Hollywood Reporter - Congress earmarks $30 mil to fight piracy

[Styrofoam]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i323ddc5ff8ac61422da08c74204a0a56

 

By Georg Szalai -- "Congress agreed to provide $30 million in new funding for the battle against piracy as authorities on Monday also reported success with a recent year-end piracy crackdown code-named Operation Holiday Hoax..."

[Scafeets]

Sadly, only 2 out of 16 comments were positive about the effort. The other comments, like so many here at H-C, are "what's the big deal?"

 

If the Hollywood Reporter website can't garner support, what's the chances that Joe six-pack in middle America will get behind the program?

 

As enforcement goes, $30M is a drop in the bucket. Before MPAA and RIAA completely run out of money, maybe they should try a PR/advertising campaign to convince people that there's a serious downside to piracy -- not "getting caught" but dealing with the fairness issue, the inhibiting factor on exposure of creative choices, etc.

[BlueStrat]

 

As enforcement goes, $30M is a drop in the bucket. Before MPAA and RIAA completely run out of money, maybe they should try a PR/advertising campaign to convince people that there's a serious downside to piracy -- not "getting caught" but dealing with the fairness issue, the inhibiting factor on exposure of creative choices, etc.

 

 

That's be great, but I don't have a lot of hope that would work, either. I mean, the correlation between labels more and more often producing generic crap while signing fewer and fewer niche market acts that represent financial risk ought to be a major warning light to the 'music ought to be free' guys about what is happening, and that new bands and new music styles don't get promoted worldwide out of thin air. Sadly, it doesn't register, and in fact as record companies continue to die, the uninformed and unthinking seem to be happy about it.

 

I'm worried about the intelligence of our culture, and the willingness to accept that everything is an either/or proposition and that there aren't merits to fixing something rather than scrapping entire systems in favor of a pig in a poke. I guess that's what happens when an industry gets taken over by hobbyists without an inkling of how business works.

[Scafeets]

 

I guess that's what happens when an industry gets taken over by hobbyists without an inkling of how business works.

 

 

Starting with the hobbyists like Edgar Bronfman, Jr. A classic example of the Lucky Sperm Club taking over what had formerly been a thriving business.

 

There just doesn't seem to be a new generation ready to take over for Ahmet Ertegun, Berry Gordy, Seymour Stein, Jerry Wexler, Jack Holzman, Leonard Chess and Sam Phillips. Those guys proved you can start small, beat the crap out of the big corporate labels and build a thriving business with new artists.

 

I'm sure the new business model won't be "record company" as we know it, but someone with business chops needs to figure out how to monetize music. My guess is that it won't be a musician but someone with the acumen and tenacity of those guys mentioned above.

[Poker99]

 

Sadly, only 2 out of 16 comments were positive about the effort. The other comments, like so many here at H-C, are "what's the big deal?" If the Hollywood Reporter website can't garner support, what's the chances that Joe six-pack in middle America will get behind the program? As enforcement goes, $30M is a drop in the bucket. Before MPAA and RIAA completely run out of money, maybe they should try a PR/advertising campaign to convince people that there's a serious downside to piracy -- not "getting caught" but dealing with the fairness issue, the inhibiting factor on exposure of creative choices, etc.

 

 

Remember, the pirates are always the firsts to post in blogs everywhere. They are quite active in youtube comments too. They feel really important.

[BlueStrat]

 

I'm sure the new business model won't be "record company" as we know it, but someone with business chops needs to figure out how to monetize music. My guess is that it won't be a musician but someone with the acumen and tenacity of those guys mentioned above.

I agree, but the difference between then and now is that, while those guys really loved music, they weren't afraid, embarrassed or reticent about making a profit from it to bring it to the world. Today's hobbyist mentality seems to be that making a profit from music somehow represents evil and that self interest is a bad thing, and that 'real' musicians' see music only as art not to be sullied and demeaned with profit.

 

Of course, this attitude sets in motion a cycle, whereby the only profit to be made is in producing mass appeal stuff with no character, while innovation and creativity get consigned to obscurity by thoughtless and selfish consumers who use technology to prevent the creators of the innovation from going anywhere. Until we rid ourselves of this notion that profiting from art is a dirty word, we'll keep getting what we're getting.