Are you a pirate? Perhaps you are!

http://techlogg.com/content/view/156/

The US will then be populated by 4 people, one of which is a nun who has never left a small 4x4 room. The remainder of the US will be a giant prison to house the millions of people who have unknowingly commited a copyright infringement!

Welcome to the US, here is your uniform, and there is your cell!

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see the other thread made by flameduck

...and people thought Saddam Hussein was crackers...

If you fastforward the adverts on your Sky HD Box, that makes you a pirate, cos you dont now have the right to watch the program. (You can leave the room, but you cannot ff)

Eh?

What GfK said... I'm intrigued! :D

Dabz

I forgot who it was, but one of the big TV network execs at one point publically called FFding TV stealing from the networks, because by doing so they were violating some unspoken 'contract' since the TV networks consider the ads to be part of the 'deal' you sign up for. In their mind it should be illegal for customer not to hold up their end of the deal but still reap the benefit of watching the content.

lol, taking my previous post in mind (http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=69616) "k, just show me my room.... is there a private toilet? ...right... what about food?"

You cant fast forward on sky or Virgin Media on Live Broadcasts or broadcasts that are screening. You can pause the TV and come back to it in 20 minutes and then fast forward but you cant fast forward something that hasn't travelled through the airwaves yet, through your sky dish and in to your telly.

:)

What a load of old cack! Aren't I allowed to go to the toilet in commercial breaks either, then? :p

I don't have a TV in the bathroom!

I did say you could leave the room, you can even change channel. But you cannot FF an advert. (I and you know its stupid)

lol, missing the point:



That is against the constitution currently.



Meaning a cd backup, or taping a show, etc.



LMAO, just as walking on the ground of a site which will be the future construction site for a bank will be bank robbery..... wait, what?

What that means is if you have an idea, and someone has a similar idea, and you go to patent it, they can now persue you for copyright infrigement (because it was their idea even though they hadn't registered it yet).

This optimally opens the doors for those who stumble up on the limewire site, who can now be procesuted for attempted piracy as limewire's use is 80% for pirated software/media.

It's against our constitution as is, and they are right, an amendment to the constitution would have to pass before this bill could even be considered. I doubt that will happen, but it still makes you curious ya know

The world has gone barmy!

Dabz

Don't worry. Within 50 years copyright will exist is a very limited form. When we FINALLY dive head-long into the information age. (rather than teetering on the edge of it) There will be 2 kinds of 'product': physical items, which the customer will be paying for secrets, production, and brand of; and digital products, which will mainly be services, but might also be access to some kind of esoteric information.

The idea that when a person is buying a game, that they are paying for a product like a roll of toilet paper, will be laughed at. 99% of sales will be digital, and you will be buying access to new game-information and services. You'll need your credit card (or future equal) information to get tech support, and you'll need that same info to access any online gameplay or other such things. THAT will be what you are paying for.

Should someone 'steal' the game, you'll only have minimal off-line access, they won't have any support, and they won't have easy access to any updates.

There will be some-kind of website that lets you watch high-quality TV with or without commercials. The Commercials version will cost less or nothing. Sure, you can find all the same shows, movies, anime, sports, and music videos elsewhere, but you'll be paying to access them in a structured easy to navigate means, and you'll be paying for the consistant quality and up-time, and you'll be paying for the variety.

Same goes for music, which will be downloadable in the future equal of mp3 (or maybe not, devices could stream them off the site just as fast as holding them yourself by then) and the ammount of music will be irrelivent, you can listen to the entire collection for the same price. Say, $50 a month? In the streaming case, you'll lose access when you cancel, in the downloaded case (which should be your choice) you can keep access. Since it is infinitely replicable, no one is losing money, they paid $50 at least for whatever they downloaded in that month.

Imagine it, isn't every piece of music ever recorded, in high quality, worth $50 a month? It could be like the cable bill. Maybe all these services will be merged. Movies, Music, TV, Books, and many other kinds of media, stream/downloadable at your fingertips for a monthly fee. You pick which, since you'll have limited space yourself, so most people will just stream. All this for say. $1-300 a month. Maybe there are different packages, and you can pick and chose what you are able to stream. Perhaps you can eliminate downloadability and pay less. Maybe you can eliminate books and pay less.

By then, all our devices will use the internet at high speeds and will be able to connect to these services. They will also be able to talk to eachother, so your cell-phone, remote control, mouse and other 'control' devices will merge into one. You'll still have TVs and Fridges and lights, but you'll be able to control your whole house with the one device.

