what happens if SOPA passes?

interesting, thanks for that!

the decline is very gradually indeed, nothing like the cratering we saw w/ the record industry.

and this may foretell the erosion of movie going in the conventional sense as a major pasttime but it also may be part of cyclical ups and downs. i mean i would imagine attendance is still higher than it was at certain points in the past (maybe late '60s and early '90s?).

but like i said china had very few movie theaters 15-20 years ago and now they are building them like there's no tomorrow.

xxxpost

the reasons for that are myriad but surely everyone has seen the pie chart/graph of how musician income has declined...?

xp

but like i said china had very few movie theaters 15-20 years ago and now they are building them like there's no tomorrow.

later i'll look for an article that gives specifics but the figures are astonishing. like they really did make my head spin.

the decline is very gradually indeed, nothing like the cratering we saw w/ the record industry.

true. and it's difficult to pinpoint what factors to attribute the dip to (cratering economy surely didn't help things)

pretty good editorial on this one which I am coming around to almost being inclined to agreeing with

the MegaUpload takedown included things like search warrants and an actual, written, legal indictment. There are much more ergregious injustices being done to more obviously innocent parties with much less evidence drudged up via due process. The key to winning this argument is championing the most innocent, defenseless victims. It’s almost dangerous to think of MegaUpload as a victim at all. MegaUpload is at worst a copyright infringement conspiracy and at best, a multi-million dollar corporation run by an unapologetic playboy with a dubious approach to to avoiding copyright infringement that was ever so slightly legal, if legal at all. MegaBox nonwithstanding, there are much better poster-children to be had, guys. MegaUpload is more than capable of advocating for itself.

http://www.geekosystem.com/megabox-megaupload-takedown-theory/

http://torrentfreak.com/emi-boss-opposes-sopa-says-piracy-is-a-service-issue-120125/

Speaking for himself, EMI’s VP of Urban Promotions Craig Davis said that the two pending anti-piracy bills are not the way to move forward.

“Personally, I feel that the method they’re using is incorrect. All it will do is cause headaches and issues for everyone,” Davis noted.

While the EMI VP opposes PIPA and SOPA, he does admit that piracy is a problem. However, Davis thinks that the problem can be better solved from within the music industry itself. In other words, the key to solving piracy isn’t legislation, but innovation.

“I do believe that a person should be compensated for their work. I feel that piracy is a big issue, and things like Spotify will assist in combating this problem,” he said.

Reiterating this point, the EMI VP refers to comments that were recently made by Gabe Newell. The Valve co-founder said that piracy is a service issue – once you give people what they want it will mostly disappear.

“Gabe Newell is correct, it’s a service issue not an issue of money. Sales have gone up from sales concerts and merchandise, it’s obvious that our fans still love music. We’re just not giving them their music in an easier way,” Davis noted.

I feel that piracy is a big issue, and things like Spotify will assist in combating this problem,”

Spotify doesn't pay the artists shit fyi

he said 'things like spotify will assist in combating this problem', not 'spotify will conquer this problem'

I think the long-term decline of the film industry and the music industry are going to look quite different. people still listen to music - in fact, it's easier to listen to music than ever before / people probably listen to it more than ever etc. etc. - the problem is entirely in monetizing it.

whereas while hollywood is doing better because of the theater-experience / exclusivity of new movies - there are a lot of new things that are competing w/ film when it comes to entertainment and people only have so many hours of free time a day. a world where lots of people illegally download films might not be great for the film industry, but that's still better than a world where people gradually move on to other forms of video-as-art/entertainment.

spotify pays artists the market value for their work, pretty much

sadly

a world where lots of people illegally download films might not be great for the film industry, but that's still better than a world where people gradually move on to other forms of video-as-art/entertainment.

otm, and if the film industry continues to stamp out teh evil pirates while refusing to sort out its own supply, that move will happen more quickly.

i dunno, TV ate a huge chunk (like the majority) of film's audience, and the internet has eroded it further but i really don't expect -- not for many decades anyway -- film to be really firmly supplanted by anything else. again, i'd point to the explosion of cinema-building in developing parts of the world as evidence that movies, whatever media they happen to be transmitted by, aren't going anywhere. but then again i have a stake in this. ;-)

one thing that's interesting is that in the 1990s, something like... wait for it... 100% of videos of films available in the PRC were pirated. and now it's much much lower, not i think largely because of anti-piracy efforts but because people have more money.

