White House wants new copyright laws.

[Plow]

Quoted because this is pretty much my reaction and would have been my response. Seems like these jerkoffs are so far behind the ball with technology, and have no fucking clue how to monetize it by contributing to its growth, that they'll just go the tried and true method of regulation and outlawing what they can't control. Not to derail too much, but this country is going to fucking shit. Big business is becoming more visible in the day to day business of the government, and even someone who is blind as fuck has to admit that most of the government is owned by big business. I mean seriously, streaming a FELONY? These assholes are really going to toss someone in a federal penitentiary next to some of the most vile scum of the earth who would just as soon split open a person's abdomen, rip their intestines out, and skip rope with them just because the person downloaded season one of Scrubs?

selling a bag of oregano by claiming it's pot is a felony

being a felony doesn't mean you're going to pound me in the ass prison for the rest of your life

[Ksandra]

I apologize for taking it to the extreme (lol revolution) but I'm sick of our rights and privacy being trampled over,

what about the rights and privacy of people who create the shit in the first place?

And people need to open their eyes and realize it isn't just the mega stars and singers that are creating this shit. Think for one moment all those people they list at the end of the movie. My husband isn't Johnny Depp, but he works hard for the films he works on. You think he's going to get raises when companies can't pay his company enough for films? You think they never will do cutbacks to the company if they can't afford to pay?

Hell look at archi who worked on the jeff dunham show. Shit wasn't too great but how many people though "it's a meh show, so I'll just watch it online, not that they'll get my money anyways" You didn't just cut of Dunham who has the money, you cut off archi as well. (note: general "you", no idea who here watched the show or not.)

[Zeb]

I want to see Game of Thrones too, but I refuse to pay what Comcast wants to charge me for HBO. Give me an option to buy each episode separately and I would do it, but I dont want to support HOURS of other shows that I dont care about for 1 hour that I do. If the show is good then I'll buy the box set, like I have for Weeds and Californication.

It's not all Comcast and other provider's fault. The individual broadcast companies have deals with the providers. Like CBS says ok, we'll let you show your customers our programming, but you have to take all of our channels (Comedy Central, Logo, BET, Spike, TV Land, Nick@Nite, Nickelodeon, TeenNick, Nick Jr., MTV, VH1, MTV2, Tr3́s, CMT, Palladia) and sell it to your customers in certain packages.

When internet providers stop dragging their fucking feet and upgrade their broadband infrastructure (maybe it'll be wireless by they time they get around to it) then maybe studios will go to more of a pay per show type of deal.

[archibaldcrane]

Hell look at archi who worked on the jeff dunham show. Shit wasn't too great but how many people though "it's a meh show, so I'll just watch it online, not that they'll get my money anyways" You didn't just cut of Dunham who has the money, you cut off archi as well. (note: general "you", no idea who here watched the show or not.)

Don't white-knight for me Ksandra.

Steal TV all you want. Tell them your internet friend Archie works for TV and said it's ok.

[Yugl]

Don't worry Ksandra, I got this all planned out.

Step 1a: Try to create and enforce laws that prohibit illegal streaming and even downloads.
Step 1b: Entertainment industry crumbles and people whom would have "made it" otherwise do not. People that illegally download then blame this new group of poor people for their own poverty, claim that society had nothing to do with their poverty, and that they should die because Darwinism said so.
Step 2: Government realizes that Step 1 is not feasible, so instead, socialize the costs by giving these industries tax breaks, subsidies, or even taxing unaffiliated members of society
Step 3: People that do not participate in illegal downloading complain about paying for people that contribute to illegal activity. People that do participate in illegal downloading complain about "Mega-rich people getting Mega-Mega write offs" and taxes in general.
Step 4: Rally against government and espouse anarchy

The next several months summarized in 4 easy steps.

[Fhqwghads]

selling a bag of oregano by claiming it's pot is a felony

being a felony doesn't mean you're going to pound me in the ass prison for the rest of your life

Yeah, I get a little wound up tightly and present things in the extreme. People would still have a felony record for something that should never be a felony. It's ridiculous.

[aurik]

terrible argument is terrible. This is like saying "wal-mart is making tons of money so all retail stores must be doing well."

No, the argument is more like "if it is worth selling, Wal-mart will carry it and make lots of money off of it."

Joss Whedon's shows die off because the pool of die-hard fantasy/sci-fi fans multiplied by their value to advertisers isn't worth the cost of producing the show.

[Valisk]

All, right yeah. they've changed, but not as signifcantly as you argue. When CDs first became mainstream albums were around the $16 range, after the FTC got a hold of record companies, prices have lowered to what they are now.

According to the figures they were $21.50 in 1984. Granted this was before I was born, I can't verify if that was actually the price but I'm going to go with published figures instead of your "around the $16 range." A 47% reduction in price with alternatives to purchase music by the track or pay $10 a month for unlimited downloads seems to greatly exceed the expectations of a "significant price change."

Back on topic, too many people are getting hung up on the word FELONY. Copyright Infringement has been a felony. This administration is just clarifying that streaming falls under that umbrella and some piss poor safety net that will allow them to legally wiretap people of interest in other cases. Felony piracy is currently when the retail value of the pirated material is more than $2,500 or at least 10 pirated items. This streaming ordeal will probably open the door for more businesses to offer unlimited stream for X amount of dollars per month.

[Fhqwghads]

what about the rights and privacy of people who create the shit in the first place?

And people need to open their eyes and realize it isn't just the mega stars and singers that are creating this shit. Think for one moment all those people they list at the end of the movie. My husband isn't Johnny Depp, but he works hard for the films he works on. You think he's going to get raises when companies can't pay his company enough for films? You think they never will do cutbacks to the company if they can't afford to pay?

