Buying The DVD: Unhelpful And Unethical
Written by J.J. King on February 21, 2008These last few years P2Pers have got used to TV entertainment ‘our way’: unfucked, de-loused, delivered efficiently in economical, good-looking codecs. Because we rarely turn it on, it’s been easy to forget just how cynical, unsatisfying and downright venal television, as a distribution medium, has become.
Whether it’s the stupor-inducing gambling channels dedicated to parting fools from their money, the late-night pseudo-porn selling premium-rate phone sex, or the corrupt ‘competition’ call-ins plaguing the UK’s prime-time (even that Holy of Holies, the BBC), there’s the unavoidable sense that TV is on the rocks. Anyone who’d have you believe filesharers are the only scourge afflicting an industry that would otherwise be healthy is smoking crack, in the business, or both.
This is why Tape It Off The Internet seemed like such a good idea until you actually started trying to use it. There are just not enough good shows being made to justify something as complicated and involved as TIOTI. Enter all your favorites and share them with strangers ‘just like you’ and discover… what? That there are only seven good shows in the world at any one time, you were already watching six of them, and they’re all in the Pirate Bay’s Top 100 anyway. When you strip away the hours of dross and advertising, the truth is that the world’s mighty entertainment infrastructure is only capable of producing half a dozen hours of passable content a week. Maybe it’s because they spend the rest of their time on lawsuits.
One of these rare hours is The Wire. If by some small chance you’re not mainlining it already, think yourself lucky. You have four back seasons to enjoy, of what is quite possibly the last great show television will produce before it’s entirely superseded by — well, by whatever is coming around the way.
I’m not sure anyone has ever attempted to make a show of this scope: The Wire’s by-all-accounts-not-very-nice creator David Simon (Homicide, The Corner) has said his theme over the series’ five years has been ‘the decline of the American empire’ — which means decay of its cities through poverty, of traditional jobs, of the education system, of the police force and of the media. For those getting restless at the back, the show’s also got the slickest, nastiest drug slingers you’ll see on screen and is so realistic that the Baltimore Police have apparently complained it reveals too much about how crimes are — or are not — solved; apparently real thugs love it as well.
Find it and download it — though probably David Simon doesn’t want you to and neither does HBO, which has been actively poisoning Torrents of its other shows. Tell everyone you know about it. Maybe those of them still rocking TVs will raise the show’s increasingly dismal viewing figures.
Or maybe that’s no longer the point. While I sympathise with the plight of the David Simons, David Milchs (Deadwood, John from Cincinnati) and Joss Whedons (Firefly) of this world, and would like to help them in future endeavors, I specifically do not sympathise with the plights of the craven, dim-witted, played-out producers that surround them on all sides. And by ‘playing fair’ and buying the DVD or the cable package, besides the fact that most of our money is not going to the creators and their families, aren’t we really saying we accept the meshwork of shit in order to get the two or three gems that occasionally sift through it? Aren’t we signalling the industry that there’s something we still find acceptable about their way of doing business?
Now I suppose this could seem a bit extreme to some. But again and again in blogs and comments about shows like The Wire you hear ‘I’d pay for this if…’ — if it wasn’t DRM’ed all to hell like HBO’s own online offering, if it was freely shareable, good to be watched whenever, wherever, on whatever, without constant interruption by adverts. The kicker is that we’re not only unable legally to liberate and re-distribute shows from the broken, corrupt mechanisms of television and DVD distribution: we also have no way of supporting creators like David Simon and crew outside of it.
This means that right now, people still stupid or unfortunate enough to sit in front of TVs watching months-old shows or paying massive cash-or-attention premiums for the new ones are heavily subsidising us P2Pers. This is genuinely immoral, because we’re really exploiting people less fortunate than ourselves. Instead, we should be helping them out of the wasteland, and thinking of new ways to get the creators we like creating outside the prison of mass distribution. It cannot be that we are able to figure out how to make GNU-Linux - a world-class operating system — together, but not to make a dozen decent shows a year.
The irony is that TV series really feel like they’re coming into their own, just as the media that spawned them is dying. From the ‘high art’ of Deadwood and John From Cincinnati to the epic modern-day myth of Lost to the (dare I call it) Beckettian dark comedy of Trailer Park Boys, the drawn out tales of our series (often consumed a ’season’ at a time: I know at least three people waiting for The Wire to finish before downloading it) are an undeniable core of our emerging P2P culture.
We are the most passionate viewers ever, talking and writing profusely about the media we love, analysing, promoting, hosting free screenings… And they need us as much as we need them — all of these shows, without exception, enjoy their primary life on the networks, through our blogs, comments, reviews, remixes and fan fiction. Lost in particular has learned that incorporating online feedback can make a great (if utterly Shaggy Dog) story.
Can we find a way to get the shows we want made without buying the goddamn DVD? I remember this guy talking really sensibly a couple years ago about how Joss Whedon could get to make another season of Firefly, and we got this project back up his musings. Why didn’t Whedon try it? Because someone else owned his ideas? Perhaps it could have worked otherwise, and maybe it could work for the future. If you’ve got ideas, throw them in the comments box below. And if you have time in between catching up on The Wire, read this by the venerable guru of Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly — I’m going to try to get him into the next installment of STEAL THIS FILM. See you around. I’ll be back in two weeks to pick up the pieces.
