To: The next head of the Motion Picture Association of America (to be opened upon arrival)
From: Chris Anderson
Subject: How Hollywood can avoid the fate of the music industry

Congratulations on your new job - and on having the courage to take it. You arrive at a historic moment, with big shoes to fill and a tough challenge ahead. Jack Valenti's 37-year reign was a remarkable exercise in the use of political power to protect an industry. But it came at a cost. The film industry has treated as a threat any disruptive new technology that might change the way movies are distributed and consumed, lobbying vigorously for legal safeguards. Valenti did this all too well; the result of his skill on the Hill is an industry that instinctively hides behind the skirt of Washington and the courts.

All this needs to change. The implosion of the music industry is demonstrating the price of getting it wrong. Nobody wants that to happen to Hollywood, but there are troubling similarities - not least a history of ham-handed industry actions and executives in denial. You've still got a little time to figure this out, but a lot less than your advisers are telling you. Allow me to offer some independent advice.

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And so begins a Chris Anderson article in Wired that is well worth reading.

Among Anderson's suggestions:

"You're at risk of alienating your customers like the music industry did. The do-not-record "broadcast flag" that the TV industry just pushed through the FCC will introduce new restrictions on programming, none of which benefit consumers. Proposed legislation that throws anyone caught with a prerelease movie on their hard drive into prison for three years is the sort of disproportionate response that gives the RIAA a bad name."

"Online file-trading is going to get worse, too. Finally, on the wide-open Internet, the Napster for movies has been born. It's called BitTorrent"

yay for BitTorrent!

I've been BTing fansub anime for a long time. I don't mind reading subtitles and listening to the japanese because it's more sensible to watch it that way then wait 3-5 years for the chance a North American company with license it and then hope they do a good job dubbing it.

As for the theater movies we get over here, I wouldn't even waste my time downloading a camcorder version of the film, so you have to wait until the DVD is converted to DivX and then offered for a quality copy anyways.

Actually, it's called Kazaa lite.

You can get a lot more than just music now. Games, movies, appz, and porn!

I tried bit torrent but couldn't get it to work. don't know what I'm doing wrong. but good letter

Klite is an illegal hack of a program which is designed to do illegal things.

file sharing is not illegal iH8RIAA, last I checked, Klite is mainly used for file sharing.

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

i don't remember the last time i saw some one trying to argue that reverse enginering whas illeagal but it has been a long time and thats what thay did with K-lite

by the way the only reson K-lite is a copyright volation is becose it resembales kazaa it self

if not for reverse enginering we would not have MODs for video games we would not have that movie pay ceck even thoe the movie really sucked lol no matter

reverse enginering is a standered in todays digatial life and it will stay that way long long from now

FJones, BT rules, but you should try Newsgroups and mIRC. Between the three of them I can download almost any anime I want.
OT. Do you like Initial D? tasadar@cox.net
compmore, download BT and double click the icon. It'll install without giving you any options. Then go to a BT site(find some also) such as www.suprnova.org and just click the files as if they were html links.

And Kazaa sucks for anime as well as jpop music.

I only use BT for fansubs also, and I WILL buy the US release of Wolf's Rain, Saikano, and Gad Guard when they come out in the US even though I have the entire series (at least of WR and Saikano).

I can't say I condone the illegal use of it, but that's mainly because I require a steady stream of anime fed directly into my veins and I'd be horribly pissed if anything happened to BT.

I don't see any evidence that Jack Valenti is leaving. And who is to say that his replacement MARY BONO (former restaurant cashier) would be any better???

In any event, they will hire the craziest Republican they can find. The music legislation filed by Democratic congressmen on behalf of the RIAA died a horrible writhing death in the 108th Congress. They will start over with Lamar Smith's co-sponsorship. This will be all too funny when the Dems take back the White House in Nov. 2004 and the RIAA is back at zero.

For anyone thinking that the MPAA is smarter than its stupid younger sibling, those days are over. Peter Chernin and a few movie honchos called in Valenti on the carpet and chewed his ass. The MPAA says they are beginning a new phase in life: suing customers.

Orrin Hatch is giving the keynote speech at the National Journal Panel on Jan. 16. I cannot WAIT to see what bizarre scheme they come up with.

We can all thank Bill Clinton for signing into law the DMCA in the first place. He was really for the people wasn't he?

What's Wolf's Rain about? I got some of the music from it...

MPAA, RIAA, both end with Asshole's of America.

I don't think Bill even knew what he was doing at the time. Not trying to excuse him or anything but very few outside the Tech industry even thought of the consequences of DMCA.

The post above this one is basically a reminder that the RIAA and MPAA are almost the same organization, and you shouldn't expect either one to have any brains.

WHOA! Back the truck up! when did the broadcast flag crap get through and what type of television and VCR's and DVR's is this thing going to affect?

HDTV equipment only, and I dont know if any implimentations are available.

yes, BT is an awesome program, but it's not safe. I just got a notification from Universal that I'm being investigated.