There are now several hundred “watch on line for free” video sites. These online sites make the point about file-sharing almost moot except for countries like Australia that have an artificial monopoly stranglehold on the internet bandwidth and monthly Caps.

 

So Koltai, people in Australia are using P2P because they cant afford the cost of streaming legal video?

 

Yep. When every Gigabyte on your iPhone can cost you $15,000 then you certainly can’t afford to watch streaming legal videos.

 

Well how else do we get our content?

 

Good question, Australia, New Zealand, South America, India, China, South Africa and everywhere else that 50 MB per second Internet access with no Caps is not available.

---

Chris blogged the other day about the Telcos pitching content companies for their content.

 

It’s like going to the races and taking a bet an each way on the top four favourites.

The odds are that in your favour out of a field of ten horses that at least one of your four will come in first with a strong likelihood of a place for at least another.

 

Unfortunately the bookmakers know this also and have adjusted the odds that if you bet on the four top favourite horses, your win and place is unlikely to return you much more than the original bet.

 

The only ones that win are the bookies.

 

In the content business, the only ones that win are the deal makers (ummm that would be the lawyers). They get fees from the Telcos obtaining the content and from the Hollywood Studios “selling” the content.

 

Unfortunately, people that want content these days, don’t actually buy outdated media types anymore.

 

Blog reader user comment:

Buying CD’s is becoming strange, they’re like floppies now. Where do I insert them? In my netbook? In my touchscreen phone? My next laptop won’t have CD-ROM either. It’s an obsolete format of digital storage. But if you want to support the artist you like you have to buy this garbage. You know what, media distributing companies? Shove it.

 

The Media Companies know this and are looking to find answers.

 

Universities are doing their bit to help and professor Jonathan Taplin  from USC Annenberg put together a panel with "leading media architects" Peter Chernin and Gordon Crawford about the long view of the future of Media distribution.

 

In this video you are going to hear the history of Technology and how it disrupted the older technology.

 

You will understand that the industry consider their “D” (“d” for Destruction/Destiny?) day was August 6 1995. the day that Jerry Garcia died and Netscape launched their IPO.

 

You will understand that industry thought their business was safe and protected – as it was BI (Before Internet) – and how the media figured their business was like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

OK, so here’s the video… An interesting watch, even if it is a put-up job for our elected Governments.

 

 

So if you watched the video, you now know that it will take the industry about eight years to work out how to alter their distribution contracts and actually provide digital content as per the consumers wishes.

 

Advice to Hollywood:

 

Well, I’m here to tell you guys, that the consumers haven’t spent the last eight years waiting for you guys, and they’re certainly not going to spend the next eight waiting either.

 

By my calculations – based on the rate of growth of file sharing software, and the increasing rate of adoption – if you want to deliver a catalogue model digital delivery to the users before everyone gets the entire catalogue free….  Then you have less than three years.

After which everyone will have the catalogue and you will only have the new content.

 

And as we all know – deep catalogue in the hands of every internet user in the world means zero income for the content industry.

 

OK, well it means the opening weekend numbers because the rest will be file-shared.

 

So guys – stop talking about it – stop telling us how difficult it is. Get in a couple of slash and burn, entrepreneurs and for Pete’s sake – just “bite the bullet” and do it NOW.

 

Don’t make the mistake of waiting for the lawyers. Your business model will have vanished by the time they have finished billing you for whatever they can squeeze out of you.

 

In closing I would like just like to say…

 

The days when you could protect unbelievable business models have now largely gone and the power has moved to the consumer.

 

Oh yeah, that was in the video… so basically you already know.

 

Postscript:

Hey Koltai – The title said something about Media Companies buying Universities… you didn’t talk about that.

Oh yes I did. Just don’t really want to be sued by spelling it out. If you watched the video and understand whom the participants represent, the rest should come easy. However, don’t panic, we’ll be talking about these guys again in the future.

 

Governments have for sometime been attempting to legislate against content on the Net.

Here's an article I wrote in May, 1993 for a magazine called Chips 'N Bits.
It would appear that little has changed in the intervening 16 years.

COMPUTER PORNOGRAPHY
A little Peek at XXX

The Reverend Fred Nile is famous for his stance on anti-pornography, as are several million others in Australia. Unfortunately for the anti group there is also a fairly large percentage of the population that either like pornography or at least are not "anti".
Recent magazine and Newspaper "Sensationalist" articles have attacked the BBS community as comprising of "Paedophiles and Miscreants whose only purpose is to lead your children astray". Rubbish!! I have run a BBS for three years and have not yet managed to lead anyone astray. Yes I do have an Adults Only section on my BBS and control access to it through voice contact, State voting register or Drivers licence replica.
Do I have any deviates on my system that do nothing but use the "Adults Only" area? No, the majority of people enter, look around, download a few girlie or boy pictures (we have a section called "Hunks" for the ladies) and never bother returning to the area. But curiosity demands that they take a peek.
There are exceptions, for example, eighteen year old men seem to spend a lot of time in that section (As no doubt I would have at that age.)
Reverend Nile and other moral leaders of our communities claim that Bulletin Boards are instant access to "bad habits", violence and misleading infonnation.
With all due respect, I reply that BBSs are just another publishing method and the same "filth" can be found at any newsagency, library and sometimes on home coffee tables. (Many of us bought "The Joy of Sex" when it was fashionable to leave it lying around to show how "cool" we were.)
I do however regrettably admit that not all BBS's control access to their Adult areas with enough care and Chips 'N' Bits will continue to attempt to educate Sysops that self regulation is infinitely superior to Legislative action.