TorrentFreak welcomes Jamie King as our new bi-weekly columnist. Jamie is the Director of STEAL THIS FILM I & II and a member of the League of Noble Peers. He is currently working on a cinema release of STEAL THIS FILM and prototyping an experimental, post-P2P remuneration system for creators.
Previously: Norwegian Police Deal Massive Blow to MPAA Lawyer
Next: RIAA Expert Witness is “Borderline Incompetent” Says P2P Expert
99 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
The really need to bring back Firefly
How about an unbiased article once in a while. We get it bit torrent is good for distribution of media. We also get that it isn’t illegal in some countries.
Lets hope you make a difference in these actions, as this would take money out of the hands of single large organizations and into the hands of millions of people.
I can only see major problems arising from this as the “green” in people will come out even faster then it was going at this point and time.
Their will be protests in all the “upper class” due to the fluctuation this would cause.
Things will only get worse before they get better.
Through it all, we will remain standing firm and strong.
…
I hope?
The BBC stopped making quality programing 20 years ago. More than ever you get less for your license fee, which itself is downright criminal. That said, none of them are any good. If you pay for cable or satalite, its just 400 more channels of shit to choose from. Its no real surprise that people would rather download films or next months eposide of Weeds, because there is bugger all else for them to watch. Well at least for the non-sheeple who dont really care about wether they are breaking some pie in the sky international copyright law simply to keep themselves ammused in the hours between finishing work/school and going to sleep. As long as ‘entertainment’ is available sooner via bittorrent than via whatever low brow network provides your viewing, and without the fat chicks advertising diet drinks or ‘real womens’ beauty products, the ammount of people looking downloading will only increase. If I ever see one of those late night, what number comes next (1,2,_,4) quiz shows on bittorrent, I swear I’ll shoot myself.
The only reason I have cable is for ESPN and other cable sports stuff.
i know you won’t get the absolute newest shows.. but my library has pretty much every tv season dvd ever in it. checking it out for free is so much easier than waiting for it to download on bit torrent and then worrying about uploading to 1.0…
but i’m not one of those people that cancels all their social plans to watch lost by themselves in the dark.
We need to break our TV shows out of prison! Great article
I agree that TV sux these days as far as the mainstream popular shit that most of the serfs tend to enjoy. This is nothing new. If I had my way, watching the crap on network TV (American Idol, 24, CSI SUV, or ANY team sports) would be fucking LETHAL to watch.
Quality always goes down when the goal is to keep the largest amount of eyeballs. However, IMO, most of the shows mentioned in the article look like crap too. But then again, my tastes are probably uncommon as I only really watch documentaries and such (eg PBS/Discovery/BBC stuff.)
The nice thing about the P2P scene these days is the availability of complete all-season downloads of various classic TV shows that you may have not watched (or been alive) during the original runs. Stuff like Threes Company, Married w Children, Cheers, Happy Days, Munsters, L&S, Magnum PI, Fantasy Island, and so on is all good shit if you’ve never seen it, especially if you toke up or drop sum acid first.
The other day I DLed some of those Mark Evans series’s “A Plane is Born” “A MG is Born” “A Chopper is Born” etc etc and watched that shit from morning to night, ordered pizza, burned through many bong hits, and drank a bunch of shitty scotch. Man that was a good day.
Thank you Jamie.
You literate a point that i try to make,but when i try i end up calling ppl sheep and cunts and such.
As for the ‘Steal This Film’legacy, I would like to shake your hand.
Brokep,Anakata and yourself really make me proud to be a p2per.
HEROES OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL AGE.
I have to comment though… I enjoy reading commentaries on TorrentFreak, it gives you something to really think about… and with a columnist like Mr. King, you know you’ll be thinking about something significant too.
The thing is, I’m not sure it’s a great idea to make columns a regular thing on TorrentFreak. We filesharers certainly have a lot to rant about at any given time, and we could each probably write a column daily, with all the nonsense that goes on with this business… but it’s nothing new. With a column as a regular feature, we’ll essentially be reading what we already know and believe again and again. Columns have their purpose, but I think TorrentFreak should remain primarily news, and not opinion. We all have the same opinion here, so maybe instead of posting these opinions in communities where they’re already universally held, we ought to focus on spreading this rhetoric to other venues, perhaps opening the eyes of the “stupid or unfortunate” sheep.
That’s my two cents on the subject. At any rate, I am glad to see some big names in the P2P world getting involved with TorrentFreak.
People who say “sheep” unironically scare me more than the people they’re insulting.
Hmmm, you could have done better than the wire. Talk abt crap. And I did watch the first three years, just sick of all the violence, i guess.
I’m just sick of most tv. seen it all. the few good shows, they kill right away. firefly was good, life, in justice, etc. mainly just lost, am. gladiator, that stupid talent show, game shows, all tripe. sick and tired of the same rehashed shit over and over.
NewZealand and AU have some good stuff, not really new, but different because it ain’t us.
