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25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

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Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#92
post #67

So wait if I have a copy of a deleted forever by Paramount episode am I a thief or savior? My morals are confused

Oh, they didn't delete it, they just jammed it all through some machine learning model that "compressed" it and will hallucinate it back for you on demand. What could be better than a work of art that automatically updates itself to the current sensibilities of the time? /s

[flagged]

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#93
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reminded of how trademarks work: If you don't bother to defend them, then you lose them. Maybe copyright should be the same way: If you're not distributing copies any longer, you lose the copyright protection.

But copyright isn't just for publicly distributed mass media made by corporations -- it is for all works made by anyone. Copyright also protects work that people wish to keep private, or work that people want to share at some times, with some people, but not all people. (Also depending on how that idea might be implemented, it could cause some strange situations for copyleft software)

So limit the changes to works the copyright owner intentionally distributed to more than $threshold people. Have it only apply to situations where the number is tracked already, e.g. due to commercial obligations. Or something. This does not seem like an insurmountable problem.

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#94
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reminded of how trademarks work: If you don't bother to defend them, then you lose them. Maybe copyright should be the same way: If you're not distributing copies any longer, you lose the copyright protection.

The copyright cartel would fight that with their lives. They would rather destroy content forever than let it out for free, even if neither option costs them a cent. “The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming…

For those of us not reading widely enough and/or not being raised in the American literary tradition, the quote is from John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" [1]. I have long been aware of the work, but reading this quote makes me regret not having read it yet.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#95
post #42
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have something anymore if a thief gets it. Nothing gets lost here. There is even more of it afterward. So please...spare us that sad tactic.

Sorry but this pointless semantic argument has been thoroughly debunked. A tangible object is not required for it to be considered theft in anything other than very specific legal contexts. That's why we talk about musicians 'stealing' riffs or chord progressions. That's why artists accuse AI of 'stealing' their digital artwork. That's why comedians complain about other comedians 'stealing' their jokes.

"We" do not talk about musicians stealing chord progressions, at least I do not. There is (in western diatonic music) a quite limited number of chord progressions (that sound "good"/"acceptable" to ears used to this kind of music) Should new music be prohibited from being created once they've been used? Should painters not be allowed to use a certain combination of colors anymore because another artist already used them? As a (studied but now hobby) musician, I think that is utter nonsense, excuse my french...

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#96
post #55
post #53

Free content removed by previously benevolent publisher. It's too bad they weren't able to make their free content into a profit stream. The sad part here is that they were / are a steward to something beloved by many but through copyright they take it as hostage to the grave. If they no longer find value in distributing it shouldn't they be obligated to waive their ownership? Maybe copyright itself needs some reform…

I'm reminded of how trademarks work: If you don't bother to defend them, then you lose them. Maybe copyright should be the same way: If you're not distributing copies any longer, you lose the copyright protection.

It all boils down to excessive copyright durations. For something like software, even 10 years is excessive.

The copyright terms are set by lobbyist and corporations in a political process where the public interest has no representation.

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#97
post #78

Lost media is a real thing, more and more so when the internet loses data we've stored. We think it is a premanent place and sure it might out live us, but nothing is permanent.

This isn't new. Lots of old (pre-Internet) media was lost forever because storage was expensive and it was considered not worth it. As an example, there are a bunch of Doctor Who episodes which are lost forever because the BBC back then didn't consider it worthwhile to keep them and overwrote the tapes.

Nice.

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#98
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From TFA: > The move would appear to be part of continued belt-tightening measures at Paramount, which is more than $14 billion in debt, led by losses at Paramount+ and its aging cable networks.

I knew it was bad, I didn't know it was $14 billion bad. Did they spend it all on their two terrible streaming apps?

I wonder if that's why they started forcing people to create accounts on PlutoTV. They must be looking to make money selling people's data.

Re: 25 years of video clips gone as Paramount axes Comedy Central wesbite

#99
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything they own. They (and most other big Hollywood studios) are in deep shit and will probably shut down if there is no miracle.

> will probably shut down if there is no miracle Someone will buy their IP and back catalogue in a bankruptcy. Those will retain value and even highly speculative properties might be worth owning just in case if the price is right.

They might buy up their shows, but there's no certainty that they'll release them or that they'll release them uncensored/unedited.
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