Comments on: Illegal downloading : a good deal for the entertainment industry ? http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/ A Technology and Business Weblog provided to You by a Global Group of Friends. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:29:11 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Vincent van Wylick http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2405 Vincent van Wylick Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:00:42 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2405 Funny that this thread is reopened. The Economist recently had a good take on the matter: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751035 and http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750492 Funny that this thread is reopened. The Economist recently had a good take on the matter:

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751035

and

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750492

]]> By: Nexus http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2404 Nexus Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:16:54 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2404 I guess you have a good point here. I don't know if it is one of Hollywood's techniques, but I do believe Hollywood certainly takes into account what's happening on the internet. More people should. As for the geek-argument : more and more people find a way to watch downloaded stuff. In student communities hard disk data are swapped in large amounts in no time every day. It reaches their families and their friends, so it might have more influence than you think. Last night I saw a copy of Blade Runner, dvd quality, via a wire from someone's ipod to the tv. it's a fairly simple way of dealing with the "movies-on-crappy-computer-screens"-problem and I think this is a great evolution. There's so much fuss about high definition, while 10 years ago everybody was watching inferior VHS copies. Nobody cared. There is of course a difference, regarding video quality and sound quality, but it doesn't always matter. Depends on what you're looking at (a cartoon, an old drama without special fx versus a blockbuster full of fx), depends on the quality-tolerance of the viewer (young people that don't want to see movies in black and white ). In the end, I don't think the entertainment industry is losing at all. Exactly because of this downloading, the shows become more popular, tv channels buy them on demand, dvd boxes are very popular ( and that's a new market ), so they shouldn't be whining at all. It might be a cover up even for what you say : it's a good deal for them. I guess you have a good point here. I don’t know if it is one of Hollywood’s techniques, but I do believe Hollywood certainly takes into account what’s happening on the internet.

More people should.

As for the geek-argument : more and more people find a way to watch downloaded stuff. In student communities hard disk data are swapped in large amounts in no time every day. It reaches their families and their friends, so it might have more influence than you think.

Last night I saw a copy of Blade Runner, dvd quality, via a wire from someone’s ipod to the tv. it’s a fairly simple way of dealing with the “movies-on-crappy-computer-screens”-problem and I think this is a great evolution.

There’s so much fuss about high definition, while 10 years ago everybody was watching inferior VHS copies. Nobody cared. There is of course a difference, regarding video quality and sound quality, but it doesn’t always matter.

Depends on what you’re looking at (a cartoon, an old drama without special fx versus a blockbuster full of fx), depends on the quality-tolerance of the viewer (young people that don’t want to see movies in black and white ).

In the end, I don’t think the entertainment industry is losing at all. Exactly because of this downloading, the shows become more popular, tv channels buy them on demand, dvd boxes are very popular ( and that’s a new market ), so they shouldn’t be whining at all. It might be a cover up even for what you say : it’s a good deal for them.

]]> By: Jeremy Fain http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2395 Jeremy Fain Tue, 29 May 2007 21:27:25 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2395 Hey Max, it seems we're to meet on Monday in Brussels, @ Microsoft's VC Summit. Looking forward to meeting you there. Hey Max, it seems we’re to meet on Monday in Brussels, @ Microsoft’s VC Summit. Looking forward to meeting you there.

]]> By: Leonard Sellem http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2403 Leonard Sellem Tue, 29 May 2007 16:30:35 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2403 @Kari: You're right, you can find good quality TV series on the internet, and plug them with subtitles, quickly available after the first public broadcasting. And the one year gap to cross the Ocean indeed primarly aims at testing the success of a program on a first market to set commercial terms between producers and foreign TV channels. But do you think series like Prison Break or Heroes would have generated such a buzz if "social leaders" hadn't downloaded episodes before official launch? As I wrote in the title, I think that at the end of the day, in the TV series market, illegal downloading is not such an issue. @ Max: If this gap hasn't been reduced so far, there must be a reason. As Kari wrote above, producers need to test the success of their products before selling them worldwide. Americans are the lucky sample! On top of that, I strongly believe that it can foster a hudge buzz around the program, thanks to official channels (critics, magazines, ...) and unofficial ones (llegal downloading). @Kari: You’re right, you can find good quality TV series on the internet, and plug them with subtitles, quickly available after the first public broadcasting. And the one year gap to cross the Ocean indeed primarly aims at testing the success of a program on a first market to set commercial terms between producers and foreign TV channels. But do you think series like Prison Break or Heroes would have generated such a buzz if “social leaders” hadn’t downloaded episodes before official launch? As I wrote in the title, I think that at the end of the day, in the TV series market, illegal downloading is not such an issue.