Again I say that it is the masses that DON’T know about p2p that keep us in business. If everyone was doing it, then the whole entertainment business would go belly up. It is interesting that in the above article this is referred to as exploitation, and I must concede the point; essentially it is. But artists like everybody else need to eat, and no truly great work came out of anybody who had to hold a day job at Walmart to keep a roof over their heads.
It seems to me that if the p2p ‘movement’ is essentially anarchistic: it wants to bring down an institution, but in so doing it will destroy itself. So that means that eventually we will reset everything to zero, no?
And another thing, while I love the idea of the p2p movement fighting THE MAN, in all honesty I think that the majority of p2pers are people who have found a way to save a significant buck in their entertainment expense, and that most of this saved money is being spent on booze, drugs, vacations, cars, and whatever else humanity can find to make the drudge of daily life a little more comfortable. there are too many people riding the nobility of yet another anti-system movement in order to save a buck, WHILE FAKING THE INTEGRITY displayed by people like Jamie King…
1 1/2 cents worth….
I’ve never heard of this US series ‘the wire’. But thanks to JJ I have now. And I will d/l the first series just to check it out. (I highly recommend the new Aussie drama series ‘Underbelly’ for the crime fans btw)
What I don’t understand, is why the producers and distrubuters of these programmes fail to utilise modern technology such as bittorrent, and include region specific or targeted advertisements in each download. Imagine being Finnish for instance, d/ling a free episode of ‘the sopranos’ which includes Finnish adverts, and was fan-subbed by a Finn. The producers and distrubutors would reap the proceeds from the advertising and have minimal outlay costs. Think of the profits ya mugs.
To the poster who reckons the BBC stopped transmitting quality programming 20 years ago, I unequivocally call ‘nutter’.
I could quote a huge list of exceptional BBCTV shows, both past and present, but will simply respond with two words: ‘Top Gear’ - HUGELY popular around the whole globe.
P.S. Great article, Jamie King. I look forward to more of your musings in the future.
@15: i’d have to agree that the bbc still can produce some quality shows, and top gear WAS one, but has in recent years died a slow and ugly death.
looking forward to reading more articles from you, mr king :)
One of the best articles here…ever
[quote comment="295221"]@15: i’d have to agree that the bbc still can produce some quality shows, and top gear WAS one, but has in recent years died a slow and ugly death.
looking forward to reading more articles from you, mr king :)[/quote]
You gotta be kidding me- the BBC are the worst of the lot. Disregarding their unimaginative line-up, every year they take millions of pounds of licence payers money and give it to Richard Hammond! Man, I hate that guy.
[quote comment="295215"]To the poster who reckons the BBC stopped transmitting quality programming 20 years ago, I unequivocally call ‘nutter’.
I could quote a huge list of exceptional BBCTV shows, both past and present, but will simply respond with two words: ‘Top Gear’ - HUGELY popular around the whole globe.[/quote]
Top Gear is the exception to the rule. Apart from the ‘odd’ natural history documentary and Top Gear, both of which combined account for an insignificant part of their total broadcast time, the BBC is dross plain and simple. If its not the complete and utter shite that is Eastenders who’s main viewing audience consists of mindless idiots, its repeats of programs like Eastenders watched be the same mindless idiots. The BBC does nothing to justify their government sanctioned extortion of public money, and being as their programming is no better than ITV or Sky1, they should at least get some commercials in. Half the time they’d be better viewing than than the program itself.
I see in TV Guide that it’s likely that Scrubs will broadcast 4 or 5 more episodes AND THE OTHER 4 OR 5 WILL GO STRAIGHT TO DVD. As a loyal Scrubs watcher, this royally ticks me off.
I live in Baltimore and I have to say The Wire is by far the best show on TV write now. I should also confirm what he said in the article the Wire is dead on its portrayal of Baltimore.
On to the issue of how we view TV. I would pay a flat fee of 8 bucks a season (or what ever a movie cost for a full season pass to a show. If movies can survive on that then why can’t tv but only if they were drm free full quality and free of advertisement. I would feel better if all of the money went to the cast producers writers etc from the show. If it was distributed over the internet then you could cut tv channels corporate crap etc out of the equation hopefully lowering production cost etc and opening the gates for more great shows like freaks and geeks (RIP. Just an idea this concept would need a lot more thought to work out the kinks etc)
peace.
I don’t think BBC is any worse or better than the rest of ‘em. What about channel four?
Top gear, monkey dust, skins all are thoughtfully poignant to the UK population
I have always preferred british television over anyother, and it remains that way today…
ITV though, well I just don’t know
The BBC give us…
BBC news 24, Horizon, QI, The World Service, Radio 4, Question time, Dr Who, Torchwood,Film 2008, BBC3, BBC4,MotD, etc, etc. Thousands of hours of original programming. All without advertising or commercial breaks.
Oh and free downloads via the BBC iplayer.
So my question is, if someone built the right vehicle, would it really get used? I know there are tons of us out there torrenting and watching with our LCDs hooked to our media centers. But on the grand scheme, we’re not nearly as big as the saber rattlers would have the world believe. How long would it take to convert the ’sheep’? And how the hell does everyone get paid by such a small community to keep whatever it is alive?
wasn’t there a similiar article a couple of months ago? “torrenting should be illegal yet i do it because there are no cheap legal alternatives”.. that’s kind of hypocritical. i’d gladly pay for the dvds if i think the show is any good yet i’d never pay for a fucking download.
