i'm sure you could screen them and find some decent ones in there… ones that won't cost millions.

Maybe they should try a few good ways to not lose so much money. Pay "actors" 10 million instead of 25. Even 10 million is way too much for little acting in some crappy movies… Make less movies, most of the shit they produce isn't even watchable. And last but not least, MAKE BETTER MOVIES.

Many commentators would disagree with that view entirely. Put extremely simply, in the early 1990s Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were forced, via legislation no less, to provide loans to low income borrowers, so called sub-prime loans. These loans carried a high risk of the borrowers defaulting. Freddie and Fannie's boards both disagreed with the legislation due to the risk of default. These loans were then sold to other entities and spread throughout the world economy, people defaulted in large numbers and credit was thus harder to come by. The root cause of this current crisis is at the US governments feet.

The movements of markets is largely due to people's confidence and perception about what the future holds rather than inherent attributes of the companies within it.

Oh yes they can. I dont live in the USA but it seems to me that when people are happy some of them choose not to vote and vice-versa". Basically at the moment it seems to me the vast majority of voters are not interested in copyright issues and hence wont vote on it.

"Now, I know that some people here think that there is a massive conspiracy between lobbyists and the government, and that somehow the lobbyists have so much power, that they can dictate the policies of government. That is completely untrue."

Once again your too black and white in your thinking. Business interests would not spend large amounts of money on lobbyists if they recieved nothing in return at least some of the time. It's hardly a conspiracy, it's a well-known and established procedure.

"To impose copyright on non-commercial usages is to claim ownership of ideas and thoughts for private usages, and to enforce it is thus tantamount to thought police"

No it does not. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete. A thought is not substantive in any fashion.

"Rather, it is their own fault for bad business practices (such as failing to create good movies)."

Creating a bad movie is not a "bad business practice". If there was a way to make every movie good don't you think that movie studios would be onto it? It is impossible to ensure that every work is "good" and hence and point not worth making in your arguement against copyright. And who decides what is "good" in any case? One way is popular opinion, which means it makes a lot of money which is in opposition to your idea that "money makes art bad".

"The idea that they should just be given money because they are a business is just ridiculous."

That isn't what's happening here.

If America is not a culture why the hell are you always rambling about culture being downtrodden by money and this can be fixed by taking money out of the equation then?

If we are to have a better industry some times you need a forest fire to allow the sun to penetrate the soil and there you get re-birth.

Ford where in trouble when we had a booming economy, if they prop up a failing industry the welfare effects will be devestating. New tech green cars are the way forward, as is a new and improved music and movie industry, based on realism.

The problem is the allure the labels have on the artists, the artists are not immune to Aston Martins, Country Houses, Don P, Caviar, Designer Clothes……….generally keeping up with the jonses. I know they have a image to portray but where are the Shawshank Redemptions, Godfathers, real films.

Know we have gone from PoP to talent contests (Simon Cowell), from Shawshank to comic book heros. The industry speaks for itself………..Boring!

This is why obama got in right joe biden and the mpaa tie in?
And now we see the police state interent formed, YES the uSSa is now almost complete.
The nazi style that inbreds hollywood entertainment and htought control with the bushite military and corporate control.
YES we must take all the money now before the people see that ACTA is all about us getting as much as we can before they take back there lives and our alien brothers come and take over earth.

"Business interests would not spend large amounts of money on lobbyists if they recieved nothing in return at least some of the time."
But they are not all-powerful, if the popular will opposes them. It is a conspiracy theory to say that they are omnipotent.

"Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete."
The idea that copyright applies to anything "substantive and discrete" is laughable. Now, you industry scum, pay attention to this fact: copyright applies to something ABSTRACT and NOT CONCRETE and applies to MERE IDEAS. Thus, they are ideas and thoughts, and to police them is thought police. They want a MAFIAA Gestapo to do just that.

"Creating a bad movie is not a 'bad business practice'."
However, not caring about the movie is a bad business practice. The fact is that they were interested in making money rather than the worth of the movie itself. That is a bad business practice.