@ Max: If this gap hasn’t been reduced so far, there must be a reason. As Kari wrote above, producers need to test the success of their products before selling them worldwide. Americans are the lucky sample! On top of that, I strongly believe that it can foster a hudge buzz around the program, thanks to official channels (critics, magazines, …) and unofficial ones (llegal downloading).

]]> By: Max Bleyleben http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2396 Max Bleyleben Tue, 29 May 2007 15:36:53 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2396 I think the content owners are making a big mistake if they wait too long to tackle this issue. It's already very easy (esp. if you own a Mac!) to download a US TV series, burn it to DVD, and watch it from the comfort of your living room. Staggered release schedules by geography are not sustainable and efforts to maintain them will only lead to more downloading. DRM has effectively collapsed in the music industry, and the TV market will be no different unless content owners get creative about addressing it. I think the content owners are making a big mistake if they wait too long to tackle this issue. It’s already very easy (esp. if you own a Mac!) to download a US TV series, burn it to DVD, and watch it from the comfort of your living room. Staggered release schedules by geography are not sustainable and efforts to maintain them will only lead to more downloading. DRM has effectively collapsed in the music industry, and the TV market will be no different unless content owners get creative about addressing it.

]]> By: Kari Silvennoinen http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2400 Kari Silvennoinen Tue, 29 May 2007 06:11:55 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2400 As an early adopter, I find the reasons odd you've listed a bit odd. At least they differ quite from what I hear. First of all, I'm really amazed by the quality of the TV series available on the net (which amount to estimated 80% of traffic, yet 20% of the files, in a BitTorrent). At 350 MB per episode, encoded in XViD from HDTV source, the resulting image is better than what I'd get if they were sent through normal TV here. No subtitles is not a problem here as we're more than used to that, but like in France, the Finnish subtitles float around the web in days after an episode is released to the web. I agree that it's complicated. Not only is acquiring the episodes difficult (I usually see people spreading DVDs full of episodes instead of downloading them off net), but the initial setup of installing different codecs is a problem. I think the one year gap is of natural reasons that has nothing to with buzz or anything like that. When a new series starts, for example in the USA, no European network is willing to invest in it straight away. The want first to see how it does in USA. I mean, the amount of series that get cancelled in a year is quite huge actually. As an early adopter, I find the reasons odd you’ve listed a bit odd. At least they differ quite from what I hear.

First of all, I’m really amazed by the quality of the TV series available on the net (which amount to estimated 80% of traffic, yet 20% of the files, in a BitTorrent). At 350 MB per episode, encoded in XViD from HDTV source, the resulting image is better than what I’d get if they were sent through normal TV here.

No subtitles is not a problem here as we’re more than used to that, but like in France, the Finnish subtitles float around the web in days after an episode is released to the web.

I agree that it’s complicated. Not only is acquiring the episodes difficult (I usually see people spreading DVDs full of episodes instead of downloading them off net), but the initial setup of installing different codecs is a problem.

I think the one year gap is of natural reasons that has nothing to with buzz or anything like that. When a new series starts, for example in the USA, no European network is willing to invest in it straight away. The want first to see how it does in USA. I mean, the amount of series that get cancelled in a year is quite huge actually.

]]> By: Fidji SIMO http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2397 Fidji SIMO Mon, 28 May 2007 10:01:45 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2397 Ok ok, you got me! I feel less guilty of spending hours in front of series if it makes me feel like an early adopter... Thanks Leo ;-) You are right, this probably exactly because I am an early adopter that I don't really see those problems and think that there are less and less barriers to protect the industry from illegal downloading. I am probably too focused on my habits to see the whole picture. Thanks for the interesting post! Ok ok, you got me! I feel less guilty of spending hours in front of series if it makes me feel like an early adopter… Thanks Leo ;-)

You are right, this probably exactly because I am an early adopter that I don’t really see those problems and think that there are less and less barriers to protect the industry from illegal downloading. I am probably too focused on my habits to see the whole picture. Thanks for the interesting post!