Once upon a time in the USA there was a rerun season which ran in the Summer. Say 3 months max. Now shows typically have around 22 or so episodes to a year. That’s not even 6 months.
My favorite programs started in mid October and ran to the first few weeks of December. They started up again for several weeks in January and then disappeared again.
This has nothing to do with the writer’s strike since an entire season is filmed at once. This is just the greedy networks trying to string their ever declining customer base along week after week.
By the time the next block of new episodes start I am seriously thinking of not even wasting my time. The networks have pretty much lost me. I can just wait the year out and download everything at one time. No commercials, better resolution on my monitor, and I can decide when I want to run things. And if the shows simply disappear for good? So be it. I can always read a good book.
The rot that permeates this country is not only at the bottom with the mass of druggies, low lifes, genetic rejects, and the like. It is also at the top. Creativity has been lost to coercion as media companies show more interest in screwing people over with poor content and ever restrictive usage of their outdated technologies.
the author of this article also writes rap music
[quote comment="295162"]The BBC stopped making quality programing 20 years ago.[/quote]
Right. Planet Earth never happened.
Fuck off.
fuck off lol
How refreshing.
Some of your points are interesting but they are lost and disregarded in your claim that there is one golden standard for television. I personally don’t like shows like dancing with the stars, but apparently a lot of people do. They should be able to watch crap if they want to.
You seem to be forgetting that television is a passive medium, a lot f people what it to relax and stuff like The Wire doesn’t really fit that bill. Bad tv exists because the public want it. You want it, I want it and the rest of the world to. Does that mean that there should be great, interesting and awesome television as well. BUt for fucks sake don’t disregard one of the biggest fucking reasons why people watch tv.
Wow yeah another stupid article loaded with personal opinion that makes us all look bad.
“Stuff like Threes Company, Married w Children, Cheers, Happy Days, Munsters, L&S, Magnum PI, Fantasy Island, and so on is all good shit if you’ve never seen it, especially if you toke up or drop sum acid first.”
If you have to take acid to them, they probably aren’t that good.
i agree with this article 100% i dont watch tv much we just got bell satellite (more for my parents) and ive set up the pvr to record the shows i watch… they’re all cartoons i really only watch cartoons but the cartoons of this decade are horrible there are a few that are enjoyable but the cartoons from the 80s-99ish are way way better. i share my love of cartoons by distributing them in mp4 format so people with phones/ipods/psps/etc. can enjoy them. having things available for whomever whenever is great. i only get about 200 hits a month but every one of those people share my love of those classic cartoons. you cant say theres that level of connection with the tv networks.
In the U.S. most people drink water from the tap, which costs next to nothing. For discriminating tastes there is a huge bottled water market that is competitive and profitable, but that does not spell the end
nearly free tap water.
There is a place for broadcast crap. Particularly in the U.S. where broadcast TV is 100% free–no license fees–people who cannot afford premium material support all this low-grade material with the purchase of commodities, and it meets their needs. For many people, television is the crackling fireplace of the modern era, a place to park one’s butt after a hard workday and let one’s mind drift.
Quality programming will have to come at some sort of premium, whether through (in U.S.) public television subsidized by subscribers donations, cable/satellite, or internet. This is the market affected most by the p2p
revolution. Broadcast TV is crap BECAUSE it relies on so many eyeballs which support it through commodities purchase. The strength of the internet lies in the ability to appropriate premium programming in the most efficient way possible by allowing the premium-paying target audience to tune in rather than depending upon marketing research to determine everything from time slots to content.
There is a place for both broadcast media AND for internet-based/premium content to flourish.
What of bunch of nonsense. The reality is that no matter how easy the entertainment companies made it for us (no DRM, cross-compatibility, etc), as long as it isn’t free, most people will get it illegally from TPB etc. It’s because we’re thieves, and all this self-righteous rambling is just smoke and mirrors.
Apparently American TV is much better than UK TV, because (when all the writers aren’t on strike) I rather enjoy many of the shows on TV. Reality TV is shit, but a lot of the written shows are enjoyable.
Even if TV networks offered a DRM free HD download of their shows I wouldn’t download unless it was free. The fact is, I download because I don’t like scheduling my life around TV, and I will never pay money for the ability to watch at my convenience.
[quote comment="295468"]What of bunch of nonsense. The reality is that no matter how easy the entertainment companies made it for us (no DRM, cross-compatibility, etc), as long as it isn’t free, most people will get it illegally from TPB etc. It’s because we’re thieves, and all this self-righteous rambling is just smoke and mirrors.[/quote]
A few things
1)
You make nice words, give me numbers
2)
Read more around on TF and you will find out that people do share because they simply can
3)
People download because of the lack of legal alternatives in ways of donation. An good examaple are the Steal this Film projects.
4)
studies have proven that people who download movies are also the most interesting group for buying them too.
…
alas I am at an internet cafe on the wrong site of the world to get to my own bookmarks at home, but then I would give links to all obove.
happy sharing!
…
on topic:
will see how the collums will go, dont see the RSS here, but maybe its good to give a collum number or / and mark in the title or so, then we know its a collum.
