Photo from See-ming Lee 李思明 SML at Flickr Creative Commons
So, I initially was a little concerned that I may not have enough to talk about. I assumed that our posts would be on what we had to “read”. So I went through the assignments and all the links trying to piece together exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I finally figured it out and was really, really glad I did.
This week I watched a considerable amount of video on copyright law, fair use, etc.… It hit very close to home since I watch politics pretty closely. Copyright laws, reading assignments, politics; surely they can’t all tie in to one another this week Chris! Well, hang on to your hats kids.
Over the past few months I have been watching a few really amazing (cough sarcasm) pieces of legislation being pushed through congress. Well, trying to be pushed through anyway. They are SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). See, the entertainment industry, more specifically the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has fallen on some really hard times. They have become accustomed to living in solid gold houses and they aren’t really looking forward to having to change. It’s not that they don’t have the money. Why as a matter of fact Chris Dodd, the MPAA head honcho recently threatened congress with these words:
“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.” 1*
So paying members of congress to make sure that laws get passed that continue to line pockets in Hollywood is perfectly ok. No problems there. But asking Hollywood to come out with a different distribution method that gives customers what they want in the digital age is crazy talk.
I’d love to be sympathetic to Hollywood and their copyright issues. But unfortunately evidence exists elsewhere within the entertainment industry that digital downloading can be successful. I shall refer you to Steam, the online software distribution company. Estimates have their revenue for the year (2011) at around one billion dollars. And game software piracy has actually gone down over the past few years. Why? Because the provider found an original way to easily distribute a product without breaking any copyright laws, get the end user reasonable prices, and put cash into the develops pockets. Shocking.
I would also remind the reader that the MPAA also had this to say in 1982 when presenting their case before congress:
“We are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape. And it is like a great tidal wave just off the shore. This video cassette recorder and the blank tape threaten profoundly the life-sustaining protection, I guess you would call it, on which copyright owners depend, on which film people depend, on which television people depend and it is called copyright.” – Jack Valenti (MPAA President) 2*
So, in 1982 it was the VCR. The industry also went bananas over the mp3 player but I won’t get into that. Now the boogieman is online piracy. Don’t get me wrong; I think they have every right to protect what they create. But taking away my Internet rights in America is not going to stop piracy in China. So I’m all for finding a solution that works for everyone. But I doubt that we will be able to safely navigate the waters of greed when the MPAA is at the helm.
My best solution for the entertainment industry is to let go of archaic business models and step outside the box. As I discussed, the online software provider Steam has created an incredibly successful business model! Why not at least take a look at why they are rolling in money AND being celebrated by the customer at the same time. Hollywood could create an online site that offers cloud technology where you can buy and store your movies and download them any time you want. I’m not even talking about streaming videos; just download what you’ve purchased from them. They could offer movie collection deals (Clint Eastwood bundle for example) or have daily deals where they rotate movies for 75% off. The deals could include good movies not “C” movies and they’d still make a ton of money.
It comes down to convenience in the digital age. A bridge can be created between producers and users that bridge copyright issues and cost if they will only step back, take a look at the future for once, and evolve appropriately.
My Response:
First of all I am pretty sure that you are going to have to pay out a lot of shiny nickels in the class. Maybe you should limit your paying to people who aren't required to read your blog, lol! Anyway, you brought up some really great points. Since we are in a digital age, media can be accessed anywhere in the world so creating more strict laws here is not necessarily going to protect all of the rights of the authors. I really like your solution to creating a more user friendly way of using the internet for movies and media. I wonder how long it will be before movies or dvds are rarely sold in stores. My husband and I have Apple tv, Netflix, and cable. I can't remember the last time that we ever watched a physical movie or dvd. If online resources for accessing this information would team up and work together they could defeat some of the illegal pirating by offering a more creative solution, just like BMI.
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