Re: [dvd-discuss] JackBoots Really Just Wants People to be Happy]

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

On 29 Oct 2002 at 9:45, John Zulauf wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 29 Oct 2002 09:45:31 -0700
From:           	"John Zulauf" <johnzu@ia.nsc.com>
To:             	"DVD Discuss" <dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu>
Subject:        	Re: [dvd-discuss] JackBoots Really Just Wants People to be
	Happy]
Send reply to:  	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu

> 
> 
> microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
> > 
> > http://www.backstage.com/backstage/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id
> > =1 746587
> > 
> > MPAA president and CEO Jack Valenti said that in actuality the
> >  resolution was decidedly anti-consumer. "If this resolution is
> >   implemented, then consumer choice would be limited," he
> >   said. "Who in their right mind would put their movies on the
> >   Internet? It would frustrate the ability of copyright owners to
> >   distribute to the consumer in convenient ways."
> 
> This is of course what he and they said about VHS, VideoDisc, rental,
> and DVD.  This was the logic that induced Circuit City to invest in Divx
> (and lose it's shirt).  
> 
> "Who in their right minds...?" It's called "the prisoners dilemma" Jack.
> It is the force that keeps DVDs in the market even though the alleged
> protections
> are false(1), cracked(2), commercial copy programs exsist (3) and copy
> protection has not proven cost effective (4).  DVDs are unprotected, and
> shipping in record numbers.  Why? It's that pesky "prisoners dilemma"
> again. So the answer to your question Jack is exactly *EVERYONE*.

"Yeah but see..only if we don't unite and have a common front...I mean us..the 
guards with the warden....we crack down...beat a few with the rubber hose...let 
a few trip into the septic tank as the lid comes down and...we got this 
place..it's ours...and they won't do nothing to stop us....we just gotta do 
everythign to stop them from do'in what we dont want them to do..ya see"  

> 
> In fact, the two things holding *back* Internet distribution is  the
> lack of "mandatory licensing" and the MPAA's belief they can win through
> legislation what they could not sell to the marketplace (5) --
> post-first-sale controls.  "DAT and Divx be d*mned" they seem to be
> saying.  Who cares if the user has always rejected these systems in the
> past (until they find they can circumvent them (6)).  As for the former,
> mandatory licensing, several companies have been actively opposed by the
> MPAA, though ready and able to provide convenient for-pay access to the
> customers

Which ones? URLs References...not that I doubt that this isn't the case but one 
like to have a compete set of facts. If the MPAA is using the courts to try to 
break contracts that they are not a party to then they lack standing in the 
courts and the courts should dismiss the suits and since the MPAA is a 
commercial outfit with lawyers on thepayroll should pay the cost in 
compensatory damages and punitive ones for wasting time and money. (not that 
that will happen. Until Judges begin to realize that these tactics waste the 
courts time and use the judge as surrogate tormenter)

> 
> So, Jack here it is.  Lead, follow or get out of the way.  From the
> "Boston Strangler" comment, to the Divx debacle, and through to the
> present we've seen no leadership except a cry for forward march to the
> read.  So follow or get out of the way.  There's $100B industries who'd
> like to feed and this manger and the MPAA dog has got to go!
> 
> 

Well Jack does such a good job licking...boots...in Hollywood that how can you 
suggest that a permanent fixture be removed except by old age?  Oh.too 
bad..he's already senile ;-)

> 
> (1) "authoring" drives for DVD-R are now available, and encryption never
> has been copy protection.
> 
> (2) DeCSS and successors exist and are readily available to any who want
> to "circumvent", and simple "video stabilizer" and a DVD recorder from
> Philips get one a nice clean digital copy.
> 

PIRATES raping pillaging and plundering Intellectual 
Property!!!!!!!!!!!!....Philips....that's another story..Harboring 
provisioning...I don't know how much of a stance Philips wants to take. I 
haven't seen Philips do anything recently about copy protected CDs..

> (3) CopyDVD is available though currently suing to preserve it's own
> existence.
> 
> (4) Aside from the obvious, well known examples in the mass market
> software business (the $10,000/seat engineer tools are a different
> beast), is the fact that Macrovision costs points, and reduces no threat
> vector (c.f. "video stabilizer" at www.jandr.com
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?F2E541642 )

Da*m it's not under $50 misses my Xmas gift this year!

> 
> (5) The other part of this is the "convenient ways" of which Mr. Valenti
> speaks include the business of providing downloads with post sale
> (access) controls for one price, and then charging the full prices of a
> DVD for the end user to space-shift the movie onto to their own media. 
> They seem to be saying --

Unfortunatly Valenti is stuck between analogies...and reasoning by analogy is 
dangerous at best and wrong most of the time. He sees DVDs at new forms of 
paper tickets to a theater that they don't have to build rather than now they 
are publishers. They don't provide LIVE theatrical performances today. They 
don't provide FILMED staged performances. They now publish works. They really 
are clueless and so are the courts and legal system regarding the changes. The 
analogy is publishing NOT theater.

> 
> "use your media, use your capital equipment (the burner), use your
> bandwidth charges (mine are $5 per 10GB above 10GB/month), and pay us
> the big bucks -- we are the publisher!" 
 > 
> Just what part of the publishing business do they want to perform for
> their (largish) cut of the 16.99?  A web site, a fat pipe, and a credit
> card entry form.  No wonder they spend so much on lobbying!
> 

And a fat ass...that's speading...of course looking at the spat of movies these 
days there's a lot of creative arteriosclerosis too...too bad a heart attack 
won't finish off hollywierd just yet

Hye Hollywierd does lobby much...being motivated by nothing more than gettig 
their next fix of whater their monthy drug of choice is, getting their rocks 
off regularly, and looking good at the weekly party....Ohh what intellectual 
property they create!

> (6) DAT only success was for professional recording, where (as I have
> been told by those in the industry) the recorders showed up from Sony
> with pack-in instructions for how to rejumper the circuit board (or what
> leads to cut) to disable SCMS)
>