Yeah, except John From Cincinatti sucked.
i agreed tv to many commericials crap advertisments late night i dont remember the last time i sat watching tv like i would back then. and u have to pay a bad price to get hbo when i could just go to p2p and get what i want movies shows etc
I’ll be back in two weeks to pick up the pieces.
http://experience8.com/
More self justifying opinionated crap. Take some time to look into the histories of the different media and why studio systems developed in the first place or where todays major labels came from and the problems faced by the smaller labels and studios. Lotsa luck getting a film distribution deal JJ, I suspect you are gonna need it.
[quote comment="295152"]The really need to bring back Firefly[/quote]
YESSS!!! yes they do.
I don’t even watch cable television anymore. It’s just such an inconvenience. All of the shows I like to watch either come on at a time that is not good for me, or simply don’t air anymore. For example Sliders, LEXX, Quantum Leap, etc. So I just download all of my favorite shows on BitTorrent. In some cases it’s the ONLY place I can get the shows/movies I want to watch. Also It’s really nice to know that my computer is automatically going to download the newest episodes of my favorite tv shows via rss feeds when they’re available, and then i can watch them anytime i want without commercials, and with better quality than cable tv in most cases. And I really would be willing to pay a reasonable monthly fee if it meant i could have the freedom to do this legally. but the media industry is too damn stupid to adapt to what their customers want. if they don’t wake up and do something, i’m convinced that the entertainment industry is going to become community based like the development of GNU-Linux. Just goto YouTube and look at how many people have already started making their own shows and distributing them freely
Just make it so people can download DRM-free TV shows at 50 cents per hour show. The studios would make money hand over fist.
A cheap show that’s downloadable forever means more people will watch it than when it’s just over broadcast or buyable for higher prices. That way a show with even a moderate following will see big download purchase numbers like 500,000 over several months or years. If 500,000 people pay 50 cents each, that means you rake in $250,000 of income from each and every single episode of a series that just has a moderate viewership. For a bigger show that gets 2 million views per broadcast show, the number of downloads over the course of a few months or years will be 3 million or more. If 3 million people pay 50 cents per episode, then you get 1.5 million dollars of income per episode. And for a huge show like seinfeld which had 80 million viewers for the finale episode, they would have even much higher number of download purchases. So if 150 million people bought that single episode over the course of a few months or years, that means the studio would 75 million dollars just off of that one episode alone!
And I believe these are conservative numbers.
Make it 50 cents per hour show, and make it a super easy and drm-free, and your bank account will swell to bursting.
Law #1 of capitalism: You get what you pay for. For entertainment, you can pay in cash or attention.
You sound like a guy who would complain about having to buy your date dinner in order to get a good night blowjob.
If you don’t want to pay for it or sit through a commercial then you don’t have to. You don’t have to watch a gambling channel if you don’t want to, no one is making you. Nothing is free unless you steal it. Stealing it benefits the thief and no one else. I can understand the motives of STEAL THIS FILM, unfortunately a show like FIREFLY would never have been made if it weren’t for the backing of the very industry you criticize. What is lacking is integrity and the proper distribution of wealth within the system. P2P pirating is not the answer, but a wake up call. Someone better be listening.
I’m sorry Sea King @ post 13. You condemn ALL team sports. Then you list some truly awful TV shows. (The only truly decent one on the list being “Cheers”.) Then, to cap it off, say you have to be high or stoned to enjoy them. The only way to put it is that you, sir, are a moron. Though since you’re clearly a junkie, that is to be expected I guess.
English isn’t the only language on the planet… TV shows and movies are produced in countries other than the USA, UK, etc.
The only reason I still have cable is because I live with my mom and she won’t buy a computer nor cancel the cable. Shows I watch every episode of: Simpsons, Family Guy, 24, Lost, House MD. All available for download the same night they air. I’m paying $60 a month for four hours of TV per week, two hours of which aren’t even on right currently, and aren’t on half the year or more. Who’s crazy?
Or you could…do something more constructive. Honestly, anything you can think of - anything at all - is more constructive and a better use of your time than watching television. Get a hobby, play a game, hang out with your friends, read Digg obsessively, hell even watching a movie is time better spent than television.
Sad, but true.
If you want the guess what the future of entertainment looks like, peek around youtube.
Entertainment follows a power law, and youtube showcases how long exactly the long tail can be.
At the same time, there are gems on youtube. While the medium encourages short and amateurish creations, it wouldn’t be that much harder to progressively evolve the medium toward better produced creations.
I don’t think salvation is going to come from the TV, recording or movie worlds. They still have too much to lose in the transition. My money is on the public at large being given better tools of creation and distribution. If that can translate into commercial endeavors, familiar names will inevitably start to appear in the new arena.
I’m not addicted to the products of the modern entertainment industry. So to me, all you people who whinge about the ‘evil empire’, old guard of media sound a lot like people who whinge about how expensive it is to smoke cigerettes due to the taxes the government puts on it.
So, if you can’t afford to smoke, don’t smoke and if you can’t afford to consume media, don’t consume it. But for heavens sake, don’t go around pretending to be some kind of couch potato vanguard, ‘liberating’ products robin hood style for the peasants consumption.
