MPAA Plans To Launch Movie Links Site 199
eldavojohn writes "To combat piracy, the MPAA's latest idea involves a site that would allow users to search for a movie and then provide links to legit legal downloads or ticket purchases for it. Why are they doing this? Because their research showed 'many users have a hard time differentiating between legal and illegal content online.' And all this time I thought people pirated movies because it was cheaper to do! Turns out they were just confused."
Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Funny)
Normally, I would pirate a movie because it's free, has no DRM, and is available at any time (even while the movie is still playing in theaters). Then when it came out on DVD or Blu-ray later, I would buy it and give the filmmaker their fair cut (I'm not not looking to rip them off, I just want a copy of the movie to play at home).
But now that the MPAA has given me a chance to pay money to download from a piss-poor selection of movies that are all crippled by DRM, all I can say is "Thank God!" I mean, what I really want is a poor quality copy of a movie that requires me to connect to the internet and get the studio okay every time I watch it, won't let me make copies or share it with friends, and costs just as much as if I went and bought it on DVD (with the added bonus of none of the DVD extra content).
Yep, the MPAA finally gets it!
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Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Insightful)
FTFA:the site "could include links to Fandango, Movietickets.com, Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, Xbox Live Video, Hulu, and more."
What part of that sounds like a "piss-poor selection" of "crippled" flicks? Fandango and Movietickets, at least, aren't exactly DRM purveyors. And Apple's DRM is one of the least onerous options out there, for "legit" viewing.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I actually think this is a good move on the MPAA's part. I do want to know where I can get movies legally, and this could help increase competition - better for my bottom line. I'm not going to complain about what appears to be a sincere attempt to address consumers' needs.
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Insightful)
Huh? Which universe are you in? In my universe, Apple requires specific software to be installed on my machine -- software that takes over system functions, and even downloads other software that I don't want, which in turn takes over more of the system. It's the most intrusive DRM system I've ever seen.
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh? Which universe are you in?
I believe they call his universe "plantville."
Or "Shillverse."
Oblig Futurama (Score:2)
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:4, Informative)
The complaint that FairPlay requires specific software is a) hardly unique, since just about every DRM system does, and b) effectively false [doubletwist.com].
I don't claim that iTunes is perfect - the downloading of extra software is particularly troublesome - but it's a pretty decent piece of jukebox software.
Besides, Apple at least has shown a history of at least appearing to listen to customers' requests. Witness, for example, the advent of "iTunes Plus" songs on the iTMS.
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That's a strange way to spell Effectively true. See, the link you gave for "effectively false" points to an additional piece of software -- not a replacement. You need to both iTunes and QuickTime in order to be able to use it.
What makes Fairplay worse than most is that it's not just "specific software", but several pieces of software that take over system tasks that
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which is worse than even what Sony managed
Yeah? On my box, I chose to install iTunes. I don't recall getting to do that with Sony's rootkits.
You're absolutely right that opt-out is a bad way for Apple to push software. But, again, that's a non-unique complaint. And when we're already selecting the lesser of two evils, I have to say I prefer the software that provides a decent service and at least lets you break its defaults.
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Apples and oranges. We're talking about DRM here, not rootkits. Compare iTunes to Sony Connect, not to their CD rootkits. Else you might as well drag in the copy protection on Apple II 5.25" floppies too.
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The distinction's not as clear as you seem to think. With the iTunes/FP setup, I install media, know my options with regard to said media, and I choose to continue using the software regulating those rights.
Sony's solution", however, meant I didn't get to know my options, didn't get to make any decisions regarding what went on my box, etc. [wikipedia.org]
There's a clear contrast, and an important one, as far as I'm concerned. With one, I'm fully aware of what's happening - even if I disagree with it - while with the other
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Sony Connect also managed to provide a service that did not take over as the DVD player, MP3 player, AVI player or web browser for the entire system. It was a bad system, but for other reasons. Apple's system is bad not because of the DRM part, but because the DRM part links in to so many other components that you need. You tie yourself down to an Apple-owned system.
