Saturday, December 8, 2012

Position Paper


          I bet you’ve heard this: “You wouldn’t steal a car, you shouldn’t steal a movie. Piracy is stealing.”

 Ring a bell? This is something that typically shows before you can watch your favorite DVD. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is responsible for bringing you that message. They are the trade association that represents the biggest six movie studios that make practically every Hollywood movie: Viacom, Time Warner, Sony, Walt Disney Company, Comcast, and News Corp. In the past decade, the MPAA has made its presence extremely known, being one of the strongest advocates and loudest voices against piracy. Piracy is a loosely defined term that generally refers to the illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted material. While it is illegal, it is almost impossible to enforce, since the Internet allows for the rapid and private sharing of such material. The most present forms of piracy today are the illegal downloading of movies and music. However, unlike the MPAA likes to believe, piracy is not the problem. Instead, piracy is the symptom of an outdated business model.
          Since we keep mentioning the MPAA, let’s talk about movies. The average movie ticket in the United States is $8 (GOOD). Most people don’t go to movies alone, so that price for an hour and a half of entertainment is typically higher. The price of a monthly Netflix subscription: $8. See the issue here? As of 2006, the average cost of a movie was $66 million, adding marking costs: $106 million. Another fact: (adding for inflation) The Hangover II cost more than twice to make than The Godfather did. The Godfather is widely accepted as one of the best movies of the last fifty years. (For more data:GOOD )
          The problem is clear: movies cost way more than they need to, and that outrageous price is being passed on to the movie theaters, and then on to the consumers. The result? People pirate movies. It’s a very simple cost-benefit analysis. The cost: free. The benefit: the same entertainment as going out. What the MPAA is trying to do is demonize pirating movies, where the piracy is instead a result of their poor business model. Netflix and other services have become a great, legal avenue for consuming movies, but as many know, the selection is pitiful. That is because the companies that the MPAA represent produce a majority of today’s hit movies, but they refuse to strike a good deal with streaming services, so new movies take months to get onto streaming services. Why? Because streaming services do not produce the same kind of revenue that DVD and movie ticket sales do. Even after the movie is released to purchase, the price is still too high. $20 for a DVD, and in some cases, $20 for the same download? People want to consume large amounts of a variety of content, and don’t care to keep a copy for themselves. Piracy just seems like the easiest avenue for that desire.
          The solution is clear: support streaming services like Netflix that are even easier than pirating, and make the amount of content available on these services equivalent to piracy. Many users would be more than willing to fork out $8-$10 a month for a service that allows them to consume endless amounts of content. More importantly: the movie industry need to spend less on producing the same generic movies, and instead work with smaller budgets and better scripts. The generic romantic comedy does not need to cost as much as Inception. The movie industry needs to change the way they do business if they want to stop piracy. The scary alternative is that they will continue to influence our government, and something like SOPA or PIPPA will soon become a reality.
         
           Another, very similar form of piracy is that of music. The symptom represents the same general problem: an outdated business model. People pirate music for the simple reason that it is far easier to click a button to have an entire discography of a newly discovered artist than to hunt for a place that would host the same amount of content. Remember when it was a huge deal that iTunes finally got The Beatles? It represents the problem perfectly. The Beatles are long gone, (most of them) so who cares about the profits from the music, or how it is distributed? The agents and producers, that’s who. It is the problem that kills good talent and praises generic fell-good-songs. The current model: make and produce music that will quickly hit #1, let it die, the go do it again. It focuses on the quick sell for the generic pop song, rather than meaningful and good music.
When an album goes platinum, while it is great for the artist, they don’t actually receive much profit. Instead, they have to make their profit from concerts and tours. That is why piracy is a symptom, and far from a problem. Most artists don’t even put up much of a fret when their music is pirated. That means people like it, and that their name is getting out there. Jeremy Messersmith (out of Minnesota), uses a pay-what-you-want model. You can go to his site, and download all of his songs for free if you want. That is how I started listening to him, because his music was so readily available. I then wound up going to two of his concerts, and gladly forking out some money to do so. Many music-enthusiasts share the same experience: they love discovering and listening to new music, and as a result, attend more concerts and listen to more music.
Once again – the answer is pretty simple. Make music so infinitely and readily available in an affordable manner that people would rather do that then pirate. However, the music industry is adapting much quicker than the movie industry. Spotify is a great example – people pay a monthly subscription and get to listen to and download as much music as they desire. Artists want to get on Spotify. Their name spreads as easy as any other.

