The Other Side of BitTorrent 510
ByteWoopy wrote to mention a Wired article giving more coverage to the upside of BitTorrent. From the article: "Film and television executives no doubt wish the increasingly popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing system never saw the light of day. Thousands of consumers are using the software to download hundreds of movies and hours upon hours of television programming. But one industry's threat is another's opportunity. There's an upside to allowing viewers to transfer copyright material content over BitTorrent. As noted by Japanese entrepreneur Joi Ito, fans of the Japanese anime series Naruto regularly post translated episodes of the show to BitTorrent, which attracts more fans to the series. The relatively obscure program has spawned a global following in online forums, internet relay chat channels and fan sites."
Upside of BitTorrent (Score:2, Interesting)
The reason a lot of people use BitTorrent is not because it is free, but because it is easy. If the industry were to give people easy access to data, more people might purchase it.
Re:Upside of BitTorrent (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Upside of BitTorrent (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember reading somewhere (may well have been on slashdot) an idea about integrating adverts into the downloads. Not big intrusive ads that people get up to make coffee during, but a little icon at the top of the screen where the tv station emblem would usually be.
I'm pretty sure <insert large multinational here> would pay a decent price to have that spot. Knowing that as long as people are downloading that episode, their logo is
Re:Upside of BitTorrent (Score:3, Insightful)
While I agree with the rest of your post, I (IMHO) disagree with the above portion.
Just look at Apple's success with iTunes [apple.com] as for example.
Aside from those who are either too poor or too unethical to pay, I think that most people do/will for quality content, and there are plenty of the "out there". I, for one, would be really happy to pay for some good tv shows and movies, provided that the price is reasonable, and the A/V quuality is goo
Re:Upside of BitTorrent (Score:3, Interesting)
As long as there are free episodes to download, charging won't work.
No kidding. Everyone knows that no one will pay to download music from the internet [apple.com].
If people can get something from the commercial download experience that they can't get from the, um, "unlicensed" versions, they'll pay.
Since BTEfnet and the other TV sites went down, I've lost my handy RSS feed, which made my downloading a lot easier (and faster, with eveyone downloading from the same source at the same time). Right now I scrape seve
Yeah Right (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason is that these people believe/expect that everything on the Internet is free.
These are many of the same people that believe people are born with the right to pirate their copy of Windows because Microsoft has tons of money.
Re:Yeah Right (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny thing: once upon a time, everything on the Internet WAS free. Pay for access, sure, but once the pipe was open there was a whole world of academics, collaborators, hobbyists, and so on whose whole reason for being on the Internet was to share. Share! Amazing!
Commerical interests have no "this isn't how it should be" claim to stake. They're the Jonnys-come-lately online, and they *still* have to learn how to adjust.
Re:Yeah Right (Score:2)
I download star trek episodes. They never seem to show in a timely manor over here (uk) and if I miss an episode that's it. I can't even buy them since the dvd's lag 4 seasons behind!
Same with southpark, family guy and futurama.
I would very happily pay a fair price to download from bittorrent.
Of course, what a fair price is will probably be disputed
Re:Yeah Right (Score:4, Insightful)
I, myself, think Microsoft, even having tons of money, doesn't have the right of having me copy (not pirate, pirates have sailing ship and I don't) MSWindows, without paying me in exchange. I am very happy with slackware, thank you very much.
Re:Yeah Right (Score:2)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:2)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, they want you to have your eyeballs on their ads, but that's not quite enough. They also try very hard to keep your eyeballs OFF of the competition's ads. The only real mechanism they have for accomplishing this is through scheduling, like "super sizing" Friends to take eyeballs away from Survivor.
TV on demand takes that ability away from them. (Yes, they're losing it anyway, but you can bet they'll hang on as long as they can.)
Re:Yeah Right (Score:2)
Society influences technology; is it not time for technology to influence society?
