Competing Contests To Create Pro- and Anti-Piracy PSAs 220
An anonymous reader writes "New York City recently announced a PSA contest, in which it asked schoolkids to create a video about how evil piracy is. Techdirt found the whole marketing campaign questionable, and via some Freedom of Information Act requests, discovered the whole thing was really a propaganda front for NBC Universal. They also looked at the fine print on this 'pro-copyright' contest, and discovered that in entering, you agreed to give up your copyright. And, you were only allowed to repeat NBC Universal's talking points. Don't try suggesting that perhaps the industry should have adapted. In response, Techdirt has launched a competing video contest, where they ask people to create videos on the impact of technology on creativity. The Techdirt contest doesn't give you specific talking points, lets you present your own opinion, lets you retain the copyright on your work ... and is paying twice as much as the NYC/NBC contest."
My Script (Score:5, Insightful)
"You wouldn't want to play a movie on any unauthorized devices."
"You wouldn't want to skip the movie previews we've carefully chosen for you.."
"You wouldn't want to have a backup handy if your media was damaged."
Be a good citizen, report piracy today!.
Re:My Script (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe we need to replace "Stop Snitchin'" with a "Snitch Up" campaign.
1. Never snitch on someone at or below your socioeconomic or authority level.
2. Always snitch on someone above your socioeconomic or authority level.
When the rich and powerful become the preferred targets of law enforcement, the laws will change.
Re:This isn't anything new. (Score:5, Insightful)
Got Milk is advertisement, not PSA.
Re:Mathematically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, of course the poor starving movie execs will loose, but they're free to get a job at McD.
All the artists and craftspersons that are actually required should of course get by.
Hmmm, so the current bloodthirsty interpretation of copyright doesn't work, but there is a flaw in eliminating copyright altogether. If only there were some way to secure a limited right for a shorter period of time. Like, suppose copyright lasted for 7 years automatically, then could be re-upped for another 7, and suppose it did not cover copying for educational purposes or satire. That would give enough financial incentive to keep those people who are genuinely passionate about the craft in the game, without creating such an enormous cashflow as to attract all the lawyers and sociopaths (who ultimately wind up drowning out the people who are doing it because they have a genuine gift, or something important to say).
It almost seems like some really sharp people could have figured that out right at the beginning.
Oh yeah, they did.
Re:Mathematically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your statement itself is trite and meaningless and pretty much worthless, but it does serve to (as a byproduct) point out something interesting:
Art's value is inherantly very subjective. In a civilization merely fighting for survival every day, it's pretty much worthless. When people have time to actually enjoy and pay for art, it's still only ever worth what people are willing to pay. The creator can set the price, but he can never set the value. If the price is too high, some (or all) people won't buy it, and he only has himself to blame.
Piracy, in reality, is simply the free market at work, balancing out prices that are higher than the actual value of the art being sold.
Re:My Script (Score:4, Insightful)
"You wouldn't want to skip the movie previews we've carefully chosen for you.."
I REALLY hate the DVDs where the previews are basically forced on you and it doesn't let you skip them. (Also, DVDs where they've set the "menu" to be at the beginning of the previews instead of the real menu.)
That particular issue is at least 50% because of the hardware. It seems like it would be easy enough to make a DVD player which simply ignored the "skipping isn't allowed" option. I would throw away my perfectly functional player and buy a replacement today, based on that feature alone. Do they exist? Anybody want to start a company that makes them?