How about a solution where a show has one of those donation thermometers, so the initial pilot gets made, and the next one won’t get made until it reaches a certain level in the donation thermometer. I’m sure JFC addicts like myself would have banned together and paid for the next installment. The creators would have to subsidize the first pilot, but that’s their risk, but if they feel they got a hit, they can go for it, the donation system could hold funds in escrow and if the critical mass is not reached in a certain time period then the donations could be refunded. There could even be a system where if a series did well in advertisng, dvd, or product placement revenue, the donator/investors would get a slice of the pie. Wow I like this idea, I’m gonna go launch my new website.
Brilliant - sums up so well the thoughts that have been brewing up inside of me.
I haven’t paid for tv in over a year.
I have a 72″tv for my monitor to watch dvd-r and xvid rips.
I refuse to pay for protected media.
That’s nice and all, but nothing gets made without producers. They need to get paid too. Don’t leave them out of your grand scheme here. We wouldn’t see tv shows with high production quality like lost without guys with lots of money paying for these things.
That’s just how it is.
This is one of the most beautifully written articles I have seen up to date on the ‘net.
Keep on.
Ciao from Italy.
1. downloaded content is usually from much lower quality then tv.
2. don’t watch prime time tv. it’s for desperate people.
3. get HDTV. you will enjoy it.
4. continue watching unavailable stuff on your computer, that’s what it’s for.
[quote comment="295678"]That’s nice and all, but nothing gets made without producers. They need to get paid too. Don’t leave them out of your grand scheme here. We wouldn’t see tv shows with high production quality like lost without guys with lots of money paying for these things.
That’s just how it is.[/quote]
Yeah, yeah. The problem is exactly well produced recycled shit.
and btw, true artists dont sell themselves, entertainers do. and prostitutes.
I said the same of music not too long ago. That if any RIAA label is connected to the music at all, don’t buy it new. Buy used or download it.
Same with gibson guitars and it’s subsidiaries.
The people you like aren’t getting the benefits of the money so give it direct. I’m hoping enough people can figure out how ready big media is to just collapse in on itself.
An interesting article because I was having similar thoughts.
I recently downloaded I am legend, and I really enjoyed it. I thought, hmm, I should buy the dvd in order to support the makers of the film, but then I remembered that the money would go elsewhere, and only a very small amount would go where I wanted it to go.
So I said to myself, fuck it.
I am sorry “I am legend” guys, I wish there was a way to support you in a different way.
The creators and the others that take part in creating the media need to make a living somehow. We don’t want to pay for it - call it the want for convenience or blame the shabby state of TV in general, but at the core of it we just don’t want to pay.
Case in point - the last Radiohead Album. I believe only three people paid for it. The rest deleted the files after the first listen, but that is beside the point.
Extremely Naive! I am a proponent of the try before you buy idea, concerning torrents, but the writers outlook is overly simplistic. The success of a film or TV show and the financial rewards gained by the producers, distributors etc… make it more likely these writers, carpenters, camera technicians, make-up, caterers etc… will get hired again!
Whoever is putting out the money is taking the biggest risk and deserve the greatest financial rewards. That is how market capitalism functions. Take a look at the German film industry. Heavily subsidized and floundering in incompetence. Even the German press heap scorn on the committees who dole out the funds. Hollywoods market driven system has put it at the top for quality film production.
I have to disagree with the thrashing the BBC is getting. I think they are putting out some good stuff. There documentaries are a refreshing change to Hollywood popcorn films. But then again I’m not in England and I’m getting BBC via Sat, so I’m not paying for it. Thanks to those who do :).
Cheers. Viva la Revolution
[quote comment="295547"][quote comment="295152"]The really need to bring back Firefly[/quote]
YESSS!!! yes they do.[/quote]
yesss
agree with WTF
[quote comment="295767"]
I have to disagree with the thrashing the BBC is getting. I think they are putting out some good stuff. There documentaries are a refreshing change to Hollywood popcorn films.
But then again I’m not in England and I’m getting BBC via Sat, so I’m not paying for it. Thanks to those who do :).[/quote]
And there lies the problem. Most of the people in the world who priase the BBC for their so called quality programming are not forced by law to pay for the damn thing. Every year we pay more and get less, all so they can sell the programming we pay for to every other country on the planet who then get to watch it for fuck all. The commercial wing of the BBC makes more than enough money to support their cheap ass programming, the british public should not be forced to foot the bill so the shareholders in the commercial part of the BBC can get fat bonuses by selling the programming we pay to get made. Its about time they stopped leeching off of the british public. As for the BBCi player, its a drm infected pile of shit, and whever mentioned BBC3 BBC4 ecterea, stfu, they are a comlete waste of air time. I’d rather have my eyelids forced open ala Clockwork Orange, and be forced to watch QVC 24/7, you moron.
We need a system where the following can happen:
1) Show makers can create a pilot for a show, and upload it to a site.
2) Fans can review pilots to find shows they would like to see. Once they find one, they pay $X (minimum amount decided by the show’s creator, but people could always volunteer more) to get a “subscription” to the show.