Re:Yeah Right (Score:5, Insightful)
Try again. The lack of a well-thought-out legal distribution model is EXACTLY the reason for rampant piracy. What we have here is the same sort of loophole that brought Napster into existence. The public wants their entertainment media combined with the convenience of the Internet. In the case of Napster, the RIAA tried to ignore the market pressures and stiffle the distribution of MP3s. Yet without realizing it, they only managed to add to an economic vacuum. As you probably know, nature abhors a vacuum.
As a result, every attempt by the RIAA to crush the MP3 craze only served to increase it. Before they knew it, MP3 players started popping up and an entire market grew around something was supposed to be illegal. This prompted Steve Jobs to call the music executives a bunch of idiots, and then go on to figure out a music distribution model for them. Today, iTunes is a highly successful product that has spawned a large number of competitors. Between them, they have caused people to pay for music that they would have otherwise pirated.
The same thing is now happening to the Television industry. Between TIVOs and BitTorrent, the world is demanding digital, on-demand television. The TV industry has been somewhat supportive with things like TV on DVD releases and Cable on-demand(which has probably helped a lot), but can't seem to let go of its traditional content delivery models. This is slowly causing a vacuum which BitTorrent is quickly filling.
Which is really too bad. An Internet distribution model could allow TV producers to completely break free of the rigors of program scheuduling, annual show seasons, required program order sizes, and primetime competition. Instead, shows would compete directly on how attractive they are to the market.
As for movies, I think a vacuum is developing, but it's not a real problem yet. People want Internet content delivery, but are still happy with it being exclusively released to the Theater first. Most of what's going on right now is true piracy that the industry has always had to deal with. As a result, it doesn't currently impact their numbers by much as long as they keep it in check. But in the near future, I predict that people are going to feel much more strongly about having on-demand access to old movie libraries (where old is any movie that has been out for more than a year to a year and a half).
Re:Yeah Right (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't give anyone credit for anything other than that they will do what is most convenient. Consumers would happily have used an iTunes service back when MP3s first appeared. At the time I said that the music industry needs to get this done or they won't be able to stop MP3s. Well, guess what? They couldn't stop MP3s.
An economic vacuum has absolutely nothing to do with the intelligence of the individuals. It has everything to do with the desires of the mob. The mob wanted MP3s. Back when Napster came out, they were rare as gold. I have few doubts that people would have plunked down small amounts of money for each song (possibly even under a Napster model). But the music industry didn't want to give up their precious CD price hikes, and as a result they got burned. There's no two ways about it.
iTunes survives on a thin number of subscribers compared to the number of people who still warez their music, simply because iTunes costs money.
Got any figures? If there was any good statistical models for Internet piracy, I'm willing to bet that they'd show a marked decrease in the number of songs pirated. Or, at the very least, the growth curve flattening. Meanwhile, iTunes is putting real money in the pockets of music studios. Real money that they wouldn't otherwise have.
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Insightful)
Convince me that a CD should $15. I believe they were right about $15 when CDs first came out. If prices don't change for over 10 years, the record companies make tons of money and the artists get a small piece of that action, I say that's crap. I will say that artists are really stupid if they think they can't sell music off of a website on their own.
Movies? No actor deserves $20M for a movie. If i
Re:Yeah Right (Score:3, Interesting)
I completely agree. Most of the music I listen to is obscure old jazz that typically exists in one of three forms. A lot of the time it has gone public domain and downloading MP3s of old records ripped by total fanatics (i.e. great quality) is 100% legal. Most often family members of the artist (who died a long time ago) think they deserve to profit on grandpa's talent... Uhm, screw them... Then there is the worst; when the record company owns the rights. Should Sony be able to profit on grandpa's talents?
Market Survey Time (Score:2)
Okay, what is your price?