If Sony's connect had clandestinely installed Sony Media Manager, Sony Disc2phone, Vegas Video trial and Sound Forge Audio trial, people wou
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iTunes uses QuickTime as a backend to read media files.
VLC uses the VLC Libraries to process its files.
What exactly is the big deal here? They're complementary products. Deal with it. It's not like Quicktime is actively causing you any harm.
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Its a piece of shit player, I hate it, I don't want it, ergo I don't want iTunes. It's actively causing Apple harm, not me. I frankly don't give two shits.
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I take it that you never heard about sony hacking your machine when you bought their CDs then, did you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal [wikipedia.org]
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Funny)
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Ok. Name a *less* intrusive DRM system.
Honestly, it sounds like it's the only DRM system you've used.
Apple didn't want to buy into Microsoft's DRM standard. What would you have proposed that they did instead?
Also, what "software that you didn't want" does it install? Complaining about iTunes installing Quicktime is like complaining about the VLC Player installing the VLC Libraries. (No, iTunes and Quicktime for Windows aren't as good as they could be. Still, things could be a lot worse)
We need some sor
I don't think you or anyone for this understand... (Score:2)
Ok. Name a *less* intrusive DRM system
You don't seem to get it, any drm system period is an utter insult to me, and to most people here.
They require proprietary formats, which lock out superior OSS playback tools (as well as many OTHER proprietary ones), and subsist because of a law which has utterly destroyed competition and innovation in playback and recording technology.
Their presence is an accusation of criminality, and a proclamation that i'm not allowed to own what I buy.
I don't want a corporation circumventing judicial review and due pro
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We need some sort of standardized, cross-platform system for DRM.
No, we don't. Members of the RIAA would like people to think so, but I've still yet to see a compelling argument on why we should be happy with DRM.
Sadly, it's going to be a reality that we have to deal with.
That's another idea that RIAA members like to promote. While they may want us to believe that DRM is "inevitable" and "necessary", it's nothing of the sort....otherwise, iTunes and others wouldn't be experimenting with DRM-free music.
We might as well make the best of it.
Feel free to "make the best of it." Myself, I've kept a dialogue with my CongressCritters since they made it illegal for the deaf
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Normally I *BUY* my movies on DVD, and here is why I don't want DRM on them (we'll pretend CSS isn't DRM for this discussion, since it's been pretty much negated by modern rippers):
Not infrequently, the DVD is bad right out of the box, and will not play correctly. However, for the typical $12 movie, it's not really worth the bother to locate the receipt, call the vendor, argue about whether it's really the DVD or my player, package it up, send it back at my own expense, wait for a replacement to come that m
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The day they stop calling it Digital Rights Management is the day I will might start considering it a valid option.
I'm just so tired of all this marketing bullshit that tries to make people believe things are the opposite of what they really are. DRM, Genuine Advantage, OPEN licensing (by Microsoft). I have to wonder if that is not because they know they are doing something that will piss off their customers. And that is another thing I don't by. These companies are not ignorant savages. They know what they
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I agree. If everyone were to switch to a single standardized, cross-platform DRM system, then a lot less reverse engineering would need to be done.
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That's a very simplistic way of looking at things.
Whether or not to provide DRM was not Apple's call to make. It was demanded by the record companies.
A growing percentage of iTunes tracks are now sold without DRM, and are labeled as such. If you'd prefer MP3 to unprotected AAC (which most players are fine with these days), Amazon also now has a music store.
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I'm fairly certain that any DRM requires you to have either specific software or specific hardware on your machine. Of the two, software is less intrusive.
I'm not sure what you mean by "takes over system functions".
Certainly I'm not sure what software iTunes forces you to download, unless you're referring to QuickTime (a dependency) or Safari (which it doesn't force you to download).
