Entertainment Industry's Dystopia of the Future 394
renek writes "If you think the RIAA/MPAA's tactics have been outlandish, laughable, and disconcerting in the past, you haven't seen anything yet. From government-mandated spyware that deletes infringing content to border searches of media players, this reads like an Orwellian nightmare. Given the US government's willingness to bend over for Big Media it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see how far this goes and how under the radar it stays."
You're far too forgiving... (Score:4, Informative)
You think as if they are NOT already treating customers as enemies.
Re:Don't forget... (Score:3, Informative)
Works better if your audience at least have heard the names you're using before.
I weep for our country. History, doomed to repeat it, and so forth. Fuck. You don't know who Francisco Franco [wikipedia.org] was? Really? Seriously? You've never heard of Juan [wikipedia.org] or Eva Peron? [wikipedia.org] They made a Broadway musical about her. Madonna was in it, fer chrissake.
Re:Market balancing itself (Score:3, Informative)
> Americans who "get it" really must support the pirate parties in Europe.
> Europe has some real chance for finding a western model for relaxation of
> intellectual property, one the U.S. could adopt later, and then catch back
> up.
ROFL. It isn't the US Congress that is happily enacting "three strikes" laws.
This is a tired myth (Score:4, Informative)
"Nothing gets made in the U.S. and exported anymore BUT movies, music, etc." [citation needed]
Try this [wikipedia.org] for starters.
Please note, I'm not picking on you in particular. You, like a lot of intelligent people, have come down with a nasty case of memes wrt to the composition of output in the US economy.
Re:Artist will starve. The non-existent problem (Score:3, Informative)
Some other major reasons why "think of the artists" is pure BS:
- Well, for starters, they're musicians creating music, or actors and directors and producers and everyone else making movies, not "artists" making "content". Calling it "content" immediately states that artistic endeavors are only worth something if they can be sold.
- RIAA-signed musicians don't get squat for their work most of the time. Read just about any of the reports on it, including this one [salon.com].
It's also worth remembering that it's easy to demonstrate that the RIAA needs musicians much more than musicians need the RIAA - The Grateful Dead. They never signed a record deal, they encouraged bootleg tapes to be freely distributed, and continue to do just fine for themselves.
Re:Don't forget... (Score:4, Informative)
Mark my words, what we ended up with is going to be even worse than the mess we had before, [...]
What's interesting is it's basically identical to the system in Switzerland (compulsory health insurance from private companies, subsidies for the poor), and there it seems to work quite well (base on my few years living there).
(Not that I think it will work in the US - way too much corruption here from what I've seen so far.)
Re:This is a tired myth (Score:2, Informative)
Better yet, try this; "Data on the Largest Manufacturing Countries in 2008 [curiouscatblog.net]".
It's only up through 2008, but it's the latest I could find on short notice.