Posts under Tag: entertainment
Added Mar 16, 2011, Under:
Usenet
Will throttling internet user’s data help stop piracy? According to Daniel Castro’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, it could be part of the solution to stopping online piracy. As part of his testimony he referred to a 2009 study by The Institute for Policy Innovation that states “U.S. recording industry and related industries lost over $3.5 billion to online piracy”. This study like many others makes the flawed assumption that each pirated song is a lost sale. Obviously this is not and never will be the case. Fundamentally when people spend their hard earned money on music they want to show their support to the artist to allow them to continue to create music, and despite what recording industry groups want you to believe artists are making more then ever before. The Movie industry in 2010 had it’s highest revenue dollar amount ever. How can this possibly be? Does it not fly in the face of logic?
The problem that paid content has both in the US and around the globe is not one of piracy but of a failing business model. The current pricing structures in place for both movies and music are based on a single universal price and limited physical media. If one was to buy a $15 movie in the US and a $15 movie in Russia it’s the same $15 amount correct? Not quite according to a report by the Social Science Research Council. That $15 in Russia is a much larger piece of their income and would be the equivalent of a $75 movie in the US. Many corporations are not interested in bringing content to an affordable price for potential international customers. Instead, they’re simply trying to protect their premium clients, those in countries with the per capita income of being able to pay these inflated rates.
The solution to the “problem” of piracy is to cease seeing that as the problem and instead focus on the real issues, that of the failing business model and a re-evaluation of intellectual property law. Part of Article 1 Section 8 of the US constitution states “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;”. Limited times. The Copyright Act of 1790 was for 14 years, with option to renew for another 14 years and applied to maps, charts and books. However back then Corporations were not seen as persons under the law; now that they are these “persons” have no natural lifespan to end. So now those of us that live in the United States are left with legal entities that keep ideas under lock and key ad infinitum. This was not the intent nor letter of the law. We have let corporations become people, and people that live forever at that. We need to let these ideas have a limited time frame for the creator to have a monopoly on, we need to cease seeing corporations as persons under the law, and we need the RIAA and MPAA to take a better look at the finance sheets and figure out that they’re still making money hand over foot.
The Academy Awards will be airing this Sunday, February 27 with Anne Hathaway and James Franco as the hosts. Nominations for Best Picture is below:
“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King’s Speech” |
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”
|
I have seen all but 2 movies. “The Kids Are All Right” and “Winter’s Bone”. I think the academy must of had a tough decision for these selections because I definitely like the majority.
I just hope they don’t pull what happened at the Grammy’s with Best New Artist, where Esperanza Spalding won over Justin Bieber! Justin Bieber! I’m just kidding… or am I? lol
But if I had to chose from the 10, I would pick “Black Swan” hands down. I think Natalie Portman did an awesome job portraying her character and the cinematography was great! If you haven’t seen it yet. Please do! It’s a bit freaky, but in a good way. Its based on the theater production of Swan Lake!
As a runner up, I would pick “The King’s Speech”. Based off a true story of King George VI of when he was throne and struggles with speaking and get’s help from an unorthodox speech therapist. Sounds like a bore, but its actually a powerful yet funny movie of how the character’s interact.
A movie I definitely do not want to see win is “127 Hours” which is another movie based on a true story of a mountain climber that gets trapped under a boulder and survived. Great story, but as a movie just doesn’t hit it for me. You may not be able to handle some of the scenes of how he escaped if you are sensitive, I am telling you to proceed with caution. =)
What film do you think will be the winner? Talk more on rec.arts.movies.current-films
TorrentFreak is reporting that our favorite Netherlands anti-piracy group, BREIN, is forcing the shutdown of numerous Usenet and NZB sites. This list includes: nzbkingdom.net, Twilightnzb.com, Furiousnzb.net, Shreknzb.com, Team-Casanova.com, Crosspost.nl, Cobra-team.nl and FTAClub.net. They of course managed to get some leverage with the court win over FTD (all this despite the fact that only 13 of the more then 1/2 million FTD users reported and uploaded infringing content, and even then who’s to say these anonymous persons didn’t actually work for BREIN). According to lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet
“BREIN is using the FTD verdict to threaten other sites into closing. Even though the verdict clearly said downloading is legal and ‘facilitating’ downloading is legal as well, BREIN is now saying that sites that provide NZB files are facilitating illegal downloading.”
It seems to me that BREIN is overstepping its bounds, something it is quite fond of doing. In an separate article TorrentFreak is reporting that BREIN has gone ahead and taken down the site known as Swan. Interestingly, neither the recent FTD ruling nor any other recent event has given them the legal authority to do so and the fine people that run Swan not only managed to seize back their servers but are also looking at suing BREIN. It’s about time someone hit them back. While there is certainly a debatable to be had over intellectual property a few things are painfully clear:
- Current intellectual property laws do not work in an environment where a single work can appear in multiple formats all of which can easily be shared across the globe in any number of ways.