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Fandango + Movietickets = MOVIE TICKET sales. I sometimes use them when I'm... oh... going to the theater (something I've done a lot this summer).
Amazon, Netflix - are you referring to renting/buying the DVD/Blu-ray? Or are you referring to their crappy-as-hell never-works-properly "online rental" setups?
iTunes - Great. Don't own an iPod. Not planning to. Decent video quality only if you plan to watch on tinyscreen.
Xbox Live Video - I've gotten precisely ONE video on it, before I realized there was no way t
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Insightful)
I sometimes use them when I'm... oh... going to the theater
Well, I didn't say anything about getting movies online legally. The fact is that this website should provide the sort of one-stop shop a lot of consumers look for. A similar response can be given to your "critiques" of each of these services.
None of them are perfect, and I never claimed they were. But I think it's silly that those of us who have spent so much time lambasting the MPAA for its heavy-handed methods are now assailing them for providing a non-profit index of legal services. "Ooooooh! How eeeeeevil of the MPAA! Please don't inform me of where you'd like me to shop!"
The iPod isn't the only device iTMS movies play on. Get your facts straight.
If I thought for a minute it would help increase competition, maybe that would be a point. I don't.
Ok. Here's some substantive disagreement. I think the fact that these sites are all linked on the same site will put them in direct competition with each other. If I want tickets, then I'll pick the site that charges less for reserving tickets. If I want a rental, I'll consider the price/benefit ratio of getting a movie tonight at X price vs. Wednesday at Y price, etc. I think that's pretty straightforward.
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It seems like the whole point of this though. People don't know that you can go to a movie theater to watch currently playing mainstream movies? The only reason I'd download a movie illegally from the internet is because it's an indi which can't be seen in my area, or a mainstream one when I don't want to go to the horrible theaters around here. Doing a search for them will basically just amount to them saying "You don't want to watch it via
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They're creating a single site from scratch that they think will do better at being visible for each area than these established sites have done for their own niche.
Good luck with that?
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I was thinking this myself. When I want to watch a movie online, I check NetFlix, then Hulu, then sometimes iTunes -- having one-stop shopping, so to speak, will actually be quite useful for me.
Judging from the other comments, I would be very curious to see the results of a poll with two questions:
"1. Do you think this is a good idea?"
"2. How old are you?" (Alternately: "Are you a college student?)
I suspect there will be some correlation there.
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What kind of correlation, exactly?
See, question 1 I'll have to answer No. This is the MPAA's half-assed effort towards staving off piracy so they can later trumpet around it's failure as more proof internet users are all criminals and they need more laws to protect their revenue stream.
I mean seriously, a fucking index page?
As to question 2, 28. Well out of college, working in K-12 education and workforce training.
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I was thinking, actually, a correlation between "yes" and "college-age". (Obviously not 100%) I don't usually give the MPAA the benefit of the doubt, but this strikes me as them actually trying -- it seems to me that they noticed that the most popular sites were not the individual "pirates" but the indexing sites like PirateBay or that TV site out of the UK (the name escapes me). It seems more likely that they'll be looking for kickbacks from the sites they send people to, than looking for "proof interne
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What part of that sounds like a "piss-poor selection" of "crippled" flicks? Fandango and Movietickets, at least, aren't exactly DRM purveyors. And Apple's DRM is one of the least onerous options out there, for "legit" viewing.
Doesn't Fandango and Movietickets sell... tickets? Do they also sell video?
As for Apple's iTunes, I agree; least onerous. But still onerous. I pass.
Here's an example. I got a kick out of Dr. Horrible. Partly because I thought it was kinda neat. Partly because it might part of an Internet dream many have talked about for years. I plan to throw some dollars at the project but I'm not purchasing from iTunes. I'm waiting for the DVD. When I get said DVD, I'm ripping it and putting the media on my shel
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Xbox Live Video
You can't, you know, own Xbox Live Video movies. TV shows, yes. Movies, no.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Marketplace#Video_Store [wikipedia.org]
TV shows will be saved permanently while movies are only "rentals"; they will become unwatchable 24 hours after initial viewing or 14 days after purchase.
