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I never understood how the companies expect these films to work in the long run. Essentially, they eagerly portray themselves (and the legal system they control

I never understood how the companies expect these films to work in the long run. Essentially, they eagerly portray themselves (and the legal system they control) as a dark, Nazi-like totalitarian force with lowly filesharers being the persecuted underclass. I'm sure fear is the message, but doesn't it hurt them more in the long run? Who would willingly buy products from this regime?

zanny 11y ago
Considering Disney is at the helm of the copyright disaster train and are producing more blockbuster films each year than in their entire history (and now they have Star Wars coming out next month) I would say a lot of people don't give a shit about cultural ethics when it competes with the availability of John Williams scores. The copyright mafia is also the gatekeepers on the consumer media empire. And those at the top are well lead to believe that copyright is meant to serve them, to make their business powerful and enforce their control of discourse and culture through it. I mean, this case was about Microsoft. There have been dozens of documented incidents of Microsoft exploiting its power and law to their benefit over consumers, to crush competition, maintain and abuse monopoly, and manipulate discourse in their favor. Yet Windows remains king of the desktop, because there is no grassroots movement with any momentum to pressure OEM pc vendors that sell hardware in store to adopt anything else, and because Microsoft has successfully made a market of apathetic and inert users who do not understand the tools they use enough to see how they are being taken advantage of. And that is billions of people. Those aren't the kind of folk to stop using Office or Outlook or Windows because of ethics. Same reason people flock in droves to Wal-Mart, Koch Industries, John Deere, BP and Exxon Mobil - ethics take a back seat to convenience and price, and we suffer in the long run by giving our agitators all the assets they need to get what they want willingly.
- Udo 11y ago
  The grandparent wasn't asserting media conglomerates are actually failing in any way that matters. Still, the question about the validity of these scare-o-mercials remains. Somewhere deep in these corporations there are obviously people who think "yeah, let's portray ourselves as the evil empire, sounds good to me!". Doesn't that raise questions about the target audience, or at least about the perception of what the target audience looks like? When I choose to make a commercial that portrays my company in the most sinister way possible, on purpose, I have to weigh the image loss from that against the effectiveness of the scare. > Yet Windows remains king of the desktop, because there is no grassroots movement with any momentum to pressure OEM pc vendors that sell hardware in store to adopt anything else I'm not sure that's true anymore. It certainly was, in the past. I'm personally not a Windows user, but it seems to me that the foothold Windows has in different user groups is absolutely monumental, so churning out hardware with anything else pre-installed would encounter stiff resistance from the consumer side. That same loyalty does not exist for entertainment companies.

zanny 11y ago

Considering Disney is at the helm of the copyright disaster train and are producing more blockbuster films each year than in their entire history (and now they have Star Wars coming out next month) I would say a lot of people don't give a shit about cultural ethics when it competes with the availability of John Williams scores. The copyright mafia is also the gatekeepers on the consumer media empire. And those at the top are well lead to believe that copyright is meant to serve them, to make their business powerful and enforce their control of discourse and culture through it. I mean, this case was about Microsoft. There have been dozens of documented incidents of Microsoft exploiting its power and law to their benefit over consumers, to crush competition, maintain and abuse monopoly, and manipulate discourse in their favor. Yet Windows remains king of the desktop, because there is no grassroots movement with any momentum to pressure OEM pc vendors that sell hardware in store to adopt anything else, and because Microsoft has successfully made a market of apathetic and inert users who do not understand the tools they use enough to see how they are being taken advantage of. And that is billions of people. Those aren't the kind of folk to stop using Office or Outlook or Windows because of ethics. Same reason people flock in droves to Wal-Mart, Koch Industries, John Deere, BP and Exxon Mobil - ethics take a back seat to convenience and price, and we suffer in the long run by giving our agitators all the assets they need to get what they want willingly.

Udo 11y ago
The grandparent wasn't asserting media conglomerates are actually failing in any way that matters. Still, the question about the validity of these scare-o-mercials remains. Somewhere deep in these corporations there are obviously people who think "yeah, let's portray ourselves as the evil empire, sounds good to me!". Doesn't that raise questions about the target audience, or at least about the perception of what the target audience looks like? When I choose to make a commercial that portrays my company in the most sinister way possible, on purpose, I have to weigh the image loss from that against the effectiveness of the scare. > Yet Windows remains king of the desktop, because there is no grassroots movement with any momentum to pressure OEM pc vendors that sell hardware in store to adopt anything else I'm not sure that's true anymore. It certainly was, in the past. I'm personally not a Windows user, but it seems to me that the foothold Windows has in different user groups is absolutely monumental, so churning out hardware with anything else pre-installed would encounter stiff resistance from the consumer side. That same loyalty does not exist for entertainment companies.