RE: Movies (was: throw out your DVD player - it's obsolete)

From: Eugen Leitl (eugen@leitl.org)
Date: Wed Nov 27 2002 - 02:42:30 MST


On Tue, 26 Nov 2002, Regina Pancake wrote:

> Being in the industry in question here, I can vouch for the fact that
> a lot of us have seen this coming. The piracy issue with movies will
> gut the film industry, just like it did already to the music industry.

1) I do not care much for the music industry. If it dies completely (which
   it won't, especially if it goes into cheap music on demand which
   doesn't even need DRM) this will not hurt art.

2) It is not at all obvious that the music industry is hurting. 'Gutted'
   is a definitive overdramatization

3) If the film industry sees it coming then why the hell can't I get
   decent on demand streaming video? The libraries are full of stale
   warez.

> Unfortunately, this is going to gut not just the crap out there that
> is sprinkled with glitter, like Emlyn said so well, but a whole heck
> of a lot of other high production value movies are just not going to
> get the budgets they'd need to do them justice. I, particularly, love
> science fiction (of course) and you need the budgets for that. And
> don't tell me the computers will make it cheaper blah blah blah,
> because that's probably more than 10 years away, while this crash is
> coming in the next 2 to 3 years or less.

You might have a point here, assuming your time frame is accurate.
 
> Independent films will have a better shot at it, true. But I can only
> watch so many of those. Personally, I will miss working on the "big
> budget, who friggin' cares what it costs, just make it for me now!"
> films. Its fun. More than I can explain in a late night email. As
> corporate mentality has entered into this line of work, the
> accountants have become very aggressive and product placement has gone
> insane. So when the bubble pops and they all come tumbling down, at
> least those idiots won't be around to bug me any more. meanwhile, I'm
> still trying to find the escape route for my company out of this slow
> moving train wreck. I'm open to suggestions, Regina

I think there's a big future in photorealistic online game worlds.



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