Sony Pictures CEO Thinks the Net Wasn't Worth It 562
rossturk writes "Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said, 'I'm a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet, period.' Why? Because people 'feel entitled' to have what they want when they want it, and if they can't get it for free, 'they'll steal it.' It's become customary to expect a somewhat limited perspective on things from old-world entertainment companies, but his inability to acknowledge that the Internet has changed everything makes me think he's a very confused man. Is this when we all give up hope that companies like Sony Pictures can adapt? Will we look back on this as one of the defining moments when the industrialized entertainment industry lost touch for good?"
Sony Loosing Ground (Score:5, Informative)
Given that Sony recently posted its first loss in 14 years [bbc.co.uk], I think perhaps it is time for them to get with the new modes of media distribution instead of keeping its head in the sand and decrying them.
Bawwwww (Score:3, Informative)
Why do things have to change?
I have given up on Sony (Score:5, Informative)
They used to make quality products, not so much anymore. My latest experience is the last straw. Last year, I purchased a Sony navigation unit. I soon found that the maps were outdated, and missing major landmarks, and even an Interstate highway that had opened the year before. Support assured me that the next update would solve these problems. Well, after many months, an update has finally been released for the mere price of $99. So, in other words, Sony wants me to pay another $99 to fix what was broken from the time they built the unit. I consider it a lesson learned, and will not longer purchase Sony products.
Re:-1 Flamebait (Score:5, Informative)
No. Sony isn't just a "media company". It's one of the big technology companies. And it's relevant that one of the biggest technology companies hate Internet.
Re:It's the wrong issue (Score:5, Informative)
they have run out of 'product'.
the music today sucks. and cd audio is good enough for 99% of the people out there - yet the industry invented new forms of audio, 'rich' in drm (true-hd and dts master crapola). there is NOTHING sonically better that MATTERS for movies yet we are told we have to re-buy things all over again.
blatant money grab. don't fall for it. boycott bd, hd-dvd and any new audio formats that aren't open.
and dont' EVER mix audio and video. keep your hdmi 'clean' of audio and use regular spdif for audio (its open and drm-free).
don't re-buy your 5.1 stereo - DD5.1 will be here for decades and won't be going away any time soon. resist the 'urge' to fill the bank accounts of music execs (and equipment makers!) trying to get you to re-re-buy things time and time again.
yes, the cost of making cd's (even 10 yrs ago) was a fraction of pressing a vinyl album yet they charge MORE for cd.
the industry has taken us for a ride for a long time. payback time - boycott their stuff and have them feel financial pain.
Re:Ironic (Score:5, Informative)
Re:1. Reject Technology 2. Criminalize Customer 3. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I have given up on Sony (Score:4, Informative)
Not trying to discount your story, I think the problem is BS and the companies are selling products with known failure problems and not making that clear, but the battery issue is industry-wide. Every company that uses a traditional li-ion battery that has been stretched to capacity limits has severe failure issues. Most new Dell batteries are the same way (which happen to be manufactured by Sony, btw). That particular branch of li-ion was maxed a long time ago, and instead they began to make tradeoffs of longevity for initial capacity. They begin to lose capacity slowly after the very first charge.
The thinner materials used in these batteries, which create more surface area and thus more capacity, also deteriorate much more quickly. The average fail rate* is about 1 year, but it can be much earlier (I've seen 6 months on a laptop with very heavy use and many many charges), so you'll never see more than a one year warranty on one of these batteries.
Newer li-ion, like the li-polymer types don't have the deterioration issues, but also don't have the same capacity yet. Though they are close. Unfortunately you have to be on the ball to get your battery replaced, as they fail like clockwork after 1 year with normal use. Frankly, I'd recommend doing anything you can to abuse that battery to make sure it fails within the 1 year period so you can get it replaced. If you try to be good to your Sony battery, you'll be left out in the cold when it doesn't fail till a year and 3 days after you got it.
*By fail rate I mean the battery capacity is so poor as to make it unuseable. It is usually accompanied with a battery end of life message, suggesting replacement.
Re:1. Reject Technology 2. Criminalize Customer 3. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:1. Reject Technology 2. Criminalize Customer 3. (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, Hulu blocks IPs outside US. (Using a Well Known Search Engine, you'll find plenty of workarounds - pls try them only for Academic/Research purposes.)
The reason of the block, is not Hulu's inherent evil. It's rather the outdated structure of TV shows international rights.
If you sell The Simpsons in France, the French TV station which buys it, has an exclusive contract - i.e., nobody else can broadcast the Simpsons in France. Hulu may therefore risk legal trouble if they hulucast The Simpsons in France.
Needless to say, this is a big piece of BS: if you follow this logic, you'd make Satellite dishes illegal, because you can use them to watch The Simpsons anywhere in the world you are.
Such contracts/laws were made for a different world. Today, enforcing such rights on a territorial basis is close to ridiculous -and a sure encouragement for French users to torrent The Simpsons.
These aren't summer of love trippers (Score:3, Informative)
The kids tripping on acid during the Summer of Love mostly turned into fear-freaks who relentlessly elected NeoCon Evangeliban to office.
This is a generational cliché. The 'Summer of Love' was 1967 and at that time there were no kids tripping. LSD didn't hit the American high schools throughout the country in a big way until the early 1970s. There is still a lot of debate about just how this managed to happen, but it did.
The number of people involved in the hippy counter-culture in the 1960s was actually very small, maybe 2-3% of the 18-25 year olds at the time 1967. They got a lot of press for being colorful and very noticeable, but there weren't a whole lot of them. The vast majority of American teens in 1967 were not much different from the teens of 1957 or 1997, they were just all normal people.
Much of what people think of as 60's behavior and mentality actually took place in the mid to late 1970s. This actually was a weird time with a lot of weed smoking and a lot of tripping. But most of the teenage tripping on LSD happened in the years 1971-1974 and then rapidly faded. Again no one is exactly sure why this social phenonemon happened at this time.
Here on the west coast we have a lot of the people still around who actually were the tripping hippies in the '67 Summer of Love. They, the ones that survived and didn't go mad (about 85% of them), are generally quietly prosperous, middle-class and politically liberal.
There are a few radical hippies that turned conservative, such as the respected David Horowitz. But they were mostly radical new-left people from Berkeley and not San Francisco hippies.
I realize that all this now 'doesn't mean shit to a tree' (an expression of that time), and, with time, political enemies get grouped together by subsequent generations as artifacts of a past and irrelevant era. But still it is best to avoid the trap of generational clichés in public forums.
Thank you.
Sony Lacks Vision (Score:2, Informative)