“You wouldn’t steal a car..” so don’t pirate. Well – if I could make a copy of a car at no cost to me or the original car, well, yeah I would “steal a car.” Piracy is not a problem in today’s society. It is a symptom of a greater problem: an outdated and ignorant business model. Working to change the way the entertainment industry makes money according to today’s Internet society, will not stop piracy (people will still be cheap), but it will definitely bring media consumers back to a legal form of doing so.

Example of good music, and an artist who supports the new model of business:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RwW6ERgpvo

More reading:






Thursday, February 10, 2011

Two Weeks with the Cr-48

Two weeks ago I woke up from a nap and to my incredible disbelief there was a package waiting on my step. Lo-behold it was Google's Cr-48. This was what I could manage to take a picture of in the process of updating it, I couldn't wait to just get on the web. (also, check out the sweet box it came in: upon seeing that box, I knew it was true and had my nerdy freak-out) My first impression was how small and sleek it is. The body of the computer itself is something to love about it. All black, and no labels. I did put the sticker on it, though. Shaking with excitement, the updates finished and two minutes later I was on the internet. First sweet surprise (after thinking about it it made sense) about the Chrome OS, was that all of my settings were exactly like on my chrome browser, because all of the settings are stored in the cloud. Within five minutes of opening the box, I had booted it up and was on the internet. After clicking through the basic tutorial, I started to browse! (and brag on some sites, of course) Now the browsing experience isn't flawless, but it gets the job done. And what can you expect, a free computer to test, it is going to have a few issues! But you can't complain about a free computer, right?

So some of my complaints (being worked on, I'm sure!)
-Not every plugin works. I have run in to a few sites where the flash simply doesn't load, and there is no quicktime support. Youtube videos only have recently been updated to HD support, and it is a little buggy
-USB support is very limited. I did manage to find the Flags, and enable the file browser and media player. Both work to a little extent, though the media player will only play .mp4 movie files as far as I can tell. Also doesn't support portable hard drive, just sits at "Scanning Device." I would like to be able to play all my videos from the portable hard drive, and take full advantage of the 8+hr battery life on road trips.


All this being said, the computer rocks. For the last two weeks I have been using it fully as my primary computer since getting it. Only once or twice have I needed to use my tank of a laptop, and that was only to convert some videos to watch on the Cr-48. I have my life in "the cloud," and it is pretty easy to get on the cloud with a computer that does it in less than 20 seconds. I will try to update this blog more with my experiences with it, but leave some feedback if you enjoy! For all I know I am speaking to nobody, which wouldn't surprise me, as I am such a brilliant writer. Maybe I'll keep to tweets.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Some things for you

So so tonight I signed up for this free one year trial of Onlive, this pretty cool gaming concept. If you are unfamiliar, check out their site: here. I'm actually pretty excited, even if I'm only trying demos and whatnot right away (the free stuff) it should be pretty fun. And with their micro-console coming soon, "onlive" may actually become a legit gaming system. With all of the new games coming out, and technology rising, all you have to do is let them update their servers, and you have an upgraded console! And they have shown that there is support for the same service via mobile, (ipod touch?!) you can take the same games everywhere. I really like the concept, I just don't think I have the money to pay for the $5 a month plus games. Someday though.
So before I talk about an article in Popular Science, I should talk about its iPad app. I have been kind of dying to try it out, but I don't know where to get myself an iPad with it. I like the concept of the really big screen to do things like read a magazine or watch a movie. Toying with them at Best Buy I really begin to appreciate the big screen. It is a lot more fun to do multi-touch things with that huge screen. On to this article. The overall theme of the issue this month was green ideas that could make our country (or others) energy-independent. I found some repeating ideas, some interesting, all of them innovative and great, but one of them really stood out. The idea was to make a replacement to standard asphalt roads. The replacement: Solar panels. Now of course you think you can't drive on glass. But it explains that the surfaces are being tested to find one that could support even the biggest trucks. It also adds features like LED lights that function as the paint and can be changed, self cleaning and self melting, and maybe others. I loved the concept and the staggering fact that if every road was made out of this, that the US would produce more energy then it uses. Check out a better description here.
In other news, I have a very nice new setup in my room, with the bluetooth keyboard and my mouse beautifully setup so I can comfortably use my computer.

