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Why Not Try An Infinity-Day Window?
The 56 day window is just the latest of the stupid moves made by Hollywood. I’ve learned to live with these arbitrary windows with my subscription to Netflix, appreciating new stuff whenever it does finally get on there but not everyone has that kind of patience.
I have plenty of friends who were once hardcore music piraters who now buy music legit from Apple/Amazon because it’s easier, because they don’t have to mess around with ID3 tags or renaming MP3s, and because it’s way more convenient than going to the music shop to get a CD. Hell, it’s way more convenient to buy it and get it NOW on their phones than it is to even order the CD online. They converted because the service got so good, they were compelled to go legit.
These same friends I’ve tried to convert to using Netflix, or VUDU, or what have you and they always ask if so-and-so new movie is on it yet. And invariably, because of these idiotic windows, they are not. And you know what their response is?
“Oh well, I’ll just download it.”
These are people who have a track record of going from pirating media to purchasing it legit and Hollywood is stopping them from conducting a legit transaction. It’s crazy to me how Hollywood doesn’t see that their current business model is old and busted and that their policies are in fact pushing potential customers into the arms of the pirates. And with this new 56 day window, I foresee more and more potential customers turning into customers of the Pirate Bay.
Matt Drance on Warner Bros. idiotic new 56-day DVD rental window:
Also under this new deal, pirated movies remain free of charge, free of non-skippable ads, free of five-minute load times, and are now nearly three months ahead of the competition.
And:
iTunes changed the music industry because it was more convenient than stealing. Most people made the value judgment that ten bucks for a clean, legal digital album was worth the alternative of fishing around for files that may or may not be damaged or infected.
It’s really — honestly — surprising that Hollywood doesn’t understand such a simple concept. Even stranger is that they can look to the music industry as an example and learn from the mistakes there, but they refuse.
Hollywood isn’t going to die anytime soon — but it won’t be from lack of trying. The pain is coming. In a big way.
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How Much Do Music and Movie Piracy Really Hurt the U.S. Economy?
Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman of Freakonomics discuss the claims that piracy leads to $250 billion a year in loses and 750,000 American jobs lost:
The good news is that the numbers are wrong — as this post by the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez explains. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which is polite government-speak for “these figures were made up out of thin air.”
And:
So what’s the real number? At this point, we simply don’t know. And this leads us to a second problem: one which is not so much about data, as about actual economic effects. There are certainly a lot of people who download music and movies without paying. It’s clear that, at least in some cases, piracy substitutes for a legitimate transaction — for example, a person who would have bought the DVD of the new Kate Beckinsale vampire film (who is that, actually?) but instead downloads it for free on Bit Torrent. In other cases, the person pirating the movie or song would never have bought it. This is especially true if the consumer lives in a relatively poor country, like China, and is simply unable to afford to pay for the films and music he downloads.
Do we count this latter category of downloads as “lost sales”? Not if we’re honest.
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This fartstep video is gold, Jerry, gold! Thx @bennettk!
Gaslamp Killer Live(Fartstep Version) (by AndyRehfeldt)
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venomous porridge: The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA
Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks. I haven’t played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool. However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:
This restriction — that…
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Watch this all the way through… wait for it… wait…
This is one of the reasons why we at Shelby.tv have blacked out our site today to protest SOPA / PIPA and why I am attending my first ever public protest.
I am going my part. For the kittens, cats, koalas and GOATS!
Save the Internet!
Best SOPA/PIPA protest page out there.
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"I want them to remember that lawmakers and lobbyists who don’t understand the Internet have no business trying to regulate it."
Erik Martin, reddit general manager, telling us what he thinks you should take away from today’s Internet blackouts. (via newsweek)
(via newsweek)
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How to Land Your Kid in Therapy
By trying to spare our children the discomfort of failure and unhappiness by artificially propping up their self-esteem and self-worth, are we doing more harm than good? A very interesting article.
“The clinical focus had always been on how the lack of parental attunement affects the child. It never occurred to any of us to ask, what if the parents are too attuned? What happens to those kids?”
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"
I talked with Nancy Pelosi about SOPA the other day, and she said that the experience with piracy is different for people in the movie industry. Maybe — I’m not a movie producer. But I do know that right now the entire content industry is facing massive systemic changes, and to claim that declining sales are because of piracy is so over the top. Any company that is providing great content online in a way that’s easy to use with a fair price has a booming business right now. The people who don’t are trying to fight that future.
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So here we have this legislation, with all of these possible harms, to solve a problem that only exists in the minds of people who are afraid of the future. Why should the government be intervening on behalf of the people who aren’t getting with the program?Tim (via brycedotvc)
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Which is better for users, scrolling or clicking?