I'd be willing to write, produce, shoot, and distribute a feature-length movie if I could recover the costs and make a small profit. My costs are:
1. Cast
2. Crew
3. Equipment
4. More Equipment
5. Advertising
6. Legal fees (to protect *me* from lawsuits)
7. Administrative salaries
Based on your interpretation of business, I am just greedy
Re:Upside of BitTorrent (Score:2)
The companies I see using BitTorrent are software developers. Patch releases, shareware games, movie trailers, all perfectly legal and easily found on bittorrent. Stuff you used to need an account on fileplanet or some such to get.
Blizzard released video demos of WOW on bittorrent
Re:Upside of BitTorrent (Score:2)
I totally agree. This is all basic economics, supply and demand, right? I pay for things so that I can get them easier/faster/better quality than finding/making my own.
Economics is the science that attempts to optimize the distribution of goods from producers to consumers. Or at least that's how I learned it back in high sc
Positive (Score:2)
Instead of hate it and wish it gone, why not work towards this new technology with hopes to use it with fewer worries?
Re:Positive (Score:2)
It won't happen. The larger and more established and industry gets the less willing they to change from whatever strategy they think works for them even when it isn't working anymore. Shit, look how long it took Blockbuster to adopt a subcription model while Netflix and the other online movie rental shops were kicking their ass.
Re:Positive (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a common illustration of the canyon-like divide between the common
Without citing the vast library of examples directly related to the current technology push and pull (betamax, DVDs, tape recorders, CDRs) it is often interesting to me just to witness the complete lack of logic employed by the industry. On the one hand you have an industry whos business it is to distribute content, and on the other hand you have the same industry doing its best to shut down, criminalize, and sue out of existance the very distribution channels adopted and eventually preferred by their customers (again, and again, and again.)
So although I am certainly a subscriber to the logic posed by the parent poster, as are most people on
Re:Positive (Score:2)
Entrenched in a dogmatic prision of current *IAA practices keep them from moving forward.
Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:2)
Re:Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:2)
Re:Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:2)
Re:Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:2)
Ive a big box of change that I keep under my computer desk. Whenever I come home with change, I give it a toss in the box. Every other month or so, it amounts to about 100$. "Free money" as who wants to pay everything with change?
Ok.. Ive spare money and Ive a 'debit card' to a shill account which I manually deposit into (keeps a balance of $5.01 normally). And I see these nifty creations here and there whether it be a hardware hacking or new media to listen/watch.
What I
Re:Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:2)
As physical goods transform into electronic goods, perhaps the industry will find a means to phase out the middlemen. But it sure wouldn't be profitable and would possibly be devastating to the national economies of several nations.
Kind of why we still use petroleum for energy. Sure there are better (an
Re:Now thats the right kind of thinking.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I am a recent convert to anime. A friend turned me on to a series of Japanese toons called Cowboy Beebop which is an absolutely awesome series (and I think the inspiration for the game Freelancer; look at the trade lanes and think about it)
From there I grew to love a series called Full Metal Panic. I could go on about the careful attention the animators in Japan give to detail as vs. the typ
Artist In Favour of P2P (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Artist In Favour of P2P (Score:2, Insightful)
We live in an age where recording labels can become largely irrelevant (at least for music). It doesn't cost that much to put together an album. The days of artists signing away the next 10 years of their music careers are over. Now, an artist can record an album, and sell it online, costing consumers much less than physical media. It's cutting out the middle-man.
Yes naysayers, there is still a market for CD's. The artist can choose to create physical albums
Re:Artist In Favour of P2P (Score:2)
Re:Copyright? (Score:2)
Legitimate uses (Score:2)
The *AA and friends basically regret that *digital* had ever been invented.
Re:Legitimate uses (Score:2)
Re:Legitimate uses (Score:2)
Copying Records would have been a bit more difficult, but it wouldn't have been long before someone figured out how to do it cheaply. The only hope they could have had for locking down their content was to put it in a theater, and frisk everyone going in/coming out.
By the minority (Score:2)
It's too bad that those materials are in the minority of what materials the technology is really used to obtain.
