The strangest thing about me for all the brouhaha over piracy is how few people so far seem to have found a way -- or even wanted to find a way -- to capitalize on the best, fastest, easiest distribution system in the world.
And there's the fact that computers are basically made to duplicate data, and we have whole industries trying to stop the very nature of computers and networks.
I don't think I will ever understand human nature.
But I sure miss Napster, and would've paid $50+ a month for that service alone. The record industry was just mentally deficient not to capitalize on that, no matter what Matt Maroon thinks about their intelligence.
The strangest thing about me for all the brouhaha over piracy is how few people so far seem to have found a way -- or even wanted to find a way -- to capitalize on the best, fastest, easiest distribution system in the world.
To be fair, I think there is a clear distinction between piracy and p2p networks.
For example, Blizzard uses bittorrent to distribute patches for World of Warcraft, reducing load on their servers and thus, cost for them.
They were also (funnily enough) a relative early adopter of the Divx format back when it was almost exclusively used for movie sharing over the internet (aka Piracy)
It's been a long time coming but Waffles blows Napster away. I have three invites for people reading this; please email me. Please do not accept the invitation if you do not plan on being a dedicated user of the service, the invites are limited enough that it is a shame for them to be wasted.
I went back and watched this and found it highly interesting.
The technology has advanced from mostly bittorrent instead of gnutella based networks.
The film industry is producing arguably better blockbusters (The Dark Knight vs Signs?) and are making more money than before with this year being one of the biggest years on record, even during a recession.
Contemporary films will always have higher box office grosses because of inflation. The number of ticket sales is a better figure to use for comparison. Unfortunately that figure is rarely if ever reported.
The number of ticket sales is a better figure to use for comparison
...which if you check the article I linked is also reported.
Quote:
"An increase in ticket prices also helped boost January's box office. The average ticket price was $7.29 last month, up from $7.18 a year ago. But attendance surged in spite of the higher cost. Audiences bought 141 million movie tickets in January, up 16% from the 121 million sold during the same month last year."
It might be interesting to know that there's a Swedish study from 2008 that showed no significant change in ticket sales over the past 15 years. The study also showed people go less frequently to the movies but that's being weighted up by more people going. (It's in Swedish: http://www.sfi.se/Documents/Övriga%20rapporter/SOM-undersökn... sorry ^^)
God, are all documentaries in America like that? Like obviously biased? And scare-mongering? I couldn't watch more than a few minutes as it made me feel sick.
No, it's a lowest common denominator documentary from a broadcast network TV newsmagazine. A step up is the type of documentary you see on the Discovery or History channels. The highest form of documentary is cinéma vérité. All of the different types are made and produced in the USA.
It isn't a documentary to begin with, but an investigative news program (rather a sensational one at that). Can't speak for shows in non-English speaking countries, but I'm sure we all have shows like this one in our respective countries of residence. I've watched BBC Panorama episodes this year that are just as biased & fear-mongering for example. If you want serious American documentaries, sample PBS's Frontline or NOVA series (via file-sharing =]) before jumping to conclusions.
Piracy has prompted Hulu and for me killed my previous downloading habits, as well changed my view on whether downloading is morally wrong or not. Also starting up and running my own venture changed my views and sympathies for any business owner; small to large!
And there's the fact that computers are basically made to duplicate data, and we have whole industries trying to stop the very nature of computers and networks.
I don't think I will ever understand human nature.
But I sure miss Napster, and would've paid $50+ a month for that service alone. The record industry was just mentally deficient not to capitalize on that, no matter what Matt Maroon thinks about their intelligence.