Download Madness

[spicynacho]

I just read a great movie review of the RIAA's "Reefer Madness" style propoganda video for DA's.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...gital-age.html

I was just wondering what you all think the movie industry's approach to downloading content. I think it is MUCH better than the RIAA's approach.

Here is how I see what happened to the RIAA and all the mis-steps they made:
They never put an ounce of thought into content protection for for cassette tapes or CD's.
They never transitioned to a new format with copy protection.
They never cared about early file sharing through FTP's and college LANs
They were completely blindsided by napster
They reacted to napster with a prohibition stance to the internet for a long time
When they embraced internet distribution, they chose formats with inferior quality to CD like iTunes even though they could do much higher quality
They have not allowed enough venues to carry their products

Contrast that with the movie industry:
Worked with CE manufacturers as long ago as VCR's to implement copy protection
Implemented the best copy protection as technologically practical on both DVD and BR
Did their best to nip illegal distribution in the bud as it became technologically feasible
Working with as many distribution channels as possible to provide legal access to viewers who want to download their media
Willing to provide better quality content as digital delivery becomes feasible


I think everyone can agree that digital distribution of HD content is no where near ready for prime time. But I think looking at the movie industry's approach it is clear to see that they have learned from the recording industry's miserable failures. If they stay on the course they are on now, as HD video over the internet comes of age, hollywood will be ready to deliver to consumers in a legal way. There will always be piracy, it is a fact of life on the internet, but trying to police the internet is a lose-lose proposition. Lititgation has been too expensive for the RIAA and with the cost of hiring technical expertise, lawyers, and lobbying they are lucky to break even sueing grandma's for 100s of thousands of dollars. Not to mention the bad taste anti-consumer, big brother image it creates for them.

The proper way to handle the internet is to provide proper channels for 99% of your consumers to persue and to choose your battles wisely when dealing with the other 1%. Likewise, there is a need to keep up with technology and progress through formats gradually as old content effectively looses its copy protection through advances external to the content owner's sphere of influence in storage, compression, networking, and processing power.

These are just my thoughts on the issue. I just wanted to share and give the movie industry a thumbs up on their decision to innovate and suggest restraint when they have the urge to litigate.