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What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

aaronklein.com

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Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#21

Post by InclinedPlane »

mathattack wrote: post #19
rockarage wrote: post #16

This is just sad, I get the impression from the comments and up votes that tech does not get Hollywood. Hollywood business only work because only Hollywood is willing to give Christopher Nolan 200+ million dollars to make Dark Knight, ditto with James Cameron's Avatar. When Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook or Yahoo decides to give a Christopher Nolan or James Cameron $200million+ to make a movie, things will be dif…

Interesting comment. I think the Avatars go away in a post-Hollywood world, but the smaller movies will thrive.

I don't think they would. Hollywood budgets are partly due to Hollywood accounting. If movies were set up along startup lines (where only some folks get a guaranteed salary and the vast majority of earnings by everyone comes in the form of profit sharing) then I think you'd still see very big, expensive to make movies.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#22

Post by rockarage »

panza wrote: post #20
rockarage wrote: post #16

This is just sad, I get the impression from the comments and up votes that tech does not get Hollywood. Hollywood business only work because only Hollywood is willing to give Christopher Nolan 200+ million dollars to make Dark Knight, ditto with James Cameron's Avatar. When Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook or Yahoo decides to give a Christopher Nolan or James Cameron $200million+ to make a movie, things will be dif…

You've just proposed an odd dichotomy: that big budget films can only be funded through Hollywood with DRM and other restrictions, or by technology companies without DRM and other restrictions. You're going to need to elaborate on that, because on the face it, this sounds absurd.

That is not correct, DRM and other restrictions do not fund big budget films. Those things actually take away profits from film in the form convoluted distribution cost. see: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3514416 . Big budget films can only be funded by companies with the money and will to do so. Large tech companies have the money and means to produce & distribute big budget films, they just have to be willing to do it.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#23

Post by gerggerg »

Most importantly, we should send them extortionate threats of law-suit based on easily fake-able evidence that claim they owe us thousands of dollars just to get us to not send them more letters.

And then when they stop using our service we'll say it must be because they're doing something illegal.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#24

Post by nitrogen »

jerf wrote: post #8
sounds wrote: post #2

Pure genius. You can, by the way, offer better licensing to specific companies and unaffiliated individuals -- leaving Hollywood with the unskippable ads, "premium tweets," and all the rest. Good luck, however, winning in court to enforce your license.

As mentioned on the Wikipedia page for EULAs towards the end [1], the solution is to encase absolutely everything in DRM, making it a DMCA violation to remove the DRM without permission. Then, Google permits everybody except Hollywood to remove it freely. Oh, and while the DMCA requires DRM to be "effective", that has proved to be a low bar. More seriously, EULA case results are mixed, and Wikipedia's somewhat sarcas…

Oh, and while the DMCA requires DRM to be "effective", that has proved to be a low bar.

I think the "effective" in "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title."[0] probably means something more like "has the intended effect of" rather than "does a good job at."

[0] http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_0...

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#25

Post by rockarage »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #21
mathattack wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting comment. I think the Avatars go away in a post-Hollywood world, but the smaller movies will thrive.

I don't think they would. Hollywood budgets are partly due to Hollywood accounting. If movies were set up along startup lines (where only some folks get a guaranteed salary and the vast majority of earnings by everyone comes in the form of profit sharing) then I think you'd still see very big, expensive to make movies.

Hollywood losses are partly due to Hollywood accounting. The budgets for production are real cost. In these high budget movies, there are major expenses apart from just salary. In the Dark knight, the batmobile and other machines are real vehicles, the sets are made with real materials, live effects are not cheap, permits are not free, not everything is done on a computer. This only scratch the surface of the expense involved in making a big budget film.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#26

Post by saulrh »

rockarage wrote: post #16

This is just sad, I get the impression from the comments and up votes that tech does not get Hollywood. Hollywood business only work because only Hollywood is willing to give Christopher Nolan 200+ million dollars to make Dark Knight, ditto with James Cameron's Avatar. When Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook or Yahoo decides to give a Christopher Nolan or James Cameron $200million+ to make a movie, things will be dif…

On the other hand, Apple gives Steve Jobs $200million+ to make an iPad, and Microsoft certainly gives someone 200 million dollars to make Windows.next. Google gave someone $200 million to develop Android. We just don't see it as much because software doesn't depend on personalities as much.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#27

Post by dirtbox »

Hollywood are not in the business of offering a service, only a product. This is mostly why the two aren't compatible and why they aren't interested in developing it.

The thinking is that a product is far more profitable and has higher gains than a service which bleeds money by comparison due to it's constant maintenance costs, upkeep and customer care and that drop in profit would make their pyramid business model unsustainable.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#28

Post by rockarage »

saulrh wrote: post #26
rockarage wrote: post #16

This is just sad, I get the impression from the comments and up votes that tech does not get Hollywood. Hollywood business only work because only Hollywood is willing to give Christopher Nolan 200+ million dollars to make Dark Knight, ditto with James Cameron's Avatar. When Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook or Yahoo decides to give a Christopher Nolan or James Cameron $200million+ to make a movie, things will be dif…

On the other hand, Apple gives Steve Jobs $200million+ to make an iPad, and Microsoft certainly gives someone 200 million dollars to make Windows.next. Google gave someone $200 million to develop Android. We just don't see it as much because software doesn't depend on personalities as much.

Yes, and Microsoft is spending billions on Bing, if Google pulled a so called Hollywood move, by making Google search a pain to use, people will start using Bing more. We don't have that with big budget films. DRM died in the music industry, in part, because a number of popular artist, like Trent of NIN were not afraid to go direct to fans without DRM.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#29

Post by fleitz »

I think this is great, we should add a licensing clause for this, if you work for a subsidiary of an MPAA member you have to check a box to get the Hollywood edition else you are not entitled to use the software, perhaps even a Hollywood IP database for internet companies.

If Hollywood execs had to sit through 5 minutes of ads to use Google they'd soon get the message.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get the IP blocks of MPAA member companies? Is there anything better than just whois'ing every class A/B/C?

I'm thinking of a javascript that creates a black modal dialog with a youtube video queue of startup video ads. Use the chromeless video player, I'll even max the volume for them.

Simple one line addition to your site and voila your startup/site/blog is Hollywood Edition.

Re: What if Hollywood had to use tech like we have to watch movies?

#30

Post by Vivtek »

Silhouette wrote: post #17
ajuc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant, but they will just use pirated versions. Or regular versions.

That's fine, as long as they don't mind having their entire studio's Internet access cut off if any three people who ever wrote a piece of software each allege that someone from the studio downloaded that software illegally, based on the fact that at least one IP address that was allocated to the studio's domain at the time was observed downloading a file that contained the unique identifying mark "int main() {". Als…

I'm liking this plan better and better.
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