Joi Ito (Score:5, Interesting)
Only two sides? (Score:4, Interesting)
There is also this large world of legally sharing copyrighted content, like linux ISO or actually free radio or TV shows.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Only two sides? (Score:2)
For instance, I have scifi channel, but Stargate used to come at a very bad time for me.
So, I'd go ahead and download it off the web - hey, what's the difference? I pay for the channel and I'd have recorded it anyway, instead, I download it off someone who's recorded it.
Yay! (Score:3, Funny)
Naruto (Score:5, Interesting)
The show airs in Japan on wednesday night at 7:28pm local time. Within 24 hours, a fansubbed version is released on the internet. The most recent version was released about 13 hours ago, and there are currently 15770 seeds and 13600 peers on this torrent. In 12 hours, 11.5 terabytes has been transferred, and just over 71,000 people have downloaded the episode.
I honestly wonder if there is an environment that does the same thing to bittorrent on such a scale.
Re:Naruto (Score:2)
Re:Naruto (Score:2)
Any decent content distribution network (like those offered by Akamai or Savvis) will do. The overall network load is even lower than Bittorrent because you automatically download from a server which is close to you.
Re:Naruto (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing new (Score:2, Insightful)
WIPO wants your feedback (Score:4, Informative)
If you have any comments about file sharing, copyright enforcement, etc. (and who hasn't?), this may be a good place to post them.
There are 10 different themes for discussion, including "Public domain and open information: at odds with the IP system or enabled by it? [wipo.int]" and "Enforcement of IP rights in the digital environment [wipo.int]".
Although it doesn't explcitly say so in the invitation, I assume that Slashdot readers are welcome to take part as well. But keep it clean :-)
The justification doesn't make it legal (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The justification doesn't make it legal (Score:3, Insightful)
> if it were to suddenly make the act of sharing copyrighted materials legal.
Perhaps you've misunderstood. I govern my actions by what I consider to be
_moral_, not legal. Often those two classes overlap, but in many cases they
don't. I suspect this is the motive behind the arguments you're seeing.
Re:The justification doesn't make it legal (Score:2)
I think the interesting point of this particular case is that it serves to counter the standard "sharing hurts artists" line. Many artists are already clued into that fact that sharing can be beneficial (and some even were before the Internet came along, having seen t
No kidding about Naruto (Score:5, Insightful)
The day that Naruto got licensed for US distribution, the fanbase seemed to go completely crazy. No one wanted to stop watching. Several groups decided to take their effort "underground" (by which I mean not listed on popular anime tracker sites, only from IRC and obscure group webpages).
If anything, bittorrent is good for series like Naruto. Distribution companies get a free, zero-effort focus group for nearly every anime that comes out. By watching anime tracker stats, it's easy to see which series are a crazy success and which are bombs. This is also much more reliable than watching screening attendance at conventions (which tend to vary wildly by time and location).
It just goes to show that just because you can excercise your copyrights, it doesn't always mean you should. I seriously doubt an anime like Gantz (or even Midori No Hibi, although I think people would argue with me about that) would have ever seen american distribution without a lot of fan support from subbers and the thousands of people who download unreleased anime.
Re:No kidding about Naruto (Score:2)
Re:No kidding about Naruto (Score:2)
PS, why is this story under the patents topic? It has nothing to do with patents?
PPS, why are there so many OT replies today? Are replies being attached to incorrect parent messages or something?
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Now, take that further... (Score:2, Insightful)
7) Notice they're not buying as much as you'd like to see because their target audience appears to be downloading the thing anyway
8) Try to sell the DVDs
9) Notice they're not selling as well as you'd like to see because the target audience appears to be downloading the thing anyway
10) Still profit. But not as much as you potentially could at this point.