]]> By: Leonard Sellem http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2399 Leonard Sellem Mon, 28 May 2007 09:50:57 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2399 Well Fidji, what I wanted to suggest through this post is that, like me, you may belong to early adopters of TV series. Don't you agree that watching a 40 minutes program encoded in DivX on a laptop computer (most people cannot plug their computer to a TV!) is less pleasant than seeing it in High Definition on a large TV screen? And if you, as a brilliant student in business school, want to improve your english while watching movies, most people's purpose watching series is just entertaining. And don't tell me learning english is entertaining! Well Fidji, what I wanted to suggest through this post is that, like me, you may belong to early adopters of TV series. Don’t you agree that watching a 40 minutes program encoded in DivX on a laptop computer (most people cannot plug their computer to a TV!) is less pleasant than seeing it in High Definition on a large TV screen? And if you, as a brilliant student in business school, want to improve your english while watching movies, most people’s purpose watching series is just entertaining. And don’t tell me learning english is entertaining!

]]> By: Fidji SIMO http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2401 Fidji SIMO Mon, 28 May 2007 07:18:17 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2401 But don't you think that one year is too long to sustain a buzz? For blockbusters one year is probably sustainable, but for series that are more targeted 6 months would probably be sufficient, no? And concerning the problem of language, don't you think that a growing part of TV series addicts want to see series in English? That is how I have learned English ;-) And about watching series on TV, a lot of devices are available to connect your computer with TV, so I tend to think that the barriers preventing people from dowloading are getting weak. But don’t you think that one year is too long to sustain a buzz? For blockbusters one year is probably sustainable, but for series that are more targeted 6 months would probably be sufficient, no?

And concerning the problem of language, don’t you think that a growing part of TV series addicts want to see series in English? That is how I have learned English ;-)

And about watching series on TV, a lot of devices are available to connect your computer with TV, so I tend to think that the barriers preventing people from dowloading are getting weak.

]]> By: Leonard Sellem http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2402 Leonard Sellem Sun, 27 May 2007 22:16:18 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2402 Actually, I think the media industry doesn't want to reduce this one year gap because it generates hudge buzz around the series. No matter if a limited part of potential viewers download it illegally, they will promote it around them! Actually, I think the media industry doesn’t want to reduce this one year gap because it generates hudge buzz around the series. No matter if a limited part of potential viewers download it illegally, they will promote it around them!

]]> By: fidjissimo http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2398 fidjissimo Sun, 27 May 2007 21:52:59 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2398 I have seen the last episode of Heroes and I am a huge fan... And I have also done the same thing with the 6th season of 24, the 3rd of Desperate housewives, the 2nd season of Prison Break, the 3rd season of Greys Anatomy... so I absolutely know what you are talking about Leo! And no matter how hard it is to find episodes, subtitles, or even how poor the quality is, I am really too impatient to wait... It is just the media chronology which has to be thought again (one year is just too long!) if the media industry wants to decrease illegal downloading. I have seen the last episode of Heroes and I am a huge fan… And I have also done the same thing with the 6th season of 24, the 3rd of Desperate housewives, the 2nd season of Prison Break, the 3rd season of Greys Anatomy… so I absolutely know what you are talking about Leo! And no matter how hard it is to find episodes, subtitles, or even how poor the quality is, I am really too impatient to wait… It is just the media chronology which has to be thought again (one year is just too long!) if the media industry wants to decrease illegal downloading.

]]> By: Illegal downloading : a good deal for entertainment industry ? « e-remediable http://www.techiteasy.org/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2394 Illegal downloading : a good deal for entertainment industry ? « e-remediable Sun, 27 May 2007 20:25:39 +0000 http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/illegal-downloading-a-good-deal-for-the-entertainment-industry/#comment-2394 [...] just posted an article on Tech IT Easy. Just take a tour to read [...] [...] just posted an article on Tech IT Easy. Just take a tour to read [...]

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