(actually i think the 100% was true up until like 2002-3, when piracy began to decline.)

Yes, maybe there are cheap cameras and cheap CGI programs that do what expensive ones used to, but where are you going to get top quality cinematographers? Where are you going to get storyboard artists and programmers and trained actors and all that sort of thing? Where are you going to find the time it makes to create something really good, polished, etc.? How do you imagine everyone involved feeding and clothing themselves while working on a film full-time? Or do you think great films will be made in spare time by people with day jobs?

This is true, but my point is that in Hollywood, as opposed to most everywhere else, most of these people are waaaaaaay overpaid. If you can make EXACTLY the same film for 1/10 the price elsewhere, then surely that suggests that a town SET UP for making movies has pretty much become a town set up for padding budgets.

I'm not saying we can all make great movies for $0, but I am saying that talented people can make great movies for a fraction of what it costs the average studio-made US movie to be made.

that is true, but things blowing up: the sequel is always gonna gost an arm and a leg unless people are willing to put up with like nollywood production values.

cost

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/highest-paid-actors-actresses-2010_n_916237.html

Top amongst all thespians in the last year was Leonardo DiCaprio; the man who played a dirt poor kid in "Titanic" saw his films "Inception" and "Shutter Island" take in a cool $1.2 billion; with contracts that guaranteed him part of the backends, DiCaprio made a whopping $72 million in the last year.

In second was Johnny Depp, with $50 million; the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star was tops the year before, with $75 million. Next came Adam Sandler, with $40 million; his company, "Happy Madison," produced his wildly popular film, "Grown Ups."

In the actress category, Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker topped the cash list with $30 million each; Jennifer Aniston was a close third with $28 million.

saw his films "Inception" and "Shutter Island" take in a cool $1.2 billion

jesus, that's a lot of cash.

By any measure that's a precarious expectation at the top level. Hollywood has made its own bed here imo.

― Autumn Almanac, Thursday, January 26, 2012 12:09 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this strikes me as a bit ridiculous, like when ppl act as if NBA players earn too much.

Well, they really, really do. Nobody should earn huge amounts of money when all they fucking do is PLAY A GAME.

i disagree. i think being that good at whatever you choose to do, in a capitalist society, has higher value. there are less competitive positions in other fields that pay considerably more, where the relative 'skill' is just knowing how to work the system

sure, and I'd pay those people less too. but this is personal opinion, i'm never going to convince anyone of my own personal frothing anti-sports rants

I do find the whole stop piracy stance of Hollywood amusing, given Hollywood only exists in the first place because early movie-makers settled there in order to be out of reach of the copyright/patent enforcement of the inventors of the technology they were using

the above the line people in h'w'd make a lot of money, below-the-line not always.

also -- high salaries for below-the-line people are often compensation for job insecurity and spending 1/3 to 1/2 of the year out of work.

I do find the whole stop piracy stance of Hollywood amusing, given Hollywood only exists in the first place because early movie-makers settled there in order to be out of reach of the copyright/patent enforcement of the inventors of the technology they were using

i bet you couldn't find a single executive at one of the major studios who is aware of that history.

this strikes me as a bit ridiculous, like when ppl act as if NBA players earn too much.

ignoring the 'what % of profits do players deserve' issue - the worse players in the NBA probably make too much money (they benefit from there only being so many teams) and the very best players are prob underpaid

dude stop

stop what!

iatee is totally right here. I had a professor say this about Brett Favre, "he's a manual laborer, his salary should be $75,000 tops" which is one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard

i bet you couldn't find a single executive at one of the major studios who is aware of that history.

I'll take that bet - I'd bet all of them know a great deal about all that actually

talented people can make great movies for a fraction of what it costs the average studio-made US movie to be made.