"And who decides what is 'good' in any case?"
Although it is subjective, something that is bad is simply just bad.

"One way is popular opinion, which means it makes a lot of money which is in opposition to your idea that 'money makes art bad'. "
Now, it is quite clear that you are a hired industry advocate. The fact is that even if it were popular opinion (which, in fact, is sometimes unreliable), it still entails that money makes art bad, since that is the popular opinion.

Thanks for inspiring many more people that read here to share & not pay you & your employers for a copywrong law imposed on media. Soon the artists & consumers will be free of you capitalist pigs.

You should really go get a real job & also not comment on blogs were your narrow minded views are laughable =0)

influence and tax revenue hahahahahahahahahaha

<span style="font-weight:bold;">Music industry drops effort to sue song swappers</span>
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
The Associated Press

The group representing the U.S. recording industry said Friday it had abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs protected by copyright.

The Recording Industry Association of America said it instead would work with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignored repeated warnings.

The move ends a program that saw the association sue about 35,000 people since 2003 for swapping songs online. Because of high legal costs for defenders, virtually all of those hit with lawsuits settled, on average, for around $3,500. The association’s legal costs, in the meantime, exceeded the settlement money it brought in.

The association said Friday it stopped sending out new lawsuits and warnings in August and then agreed with several leading U.S. Internet service providers, without naming which ones, to notify alleged illegal file-sharers and cut off service if they failed to stop. Full story here.

http://bloggingredneck.blogspot.com/

Let us not forget, like the car industries, the MPAA/RIAA and their members have been talking for a few years now, about the billions they're losing. In recent statements they have also talked about how they employ (directly or indirectly) a large percentage of people, how its a major trade export, and that it is a flagship industry for the nation. With all this, can you not see how they might consider getting what is a 'cheap loan' by leaning on these 'credentials' and pointing to the other industries that have been 'saved' through millions in tax dollars.

Sometimes I like to report the news, which you clearly like, but on occasion I, and others at TorrentFreak, also like to try and encourage thought. This was an attempt at the latter.

It is as clear as day that copyright does not need to be imposed on non-commercial uses. They could get by fine, through commercial uses: they would get much more profit if, instead of relying on non-commercial uses, they use commercial usages (like theatres, and other things), as long as they get a percentage of the profits. To impose copyright on non-commercial usages is to claim ownership of ideas and thoughts for private usages, and to enforce it is thus tantamount to thought police. Well, it is no surprise that they have been trying to turn the internet into a police state through three-strikes, harsher penalties, a copyright tsar, and so on. Copyright law has gone even more insane, even though it was already crazy in the first place. Some parts of copyright are still necessary, like preventing plagiarism (a kind of fraud), and reserving profits from commercial usages of the idea/thought for the copyright holder of the idea/thought; the only part that is necessary is to require all profit-makers who use the idea/thought for a profit to pay a percentage of their profits to the copyright holder (but to allow anyone to make a profit, so long as they pay the royalty), and perhaps plagiarism can be handled by a separate law. However, the rest is just taking away the freedom of speech and the freedom of thought.

The fact is that there is no inherent right to make money. When a business loses money, it is not the fault of other people for failing to pay them and buy their products. Rather, it is their own fault for bad business practices (such as failing to create good movies). The idea that they should just be given money because they are a business is just ridiculous.

By the way, your praise of the "incredible culture" (not a culture really) and the idea that influence/tax revenue and industry cannot and should not ever be brought down sounds awfully like something the tobacco industry would say. The fact that you are an industry advocate, most likely hired, is clear already, since many of the things you said, including the idea that the entertainment industry is "incredible" are only things that industry advocates would say. Nice inventing a retarded phrase like "freetard" and disguising the fact that you are the same person as "freetard." Now that you have made it obvious that you are a MAFIAA-hired advocate, you can go and get another job.

They don't deserve one penny. Theyve been ripping off the public for years with the same old crap. CGI and (insert "celebrity" here) doesn't make a good film. Try watching some indy cinema and you'll be surprised at just how good some of it really is.

You people are so busy taking stuff for free you can't even think out past the next illegal download.

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