Yeah, pay X amount of money to rent a movie that's only good on my 360? No thanks.
I do think Hulu is a step in the right direction, though. I just wish they had a bigger selection.
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And what about it being crippled in other countries?
Not everyone is in the US you know.
In Australia piracy increased by 30% over Christmas due to shit being on TV and the writers strike.
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Their actions show that they simply do not understand the technology. There is no way they could set up a worthwhile site that people actually want to use--because you have to understand People and Things and stuff for that to happen. Which they manifestly do not.
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Normally, I would pirate a movie because it's free, has no DRM, and is available at any time (even while the movie is still playing in theaters).
And you think this is OK because...
Then when it came out on DVD or Blu-ray later, I would buy it and give the filmmaker their fair cut (I'm not not looking to rip them off, I just want a copy of the movie to play at home).
Ah, ok, well gee, that makes it all better. I suppose in the end, no harm, no foul, right? But how about all those people who just do step 1 of your process, but not step 2? Or how about the movies you pirate but decide, nahhhh, this one I'm not gonna buy...
This is one of those debates I find fun because pretty much everyone is wrong. If you're getting something for free that you normally have to pay for, how is that not illegal?
On the other hand, I don't really care f
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How do you know if you have zero incentive to pay until you've seen it? "Oh, this movie might be shitty, so I sure as hell am not gonna pay for it."
If you have that little faith in movie quality then just don't bother in the first place. Or do some research and read some reviews before making your decision.
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It is way more simple than you are making it out. Either you are/were willing to pony up the $10 for the "Last Action Hero2" and go watch it, or you were never going to in the first place.
Therefor, they lost $0 from you not buying a ticket.
However, if you say "Man, that movie was funny as shit" to some friends maybe THEY will go see it. Otherwise, you download it, watch 3 minutes of it, vomit all over yourself and delete the file and go "Glad I was too smart to buy that shit as an experience."
We're just not explaining it right. (Score:3, Funny)
This is one of those debates I find fun because pretty much everyone is wrong. If you're getting something for free that you normally have to pay for, how is that not illegal?
It's like the pennies in the tray at the cash register...
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...or listening to radio. ...or watching TV. ...or web surfing.
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In the sense that they're worth more melted down as raw materials than as presently available? Most of the recent movies would have been a whole lot better off if the projector, the film, and the underpaid geek hadn't gotten together alone in a dark room.
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Normally, I would pirate a movie because it's free, has no DRM, and is available at any time (even while the movie is still playing in theaters).
And you think this is OK because...
Then when it came out on DVD or Blu-ray later, I would buy it and give the filmmaker their fair cut (I'm not not looking to rip them off, I just want a copy of the movie to play at home).
Ah, ok, well gee, that makes it all better. I suppose in the end, no harm, no foul, right? But how about all those people who just do step 1 of your process, but not step 2? Or how about the movies you pirate but decide, nahhhh, this one I'm not gonna buy...
I only do step one most of the time, you act as if we are doing something wrong.
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Yep, the MPAA finally gets it!
Only if their site doesn't exclude other sources of legal content, such as craigslist or ebay where the right of first sale may be used to sell a pre-owned DVD.
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they'll use the lack of interest for this site as "evidence" that people are only interested in ripping them off and getting things for free.
Hanlon's razor to the contrary, I think this was deliberately planned to fail, to be used as ammunition for swaying the lawmakers.
The RIAA will submit their own interpretation of why it failed. That it was designed to be cumbersome to make it fail won't be grokked by politicians.
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Yes, but that doesn't speak for all of us. When something has a substantial benign use, it should not be classified as criminal.
Otherwise, you might as well ban ski masks because so many robbers and terrorists use them.
