effort.

Dont they get paid up front by their record company? After that they get a percentage of the sales but its really small.

I work for CD distributer and were hurting bad. Everyones going to IPODs and MP3s. Who wants to lug a cd player and a ton of CDs around with you? I would suppose the artists also get a percentage of the download money.

As long as people dont set up factories like here in NYC to produce these things I dont think they should worry about individual people copying things.

[JimBob]

Dont they get paid up front by their record company? After that they get a percentage of the sales but its really small.

The advance usually needs to be paid back to the company. Say you get a $1 million advance. Your album sells x copies for y profit. You get z% (minus a,b,c,d,e for travel, a&r costs, production, etc).

The Problem with Music

Label Contracts

People don't trust the music industry because it has stagnated and not produced music recently. Ever since the punks proved that new and vibrant music could be made without the help of the big 5 bands have been drifting away from them. The internet and computer technology have made the big 5 obsolete, they just don't know it yet. Bands can now record, promote, distribute, and tour without some a&r man to tell them what to do.

[Papewaio]

I think the entertainment industry can be rightly accused of acting as a cabal in setting prices around the world. Introducing so-called protection mechanisms to artificially inflate costs. DVD regions for instance is purely a mechanism to gouge the consumers and stifle free trade.