More-over, once linked up, you'll be able to control them all over the internet from anywhere.

So, I'm not worried about these kinds of silly laws. It doesn't take a genius to realize that a system like the one I described is more than enough to compensate the artists. Track what is watched/listened too the most and pay out to them the most.

What makes you more money? a .1% chunk of $50... from 700,000,000 people, that might be so high in watches for 36 months. Or selling 10 million records at $20 a pop. Doesn't take a math genius. to realize that $200,000,000 is nothing compared to. Raise the monthly rate to more like $300 for movies, books, music, and tv and you are sitting on a VERY big chunk of money... 210 billion dollars, to be exact. Provided 700 million people subscribe. There are 620,000,000 people in the UK, USA, Canada, Japan and Mexico combined. Add in the rest of europe and you have quite a bit more. Imagine in 50 years China becomes open to the outside world. In 50 years, the population should be greater in the 5 places I mentioned as well.

Even if only half of the population of these countries subscribed, which when you think about this in terms of it being like a cable company, and the future, I don't think it is a stretch, that's still over 100 billion...

Also, most of the old folks that don't get the internet will be dead or retired, so the young-blood will realize the potential and embrace it.

Which is somewhat ironic, considering people have been saying that for 50 years, and it's only gotten worse.

For instance in the 1950's a copyright was only good for 28 years. Then in 1976 it was "life of the author + 50 years", in 1990 commercial lending of copyright materials was outlawed, in 1998 it was extended further to "life of the author + 70 years", in 1998 the DMCA practically outlawed fair-use of intellectual property.

In 50 years time there will be no such thing as intellectual property rights for consumers. No matter what you buy, it will remain the property of the legal entity it was originally purchased from. Only outlaws will be allowed to enjoy the stuff they buy, as they chose, and only a handful will have the means and resources to reverse engineer the DRM that protects it (and not get caught, obviously).

Fahrenheit 451 anyone? How about Equilibrium then?

Well content providers are fairly short of math geniuses. Seen XBox live? If you watch every episode of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report", which is only one hour of Comedy Central's daily line-up, it will cost you more than a Cable subscription that includes Comedy Central (plus probably another 300 channels you couldn't care less about). This of course on top of the monthly fee you already pay for your Internet subscription (which is probably fairly significant if you're watching HDTV in real time) and the fee you pay for XBox Live. Add it all up, and anyone with even the slightest mathematical aptitude (never mind a genius), is going to come out in favor of the old distribution networks. Every time.

What are you basing that on?

If history shows anything, it's that copyright magically gets extended every time Mickey Mouse is on the edge of falling into the public domain.

I have a parrot on my shoulder. Kweee!

All things have a tipping point. Eventually, these companies will change or go out of business. Either way, the general public will get free/cheap media. Provided they continue to get more and more disgusted with how things work. I guess, they could suddenly decide it is worth it to pay out the ass for things.

One or the other will have to happen.

Cool. What's its name? Chip? :p

He's called Jeff Digger, he likes to rest on my peg leg whilst I sleep at night.

so much for the land of the free (when everyone is in prisoned for having a harddisk full of MP3s :)
Whereas in a locked down non-'free' society like china they blatantly sell pirated stuff on the streets...

Go figure :/
(not saying piracy is a good or bad thing, just stating an irony)

The UK will undoubtedly follow suit. Although we will police it with cctv cameras called piratecams and start shouting the word "Citizen!" from a lot from tannoys :P

He means that indie channels receive no money from TV licensing so by watching commercial brainwashing (often called adverts), you are 'paying' for the television you are watching. By ignoring the adverts youre stealing the tv and will go blind in one eye to the point of needing an eyepatch :O)

Actually he was paraphrasing Jamie Kellner, the chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, who in an interview with Cableworld in 2002 had this to say:


Full transcript: http://www.2600.com/news/050102-files/jamie-kellner.txt

I wasnt, what I was reffering to was the VCR that came out in the Late 80's that would scan the signal for the advert break, pause recording, then when the program restarted, unpause.
It was banned in the UK, becasue it was deemed illeagal to not inculde the adverts. (I dont kow its leagal status anywhere else, but even though Flame thinks it wrong, often a ruling like this effects the whole EU)

In Australia, they plan to (or have by now) make it legal to record something off the TV, but only if you watch it just once, then delete it, and don't lend it out to your friends.