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Otherwise, you might as well ban ski masks because so many robbers and terrorists use them.
Actually, it's my understanding that you are not allowed to wear ski masks inside public places, nor at public demonstrations... for precisely these reasons. About 10 years ago, I was accosted by a convenience store clerk as I entered the store, and told that I had to remove my ski mask or they would call the police. It was approximately 20 degrees Farenheit outside, and this was before the 9/11 fiasco.
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I was accosted by a convenience store clerk as I entered the store, and told that I had to remove my ski mask or they would call the police.
Having no idea on the current 1984-esque laws in the US at the moment, from an Australian point of view I can only point out that that is a "store policy" only. It's a far cry from "public places".
To use a bit of Political Correctness (spit) against The Man, one can simply say,"but what about Muslim women and their full-body, face-covering burkhas and veils? Surely you
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:4, Funny)
Just another case of Internet anonymity gone wrong.
...Says the "bravecanadian." Ohh look! I've got a strawman too!
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd say most people download (illegally) because it's just easier. It's easier to find content via TPB than it is going to retail store xyz and finding a movie that's 2 years old. It's easier to get it in a format that works (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc). It's easier to deal with the files once you have them. (DRM, etc)
It's easier to get for free from torrenttracker123 than it is to pay for it from netflix, amazon, or wherever. It's too bad for the **AA, too. If they had been even a little forward thinking to realize that people would use this big new technology to get content. If the **AA had thrown half as much energy and money at the problem of coming up with a decent distribution network/model that works via the internet, they could have beaten the pirates in a big way early on. As it is, they've allowed the pirates to come up with an easier way for people to get their content. I think they kind of missed the bus. They're struggling, but if they want to put an end to piracy in a big way, then they're going to need to come up with a distribution method that makes it easier for joe content user to get to and use. I truly believe that if it's easier, then enough people will pay for it to make it worth the content creator's investment.
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First, we decide on a figure that each internet user can reasonably afford to pay once.
Then using the ISPs, all that cash gets collected and held in escrow.
Our representative meets with the *IAA and offers them the deal:
I don't
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Neat, right up to the point when they use the huge pile of cash to pay for the law to be changed back again and to re-open the old cases.
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Well, preventing that in perpetuity would have to be part of the deal then, eh?
But you're right -- enforcing that, with all the myriad ways to sneak new laws in under everyone's radar, would be difficult at best.
Better to change copyright law without special interests skewing the process.
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There is no iModel for that iBusiness that iCan think of...
Re:Where do I sign up? (Score:5, Informative)
The fact is, most people will buy something if it works, is cheap and convenient enough. The fact is, charging as much for a DVD copy for a sub-dvd quality, and none of the extras is BS... If you got at least DVD quality, and had the program ability to burn the movie to a DVD, then that would probably sway a few.. charge 25% less than the hardcopy DVD with those features, and sales would probably go very well...
Me, I go to the movies about 2-3x a month. I don't watch too many shows, and usually DVR those I do watch. The series I like, I buy on DVD... I spend maybe $500-1000 USD a year on DVDs... This has been a bit less this past year since DVD series have been going down in price. Do I do torrents of these same series? yes.. why, because ripping/re-encoding takes time, and it's sometimes just easier to download it already done. Why? because I have an MCE computer in my living room, and like to just choose a movie without fussing with disks.
Once people can get a hardware player that hooks to their TV with 1TB+ of drive space, for
The trouble with DRM is you are stuck with whatever scheme is in place for checking the DRM... if it relies on a 3rd party service to validate, what happens in 5-10 years, or if the service goes out of business. DRM'd media won't work in the long run. It pisses customers off, and pissed off customers == lost future sales.
I still have yet to buy anything from Sony in several years now after the CD DRM crap they pulled... I don't buy/play games with DRM after the BS of trying to get some of them to even install. I put my money where my mouth is, and don't buy the crap. I was about ready to buy an HD-DVD player when the pricing approaced $200, but then Sony got some MPAA and other movie execs laid or something and the bottom fell out...