3. Once enough people have paid enough money to meet the show’s production costs (again, determined by the creator ahead of time), the show would go in to production. The intermediary site (the one hosting all these pilots) would handle the contract between the fans (who paid) and the show, to ensure that no one gets cheated (they’d make the payments to the show, and deliver the show to the fans).
4. Once a season is done, the process would repeat, only this time without a pilot.
5. Ideally any finished (and paid for) shows would go in to the public domain.
Is there really a single ‘creator’ in film? Sure, Joss Whedon developed the idea for Firefly, but just think about how many people needed to be involved to produce the finished product. Who is the ‘creator’ here? I would suggest that everyone involved in the filming and production plays that role. As such, are they not all entitled to compensation? And therein lies the problem. The complexities of compensating so many people require some sort of organization. You have to deal with multiple unions, multi national financial considerations, insurance, and a myriad of other issues. The time and effort required for these productions is enormously expensive. I have read about how inflated movie budgets are, but they are not 90% inflated. If you are happy with low-budget movies, then that’s a different story. But the Hollywood blockbuster requires an entire infrastructure to create it. And therein lies the problem. You don’t like all the adds? You don’t want to have adds on the DVD? You don’t want to share the thing with people? So where does the money come from to pay the bill for the film, and the salaries of all the people involved? Suggesting that file sharing is a ‘protest’ against copywrite and DRM is crap. Its about watching a movie and not paying for it. And I personally don’t care what people do, but its dishonest to suggest that it has some ethical motivation.
If you truly want a different system, stop WATCHING Hollywood movies. Find a film that is freely distributed, watch that, and promote it. All you yahoos swapping Hollywood movies and yammering on about how ‘ethical’ it is are full of shit. Sharing those movies is supporting the system just as much as buying them. If you truly care about digital freedom, go BUY an independent film and let people know that they should go BUY it too so that the ‘creator’ can pay the rent and make another film.
Here’s a question: how many torrent users have actually donated money to the guy who created BitTorrent? I did, and I hardly ever use the thing. If every Bit Torrent user donated $5, the guy would be RICH. And guess what? He’s not. Unfortunately, this scenario is often used to point out that people do not always put their money where their mouth is. So go give that guy a donation, and then come back to talk about the ethics of file sharing and how we need change.
Well, I did write this piece almost two years ago and I would still like to try it out as an idea.
and by “this piece” I meant
http://www.dbzer0.com/blog/2006/06/22/public-venture-public-content
(the link was eaten)
Nick is a troll.
Attack!
This article should have been entitled “Ode to The Wire”. And worse, it misleads the reader by purporting to be about technology that it never fully discusses or explains.
JJ, please take a course in journalism and stop emulating the worst sort of editorializing writers the New York Times has to offer.
we need some dvds…. or where would we get the material for DVDRips?
I gave up on television when X-Files went off the air. I stick to movies now.
why did you remind me of firefly?! I’m sad all over again!
“Blargh blargh TV is shit
WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE
Blargh blargh DVDs are a ripoff.”
Gee, that was an insightful article! Way to go, torrentfreak!
I think torrentfreak needs to un-welcome Jamie King until he gets his head out of his arse and writes some open-minded articles that make a bit of sense.
Most TV and DVD’s are absolutely worthless. I watched “A Beautiful mind” yesterday. Which was “inspired by the events” of John Nash’s life. According to wikipedia there are quite a few glaring historical inaccuracies. Now if they are going to misrepresent the the historical events in John Nash’s life so much then what right have the got to use this man’s name in the movie?
Hollywood should stop trying to rewrite history and manipulate peoples conception of reality.
horrible written article . too much emotional than fact .
I agree,but if you think that people in the UK or US have crap on their tv think agian.Overhere in Holland we are “proud” to have the worst tv system in the world.
There is a public system which brings you nothing but “talking heads” and religion.It’s a total waste of time, money and effort.Watching paint dry is more entertaining. There are also the commercial channels and they are the real stinkers.They really don’t give a shit what they’re putting on,reallity-tv like idols,dancing stars,cooking with stars,walking the dog with stars,and so on,movies
like beverely-hills cop prt. 1(was on more then 15 times, and cops chasing crooks.
If you want so see if tv makes people dumb, take a look at my country.
In total in an average week with ten channels there is no more then one hour a week watchable televion(the simpsons).
If anyone wanders why I got more than 400 TB (downstream) traffic a year just read the above.
cheers,
-the Queef-
I don’t know how it works in the UK, but “The Wire” specifically is distributed by HBO, which is a channel you pay to see. Every episode of The Wire is aired free of adverts, which is why I always felt HBO was worth the extra ten bucks. Same goes for Weeds and Californication (Showtime, the Pepsi of Premium TV). Besides DVD sales (and itunes, i guess), this is the ONLY way those creators make any money. It’s why HBO and Showtime can only support a couple of good shows at a time. I agree that the networks are circling the bowl worse than ever, but you’re not doing any favors to the guys who work on these shows by downloading them. Of course it’s all relative.
welcome J.J. King, great article
get your feet under the desk
now tackle some of the real issues
I don’t know if my words will get the rings about this article, it was a good read and I enjoyed it, for me in Kuwait it was harded to get showes like Deadwood and Heroes, most of us learned about a lot of shows by downloading via P2P or reading classic articles like these around the internet or some blogs of fans who devoted a full website for a show from here to there, we’ve seen how a show like Jericho got saved because some fans couldn’t stop supporting it and sent a big amount of Peanuts to ABC to keep it up and coming.
in anyhow talking too much doesn’t help specialy with my poor english, still I’d love to know about hit shows in the air nowadays so I could follow up about it all, because its never will be knowen if not for those who these big suits tring to hunt and stop! its P2P that made most shows so famous specialy Prison Break which is here is followed by a lot even they don’t watch that much of tv.
thanks and good luck in next articles..
