More on SOPA/ PROTECT-IP and BuffyWorld

[valyssia]

I want to follow up what I said about SOPA/ PROTECT-IP last week.

First of all, I think that it’s fair that I point out that the views I expressed were echoed by Howard. He saw what I posted before I posted it. Our stance is similar, if not the same. I took him into account as I replied to eowyn_315, who incidentally is a lovely person. If we have to have an anti-piracy advocate, she’d get my vote.

Basically, my point is, that didn’t come out of left field. Howard expressed how he would react before I wrote that and I tried to echo his sentiment as well as my own.

It was suggested to me that perhaps the reason that BuffyWorld has not been targeted is that it is fairly rich with links to buy the product. It is in effect free advertising. I shared that with Howard and suggested to him that we carry that theme a little further as we rebuild the site. The ideas we came up with were things like links to iTunes in the music section so that if someone comes to the site wondering what that song was, they can easily go buy it. We plan to do something similar with the episodes section. I want to keep the advertising understated and useful, but there will be more. We’ll be providing samples such as episode trailers and snippets of songs. That’ll increase our content while scratching the copyright holder’s backs. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll see that they stand to lose more than they’d gain by coming after us.

Howard is also looking at ways to automate adding the appropriate copyright information to the screen capture images. And hey, I won’t have to hand alter over half a million screen captures. I’m all in favor of that. You can’t even begin to imagine how sick I am of them.

We will of course, take any material down that we’re ordered to, but being smart about it might just keep us from having to. At any rate, Howard is feeling much better about the site’s prospects and that’s ultimately what matters. He’s the one who holds the switch.

He’s almost got the alpha build of the test site ready to go up. From there we will just be stacking content into the new structure. I’ve already alluded to additional reviews and articles. I want to add as much of that sort of stuff as we can get our hands on, so that if it does suffer the misfortune of losing some content, it won’t be bare.

All I can do it keep my fingers crossed.

Honestly, my thoughts on SOPA/ PROTECT-IP after more reading, correspondence and investigation haven’t changed much. I think that the powers that be are using too stick and not enough carrot. They’re doing that a lot these days. The news is positively brimming with such. It looks to me a bit like the late 60’s out there.

I’ve always been fond of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’ That’s really what iTunes is in a nutshell. It’s a fine example of playing the other guy’s game and playing it in a way that has mass marketing appeal. Imagine if the nimrods in the entertainment industry that are all over beating their war drums about piracy put even a faction of the capital that’s going toward the current legislation into pulling a Steve Jobs.

Steaming video is cool, but honestly it looks like shit. Downloadable television is a better idea. And gosh, that’s what Pirate Bay and EZTV offers. The entertainment industry should seriously look at setting up webpages that allow viewers to download the latest episodes of their favorite TV shows in 1080p HDTV format. The files could of course be encrypted with a timer built in that rendered them useless after X number of days. Should the viewer wish to, an option to buy could be provided to unlock the encyption.

Now if you open that up to overseas markets, you’d be giving those people who do not have access to American cable networks exactly what they want and thus cutting the throats of Pirate Bay and EZTV.

The download stats could be added to the Neilsen numbers and everybody’s happy. A small, initial fee to access the content might even be appropriate, but that would limit its appeal.

In addition to new programming, older shows could be added to the list. How many of you would buy episodes of Buffy that were ripped at 1080p from the source? I would were they reasonably priced. A dollar to a dollar fifty an episode seems fair.

I own I the DVDs and I never watch them. Here’s why:

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Prophecy Girl (captured from DVD using VLC Media Player)

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Prophecy Girl (captured from my Handbrake rip using VLC Media Player)

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I watch my rips. With Handbrake I was able to filter out a lot of the noise. The rips are slightly blurred, but they look better, especially in motion. Much of the pixilation that catches the eye and therefore distracts is gone. (If you’re not sure where to look to see the difference, focus on Buffy’s cross and the area immediately around it.)

My DVDs sit on a shelf. I never have to touch them except to dust, which means they don't get scratched. (And no, I don't share my rips. They are for me. The reason that software like Handbrake is available is so that consumers can backup DVDs and Blu-Rays that they own. There is nothing illegal about what I’ve done.)

Now if I can do that with Handbrake, imagine what Fox could do with the original source media. I don’t care about having Buffy on Blu-Ray. What I want are nice Blu-Ray rips and I’d pay for them. They could be 4x3 aspect ratio. The original Star Trek Blu-Ray edition release is 4x3. That doesn't seem to be hurting its sales.

Just a thought.

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On a final, unrelated note: This week’s chapter of Bloodletting (the Final Cut) is in beta now. Poor Howard has been Working Man lots lately. We’re bit behind schedule. I expect it’ll probably be ready for release on Wednesday or Thursday. I have family obligations for the holiday, so I’m not sure how next week will go either. I suspect the next chapter will be late too.

Comments

[valyssia]

The problem, as I see it, is that studios can get more money from licensing their shows to foreign TV networks. If they make stuff available online internationally the day after it airs, those foreign networks won't pay to air the shows.

And that was exactly what I was thinking--or darned close to it--when I wrote this:

A small, initial fee to access the content might even be appropriate, but that would limit its appeal.

Those fees could be recouped by charging a modest membership fee. It would make more sense to charge the viewers abroad because very few people in the US would be willing to pay to download the latest episode of Castle.

But people are willing to pay a monthly fee to mask their IP so that they can use micro torrent with immunity, so it's hard to say. People baffled me. That's the one concrete thing I do know.

There might be some happy medium. I can think of a few, but there's no point in kicking this around any further. The fact is that it makes sense, so they'll never do it.

And thanks so much for the BuffyWorld related tips. I'd hate to see it be effected by this.