Media in the New Millennium

posted by Doyle

The outstanding CBS-TV news program 60 Minutes did a piece last night called “The Movie Pirates” which outlined the global problem of motion picture piracy. Overall, an interesting piece. Sadly, in the end — thanks in large measure to what I think is a lack of technology background and understanding on the part of correspondent Lesley Stahl — it turned into a piece that gave corporate media a chance to get a plug in for network regulation without ever uttering “net neutrality” or anything close.

Let me be very clear: I do not condone the piracy of intellectual property and believe those who engage in the activity for profit should be punished. However, I also do not condone ridiculous schemes to limit my ability to use and enjoy the content I’ve paid for or the slippery slope of network management that can limit our ability to get the data we want from the Internet connections we pay for. An example for each:

First, let’s think about digital rights management (DRM) and how it limits our ability to use and enjoy what we paid for. I use this example frequently: I remember buying an album in high school (won’t tell you which one… too much potential abuse!) and really liking one of the songs. So I drove to my friend Mark’s house, and we listened to it. Our friend Greg called, and we went to his house, where we listened to the song. We all liked it. We then took the album to the party and played it there, and it was a hit. Sounds reasonable, right? But imagine if when we got to the party, instead of playing the song, a voice came from the speakers that said “I’m sorry, but your license for this music only allows you to play it on three different stereos. You may not play this content here.” Sadly, it’s not much different than many DRM schemes we all accept and deal with today. Instead, because I could play that album for my friends — and they liked it — the sampling that took place generated the sale of 10 or more additional copies of the album.

Second, let’s look at the potential for “packet sniffing” and how it can be used badly and against us. I will defend any ISP’s right to manage its network — that makes it better for all customers. However, if ISPs were able to legally limit certain bits while letting others go through unfettered, that would be problematic. For example, let’s say my ISP also offers telephone service, but I chose to use Skype or Vonage instead. What if, through deep packet inspection, my ISP was able to degrade my service when I’m on a voice call through a competitor, making the service so bad I caved in and signed up for their service. That’s not fair, and it’s not what I pay for. Think this is crazy? Comcast was already found to be doing similar activity when they were caught placing false-reset packets in BitTorrent streams by several users, a violation of its own Terms of Service. The FCC got involved, but not because of the denial of content, but because it was a violation of Comcast’s Terms of Service with it’s users.

Which brings us back to 60 Minutes this evening. The story did a great job of telling the story of piracy from many points of view. Director Steven Soderbergh told how piracy is limiting the number of projects which get made by studios. While this doesn’t hurt the mega-stars, it does hurt the camera operators, the grips, the caterers and the thousands of others who only work if movies are being made. In the end, it hurts us as consumers as well, by limiting our choices. I agree.

But when Ms. Stahl began to describe what she called “a whiz-bang technology called ‘BitTorrent’” and how it made it easier to pirate movies, I had the feeling we were headed south. The story concluded by basically indicting the Internet for Hollywood’s $6 billion per year piracy problem. My issues:

• Ms. Stahl’s level of technical expertise and her probable understanding of her audience caused her to position BitTorrent transfers as some new and bad thing. It was inferred that the only real use was to pirate movies. From this report, I could see many people supporting legislation they don’t fully understand.
• I’m curious how the $6 billion figure was arrived at? If the assumption is that every pirated copy takes a full-priced legal copy out of the studios’ hands, that’s a seriously flawed number. If users wanted to spend $29.95 on a movie, they certainly wouldn’t purchase one shot on a camcorder in a theater… they’d buy the real thing. These folks are looking to save a few bucks.
• One industry source said “I wish Al Gore had never invented the Internet.” Again, given the audience, this can open the door to a favorable response to legislation many won’t fully grasp.

So what can we logically assume Mr. and Mrs. Middle America took away from this report? Maybe, “We need to regulate this Internet thing to stop these bad people from stealing money.” Sadly, all that does is escalate the already irritating game of cat and mouse between pirates and DRM schemes. I’d like to offer another solution: Let’s stop protecting business models and let the free market economy take over.

What if we let people who wanted to watch a movie the day it comes out on their home theater system do so… but we charged them $50. Right now, I have to go to the theater to watch a movie if I want to see it when it first comes out whether I like that experience or not. Maybe I don’t wait for DVD just to save money, but maybe I’d rather watch the movie in my home on my equipment with my friends. In the end, people are not passionate about theaters, they’re passionate about the movies they can see there. Let’s let Hollywood (and every other industry, for that matter) deliver their content in the way that they believe can make them the most money. It’s the same reason many restaurants offer dine-in, carry-out and delivery — because they recognize that not everyone wants the same experience. Entertainment content providers need to understand this paradigm to succeed in the evolving marketplace.

Sorry, 60 Minutes and Lesley Stahl, but I think you got taken in on this one — perhaps by the very kinds of powers you’ve done such a great job bringing down over the years.

Share on Facebook