291–300 of 844 posts
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What makes you think Mars will have better laws?
If Musk playing with BTC is any indication, Mars would've been an interesting socio-political experiment if we had the terraforming technology.
So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.
Really? Have you enjoyed the drek that has been released over the past decade? HBO started the bucking of the system, F/X and A&E followed. But since they were cable ops, I guess they get a pass? When Netflix started producing and pushed everyone's game, content started getting so much more interesting. Obviously, Amazon/Apple followed. I'm waiting for Google to get involved so we can have a full FAANG entertainment.
All of the Paramounts/WBs want to do is take the one franchise and squeeze every drop from it with endless sequels to the point I have completely lost any interest in explosions, cars, and super heroes.
So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.
> We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Piracy is competition to bad content behavior. It's a meaningful consumer response to monopoly, balkanization and other anti-consumer practices.
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THIS. Forcing consumers to sign up to 10 platforms to watch 10 movies will no doubt lead to a shift back to torrents. YouTube is pretty good in this regard, as it allows paying for renting a single movie for a weekend for a reasonable price.
Blockbusters used to be really good for this. You could even get a movie for a whole week for less than YouTube will rent it to you for 24 hours. Maybe they'll make a comeback?
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Blockbusters used to be really good for this. You could even get a movie for a whole week for less than YouTube will rent it to you for 24 hours. Maybe they'll make a comeback?
Well blockbuster itself no longer exists, so don't count on that one.
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> We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Piracy is competition to bad content behavior. It's a meaningful consumer response to monopoly, balkanization and other anti-consumer practices.
Or we could fall back to watching movies made from the ‘30s to the ‘50s, that’s what I have been doing for more than half a year now and it has been wonderful for my mental well-being (they really knew how to make comedies back then, even after the Hayes code).
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That blew my mind. We have so much sci-fi depicting the evil mega-corp that's it has become a trope, yet we're just lumbering along towards that exact future.
And the “evil mega-Corp” will gladly sell you that sci-fi in whichever medium you prefer. Hell, they’ll even recommend it to you.
If a problem is worth the Jeff/Andy's personal attention, it's worth spending $8bn on.
I'm a broken record but, current equity prices and financial climate generally makes massive consolidation very likely. Antitrust, or fear of is the only restraint... and it is not very restraining.
Unless Apple & Google are going to start issuing dividends/buybacks on an epic scale (doesn't seem likely), they have no way to put cash they have to work (besides vanguard/bitcoin). Google would need to do 10 Waymos (in for about $20bn so far) simultaneously, to invest what they need to invest on internal projects, but even their one Waymo is dubious. Acquisition is the only remaining option.
Consider that these companies can currently afford to buy whole industries outright, perhaps without involving a bank. Does Waymo need a friend? Why not buy it Ford & GM? Anything outside the S&P 10 is a snack. They literally have cash enough for both lying around... and these deals are never all cash.
5 more years on the current trajectory, and the VOC/EIC days will look quaint.