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Morale of the story: people will justify stealing stuff as long as they can find some argument, however pathetic, to support them. Just another case of Internet anonymity gone wrong.
Stealing. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
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An interesting point. Now would you consider stealing if people regularly lie about the quality of the goods they are selling which you can't return in order to maximise their profits. So is downloading low quality versions of content as a means by which to decide whether it is worth buying, in the face of the hundreds of millions of dollars the publishers are willing to spend in order to lie about a product and suck you into buying it, fair or unfair.
You know what is even more mind boggling about the wh
Confused? (Score:5, Funny)
As it turns out, the floppy drive isn't such a good idea.
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Only because precious few computers have a floppy drive these days. That makes utilizing them as a coin slot sort of platform-dependent and usually ties you to hardware incapable of viewing the product.
But then again, isn't that what they want anyway?
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I'm always confused where I should insert the quarters...
As it turns out, the floppy drive isn't such a good idea.
Lucky you, I had inserted my coins in the CD ROM! The metal grinding noise still haunts me in my dreams... :(
This makes sense. (Score:5, Insightful)
One reason many people commit copyright infringement of movies is because the p2p programs provide a simpler, faster way to find what you're looking for, all from a central location. If this really indexes everything available, and is quick and simple to use, I think it might actually see significant use.
Obviously it won't stop all infringement, but it's a much saner response than suing your customers.
Re:This makes sense. (Score:5, Interesting)
Obviously it won't stop all infringement, but it's a much saner response than suing your customers.
Woah, wait a minute there tiger! They never said they were going to stop suing their customers, nope. All they said was that they were going to setup a site that will rank poorly on Google and will likely be poorly designed so that they can say that they are providing a service to their customers that those customers say they want.
A sane response would be to provide DRM and commercial free media to your customers that are filled with quality content (holy fucking God Almighty in heaven, I know, crazy right?!) While I haven't seen anything except the leaked first 6 minutes of the Dark Knight, those 6 minutes were decent enough for me to be interested in the film -- the first time I have had any interest in a MPAA released film in quite some time.
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Indeed. Now they can sue the customer and point to a "legitimate" site that the customer could have used instead. Within a year they'll be citing this in their briefs since it will, in their eyes, remove any defense based on ignorance.
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Every time I hear about the RIAA, they're suing someone new or getting another judgment handed down. Every time I hear about the MPAA, they're trying something new - online services like streaming shows and the whole Netflix thing, "educational" (threatening) letters, or a summer which, in my opinion, has been filled with an unreasonably high number of decent films.
I'm not saying they've gotten things perfect, but it at lea
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Frankly, AC, I don't give a damn.
I don't think that the FBI should give a damn, either. Or Congress, or the courts.
In a world where the cost of distribution is effectively zero, their business model needs to change. Cliche, I know.
The worst case scenario if the industry lost the battle to control distribution: Two years free of craptacular films while the industry reorganizes, trimming executive fat (and as for shareholders... Well, I don't give a
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I buy one movie every ten years, that makes me a customer.
Fine print (Score:5, Insightful)
Watch out for the fine print for one, and two this is a press release equivalent.
This is an "ohhh, sure, we're going to do this" followed by a "well, not enough people followed it, so we're dropping it". That or it will be DRM laden enough that it's a flaming piece of turd. This is a complete unsubstantiated claim by the MPAA right now.
I wouldn't be surprised if they simply restore that one download site they created before that was dropped...maybe someone else remembers the name. The day MPAA offers "legit online downloads" means the day they accept piracy.
Confusion (Score:2, Interesting)
Confusion - that is how I will plead.
Your search... (Score:5, Funny)
"Batman thepiratebay torrent" did not yield any results.
