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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?

#101

Post by aaronklein »

MarkTraceur wrote: post #100
SquareWheel wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Certainly don't try jailbreaking it. Google? Can we talk about privacy policies?" Could you explain that? I've been jailbreaking for, maybe five years now, and it's very easy. And I think Google's new privacy policies are an improvement over the old. Maybe that's your point, but I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Well, the Google privacy policies have been consolidated, which means less piecewise freedom for people who use one or two Google products. I, for example, use Mail and (barely) use Search. I don't need to agree to things about Google+! And jailbreaking Apple devices, while possible and, in some cases, easy, has never been encouraged by or even considered by Apple. In order to jailbreak, you have to find exploits in…

There are certainly ways that tech companies operate in a Hollywoodesque manner.

Apple trying to assert DMCA against jailbreaking phones is a great example. It's YOUR phone. You paid $600 for it (either over time, or up front). You should be able to do whatever you want with it.

You've made a very poor case with Google privacy policies, though. If you don't use Google+, there's no way for any of its privacy policies to affect you. If you don't like their policies, don't use their free product. Period.

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

#102

Post by aaronklein »

sofuture wrote: post #93

It's mind boggling that people treat being able to consume (fettered or not) media as a god-given right. The suggestion here is that our best option is to 'be terrible' to old media until they understand what it's like to be treated poorly? You want to know how to fix things? Stop buying what they sell.

That's not my take at all.

The content companies do believe they are God's gift to mankind and they have some very anti-customer policies. They think they are optimizing their revenue from such policies.

I think they underestimate the kind of growth they could see if they started treating their customers the way that most of the tech industry does.

Tech is far from perfect, but it does a better job of being customer centric.

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

#104

Post by robryan »

rockarage wrote: post #35
naner wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it would be interesting to see a counterpoint. Sure. 1. Just because this is the way things work doesn't mean this is the only way things can work. Or 2. We aren't entitled to have Dark Knights and Avatars. Lets assume that, for whatever reason, in New Hollywood it will only be feasible to fund smaller budget movies. So what? People will still watch and enjoy the smaller-budget movies.

"Just because this is the way things work doesn't mean this is the only way things can work" That is true, but the current reality is: these are the current cost to make big budget films, just like I would like buy a brand new Mac Book Pro for $500.00 but that's not going to happen any time soon. And yes we are not entitled to have Dark Knights and Avatars, we did not always have big budget films. Big budget films ar…

I think these films can be made with smaller budgets If there were smaller budgets across the industry. Sure there are fixed costs (which are ever falling) to produce but wages are held high because of the big budgets. I think the majority of big movie stars would still be acting on movies for a much smaller amount if that was the best they could get.

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

#105

Post by rubinelli »

rockarage wrote: post #28
saulrh wrote: 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 because the recording companies realized they were handing Apple a monopoly on digital distribution which would eventually make them irrelevant, the same way that Amazon and the Kindle drastically reduced book publisher influence.

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

#106

Post by ntkachov »

wanorris wrote: post #49
bigiain wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Spotify doesn't let you own the music that you listen to though.

Netflix doesn't let you keep the movies you watch either.

Both are DRMed because thats how the company keeps you subscribing to their services.

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

#107

Post by Hemospectrum »

contextfree wrote: post #95
eftpotrm wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significantly, tech already has. How often do we hear numbers quoted that the gaming industry now grosses more than films? Displacing the influence of the old leader in the community mindset is certainly a known problem and one that we've seen in other sectors. But, there's no disputing it - the kids are spending their time playing games rather more than watching films, and Hollywood isn't set up to produce interacti…

What is "tech"? I think the game development world, at least big console games, is mostly closer to Hollywood than it is to the "web startup" world. Hollywood uses and develops plenty of technology too (e.g. in computer graphics) - it's silly to talk about "tech" as something cohesive.

But the game industry isn't desperately fighting the internet the way Hollywood is. A lot of smaller game studios (and a couple big ones) clearly understand that clinging to an obsolete business model is futile nonsense, and have embraced the online market. And they're absolutely thriving for it.

The console market isn't making the transition nearly as quickly, but I'm certain this is chiefly a matter of getting value out of existing investments (deployed hardware).

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

#108

Post by wazoox »

o1iver wrote: post #78
wazoox wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christopher Nolan doesn't deserve, or need 200 millions. The fact that Hollywood celebrities receive so much money is a symptom that something isn't right.

I never get arguments like this. In a perfect market every entity tries to get as much money as the market is willing to pay. There are some pretty extreme example such as this one, but in the whole that is a good thing!

> In a perfect market every entity tries to get as much money as the market is willing to pay.

Where did you ever see such a thing as a perfect market entity? In the wonderful magical Hollywood kingdom where you can't watch the DVD you bought in Europe back in the US, certainly not.

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

#110

Post by stonemetal »

Hemospectrum wrote: post #107
contextfree wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "tech"? I think the game development world, at least big console games, is mostly closer to Hollywood than it is to the "web startup" world. Hollywood uses and develops plenty of technology too (e.g. in computer graphics) - it's silly to talk about "tech" as something cohesive.

But the game industry isn't desperately fighting the internet the way Hollywood is. A lot of smaller game studios (and a couple big ones) clearly understand that clinging to an obsolete business model is futile nonsense, and have embraced the online market. And they're absolutely thriving for it. The console market isn't making the transition nearly as quickly, but I'm certain this is chiefly a matter of getting valu…

Sure they are, they don't like piracy just as much as the movie makers. Their lobby arm, the ESA, was pro SOPA just like the rest. They are a bit more fractured about it, but big budget games are closer to big budget Hollywood than not.
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