Before that you weren't allowed to record anything from anywhere unless it was a speech by the Queen.

It's a nation of criminals!

Pffft. Laws that can't be policed aren't laws at all.

Worse, they are laws they will prosecute one person for, to make an example of them.

Probably. I was actually commenting on Craig's post, though. Guess I shoulda made that clear. :)

TV is a different issue. The people watching TV aren't the customers. The Advertisers are. However, stealing isn't really what the people watching TV are doing. They are circumventing the traditional method. I mean... Heaven forbid the TV stations migrate to a more condusive method. Product placement?

I'd like to see traditional advertisements phased out.

I'm all for the oldschool product breaks where the character in the show turns to the camera and gives a 10 second advert for some product IN SHOW. Would work great for sit-coms and reality shows of various kinds. Talk shows.. The only things left that it wouldn't work for are dramas and comedy-dramas. Product placement works there, and you can have mid show logo-breaks and "Brought to you by" breaks...

I also wouldn't mind paying a little extra on my Tivo bill. Additionally, I'd love to be able to buy shows for a fraction of the DVD price. Say the 26 episode season costs 40 bucks.. I'd like to download episodes for $1.50 and be able to watch them any-time I want.

..and when it does make examples of people, the law usually is hard and cruel, just to prove a point!

Watch I, Robot - then tell me you still endorse product placement.

I loved I, Robot... I just looked at it as sharing a name, and as a whole new thing and it was cool with me... I didn't mind the product placement at all...

So yeah.. I watched it, and still endorse product placement.

EDIT

Would you rather they cut 30 min of ads into the middle of the movie?

I agree with dampeS8N, subtle product placement doesnt ruin a movie or tv show at all and is a damn sight better than 5-6 10-minute long breaks of washing powdwer, car ads, tampon ads, soft silky hair and toothpaste commercials that cause your teeth to grind and eye to twitch.

-As long as it doesnt get to the stage where the leading role (or any role for that matter) turns to the camera and says, "I didnt crash my car thanks to my beemer's new dual ribbed suspension system and michellin tyers!!" :)

On topic however, i admit to using pirate software as a trial though but only as that. If i use it to create anything professionally or find it useful i will buy it out of principle.

HAHAHAHAHAH Ten min of will smith endoseing a product that in the film time line was out of date, was not subtle

I never noticed this in I, Robot. Maybe I wasn't watching it properly.

Me either. I think I was asleep for most of it (like most things with Will Smith in).

i agree which is why i wrote:

To be honest, i didnt really notice it either in i robot, or it didnt bother me enough to remember what it was or even what kind of product.

Deleted

They did. There where three Converse ads, at least two Audi ads, two FedEx ads, one Sony ad and one Dos Equis ad - and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

Personally, I would have thought that the $343 million USD they took at the box office + whatever unknown amount they made in rentals, DVD sales and merchandising would leave enough of a profit, that they didn't have to ruin the movie.

What you mean like Will Smiths "Converse All Stars Vintage 2004" shoes, that he gets at the very beginning of the movie (by FedEx, right on time), and that every character he meets has something (nice) to say about?

How about the most obvious one, U.S. Robotics?

USR had a bunch of special promotions and competitions coincide with the launch of the movie.

Dont think you can really blame will smith for that one can you?

Also, as U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men are reponsible for the near enslavement of the entire race, I wouldnt call it "good" publicity.

Yeah.. I didn't notice it so much because I took smith's facination with old technology at face value..

I'm sure the meeting went like this:

"Hey, The character loves old technology, and is a ludite.. He'll have to use a lot of contemporary things, shouldn't they all be product placements?"

rather than what everyone seems to think:

"Lets do a bunch of product placements.. we can make smith's character a ludite and in love with old shit."


Either way.. Since it was part of his character.. and if you didn't notice, integral to him and ultimately the story, it didn't bother me.

Bothers me far more to see ad-breaks in my shows.. 8 min of commercials in a 30 min show.

They weren't really commercials per se in I, Robot.... They might have ammounted to them.. but they were Car chase scenes, and running scenes and so on.. They were part of the movie.. They were written into it.

If I am force to watch them... I might as well at least be entertained while I watch them... I, Robot was a nice fun sci-fi movie.... and it wasn't too full of itself or heavy handed like the 2nd and 3rd matrix movies... and it wasn't too long like AI (which was good, just long)..

Which is why he has a bionic arm, is that it?