- Being a rights holder or representative of the rights holders does not give you a free pass to do whatever you want wherever you want.
- Rights holders need to re-evaluate their monitization of the work product and investigate alternate means of making money.
- You can make money on free and can compete against free.
Perhaps it’s time the companies that supposedly represent the result these creative industries themselves get creative.
Canada’s Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) very nearly killed the interweb for Canadian consumers. They originally had ruled that independent ISPs that rent bandwidth from the big boys in the field (Rodgers, Bell Canada, etc.) would now have to follow the pricing structures of the company they rent that bandwidth from. This would have brought monthly caps from approximately 200 GB to 25 GB. Now those with accounts at the big networks are already on these metered accounts but the little ISPs at least gave the Canadian consumers some amount of choice. The original ruling would have caused significant harm to high bandwidth services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. There are plenty of services out there that spend the proper $ to upkeep their pipes (Easynews.com and Usenetserver.com just upped their retention to 860+ days for example) and I don’t know why the Canadian Bells can’t keep their networks substantial enough to feed video to their users.
While the CRTC ruling is currently delayed and not overturned the Industry Minister Tony Clement has said that if they don’t change it he will. This of course is a good thing as the ruling was decidedly anti-consumer. As the way we consume media changes consumers are able to access more and more options on how they want their media delivered to them. This seems to be leading into a familiar clash of content creator and content provider. Services like Netflix and Hulu are offering consumers a way out of the standard cable TV distribution method and this fact terrifies the cable companies, and for a good reason. They’re seeing their subscriptions fall for the first time in… well first time ever. So they’re doing everything they can to maintain the near monopolies that they enjoy. The recent Comcast NBCUniversal buyout is an example of that. A distribution company buying a content company. This gives them a distinct advantage over not only other media companies but over consumers. If forced metered internet had been or becomes successful in Canada it won’t be long till companies in the US begin doing the exact same thing to bring viewership away from alternative options back to their standard cable networks. Once that happens cable subscribers in the US will be trapped in a world of escalating fees. As for me all of this just seems exhausting so I’m going to watch something on Netflix instant… while I still can.
‘Wheel of Fortune’ voice O’Donnell, 78, dies in LA
LOS ANGELES – Charlie O’Donnell, the announcer whose voice has opened “Wheel of Fortune” for decades, has died. He was 78.
Agent Fred Wostbrock said Monday that O’Donnell — the voice of the game show even before hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White appeared — died late Sunday at his Los Angeles home. The cause was unclear.
O’Donnell was a popular radio DJ in New York before starting his television career in Philadelphia with Dick Clark on “American Bandstand.”
He also served as announcer for Oscar and Emmy telecasts and other game shows including “The Newlywed Game.”
His signature phrase “Wheeeeeeel of Fortune,” could be heard on the show from its beginning with host Chuck Woolery in 1975. He worked on the show until 1980, and again from 1988 until his death.
Click here to view article.
Have you heard about S. 3804: Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA)? No? Well, if you’re a fan of the great firewall of China and censorship in general you’ll love this one. It comes in the guise of preventing infringing activities but what it will really do is make it possible for sites to be blocked from US access. What kind of sites could be blocked if it passes? How about YouTube? Yes, the Google owned site that has given many of us lols would be fair game if this passes. Under current law because they follow the DMCA takedown procedure YouTube is not liable for any infringing content that its visitors may provide. If COICA passes all that has to happen is that interested parties convince a court that the site is being used for infringing activity (despite the fact that it would likely be taken down by YouTube under DMCA) and block the entire site in the US.
But that’s through a court system where sites at least have a fighting chance to protect themselves you may say, but wait. All it takes is an order from the attorney general to get a site added to the blacklist. ISPs will be required to block all sites on the list made by court order and be given immunity for blocking all sites on the list made by the attorney general. Given the immunity I would expect the number of ISPs blocking those on the second list to be hovering somewhere around 99.99%-100%.
But won’t there be ways that users could still get to these sites? Of course there will always be ways around things like this, but at what cost to the US? Currently the US is the hub for most of the internet. A lot of traffic flows through our tubes and many domain names are registered in the US. If this passes it won’t be long till the traffic slows down and people and companies begin hosting their sites outside of the US costing thousands of jobs in the process.
If you’re interested in learning more check out the EFF, Demand Progress, Tech Dirt, and sign the Demand Progress petition as well.
So it seems the fine fellows over at 4chan are at it again and took down the MPAA site over the weekend. While I sympathize with anon (and do much enjoy the Guy Fawkes masks) I’m not sure that this is the best approach to take. Poking the hornet’s nest is often a really good way to get them angry and yourself stung. The problem here is that while those that make up anonymous may not feel the sting themselves it might rile the MPAA enough to keep up the current lawsuit and technology DRM vector they’re on. Certainly the Betamax fair use decision continues to be whittled down and the MPAA should let people use their purchased films however they see fit, but legal maneuvers need to be taken. If you share this perspective it’s likely more effective to support the EFF instead of trying to take down the MPAA site, amusing though it may be. There’s also a small discussion about this going on in rec.arts.movies.current-films, feel free to jump in and continue the conversation.