Sure, but at least 90% of the American public now thinks a big-budget H'wood noise machine is the only iteration of a 'good movie' -- hence the b.o. window warnings that effectively read "You are going to hate The Tree of Life."

but this is personal opinion, i'm never going to convince anyone of my own personal frothing anti-sports rants

tell me more

frankly the biggest eye-opener about that H'wood salaries article is SJP. her movies bomb, why do they pay her so much?

see also katherine heigl, though she probably gets less cash than she did three years ago.

http://www.appleoutsider.com/2012/01/26/hollywood/

Perfect summary of the current state of play imo. Those companies are actually run by idiots.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16755449

Singers and bands who withhold their albums from music streaming services, such as Spotify, are in danger of alienating their fans, an executive from record label Universal has said.

Acts including Adele and Coldplay kept their latest albums off Spotify, which is seen by some as damaging sales.

But Francis Keeling, vice president of digital at Universal Music, said such acts risk "alienating their fanbases".

Universal is the world's most successful record label.

Adele's track Rolling In The Deep was the most-played single of 2011 on Spotify UK, but the star has withheld the complete album, 21 - released by the XL label - from the service.

Coldplay's manager Dave Holmes recently told Bloomberg Businessweek that the band's Mylo Xyloto, released on EMI, would be on Spotify eventually.

But he said: "I am very concerned. Spotify competes with download stores."

The Black Keys and Tom Waits are among the other high-profile acts who have kept their latest releases off streaming services.

Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach told Billboard magazine that the royalties from streaming services were "so minuscule it's laughable".

"It's a cool thing to have if you're in a new band and you want to be heard," he said. "But if you are a bigger band that's already known and you rely on record sales for a living, then it's really no place to be."

Universal has said its research proved that Spotify did not cannibalise sales, and Mr Keeling said the label negotiated with artists on a case-by-case basis.

"Over time, we're trying to convince our artists that streaming services are the right thing to do and these services should be supported," he said, according to PaidContent.

Mr Keeling was speaking at the label's Investors' Open Day in London, where Spotify announced that it now had three million paying subscribers, with approximately 12 million more using its free service.

http://www.appleoutsider.com/2012/01/26/hollywood/

Perfect summary of the current state of play imo. Those companies are actually run by idiots.

to be fair, iTunes (or the music industry in general) isn't really a good counterpoint to this. the Amazon MP3 store, on the other hand...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16757142
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58138000/jpg/_58138503_58138494.jpg

...

Darrell Issa, a US senator and vocal critic of the stalled Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), voiced his concerns about Acta at the World Economics Forum in Davos.

"As a member of Congress, it's more dangerous than Sopa," he said.

"It's not coming to me for a vote. It purports that it does not change existing laws. But once implemented, it creates a whole new enforcement system and will virtually tie the hands of Congress to undo it."

In addition to internet-based measures, the agreement also seeks to curb trade of counterfeited physical goods.

Past drafts of the treaty suggested that internet service providers would have to give up data about users accused of copyright infringement and might have to cut them off - although this segment of the agreement has since been removed.

Outside of the EU, the treaty has also been signed by the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.

and yes, the UK government signed up for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

ACTA is pretty scary

the ability to demand that ISPs shutdown websites for distributing software that can be used to play DRM protected media is almost cartoonishly villainous. that's like closing a hardware store because they sell stuff that can be used for burglary.

Except those tools can be used for many other purposes, most of the DRM breaking software I've seen is useless for anything else.

well I was thinking more about software that can play loads of different codecs, like VLC

eeyowch, i guess Holy Warbles was shut down by blogger. that blog basically just shared out of print world records from the 50s-60s, afaik.

wow. didn't occur to me, but as the tail gets longer and EVERYTHING is ascribed market value, companies are going to be aiming at more artistically minded and obscure bloggers who are doing good work. If spotify had any sense, they'd snap these guys up to become in-house content aggregator/editors

huh? when everything is ascribed market value obscure artistically minded bloggers will receive paychecks of 4 cents once a year.

eeyowch, i guess Holy Warbles was shut down by blogger. that blog basically just shared out of print world records from the 50s-60s, afaik.

― tylerw, Friday, January 27, 2012 11:31 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, it's personal now IMO.