Here it is-- another great solution to the movie and music piracy
problem!
It's so mind-numbingly simple, why didn't George Bush think of it?
The music industry and film industry should get together and create new
recording medium. It wouldn't be very hard at all-- the technology is there.
There are dozens of modifications they can make to existing technologies in order
to create a new medium that belongs only to them. A special type of DVD with special
coding at the start that prevents it from being played in any existing DVD player.
You heard me right-- but hang on. I'm not crazy. They can call it the
"Super DVD".
The music and film industries will own this standard and will not
license it to anybody but themselves. They will contract out with factories to
produce a new Super DVD Player. The codes required for playing a Super DVD will be
hard- coded into a special chip, and thus almost impossible to copy or hack.
Then the music and film industries will start releasing all of their
"content" only on these special disks. You won't be able to buy a DVD
version of "Titanic" or "A Few Good Men" or a CD version of Bruce
Springsteen or Britney Spears. You will only be able to buy it on Super DVD, for
which you will have to buy or lease the Super DVD player.
And thus piracy will end. No digital copying will be possible.
No digital quality copies of songs or movies on the internet, though, of course,
some people might be able to make passable copies by recording, with microphones or video
cameras, right off the Super DVD player screen. (The music and film industries have
made it plain that while they've always been concerned about copying in general, from any
source, it is really the digital copying that gets their goats.)
Problem solved.
It will never happen.
It will never happen because the music and film industries
know damn well that they don't really want a world in which they have
absolute ownership and control over their product because in a world like
that they won't make any money.
The reason is very simple and obvious. The consumer would never
accept such a system. And some smart musicians and independent movie makers would
immediately realize this and start to offer their products on popular media like DVDs and
CD's. And the music and film industries would lose their power and control
over the entertainment market and quickly capitulate and that would be end of that.
No, wait--- there's a better solution! The music and film
industries can try to seize control of the existing technologies-- VCRs, computers, CD
recorders-- and try to shove their copy-protection schemes down our throats.
And that is what is happening. No one is required to issue movies
or music on DVDs or CDs. They do it because they know damned well that the public
adopted those media because they were widely accepted standards. They were widely
accepted standards because they were broadly licensed to many manufacturers and PC makers.
They were broadly licensed because they were sold to us as media, not content.
The music and film industries benefit enormously from those widely accepted
standards. And that is why, if they don't like the consequences of a broad, open
standard, they should get the hell off it and start producing their own proprietary media
that nobody can copy. If they don't like the Super DVD idea, they can go back to
vinyl. If they don't like the internet, they go back to AM radio.
It would be the best thing that could ever happen to the entertainment
industry. You would get loads of Third World bands and movie-makers
who would be more than happy to give up some protections of their materials
in exchange for wide distribution and exposure. They would issue their
stuff on popular media formats and would soon blow Hollywood out of the
mass market. You would see Demi Moore and Bruce Willis traveling to Bombay to make
a new action flick, in English.
This is why Apple is tiny compared to Microsoft. This is why
Betamax never caught on. This is why the Laser Disk never made it. This is why
Advantix film by Kodak will never succeed. This is why rock'n'roll succeeded beyond
anyone's wildest expectations (the AM battery-powered radio).
The truth is that music and film industries don't really compete with
each other anymore, and don't want to have to compete with anyone else. They price
their products in lock-step with each other, and hate having to actually produce and
develop new talent while they can still pimp off their old established stars.
And when their control starts to diminish, because of computers and the
internet, instead of becoming leaner or meaner or more competitive-- which requires work
and talent-- they start stuffing your congressman's pockets full of cash and get the DMCA
passed. Now they want congress to require all electronic recording devices to give
control over what and when something can be copied to these pimps at the RIAA and MPAA
(Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Pictures Association of America).
This is an outrage. It's one of the five or six biggest scandals
of the last twenty years. The Music Industry has every right to negotiate contracts
with radio stations and hardware makers about how and when they can put their content on
their media. Why the hell should the government step in and make laws to govern--
and penalize offenders-- an arrangement that should absolutely be a contractual agreement
between the record companies and radio stations?
Their control of the world-wide entertainment industry is threatened by
any technology that gives more power and control and choice to the consumer.
Most consumers wouldn't give a damn about Britney Spears if it weren't for the
monopolistic control the music industry has over radio, print, and television, but most
consumers don't know that.
They would find out in a hurry if something prompted them to start
looking elsewhere.
Copyright © 2003 Bill Van Dyk All rights
reserved.
