schmevil: (Default)
schmevil ([personal profile] schmevil) wrote2009-04-14 04:39 pm

Dreamwidth code?

Anyone feel like sharing? *puppy eyes*

[identity profile] schmevil.livejournal.com 2009-04-14 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
But notice that people aren't going after tv pirates the same way they are music pirates. Different business models. (Many) networks and cable channels alike have realized that they can make money through reruns and dvd boxsets, regardless of whether or not people are streaming or dling their shows. The recording industry, on the other hand, still thinks it can win this fight. Those scamps. *g*

My piracy has to do with the way I do fandom, which is 'pick and choose' and 'on demand'. I don't really follow a lot of shows week to week. I tend to catch up on them when I'm in the mood and ignore them for long stretches of time. That's also how I read comics.

[identity profile] bluefall.livejournal.com 2009-04-14 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, it's the distribution model, mostly. The thing about the music industry, and the comic industry as well, is there's this massive conglomerate of middleman between the creative source and the consumer. Which used to be completely necessary, and has now been made completely outdated. It's those middlemen who flip their shit over piracy. You don't see webcomic authors spazzing about scans; they already offer their product for free. Because there is no middleman, no production cost beyond their own time and tools, so they can afford to live off the minority percentage who purchase merchandise or donate, and live something closer to the fandom-style gift economy. Likewise when the Napster shitstorm started, you didn't see many artists at the forefront, and which artists were? People like Metallica, who... hey, look at that, own a record label too.

Television doesn't really work that way - the distribution system's revenue doesn't come from the consumer in the same way, and they already offer purchase incentives (DVD extras) for paid product. Plus the production/distribution line is far less stark and divisible.

Gaming's the weird one. Software production costs are way unmanageable for any kind of piracy-indifferent economy, but DRM is not an acceptable solution and piracy is not a defeatable phenomenon. That's the one place where I really feel there's a genuine problem, and not just an industry failing to wake up to a technological evolution.