MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-05-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] What's a Pirate
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May 17, 2008 What's Online Frustrating the Pirates By DAN MITCHELL
DISPENSING with the bluster that normally surrounds the issue of pirated
movies and music, Anders Bylund of Ars Technica tries to appeal to
business sense in arguing that media companies should stop suing their
potential customers and instead try to serve them (arstechnica.com).
Media piracy will always be with us. But the pirates, Mr. Bylund writes,
“can be beaten — it happens all the time — but not primarily by
means of legal threats and lawsuits.†Rather, he says: “You subjugate
these rebels with the tools of free enterprise. Piracy is just another
business model, and the pirates will lose and go away when you come up
with a better model.â€
Consumers make buying decisions based on three factors, according to
Mr. Bylund: “price, convenience and quality.†Pirates will always win
on price (free), but media companies can and do beat them on the other
factors. Among the examples he cites is the cable channel Comedy Central,
owned by Viacom (comedycentral.com). The Web site offers the complete
archives of “The Daily Show†and makes them searchable. Hulu, owned
by NBC and Fox, offers many television shows and some movies with limited
(and short) advertisements (hulu.com). All are offered in high-quality
video.
But it should not stop there, Mr. Bylund says. “Figure out an
ad-supported model if you can, or charge less than a dollar per
episode. Let people burn it to DVD or play the file on iPhones
for a buck.†Eventually, “piracy will force all the big-time
content producers to move in this kind of direction,†Mr. Bylund
says. “Capitalism, properly applied, will beat the rebels every time.â€
A GREAT TIME WASTER Slate does not mean to insult anyone when it
says that this week’s package on procrastination “will appeal to
every single person reading the magazine.†Even if you are not a
procrastinator, maybe you long to be. Or, failing that, you surely know
someone who procrastinates. And if you are a can-do, industrious type,
Daniel Gross’s “Lazy Money†guide to investing in companies that
appeal to procrastination — purveyors of tobacco, coffee, Web sites,
online video and even this newspaper — might be for you (slate.com).
Other articles in the package include “Procrastinators Without Borders:
Do the Japanese Waste More Time Than We Do?†by Heather Smith; “Like
There’s No Tomorrow: How Economists Think About Procrastination,†by
Ray Fisman; and a manifesto, “Procrasti-Nation: Workers of the World,
Slack Off!â€
THOSE DARNED KIDS “Web 2.0†has forgotten about the Internet,
according to Allan Leinwand, a venture capitalist writing at GigaOM. All
the social networks, big blog sites, video hosts and wikis out there may
yawn when “router-hugging relics of the past century†tell them they
need to pay attention to basics, Mr. Leinwand says. But when things break
down, they will wish they knew as much about the Internet’s underlying
technology as they do about Python, Ajax and all the other software that
is used to create Web 2.0 sites. Those error messages that routinely show
up on MySpace and AllMusic could well be thanks to a young programmer’s
lack of adequate Web 1.0 knowledge (gigaom.com).
HAPPENS ALL THE TIME A frequently asked question that was posted until
recently on the child labor section of the Georgia Department of Labor’s
Web site read: “I am a 17-year-old teacher with a Ph.D. in physics. I
am married and have a child. Do I need a work permit?†The bizarre
made-up question was finally removed, but still shows up in Google’s
cache, and a screen shot can be found at tinypic.com. DAN MITCHELL
-- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com -
Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like
Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -
RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS -
RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers
to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in
our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be
damned.< You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and
technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in
Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
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