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Actually my point was that guys who want to pirate movies WILL resort to torrent sites. It's ridiculous to say they're confused.
Now what I'd like to find are legal music purchase sites. The problem is, I'm scared of my bank account being drained so it's safer to just download from torrent sites than from a relatively unknown mp3 store. I'd only trust sites like Amazon (still waiting for their intl. sales to open).
Paranoia or legit concern? (Score:5, Interesting)
The ability for MPAA to log your IP and your search query gives them a precise target to look for in whatever data they collect from various filesharing networks (with the help of either MediaSentry or someone else).
I know I am sounding paranoid, but at this point I would not be surprised.
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Hmm, I think you've got a very legit concern there...
So what about a proxy that hooks to the service?
Which I suppose is all well and good until the proxy gets compromised :/
Here's a better idea: get the existing torrent sites onboard as distributors. Give them a cut of every sale. They'll be quickly incentivized to make it easier to find paid downloads than freebies.
Easy Fix (Score:5, Insightful)
How about they link us to fairly priced movies?
Fuck paying DVD prices for a crappy quality movie you can't burn to your own DVD. You get no packaging, no extra materials, no DVD, nothing except for the movie file itself. All for the same price. Wal-Mart is a few minutes down the road and if I catch them on a sale, the WM version can be cheaper than the online version!
If the download version were quite a bit cheaper than the real version, hell, I'd do that before I bought the movie most likely.
All we need now... (Score:2)
...is for someone to steal the template of their shitty site and make a duplicate site that only serves up illegal links (ala the late great TV-Links and the numerous alternatives that appeared when it shut down).
That way, we get what we want AND completely undermine their "consumers are just confused" charade.
Not that aweful of an idea IMO. (Score:5, Interesting)
A year ago I was working on a PDA based Media PC controller. I could, from work, on my wifi-enabled PDA, pull up the week's line up for all of my local cable channels, set up reminders, flag shows for recording, change the media PC's channel, start up DVD's, change the volume, etc... on the media PC sitting in my living room.
But what I really wanted was a reliable and LEGAL way to download content. Sure, I'll pay $3 to rent a movie with a 72-hour DRM on it. Heck, I used to pay $3-5 to rent movies off of Charter's on demand system. If a movie is worth watching twice, I'll go buy it, if not, I'll rent it for a night, enjoy the show, and not clutter up my house with yet another DVD that I'm not going to watch. I'm fine with that, so long as it plays with out difficulty, and allows ample time to see the movie. But, at the time, there was no functional way to achieve this.
If this new service offers that opportunity, even if it is just a standardized public listing, I'm all for it. Open up an API and let us integrate it into other systems.
-Rick
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I would also love a reliable and legal way to download content. Unfortunately, I peeked at the article and couldn't see any mention about establishing a new distribution channel. They're talking about redirecting people to the channels that already exist.
If there was a way for me to buy virtually any release as a 1080p mkv or DVD image, for a handful of dollars, I would be all over that service.
The problem is, it doesn't exist. And it won't. These are the same guys that ensure your Blu-Ray player is designe
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A year ago I was working on a PDA based Media PC controller. I could, from work, on my wifi-enabled PDA, pull up the week's line up for all of my local cable channels, set up reminders, flag shows for recording, change the media PC's channel, start up DVD's, change the volume, etc... on the media PC sitting in my living room.
For anyone who's interesting in doing this for themselves, check out MythTV. You can log into a web interface and see your lineup, schedule recordings, etc. There's also a web-based remote, so you can sit on the couch with your PDA and use it to change channels over Wifi.
Plus, if you're using it to record stuff from your cable connection, there's nothing illegal about it. At least, not yet.
Be a little more positive, assholes! (Score:2)
Seriously, those comments up to know just prove the MPAA to be perfectly correct.
In fact, i think it is a great idea, as it might show them that decent offers will get sales.
Because right now, _I_ wouldnt know where to to buy movie ***** if i felt like it.