I strongly object to the bozo who referred to ‘Top Gear’ as quality output from the BBC.
For those who don’t watch programme, it is literally a bunch of public schoolboy types being paid a million pounds ($2m) a year of public money a year to drive new cars around. Thats it!
They (the BBC) then have the balls to sell this programme on DVD and people buy it!
When I move out of my current apartment I will leave the tv here and will never even think about buying a new one! I’ve spent the last year downloading every decent show ever made and have enough to last me a lifetime - thanks Bit Torrent.
PEACE!
damn, I was going to comment on your perceptive and accurate description of p2p vs tv/dvd. Then I realised that you were involved with ‘Steal this film N’ : were N is a real number. Steal this film 2 is superb.
You are so right, ads on tv are insidious, pernicious and weapons grade. Even the BBC goes ott with their in house promo-rubbish. p2p just makes for a better quality of life.
I love the wire, like lost, and think ‘the shield’ is great. All other TV i left behind since I lost interest in voyager and got affected by the incessant attempts at manipulating my wants and opinions. Fucking marketing/branding/pr publicity assholes spoilt it for me and I recon are fubar the world with their twisted aims and means.
p2p’s renumeration problem will be partly solved when ppl realize the potential of the internet. Once they see the possibilities of unlimited and customized access I’m sure they will be happy to pay for it in a new way too. Like most of the developed world does for health care, transport infrastructure, education and defense; to name but a few. The problem then becomes (re)distirbution, but that is what democracies are for no ?
[quote comment="296112"]“Blargh blargh TV is shit
WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE WATCH THE WIRE
Blargh blargh DVDs are a ripoff.”
Gee, that was an insightful article! Way to go, torrentfreak![/quote]
[quote comment="296113"]I think torrentfreak needs to un-welcome Jamie King until he gets his head out of his arse and writes some open-minded articles that make a bit of sense.[/quote]
If you don’t like the article, then what are you doing here? Go watch your cable and don’t forget to buy some DVDs after that.
The way I see it, there are some people who enjoy being fucked in the ass by media industry so much that they’re paying for it on a regular basis. And you’re one of them.
Who wrote this? Jamie King? While I agree with the tone and message, it was written horribly. Keep directing ‘documentaries,’ don’t write columns, sir. The grammar, demeanor, and language of this column is sure to poison Torrent Freak’s reputation as a decent source of news.
More articles will ruin the esteem of this site and make it harder to be taken seriously by the bureaucrats you so hope to convince.
[quote comment="297657"]The grammar, demeanor, and language of this column [/quote]
Who cares about grammar in the news? As for the language - it’s actually good that for once here is an author who doesn’t use slang in every other line. Remember that TF is an international resource and not people are native English speakers. (For example I’m not.)
[quote comment="297657"]make it harder to be taken seriously by the bureaucrats you so hope to convince[/quote]
Convince? Newsflash for you: we’re in war with them.
Besides are really dumb enough to seriously think that *any* news column could convince bureaucrats of anything? This makes me laugh. Stop watching TV, pal, it has turned your brain into a mess.
In this world it takes either cash or guns to be convincing. And our opponents got all the money, which kinda narrows it down.
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Perfectsea.com will change the way people looking for the job.
I would love to pay the creators of the stuff I download. Just don’t want to end up paying for packaging, shipping, advertising, and all that whatnot.
[quote comment="295468"]What of bunch of nonsense. The reality is that no matter how easy the entertainment companies made it for us (no DRM, cross-compatibility, etc), as long as it isn’t free, most people will get it illegally from TPB etc. It’s because we’re thieves, and all this self-righteous rambling is just smoke and mirrors.[/quote]
You sound like you have a sudden case of self-guilt. Read “RIAA confederate/crony/thug/obsessive”
If you’re really that brainwashed by propaganda you can believe it, but not the rest of us.
I wouldn’t buy them no matter how cheap they were, because YOU’RE all thieves and i don’t support criminal orgs. I’d rather pay the pirates who are non-profit.
Which reminds me, because of your comment I’m off to download another 50 or 60 album discography. The DVD should make a nice gift for somebody, and I’ll have to sell a few copies as well to recoup losses and make a buck. When you start selling things like that at a decent price I may consider it, but like that would ever happen,hahaaa
If the moguls put as much effort into finding the big paying advertisering partners and working with BT instead of against it, they could harness more profit from the audience that never has and prob never will purchase HBO.
Nobody wants the low res clip crap that media companies seem to think is internet distribution. When it is clearly an attempt to keep people watching TV from a TV provider.
Embrace BT or be left behind and forgot!!!
this is a really good article.
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