3 ms·

I would love something like this where you try to drive traffic to legitimate sources where the content is paid, but when it isn't, you get torrents. i.e. the

I would love something like this where you try to drive traffic to legitimate sources where the content is paid, but when it isn't, you get torrents. i.e. the torrents are only there to meet demand when the industry is too stubborn to do so. This would never happen because you'd get sued into oblivion, but one can dream.

rhino369 12y ago
Piracy is the reason you can't stream a movie the day it comes out. Movie theaters are the best DRM available.
anigbrowl 12y ago
For the nth time, 'the industry' is not monolithic. There isn't some collective bargaining agreement tying up the rights of all the films you want to watch but which are held hostage by mustachio-twirling villains. Every film offered for commercial sale is a separate financial asset of a company, typically the sole asset of the company that owns it, which then licenses it to a distributor within individual countries. Publication and distribution are largely separate economic entities, due to a combination of legal history (studios forbidden to own exhibition chains in the US), regional market knowledge, and language barriers (no studio has the capability to produce subtitles/dub tracks in every potential market). All the legal paperwork for a small independent film is very substantial, and would fill most of a typical bookshelf. I shudder to think what the legal paperwork for a blockbuster looks like, it's probably enough to fill several bookcases. Of course it would be nice if one single service/platform was able to deliver any movie imaginable to some objective standard of quality. But it's not going to happen absent some sort of compulsory licensing scheme, which would run into huge legal/constitutional obstacles in many jurisdictions. Imagine you're the publisher of the film and SuperFilmPlatform.com can start start streaming it without your permission and without you having any say in what you get paid - you'd want to bomb their offices and/or exit the market. How would you ensure fair compensation in an environment that allowed compulsory licensing? Through government price controls? That's basically communism for artists/publishers, capitalism for the distributors. As you're no doubt aware, communism and free artistic expression have a poor record of compatibility.
- wmf 12y ago
  First sale seemed to work OK for movie rentals so a form of digital first sale might work for streaming. We'll probably never find out, though.

rhino369 12y ago

Piracy is the reason you can't stream a movie the day it comes out. Movie theaters are the best DRM available.

anigbrowl 12y ago

For the nth time, 'the industry' is not monolithic. There isn't some collective bargaining agreement tying up the rights of all the films you want to watch but which are held hostage by mustachio-twirling villains. Every film offered for commercial sale is a separate financial asset of a company, typically the sole asset of the company that owns it, which then licenses it to a distributor within individual countries. Publication and distribution are largely separate economic entities, due to a combination of legal history (studios forbidden to own exhibition chains in the US), regional market knowledge, and language barriers (no studio has the capability to produce subtitles/dub tracks in every potential market). All the legal paperwork for a small independent film is very substantial, and would fill most of a typical bookshelf. I shudder to think what the legal paperwork for a blockbuster looks like, it's probably enough to fill several bookcases. Of course it would be nice if one single service/platform was able to deliver any movie imaginable to some objective standard of quality. But it's not going to happen absent some sort of compulsory licensing scheme, which would run into huge legal/constitutional obstacles in many jurisdictions. Imagine you're the publisher of the film and SuperFilmPlatform.com can start start streaming it without your permission and without you having any say in what you get paid - you'd want to bomb their offices and/or exit the market. How would you ensure fair compensation in an environment that allowed compulsory licensing? Through government price controls? That's basically communism for artists/publishers, capitalism for the distributors. As you're no doubt aware, communism and free artistic expression have a poor record of compatibility.

wmf 12y ago
First sale seemed to work OK for movie rentals so a form of digital first sale might work for streaming. We'll probably never find out, though.