P2P Calls in Air Strikes
Published March 28, 2003
But the CD itself may be an endangered species. Not because of downloads, but because the industry is moving quickly away from that aging format and toward higher quality multimedia optical discs that can restore the perception of value to music purchasers. Both Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD-Audio discs provide substantially higher and "warmer" sound quality than traditional CDs, have multi-channel capabilities that can be exploited both on home theater systems and new players being installed in automobiles, plus the capacity to carry additional content such as lyrics, photos, band interviews and music videos. And, unlike CDs, they also are protected by DRM technologies - although compressing their very large files for Internet distribution would defeat their entire qualitative purpose for existence. As consumers are educated as to the capabilities of these new hard goods the industry can expect to benefit from a long-term product conversion wave similar to that which accompanies the transition from vinyl to CD. In this context, Internet file sharing of compressed audio becomes the perfect, low cost promotional medium for stimulating the sale of high quality recordings.
A Brief Aside Concerning Movies
Mr. Chairman, my testimony has focused on P2P's relationship to the recording industry. That is because it is the only segment of the entertainment industry that can make even a debatable claim that it has been harmed by P2P file sharing. While I believe that P2P has little to nothing to do with that industry's declining sales, at least it has a downward trend to point to. The same cannot be said of the movie industry, which enjoyed record profits in 2002, part of which can be ascribed to a near-doubling of DVD sales.
Despite the complete lack of evidence of contemporary harm, the movie industry has been in the vanguard of those favoring legislation and litigation to
constrain technology lest it be "Napsterized" at some point in the future. It has adopted a three-part program that consists of:
1. Having the government mandate a "broadcast flag" to control consumer reuse of digitally broadcast TV signals. This goal has been vociferously opposed by most of the technology and consumer electronics industry.
2. Closing the "analog hole" through watermarking technologies that can survive digital to analog and back to digital conversion. Many experts question the technical feasibility of this quest.
Shutting down open P2P networks. They have no technical suggestions to offer in this regard, but have been quick to sue.
This of course is an industry that predicted that the VCR would be its Boston Strangler, sued to prevent its manufacture and distribution, and escaped this self-destructive wish by a single Supreme Court vote. Rather than being a tool for piracy, the VCR became the means by which the industry built a new source of revenue that eclipsed box office receipts within a decade.
Movies are a media form fundamentally different from music. We don't run five miles or drive while watching a film, and we do care very much about the quality of the movie viewing experience. Movies available today on P2P networks are also an altogether different animal from a technological perspective. These audiovisual files are simply huge, and even in compressed from take a long time to download. These downloaded files are of clearly inferior quality compared to the original, and are hardly something that one would want to watch on a TV, much less a home theater system. In short, any assertions regarding P2P harm to the movie industry are pure speculation about the future.
- P2P Calls in Air Strikes
- Published: March 28, 2003
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Music: News, Video: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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this was great i am happy to see that others are benifiting to open mindness
of new technologies/ and sad to see that the world is all about price gouging/ worries of hollywood suicide and most inportant greed. I believe point in case
as a consumer of movies and music and will come straight out and say it as no one else will -fear of are goverment I guess.
1. movies-are so many experience good and bad /sad and happy -and so many experinces have been held on the cinimatic screen exploited/ and life situations to catastrophies of floods/earthquakes to aliens and how we view them. theaters are great experinces
but some times the translation is lost
and can only be gained by home expirence . thanks to technolgy we have that choice. are own tiny theater -surround
speakers /flat screen tv's -can you accually blame people for not wanting to sit in a theatre were some lady smells and has a crying baby. also might i add
that downloading of a movie is a differn't experiance all together-you have this wierd tech-feeling you get that we accually have moved into the future 2004. That u can not belive that u are accually watching this on a computer and quite an overwellming feeling just ask the executives of the movie industry /when they wanted to know exactly what was going on with the p2p
and one them said ooh let me show u and downloaded the matrix revolutions. so point in case no matter if u are watching it on a hollywood screen or
a computer screen-if u like what u watched -its most likly going to influince you to purchase it on dvd.
(mundanity i love it.)
1. big fish-saw in theatre -bought it on dvd
2. finding nemo-down·load·ed-bought it on dvd
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Music it enriches are lives its one thing everyone agrees on -just not the form/ rap/hip-hop/ and boy bands and fake corporation meglaconglomerates
are now choosing the way we are to listen to music/ and how we are to view
who's hot and who's not. show's like american idol that cuts people's dreams and hopes down to size that does not fit the profile in fashion/and music style are outcasted. music should not be this way/ 2004 music terms are lets take the-sex out /no drugs/ hay what about just the rock and we can sell it as is.
nope it just doen't happen that way . some of the best groups like the sex-pistols were wacked out of their minds and made the best music. can u
imagine what john lennon would have been
like without drugs. the groups that no
one will hear such as revolver exept in small circles. here's my biggest point I own 3000 cd's used to have 2000 tapes
but traded them in for cd's. but still downloaded music to hear the new upcoming bands that no one wanted u to hear too controversial i guess. And help
people to experince music that they would not open up to. and vice versa
I have helped a 50 year old man to gain music back that his ex-threw out and thought he would never hear ever again.
Some of this music i downloaded I thought was good but not good enough to buy-as the letter to senator murry states just samplings never albums.
in a couple of cases was given full albums/ but one was the new mattalica and it just sucked sooooo bad that i gave it away. the other a new anthrax album-which i kept but plan to buy or get it at a pawn shop for the cover art .
and info in the jacket. so bottom line
music is music whatever the jonra. i have been buying cd's so long and also enjoy finding groups on the net like maroon 5 /overkill and d.r.i / groups not many listen too. last point -distrubution of these kind of music
can be bought but are hard to find it's either bidding on ebay for em-or special order. just try and find scars of the crucifix -from deicide not a liked group but hay someone listens to it.
thanks for the time/ viva la p2p controversy and the history that is made.