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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?

#41
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"DRM died in the music industry"

I'm not confident that's a factual statement.

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

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Production budgets are inflated because the only way to get a share of the profit is to get a share of the gross. But that is not nearly as scalable so it is necessarily limited. This forces the remainder of returns to contributors to be in the form of direct payments. Thus, actors earn 10s of millions up front, for example. But that also extends to everyone down the line. Effects houses need to charge a lot for thei…

I've heard of "hollywood accounting" and the like before, but this particular effect is something new to me.

The effect you mention with effects houses, big-name-actors, etc. charging lots of up-front fees to compensate for the fact that the studio would try to screw them out of their cut of the profits sounds surprisingly similar to the health care situation in the US. Hospitals charge patients that they know can pay (private or gov't insured) much higher fees, because they know there are many, many patients who will not. There's also different affects related to which insurers are willing to pay which rates, etc.

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

#43
post #29

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 block…

> Anyone have any ideas on how to get the IP blocks of MPAA member companies? It's been tried before. Maintaining the list is very difficult for the exact same reasons that would have made PIPA/SOPA technically inept. e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerGuardian

Also it's definitely a shotgun approach, and tons of innocent people would be affected. For example, bluetack's most conservative list level1 (http://www.iblocklist.com/list.php?list=bt_level1) includes any organization with significant intellectual property.

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

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I, and many other people, am willing to pay for these big budget movies even if I have to sit through ads. I like big-budget flicks.

I like Bell Labs and indestructible black Western Electric telephones, but did they justify the Bell monopoly?

Hollywood movies (mostly) don't have interoperability issues or network effects.

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

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like Bell Labs and indestructible black Western Electric telephones, but did they justify the Bell monopoly?

Hollywood movies (mostly) don't have interoperability issues or network effects.

They just try to pass laws to make interoperability (format shifting) a criminal offence.

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

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"DRM died in the music industry" I'm not confident that's a factual statement.

Really? I can't think of anywhere I could go to buy DRMed music right now if I tried... iTMS watermarks music files, but they're not sold DRMed music files for years. Magnatune has _never_ sold DRMed files. ihearmusic.com - no drm. All the direct from artist music I've bought in the last few years - no drm. Soundcloud or artist "Pay what you want" deals - no drm. I can't recall having purchased any "big four" owned music directly online (as opposed to via someone like Apple), but at least in _my_ little world, DRM does appear to be dead...

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

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"DRM died in the music industry" I'm not confident that's a factual statement.

I was skeptical as well, but it really is true. The labels gave it up years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#DRM_a...

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

#49
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"DRM died in the music industry" I'm not confident that's a factual statement.

Really? I can't think of anywhere I could go to buy DRMed music right now if I tried... iTMS watermarks music files, but they're not sold DRMed music files for years. Magnatune has _never_ sold DRMed files. ihearmusic.com - no drm. All the direct from artist music I've bought in the last few years - no drm. Soundcloud or artist "Pay what you want" deals - no drm. I can't recall having purchased any "big four" owned m…

Doesn't Spotify use DRM? Which is not to say that it's wrong for them to use DRM on music you didn't buy -- that's a different question.

But "only used for music you don't own" isn't the same the same thing as "dead".

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