Music? Yeah, amazon or itunes. But movies still feels like an unexplored country.
And i am sure that DRM-free movies wont take as long as DRM-free music did. Because music is a medium thats shared/swapped/used repeatably in a much larger degree.
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There's this great new invention called a "store" that you can use to purchase goods and services you might not be able to find otherwise. I hear these "stores" are growing in popularity these days due to their quick access times from local mirrors. You can find a list of local mirrors at this page: http://maps.google.com [google.com].
Nonono, MPAA, you got it all wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
People don't download copies of movies because they're free, but because they're free.
When you get a download from a P2P network, you get no DRM, no country restriction, no copy restriction, no media restriction, no troubles, no fuss, just a movie.
When you buy a movie, there's a chance that your player won't read it (because it's a DVD-Rom drive instead of a standalone player, which I don't have and don't see any reason to get), a near certainty that you can't put the movie on your server (which makes it much more convenient to play than to search for the DVD every time you want to play it), a good chance that a "foreign" movie gives you some headaches and no chance to put it on your mobile device (and for some odd reason, I don't see the reason to pay twice for content).
Here's your reason for copying. It's convenience, that's all. Care to tell me how I should explain people to pay for something AND have more hassle using it?
Re:Nonono, MPAA, you got it all wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, and you're not forced to sit through *^&%$#@ non-skippable previews.
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I wish I could take my Tivo remote to the cinema and use the 30-skip button to skip all the crap before the movie...
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One of the few occasions when I'm happy about my bad habit of being late constantly...
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Not an excuse, just an explanation.
The core problem is twofold. One, that (unlike with "normal" products), you actually get more value from ripping instead of buying. When I buy some sort of crap, I got "consumer rights". I can take it home, unwrap it, find out if it works and if it doesn't, I got (depending on your country) up to a few years to bring it back in and trade it for a new one. Now try that in a shady back alley fell-off-a-truck deal.
And the other side is that yes, I don't buy DRMified junk. I a
Oblig... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a trap!
My next RIAA MPAA defense... (Score:2)
ME: Your Honor, honestly. I couldn't tell that the file I downloaded wasn't legal.
JUDGE: The photos of nude people advertising porn sites on the download pages should have set off a flag.
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ME: but every site has those! ... google isn't supposed to look like that ...
JUDGE: no, they don't.
ME: they do! Look! (shows laptop, and indeed every site does have them.)
JUDGE: uhh
(Of course, a computer literate judge? Bizarro world ...)
Spyware/worms/etc. can do fun things like that. And when you download stuff that you don't know what it even is ... guess what you tend to get?
Here's where the real confusion is... (Score:2)
Trouble differentiating between legal and illegal. (Score:4, Interesting)
Because their research showed 'many users have a hard time differentiating between legal and illegal content online.
I have this problem everytime. It's hard for me to discriminate between a DVD rent at 4$ and a DRMed download at 9.99$ and still come out believing it's not a plain robbery. Good MPAA that's the way to go...
Hey... (Score:2)
It's not entirely wrong... (Score:4, Interesting)
A couple weeks ago, a relative wanted me to download about 40 songs for free using one of the P2P services to be burned onto CDs. After explaining to them that obtaining songs this way would be a great way to get sued and showing them iTunes Music Store as an alternative, they got upset about the fact that it would cost them money to obtain same the music they could find for free elsewhere.
The mindset here, is that if it were illegal to obtain copyrighted materials for free from a P2P service, then why are these services allowed to host the files in the first place? They don't comprehend the dynamic nature of P2P networks that makes it nearly impossible to shut down such a service or impose any content enforcement on it. They just see P2P services as a single entity that exists at a fixed location in the real world.
What's more interesting, is that the older a given person is, the more likely they are to have similar hang-ups, simply because they aren't savvy enough to see it any other way.
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youtube docet ;) plenty of movies to watch.
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