Episode 16: The one about piracy

With the US Government Accounting Office dismissing RIAA and MPAA “research” as being lacking in any factual basis, is unauthorized distribution hurting or helping the industry?

Thanks as always to Zach Spell for editing making us sound smart!

6 thoughts on “Episode 16: The one about piracy

  1. Hello Philip,
    I know your a die hard anti DRM, but I have to disagree with your ideas of the ultimate philosophy on digital media.

    A future in that all content has no form of incentive to PAY for it. Such as the Busking Principe, is not a workable model in terms of creating the quality of content we will want.

    It simply WILL NOT WORK. The underlying nature of the general human is to not pay. Ie they cannot get out of paying for the beer, so if they have ANY money, thats what its used for. Its part of our genetic code and survival instincts. (I know, I use to DJ in clubs for many years. It was my job to understand how the crowd would react to situations.)

    DRM if anything, is now being presented as that perceptive wall reminding us that we should be paying for the content. As we all know, if you REALLY want to, it will be freely available on Torrent.

    This is why streaming is so big (With hollywood) as it has DRM by nature. if you want to access content, get a streaming box, watch it anywhere with the freedom you want.. but at the end of the day DRM is part of the solution.

    DRM, WILL BE PART of the future of premium content.
    Take it on board and work with it.

    James

  2. I’ve studied copyright law off and on for years, and this episode was a great essay on the overall state of copyright affairs. I’ve listened to all of your shows. I’m going in to movies, so the stories and cautionary tales are a huge help to me. Thanks for putting this production together, and please keep them coming!

  3. this is in reply to james. I am a user of torrents For example I just got a copy of RED the DVD which isn’t available yet in the UK, I went to see RED in the Movie theatre and paid something like $30 to do so with a couple of friends, I fully expect to buy RED. I may be buy it at full price when it’s released or I may buy it later when it’s dropped in price. I have something like a 100 DVD’s. I like movies and televison and I probably pay over thousand pounds a year for TV/movie’s. philip is absolutely correct in his assessment about so called intellectual piracy, the RIAA and MPAA are all about protection of movie distributors, for years they have been allowing movies through that are more sexual or more violent if they come from one of their funders than from independents – They are and have always been about censorship and who gets to break the rules

    phillip you clearly know nothing about genetics or even survival instincts – perhaps you should start by actually learning some before you start pretending. In nature creatures of different species co-operate, they go out of their way to help each other avoiding conflict at all cost.

    both you and i have DJ’d, when i DJ reading the crowd is very important, I need to know when to bring them up and cool them down, when to play floor fillers and when to mix in the hi-NRG beats. People came to hear me to have a good time, my salary was paid by the club and by getting people to dance I got them happy and thirsty. thank god I didn’t have to have drm on the music i was playing, having to pay kick backs to the music companies every time I played. If I had to pay kickbacks to the music mafia then I would have had to charge more for my set, which would have meant either i got less work or the club would have had to pay more. Thankfully the DRM tax did not exist then but clearly you believe we should pay taxes to support the muisc and movie distribution companies.

    I could go on but I rather be out clubbing

  4. oops apologies I meant to say james rather than phillip when talking about genetics in what was a really confused post

    the key issue, and one that i agree with the show about, is that DRM is just a tax, just as as RIAA and MPAA are just cartels. they are the outgrowths of monopolistic enterprises who think they and only they should be allowed to make money. In many ways they are like the guilds of the pre-industralised age, protecting their members against people who might do what they do cheaper, faster or more efficiently. Sadly such guilds still exist today, some still serve a useful function by at least setting minimum standards to join such as lawyers groups (bar exams) or medical (board certification). Most are just ways of stopping the free market from happening, or creating a level playing field where they are on a completely different level from everyone else

  5. one small thing. guilds and unions are good for individuals, guilds are good because they give people a groups say against stronger organisations. And i can understand that companies can come come together to fight bigger organisations such as governments but it is much easier to become the bad guy if your a guild of companies than if your a guild of people. far easier to go from the hero to the villain

Comments are closed.