http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121101/20074920913/amazon-freaks-out-about-sock-puppet-reviews-deletes-bunch-real-reviews.shtml#c108 Fri, 2 Nov 2012 11:34:14 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121101/20074920913/amazon-freaks-out-about-sock-puppet-reviews-deletes-bunch-real-reviews.shtml#c108 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120206/03573117666/can-we-count-ways-which-lowes-license-agreement-linking-to-its-site-is-insane.shtml#c492 Tue, 7 Feb 2012 15:54:52 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120206/03573117666/can-we-count-ways-which-lowes-license-agreement-linking-to-its-site-is-insane.shtml#c492
Thanks for helping make my shopping decisions easy!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120203/06001517649/is-us-meddling-polish-acta-voting.shtml#c75 Fri, 3 Feb 2012 12:31:32 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120203/06001517649/is-us-meddling-polish-acta-voting.shtml#c75 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120103/11314417262/ea-we-have-never-taken-position-either-way-sopa-pipa.shtml#c248 Tue, 3 Jan 2012 18:44:51 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120103/11314417262/ea-we-have-never-taken-position-either-way-sopa-pipa.shtml#c248 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111230/23592317245/hollywood-union-members-sign-petition-asking-mpaa-hollywood-unions-to-stop-supporting-pipasopa.shtml#c663 Tue, 3 Jan 2012 12:37:50 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111230/23592317245/hollywood-union-members-sign-petition-asking-mpaa-hollywood-unions-to-stop-supporting-pipasopa.shtml#c663
I've worked with a lot of IATSE members and they are regularly surprised by things their "leadership" does.

Also interesting to note that my own industry trade association (not a union), the Producers Guild of America, seems to have taken no public stance on this issue; which makes me wonder if they're using my annual dues to fund lobbying on behalf of SOPA... hm.

I better ask.

(and let's see if anyone there responds: http://twitter.com/#!/MPGjon/status/154300218865754113]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111212/02441617038/problem-worse-than-piracy-ridiculous-structure-online-music-licensing-deals.shtml#c826 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:45:11 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111212/02441617038/problem-worse-than-piracy-ridiculous-structure-online-music-licensing-deals.shtml#c826
If you read the online music agreements at ASCAP or BMI (and that's royalty collecting only), you will see they are indeed structured as Mike points out above.

Here's the links for yourselves:
http://www.ascap.com/licensing/digital/reports/
http://www.bmi.com/licensing/entry/549538

Convoluted JUNK.

Here's a fun one; my favorite - the Gross Revenue reporting form:
http://www.bmi.com/forms/licensing/newmedia/web_gross_rev_quarterly.pdf]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/02544416380/warner-bros-buys-story-that-was-written-reddit-comments-then-tells-author-to-stop-redditing.shtml#c531 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:19:40 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/02544416380/warner-bros-buys-story-that-was-written-reddit-comments-then-tells-author-to-stop-redditing.shtml#c531
Some prefer life with their heads in their sand - most have 10, 20 years max until they're out, retired with lots of money or dead; so the longer they can keep their legacy gravy train rolling and then jump off and let the new guys figure it out, the better for them.

All good for them; but probably not so good for the long term sustainability of the companies they "lead."]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/02544416380/warner-bros-buys-story-that-was-written-reddit-comments-then-tells-author-to-stop-redditing.shtml#c524 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:13:43 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/02544416380/warner-bros-buys-story-that-was-written-reddit-comments-then-tells-author-to-stop-redditing.shtml#c524 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/00523316377/righthaven-still-trying-to-avoid-paying-any-legal-fees-those-it-illegally-sued.shtml#c153 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:11:22 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/00523316377/righthaven-still-trying-to-avoid-paying-any-legal-fees-those-it-illegally-sued.shtml#c153 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/02544416380/warner-bros-buys-story-that-was-written-reddit-comments-then-tells-author-to-stop-redditing.shtml#c393 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:25:43 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111017/02544416380/warner-bros-buys-story-that-was-written-reddit-comments-then-tells-author-to-stop-redditing.shtml#c393
I'm a Producers Guild member - and time and time again, the network and studio execs all know their business model is broken, but can't figure out how to fix it.

It all boils down to a business that requires 100% lockdown on every bit of IP and creativity; they *will not relinquish or share any lick of control* with content creators.

This is the #1 reason they will eventually fail.

Adapting means giving up some level of control, because they no longer hold *all the keys* to the kingdom of content distribution. And they are not (yet) willing to cede any level of control, even when doing so could be a big net benefit for them.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110722/13365015215/one-more-time-with-feeling-winklevii-lose-yet-again.shtml#c125 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 22:51:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110722/13365015215/one-more-time-with-feeling-winklevii-lose-yet-again.shtml#c125 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110530/22174414466/how-important-is-it-to-preserve-our-digital-heritage.shtml#c150 Sat, 4 Jun 2011 00:13:29 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110530/22174414466/how-important-is-it-to-preserve-our-digital-heritage.shtml#c150
And while I understand that it's not in LoC's purview nor budget to catalog and archive what IS our ever-evolving digital culture at any given moment, it's a great point to be brought up.

