Re: [dvd-discuss] LA Times Article about Replay TV lawsuits

[Ole Craig <olc(at)cs.umass.edu>]

On 02/12/02 at 13:45, 'twas brillig and Michael A Rolenz scrobe:
[...]
> But I think you've got the technology level too high.....it's not 50s 
> technology...it's 19th century when publishing was typesetting by hand or 
> motion pictures on 35mm film. Now they give away software more 
> sophisticated than the publishing houses used 20 yrs ago and ditto for 
> image processing. The ability to do these things has gotten distributed 
> but those who thrived during the times when those activities had to be 
> centralized are not adapting to the change.

	Well, I was thinking specifically of television broadcasting.
Of course there are parallells in earlier forms of publication.

	How's this for a cheesy analogy:

Mousetrap-maker to congresscritter: "I want a new law! I want a law
that says it's illegal for mice to use sticks -- any mice seen using a
stick should be arrested! And anyone providing sticks for mice should
be fined and arrested!"

Congresscritter: "Why?"

Agribusinessman: "'Cause those mice have figured out a way to use
sticks to get the cheese out of the traps without getting trapped, and
we stand to lose a fortune to the dairy conglomerate that we buy
cheese from! And our production of catfood will fall off!"

Congresscritter: "Surely you could research an alternate mousetrap
methodology?"

Mousetrap-maker: "No, the mousetrapping industry has invested $bigbux
in developing and marketing this mousetrap. It's been working fine up
until now. The economy will suffer if we don't get this law; all that
money will have been wasted -- and all because these insufferable
cheese-pirates are able to acquire sticks and use them with no
repercussions!"

Dairy conglomerate, agribusinessman, and mousetrap-maker: "By the way,
we contributed $bigbux to your campaign chest last year. We'd like to
do so again next year, but if our profit margins slip we may have to
reprioritize our budgets..."

Congresscritter: "There oughta be a law!"


		Ole 
"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a lawyer to your
door..."
--
Ole Craig * olc@cs.umass.edu * UNIX; postmaster, news, web; SGI martyr *
CS Computing Facility, UMass * <www.cs.umass.edu/~olc/> for public key 

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