Jon Lawrence 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: ISP Blocks For Copyright And Porn Denying Access To All Sorts Of Important Information

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2013 @ 10:11am

    When can the "wrongfully" blocked sites start litigation?

    I wonder if the wrongfully blocked sites and services can sue the ISP's for blocking them and directly harming their revenues?

    Hey! Maybe if the ISDS resolutions in TTIP and the like get through, then companies can sue Cameron's government directly for the "lost" revenues due to erroneous blocking.

    This whole situation is nuts.

  • On the post: Amazon Freaks Out About Sock Puppet Reviews And Deletes A Bunch Of Real Reviews

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2012 @ 11:34am

    Sooo disappointed

    I actually was hoping they were reviews by *real* sock puppets. That's a review I would watch; if perhaps not really listen to...

  • On the post: Can We Count The Ways In Which Lowe's 'License Agreement' For Linking To Its Site Is Insane?

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2012 @ 03:54pm

    Thank you sir, May I have another?

    Well, I wanted just one more reason to NOT shop at my local Lowes, and that about does it.

    Thanks for helping make my shopping decisions easy!

  • On the post: Is The US Meddling In Polish ACTA Voting?

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2012 @ 12:31pm

    Bring on the Popcorn

    All I need now is a comfy seat and a soda to sit back and watch the comedy unfold. :)

  • On the post: Jon Lawrence's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2012 @ 08:50am

    Re:

    Thanks for pointing out! Fixed!

  • On the post: EA: We Have Never Taken A Position, Either Way, On SOPA Or PIPA

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2012 @ 06:44pm

    yeah, weird, neither has my "guild"

    As it stands, I can't find any official position from the Producers Guild of America either. I asked for one on their Twitter stream, no answer yet; but don't expect one. It would be good to hear if we have one so I can hasten my exit;)

  • On the post: Hollywood Union Members Sign Petition Asking MPAA & Hollywood Unions To Stop Supporting PIPA/SOPA

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2012 @ 12:37pm

    Re:

    You should believe it. The communication channels from union leaders to their members is generally awful, and once in a while bubbles up to only slightly bad.

    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

  • On the post: A Problem Worse Than Piracy? The Ridiculous Structure Of Online Music Licensing Deals

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2011 @ 10:45am

    Re:

    This comment is a little disingenuous; I've licensed a LOT of music for traditional television and film use, and the terms Mike's talking about in my experience have been similar in negotiations.

    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

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Buys Story That Was Written In The Reddit Comments; Then Tells Author To Stop Redditing

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2011 @ 10:19pm

    Re: Re: Fundamental Problem

    Oh, and I'll adjust my argument. Obviously not ALL network and studio execs think/know their business models are in trouble.

    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."

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Buys Story That Was Written In The Reddit Comments; Then Tells Author To Stop Redditing

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2011 @ 10:13pm

    Re: Re: Fundamental Problem

    Nice ad hominem there.

  • On the post: Righthaven Still Trying To Avoid Paying Any Legal Fees Of Those It Illegally Sued

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2011 @ 10:11pm

    Hey, Stephens Media, YOU got any money?

    Would be sweet justice to see the judge extend the judgement to reach in and make Stephens Media pay if Righthaven absolutely cannot:)

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Buys Story That Was Written In The Reddit Comments; Then Tells Author To Stop Redditing

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2011 @ 03:25pm

    Fundamental Problem

    THIS is THE fundamental problem with legacy media today.

    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.

  • On the post: Senator Wyden Asks President Obama: Isn't Congress Required To Approve ACTA?

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2011 @ 12:06pm

    Re: WhiteHouse petition!

    I love how I've tried signing up/creating an account to sign petitions there 3 times and it somehow never sends me the confirmation email. Glad they're making it easy. /sarcasm

  • On the post: One More Time, With Feeling: Winklevii Lose Yet Again

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2011 @ 10:51pm

    Positively Winklevossian

    Got to use that term today to describe an entitled dbag action by someone. Gonna start using it a lot.

  • On the post: Sony CEO: We Were Hacked By Freetards Who Just Want Everything Free

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2011 @ 10:09am

    Voting with my (company) wallet

    I've been very, very disappointed in Sony's behavior starting back with their CD rootkit, and escalating through this entire episode.

    Where you draw the line in treatment of both your audience, and your paying customers is the difference between a company that wins, and company that loses.

    And, as a person who specs and buys/leases or rents hundreds of thousands a year in broadcast gear, guess what?

    My latest purchasing spec purposefully avoided all Sony products; and we went with JVC and Panasonic instead. Nice work Sony.

  • On the post: How Important Is It To Preserve Our Digital Heritage?

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2011 @ 12:13am

    Ephemera = Culture

    Wow, great question.

    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.

  • On the post: TV People Realizing That The Internet Is Global

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2011 @ 09:52pm

    Re:

    What is this "internationally accepted" ad you speak of? ;)

    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.

  • On the post: Kevin Smith's Red State Movie Nearing Profitability… Even Prior To Regular Theatrical Release

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2011 @ 10:17pm

    Re: Independant film financing

    To add to this, I've done two indie films this way, with investors in LLC's. Adam's structure is about standard, though I'll add a bit more detail.

    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.

  • On the post: Yet Another Study Shows That Students Inherently Know That File Sharing Is Not Theft

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2011 @ 12:59pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lies!

    A sentient puddle lay in a shallow depression...


    Wow, this is deep. Heh.

  • On the post: Newspaper Tells Reporters Not To Engage With Community

    Jon Lawrence ( profile ), 06 Apr, 2011 @ 03:52pm

    Robots

    Maybe it'll be good when we have robots reporting facts in stories instead of people reporting "balanced" arguments?

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