I saw a small article at io9 yesterday about the man of steel in his twilight years and it made me wonder. What will happen to all of the superheroes when they age and begin to lose their minds? Barring some cataclysm that ends the Earth or a battle to end all battles some of them are bound to get to retirement age. Of those that do some are bound to begin to lose their minds. What happens when that occurs? How could they be controlled? Would you keep them sedated? Would you remove them from the earth so they don’t begin destroying it unaware of their actions? If this is your kinda thing be sure to check out alt.comics.superman and io9.
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fan of science and the places that it will get us. I agree with Hawking that we need to colonize other planets (can’t keep all the eggs in one basket as it were) especially as we seem to be racing though all the resources we have on this big ball of water and rock we live on. To get to these places will require some hard work and a reliance on a number of people smarter then I to do the number crunching. The physicists will need to work with a number of variables to figure out how to get us from point A to point C without getting crushed to smithereens by an asteroid or consumed by a black hole at point B.
All this being said, people discussing physics are not without some humor or infighting:
Original post~
“I’ve asked this in some of these groups before but didn’t
follow through, so I’m asking again. IMO the speed of light is
constant relative to its *point of emission*. So if an object in
space is moving “at” 1K miles per second (but relative to what?)
and emits light in all directions the light will have a velocity
of 186K miles per second relative to that point in space but the
light moving in the same dirction as the object which emitted it
will have a velocity of 185K miles per second relative to that
object, and light moving in the opposite direction will have a
velocity of 187K miles per second relative to the object.
That’s my impression of it so far, but how could we tell what
an object’s velocity is relative to a stationary point in space?
How could we know if anything is “stationary” in space?”
and then a few posts down we have this:
Y.Porat – “see my threads about it”
Inertial – “Don’t bother looking .. porat is full of crap”
dlzc – “He can’t possibly be full of crap. With the frequent expositions of
fecal matter, there has to be some void space.”
Ahh the joys of the spirited discussion. For this and more make sure to check out the sci.physics threads. As for the above discussion I think this picture sums it up best:
So the event is over (Chris Martin from Coldplay? someone stab a pencil in my ear please), and tons of cool stuff has come out of it: iOS 4.2, HDR pix, Game Center, Apple TV, new music devices, Ping, and a new iTunes. Lets break these down one by one.
iOS4.2 – iPad connectivity. Great for you iPad users all about accessing the content. The printing stuff is nice (although I hate actually printing anything nowadays), but the multitasking and folders are where it’s at. They make life easier for me on the iPhone and will for you iPad users.
HDR pictures – first off if you’re unsure about what an HDR pic is, it’s basically three pictures, one with highlights, shadows, and midranges and it combines them into picures that have a greater range of color. It’s about time, better looking pix with details that pop. Good for you Flickr and Facebook posters, but even better for people who actually print them out on photo paper (yes people still do that from time to time).
Game Center – and the iPhone continues to forge ahead in the mobile gaming world. Project Sword, the Unreal engine on the phone, and oh yea things are looking good for iPhone gamers. Plus I like the fact that there will be one spot to see leader boards instead of all the competing networks like Open Feint, Crystal, and Plus+.
Apple TV – this one just makes sense. I don’t know about you but given recent news about cable subscription rates falling and from friends and family I know considering going the streaming movies and TV shows route it makes sense. Netflix is available on this and it can stream from your main computer not to mention the TV show and movie rentals it can do. I wish there was some free content available via iTunes but I’m sure that’ll get worked out one way or another.
Ping/iTunes 10 – you can’t really separate these from one another. iTunes by itself got a new logo and a slightly revamped view, not bad but no biggie itself. The real news is Ping. According to Apple “It’s like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes. It’s all about music.” On initial glance Ping looks to be one of the rare cases where social networking can be 1) done right 2) adds value to the end user and 3) has a direct commercial tie in. It would be pretty cool to find people with similar taste in music to myself and to see what they’re listening to. It can be another great way to find music beyond Pandora (currently digging The Polish Ambassador whom I found on Pandora). I’m interested to see how it actually works.
New music devices – ehhh ok so I’m not quite so gung-ho on these. I mean ok they’re pretty cool looking and the Nano and Shuffle will probably make great stocking stuffers, but this is a declining market. As more people go with an iPhone or iPad there is little reason to deal with a secondary music device. I did the switch from one to the other two years back when I got my iPhone 3G, and forgot all about my iPod.
My faves from this event are: Ping and the HDR pictures. I only leave Apple TV out because with 3 small kiddos dropping my cable is out of the question. A loss of Team Umizoomi, Caillou, and Scooby Doo could lead to a full scale revolt, and trust me you don’t want an angry 4 yr. old to have a burning torch inside your home. For more thoughts on this you can always check out the Apple discussions going on at: misc.phone.mobile.iphone.
~ Zaaa