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"Nowadays, a candidate must believe not just some but all of the following things: that abortion should be illegal in all cases; that gay marriage must be banned even in states that want it; that the 12m illegal immigrants, even those who have lived in America for decades, must all be sent home; that the 46m people who lack health insurance have only themselves to blame; that global warming is a conspiracy; that any form of gun control is unconstitutional; that any form of tax increase must be vetoed, even if the increase is only the cancelling of an expensive and market-distorting perk; that Israel can do no wrong and the “so-called Palestinians”, to use Mr Gingrich’s term, can do no right; that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and others whose names you do not have to remember should be abolished."
American politics: The right Republican | The Economist (via fillup)
(via fillup)
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For all the beer drinkers out there, I normally don’t ever post memes, but this image macro totally killed me.
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The Cordray Crisis
“This latest episode over the Cordray appointment may be the most extreme example. But it’s surely not the final example.
It is instead an ominous milestone in the deterioration of the US political system into ever more intense acrimony and paralysis.”
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"Taking vacation at Red Frog is encouraged (and even celebrated). And it’s not abused. Ever. By anyone. Simply make sure your work is getting done and make sure you’re covered while you’re away and that’s it—no questions asked."
Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days
Some look at business management techniques like this and think they are pipe dreams or flat out silly. I disagree: I think it’s a shift in our culture and a necessary one. Just as sales commissions train salespeople to focus on the wrong results, so do strict 9-5 environments and time-tracking. Productivity, skill, and value do not relate to minutes, hours, or days. One day I hope to lead an office with unrestricted vacation time, transparent salaries, and proper 15% time.
(via 9-bits)
(via 9-bits)
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Revisiting my 2011 resolutions and my 2012 edition
Since it’s newly 2012, I felt it was time to revisit my 2011 resolutions (found here: http://johanlieu.com/post/2548438695/my-new-years-resolutions-for-2011), see if I kept them and grade myself like I said I would (I said I would do it on a monthly basis, but I didn’t, so you can probably guess how well this going to go for me):
Resolution #1:
1. I am going to commit to writing one long form blog post a week about product management, the web, the Internet industry, or anything else that I might find interesting to write about. I’ve been too lazy about developing a voice for my blog on the web, settling just for small commentary on things I share that I found interesting. It’s time to start creating ideas instead of just rehashing them.
Well, considering I wanted to post once a week and I only, by my count, got to 6 well written posts, resulting in a 11.5% completion rate, I think it’s safe to grade this one a big fat F. I think I set my expectations bar too high with the whole “long form” blog post requirement and then coupled with the once a week mandate, it gave me just long enough to procrastinate and not post anything since I had enough time to talk myself out of posting anything because I didn’t think it met the “long form” requirement. Too much bullshit on my part there. I’m going to post more frequently and not worry about meeting some arbitrary standard. I am just going to post more frequently and keep at it. I think Om Malik and MG Siegler had it right, you just need to do it regularly to actually do it.
Onward to resolution #2:
2. I am going to try and consciously be a nicer/better/positive person. I’ve found my negativity influencing one too many decisions I’ve made previously and need to change that. I normally don’t believe in “intangibles” but I think being a nicer, better person will be meaningful, even if it is on the intangible level.
I know it’s odd to grade this one, especially since I totally and miserably failed the previous resolution, but I believe I followed through on this one. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one; I was way more positive this year than I had been previously. If you want some proof, I guess you’re going to have to talk to my wife, brothers, and my other close friends. For those of you too lazy to check my sources, I got an A.
Now for resolution #3:
3. I will learn the skills needed to develop, launch, and maintain a simple web app this year. It doesn’t matter what technology I will learn, it matters that I just do it. It’s going to suck at first (actually it’s going to suck a lot) but I need to power through and get it done.
This is a two parter. I learned the needed skills, but I didn’t launch or maintain my simple web app. I could use the fact that I quit my job to start my own company as an excuse, but really, that should have been more of a catalyst. I will get my product out soon, so for now, I am going to grade this as an Incomplete.
As for 2012, I have some simple ones:
1. Follow through and release a web app/release my company’s app. Two for one here, but so intertwined that I combined them.
2. Write more and post more on this blog. I’m shooting for at least once a week again, but this time I won’t allow the arbitrary and vague level of quality hinder my flow.
3. Exercise 3 times a week for 52 weeks straight (I actually started this one back in October, but that was for momentum more than anything). This one is personal; this may come as a surprise to some of you (not really) but I was never in organized sports and never really was athletic (other than skateboarding) so this is something I’ve really never done. I’ve never exercised regularly in my life, so I want to see if I can do it. Seems like something I should be able to do, so we’ll see how that goes.
Well, there is nothing quite like calling yourself out on your own blog, but there it is. How did you do in keeping your 2011 resolutions?
P.S. If you talk to me, ask me how it’s coming along. Keep me accountable, I’ll appreciate it.
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How Fox News is helping Barack Obama's re-election bid
Frum: “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us – and now we’re discovering we work for Fox.”