For anybody who reads this- if you have a tech-related question that you want me to check out, or even anything you know or feel like sharing, leave a comment or email me. I'm always looking for interesting things.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Quickie for anybody who cares

So today my really cool bluetooth keyboard came. I just ordered it on Monday, so it was really surprising to see it there today. It is made of silicone, and is really flexible. So i can easily store it places and i really don't have to worry about breaking it. I am also typing with it right now, on my ipod. That is the reason i got it, to use thte thing with my ipod. I can type in a flash. It should be really usefull next year for school, to take notes and whatnot on because it is so much easier then writing, and twice as fun. So that concludes this blog, I really now have no excuse not to blog more seeing that i have this flashy new keyboard. I might post pics later from my computer, the iPod doesn't take pictures (yet...)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Google, facebook, and help?

Today I was directed to by my brother to download chromium. This really early version of google's operating system is sweet. Once I figured out how to run it (off a flash drive, pretty cool, didn't know you could) the login screen was up in about 10 seconds. Fast. Then the browser-like window appeared, I figured out how to connect, and I was surfing. Yes, it ran incredibly slow. There is everything to be considered though- like the fact that it is running off of a flash drive. The concept is awesome. Booting and being able to hop on to the cloud in seconds is amazing. I thought about it, and outside of my iPod/media, everything I do is online. Google's apps make every day to day thing I do really easy. So the idea of putting a running system essentially in the cloud is really cool and smart. I'm really excited for the real thing. If you are unfamiliar with all of this chrome/google stuff- at least watch this.


Just a quickie on facebook and recent thoughts-
I'm on it all the time now. I made it my homepage, it is my most frequently used iPod apps. And I don't quite know what to think, is it bad to do this, if I at least still TALK to people outside of my screen? Is it bad to be connected all the time? Let me know what you think.

Help:
With the chrome on a stick, I learned you can run OSes from usb. Or I at least figured out how to. (I think I tried and failed before) So I am going to try to run XP off of my WD passport. I need to find the actually running system, and figure out how to get it to the hard drive, and make it runnable. I want to so I can re-plug in my old internal hard drive to find a few things then wipe it, and make it usable again. I know most people who read this will have no idea, but you know, thought I'd ask?

-I'm also getting really excited about tablets, especially Google and Verizon's supposed one. Think - all of the coolness of Google's amazing new OS in the making, put in to a tablet, running on Verizon. It couldn't get much better.

Let me know what you think- you can check the contact info on the right.

P.S.
I'm really enjoying this end of the day with a decent storm. Could have been a little louder/brighter.

Monday, May 17, 2010

New post, possible revive to this page

So I thought today that maybe people actually might be interested in all of the things (majority tech) that I think about. So I thought maybe I would start this up again. It should be very connected to my twitter, (), so follow me if you don't. Anyway, I'm thinking I am going to start posting tech things that I think about so it can sink with other people, and maybe get feedback. For now, is there anything people (who read this) want to read about? Let me know, email, tweet, FB, comment. We are living through a revolution here people, lets enjoy it.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

My birthday present from my mommy

My night: Went to bestbuy looking for bluetooth headphones. They had NONE. so spent some time looking around looking at nerdy stuff, and it was cool. Learned that it stormed in hastings, got mad. Came to target to look at the headphones i remembered here, and got em. Walked out, looked at the clouds, said okay, here's your chance for redemption, go, and there. Lightning. Now rocking these headphones and realizing how good they sound.