Hell look at archi who worked on the jeff dunham show. Shit wasn't too great but how many people though "it's a meh show, so I'll just watch it online, not that they'll get my money anyways" You didn't just cut of Dunham who has the money, you cut off archi as well. (note: general "you", no idea who here watched the show or not.)

You're preaching to the choir here. I produce my own music, and am also getting into producing video as well. All the money I have vested in my gear is a huge loss as I'm not making money off it. People who are trying to make their careers off of media production are in a seriously fucked up position in this day and age where the time, effort, staff and equipment needed to create their chosen media is at risk for never returning a dime. I am sympathetic as I experience this first-hand (although this is not my career, so the risk isn't critical for me.) However, that industry as a whole needs to evolve. All the legislation in the world will not prevent the public from accessing what they want for free.

It disgusts me that politicians are wasting my money trying to push laws on the books which will further waste money AND could result in violating the public's constitutional rights, all because people are... streaming media. The onus is on the producers of content to figure out how to work with new technology, not QQ about it and try to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water.

[Valisk]

selling a bag of oregano by claiming it's pot is a felony

My favorite movie of all time.

"My client is a moron and that's not against the law."

[Demosthenes11]

I love how this thread is OH THE OUTRAGE but other shit obama does, that is probably actually obama's doing, is ignored.

[Zeb]

According to the figures they were $21.50 in 1984. Granted this was before I was born, I can't verify if that was actually the price but I'm going to go with published figures instead of your "around the $16 range." A 47% reduction in price with alternatives to purchase music by the track or pay $10 a month for unlimited downloads seems to greatly exceed the expectations of a "significant price change."

I said when they became mainstream. Which was in the early 90s. CD players were around for a few years, when only the rich had them. Have you ever seen The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler? The guy makes a joke about his brand new CD player that cost like $800. The first CD I bought was Metallica's black album, when it came out in '91, which cost me almost two weeks worth of an allowance, i.e $16

[Yugl]

I love how this thread is OH THE OUTRAGE but other shit obama does, that is probably actually obama's doing, is ignored.

Or we're ok with it.

[Valisk]

I said when they became mainstream. Which was in the early 90s. CD players were around for a few years, when only the rich had them. Have you ever seen Love Stinks with Adam Sandler? The guy makes a joke about his brand new CD player that cost like $800. The first CD I bought was Metallica's black album, when it came out in '91, which cost me almost two weeks worth of an allowance, i.e $16

So you don't feel that dowloading unlimited music for $10 a month is a significant price change from the $16 you paid for 12 tracks from Metallica's Black CD? What's that $1.33 per track? It's $0.99 per track now if you purchased them from Amazon.com. Sounds like a 25% reduction to me. Plus, if you don't like every track, you could weed out the undesirables. Further lowering the price you pay out of pocket.

[Ksandra]

It disgusts me that politicians are wasting my money trying to push laws on the books which will further waste money AND could result in violating the public's constitutional rights, all because people are... streaming media. The onus is on the producers of content to figure out how to work with new technology, not QQ about it and try to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water.

my point in all this is they have rights too, and just saying "oh BUT I WANT IT FOR FREE" doesn't automatically make your rights more important than theirs.

[Zeb]

So you don't feel that dowloading unlimited music for $10 a month is a significant price change from the $16 you paid for 12 tracks from Metallica's Black CD? What's that $1.33 per track? It's $0.99 per track now if you purchased them from Amazon.com. Sounds like a 25% reduction to me. Plus, if you don't like every track, you could weed out the undesirables. Further lowering the price you pay out of pocket.

My argument to Plow was the price difference between cassettes and CDs when CDs were cheaper to manufacture. CDs should have been cheaper like digital downloads are.

[notorious bum]

If the industry wasn't such a consolidated pile of diarrhea, I could see myself siding with them. Some of you are going out of your way to justify why these rich crackers should be even richer, while still raping artists' royalties.

I buy indy media, I steal commercial garbage. This is common practice nowadays, consumers dictate the market, not the other way around.

The underground community(atleast in hiphop/rnb) has seen a ton of growth from artists dumping their slave-owners with incompetent marketing teams, and not looking back.

[Zeb]

If the industry wasn't such a consolidated pile of diarrhea, I could see myself siding with them. Some of you are going out of your way to justify why these rich crackers should be even richer, while still raping artists' royalties.

I buy indy media, I steal commercial garbage. This is common practice nowadays, consumers dictate the market, not the other way around.

The underground community(atleast in hiphop/rnb) has seen a ton of growth from artists dumping their slave-owners with incompetent marketing teams, and not looking back.

^
I hope Kevin Smith is successful with his movie Red State. He's self distributing it himself to show that the movie industry's business model does have room for change.

[notorious bum]

^
I hope Kevin Smith is successful with his movie Red State. He's self distributing it himself to show that the movie industry's business model does have room for change.

Yeah, I remember hearing about that! I have a feeling it will make alot of noise, the dude has a pretty loyal fanbase so I can't picture it being a failure.

[Valisk]

My argument to Plow was the price difference between cassettes and CDs when CDs were cheaper to manufacture. CDs should have been cheaper like digital downloads are.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. The price of manufacturing alone isn't enough to justify something's price. If we only had to pay what it cost to manufacture things, no one would be in business. Margins, think about that. CDs were more expensive than cassettes because of the convenience (lightweight, stackable), storage amount, capabilities (skip). I would love to pay $0.10 for a beverage at a restaurant just because that's what it cost the store but that's not how things work. And I don't think that's how you would want things to work if you know anything about economics, free enterprise, capitalism, labor, etc.