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Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#331

Post by hellbannedguy »

divs1210 wrote: post #225
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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.

In the USA, they came down hard of torrents.

My neighbor got busted a few years back by Xfinity, and it was a big deal.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#332

Post by henvic »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

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.

No!

On the contrary: stop trying to use the law for everything!

Such strategy works a million times better than the horror of copyright law.

The companies should be free to do it, and it's awful that someone wants to involve the force of the state to stop them from doing so, instead of seeing it as a way to get rid of the burden of copyright law to society.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#333

Post by bsedlm »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

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.

> Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem

too bad it's not about making better stuff but more profit.

it's like the market has been distorted out of its ability to better reward better stuff.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#334

Post by kyriakos »

iso1631 wrote: post #281
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Quite. I DCCed Trek and SG1 episodes in the late 90s and early 00s because they weren't available in the UK. I don't do that with Discovery, Picard, Wandavision, etc, because they are available. Then they completely cocked up Lower Decks and wouldn't take my money. Bittorrent to the rescue. There is always competition.

Another scifi fan. Good choices.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#335

Post by oblio »

breakfastduck wrote: post #194
oblio wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are social. I don't only watch a movie or a TV show for the intrinsic entertainment quality, I also do it so that I can talk about what I watch with others. That artsy Swiss movie from 1929 is not as popular a theme as the latest episode of Ozark.

I get your point but I don't think not having friends to talk to about a piece of media with is necessarily a good reason not to engage with it.

Time is limited.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#336

Post by llampx »

kangaroozach wrote: post #275
DrBazza wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Piracy is competition to bad content behavior I really wish we had the bandwidth we have now, back in the Napster-era. Napster, and others forced, persuaded and cajoled the music industry to consolidate, whether they liked it or not, on Spotify, and iTunes. If we'd had easy free sharing of movies, it's not hard to envisage something similar to what we see now in the music industry forced on the movie companies. Now…

We have not yet approached the pre-streaming willingness to pay (WTP). People used to pay $150 to $200 plus onDemand for the whole package with their cable provider. Today you can have YouTubeTV, HBO, Netflix, Prime, AppleTV+, Disney+, and Spotify for less than that. So perhaps the average will hover around $100 with many paying closer to $200 a month. We are creeping back up to those numbers because people will pay.

I have a hard time believing that that was the average monthly cost of a cable subscription. Mine was never more than $30-40 when I needed cable for the internet.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#337

Post by thayne »

DrBazza wrote: post #230
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> Piracy is competition to bad content behavior I really wish we had the bandwidth we have now, back in the Napster-era. Napster, and others forced, persuaded and cajoled the music industry to consolidate, whether they liked it or not, on Spotify, and iTunes. If we'd had easy free sharing of movies, it's not hard to envisage something similar to what we see now in the music industry forced on the movie companies. Now…

> I'm actually more interested in watching old black and white movies that are "free to air" in my country

My experience has been that old (black and white or otherwise) movies are hard to find now. Especially if you just want to watch it once and don't want to buy an old DVD or VHS.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#338

Post by discardedrefuse »

alberth wrote: post #262

Does Amazon charge for Video today? I don't think they do. Maybe they plan too. I know Bezos has stated in the past (can't find it though) that he believe Video will be the next growth engine, much like how AWS has been said engine over the last few years.

Only some movies and shows on Amazon Prime Video are actually "included with Prime". The rest you have to pay for individually.

Their Music service is similar. As a Prime member, you have access to a portion of their music catalog. If you want access to everything, you have to pay for it.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#339

Post by baby »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #331
divs1210 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the USA, they came down hard of torrents. My neighbor got busted a few years back by Xfinity, and it was a big deal.

Really? Got busted a number of time in France and in the US and nothing ever happened and I just kept torrenting.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#340

Post by Matticus_Rex »

LaundroMat wrote: post #220
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Asking for a friend of course, but what would be the best setup for a Netflix/Prime/...-like experience for own media for a family of not-too-digitally-savvy users? That friend uses Kodi (and a NAS) now, but it's still a bit arduous to use for his family. She wants profiles, availability on any device over wifi and 4G and movies and series only.

Plex gets you part of the way, but for not-tech-savvy people, what you probably really want is a Plex Share, as that will keep you from needing to manage any of the media. You'll have to figure out how to adjust some settings on any TV streaming in 4k for most Shares, but it's not terrible to set up. There's a subreddit for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/plexshares/
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