I actually HAVE my 1995 original GeoCities website (Soho/8499) backed up on a data disc. It's hilarious, somewhat sad, and accurate to look back on the images and text included as a viable-to-be-cataloged moment in time of digital culture.

That said, how the heck would one go about that? I have no idea; other than to guess it would take a helluva lot of data storage and money.

Even worse (and slightly off-topic) is the number of old film & television series we are going to loose, that will never get to be public-domained because the studios and networks *literally* can't find the right paperwork that allows them to create digital copies. There's a LOT of this media, that is going to disappear.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110424/22422314018/tv-people-realizing-that-internet-is-global.shtml#c203 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:52:10 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110424/22422314018/tv-people-realizing-that-internet-is-global.shtml#c203
It does not exist. There's a large # of reasons that international sales are just that, sales to territories. And while money is one of them, regionalization (think, digital personalization) is one of them. Subtitling, dubbing into other languages, culturally acceptable ad sales materials, etc. are others.

Now, that's not a defense of the way thing are now, but there really truly *are* things that can and should be "value adds" in regional sales of content in a global market.

But generally speaking, regional distribs/resellers (if you will) of content are far further behind the tech curve than we are; so to suggest these newer digital models to the middlemen (who really can add some local value), really threatens their own businesses, and on top of that, they're not technically capable of delivering to their broader audience in ways that provide good experiences to their audience and still satisfies tracking and reporting (at the very least, even forgetting DRM, which the US rightsholders are, of course, unwilling to do) requirements.

Anyway, it's a little thornier than we'd all like it to be for sure. It will, eventually get sorted out.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20110420/03063113973/kevin-smiths-red-state-movie-nearing-profitability-even-prior-to-regular-theatrical-release.shtml#c209 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:17:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20110420/03063113973/kevin-smiths-red-state-movie-nearing-profitability-even-prior-to-regular-theatrical-release.shtml#c209
In indie-land, we'll usually pay back gross receipts minus some minor approved costs like very, very minimal overhead, accounting fees, and union residuals to investors first until they are made whole plus a set return (recoupment for the investors on my last film outperformed the S&P 500 by about 16% over 5 years from 2004-2010, which ain't sayin' much, but hey, at least it didn't *lose* money).

After making the investors whole "plus," the profit split shifted to a 50/50 with producers and investors (which, was as it turned out, just about um, zero... the film did no more business). But the deal itself was fair, and scalable.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110414/03054913891/yet-another-study-shows-that-students-inherently-know-that-file-sharing-is-not-theft.shtml#c741 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:59:04 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110414/03054913891/yet-another-study-shows-that-students-inherently-know-that-file-sharing-is-not-theft.shtml#c741 A sentient puddle lay in a shallow depression...

Wow, this is deep. Heh.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110405/17395413792/newspaper-tells-reporters-not-to-engage-with-community.shtml#c49 Wed, 6 Apr 2011 15:52:25 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110405/17395413792/newspaper-tells-reporters-not-to-engage-with-community.shtml#c49 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17421513618/hollywood-continues-its-plan-to-kill-netflix.shtml#c970 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:49:35 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17421513618/hollywood-continues-its-plan-to-kill-netflix.shtml#c970
Our relationships in general with the Networks and Studios have been painful and acrimonious; there are very few exceptions to this.

Many of us would far rather pitch nerds than MBA's.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17421513618/hollywood-continues-its-plan-to-kill-netflix.shtml#c954 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:46:31 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17421513618/hollywood-continues-its-plan-to-kill-netflix.shtml#c954
The Studios CANNOT RELEASE much of their back catalog due to the fact they don't even know if their old rights deals allow them to release a lot of it digitally.

In particular, they are not sure that the music deals on old tv and films are cleared for digital releases, AND they are not willing to spend the legal $$$ (a lot) to find out. In many cases, the physical paper rights records simply don't exist anymore. And if they can't prove they have the rights, they can't get E&O insurance coverage, and if they can't get E&O on the digital releases, they simply won't release it. It's too big a liability for them.

I don't think you're going to see a lot of older back-catalog content until it falls into public domain, a very long time from now.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17421513618/hollywood-continues-its-plan-to-kill-netflix.shtml#c946 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:42:44 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110324/17421513618/hollywood-continues-its-plan-to-kill-netflix.shtml#c946 http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/netflix-to-enter-original-programming-with-mega-deal-for-david-fincher-kevin-spacey-drama-series-house-of-cards/

Yep. And I have friends who are queuing up to pitch original content series to Netflix like there's no tomorrow.

If producers can get better production financing deals, and less pain from a Netflix deal they'll go there in a hurry.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110316/23442113522/contract-dispute-reveals-that-intellectual-ventures-paid-consultant-to-get-unions-to-fight-patent-reform.shtml#c257 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 10:55:44 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110316/23442113522/contract-dispute-reveals-that-intellectual-ventures-paid-consultant-to-get-unions-to-fight-patent-reform.shtml#c257
While CEO pay has risen over 298% just since 2005? Hm, I wonder what costs are making us uncompetitive?]]>