11) Apply RIAA/MPAA math as applicable and complain about the hand that fed you in 'the early days'
In this case,
Re:Now, take that further... (Score:2)
Coulda, shoulda, woulda; potential doesn't count in a sale. It's still profit, more than they had before, and therefore worth pursuing because the benefits outweigh the expendatures.
Plus, limiting the scope of sale to one line doesn't make sense. By getting one's foot in the door of sales of a popular product (having come to it late) a business stands to become the source of *other* products in the same vein, and this time they c
Re:Now, take that further... (Score:4, Insightful)
2) Internet and fansubbing make series available outside of Japan.
3) Fansubs build series' popularity.
4) Publishers see demand and release series worldwide, seeing huge amounts of sale from fans they never would have had before.
5) Profit.
This used to be true, until now, when more and more American companies start negotiating series with Japanese licensors before the show even starts airing... Some shows, such as Tenjho Tenge [tenjhotenge.com] were created with money paid up front by American companies. Sure, the very obscure show will still get some benefit from BitTorrent, but a good chunk of shows, the super popular ones that fansubbers sub, tend to be noticed by companies before airing and perhaps are already in license negotiations once airing starts. And face it, I'm sure most of the people downloading Naruto wouldn't even think of buying the DVDs. I mean, just look at all the complaints on the forums when the Naruto license was announced, when their free flow of episodes was in danger of getting shut down.
Re:Now, take that further... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, my experience has been that the vast majority of people buy the DVD's. The quality difference is staggering (DVD really shines with anime) and the extras are usually quite good. I buy very little anime (I have friends who are MUCH more into that I am), but when I see a really good series via BitTorrent, I'll buy it (Haibane Renmei, Azumanga Daioh, etc). Otherwise, I'll watch it once and delete it,
Re:Now, take that further... (Score:2)
Of course, this assumes that the product is good enough that seeing it will be enough to fuel consumer interest. If your product stinks, you have no marketing to push consumers into liking it.
And that's a problem for companies selling it. Marketing is more of a sure science than any means of coming up with good products that people will actuall
That's right! (Score:2)
It's all about control of distribution channels... (Score:5, Insightful)
What the RIAA and MPAA are most afraid of is that there is now a free distribution mechanism for artists. they don't need someone to label and distribute their art, they can just push up on a bit torrent. They can by-pass the leeches that only exist to take more from the talented people producing great work. They also can't control what we listen to and what we watch. they make their money by pumping out the same crap month after month and taking a small percentage from the artists.
If they lose control of the mechanism for distributing art, then they can kiss their racket goodbye.
Re:It's all about control of distribution channels (Score:2)
Re:It's all about control of distribution channels (Score:2)
That said I do not think they can stop the change, unless legislators are even more stupid/venal than I thought. What they can do is slow it down to give themselves a few more years of profits.
Re:It's all about control of distribution channels (Score:2)
garageband.com
None of the music there is up to the high quality of Brittney Spears or Janet Jackson, but with a little browsing, you'd be shocked what you could find.
Lost episodes. (Score:2)
If Bittorrent had been around for 40 years instead of 4, maybe all those lost episodes of Dr. Who that vanished when someone threw them away would be recoverable off of someone's hard drive.
Wooly Thinking on Content (Score:3, Insightful)
So no we don't assume that quality content will be made just to put on BitTorrent, but was can already safely say that all quality content will end up there, whether it's legal or not. Smart content producers will try to tap into this, it's an enourmous audience after all. I expect we'll see more of the same from the MPAA though, instead of trying to adapt to the new technology they'll just continue to sue everyone instead. What a waste of money.
RSS + Bittorrent (Score:4, Informative)
Kedora lets you subscribe to a number of shows (including MS's Channel 9) and you're alerted by RSS whenever a new show comes out. You then click the link in the RSS and it downloads the show via bittorrent. If somebody could create a totally integrated solution with an iTunes style frontend (I'm thining in the playlists sidebar have all the subscribed shows) and then release good shows on it in decent quality without DRM then I would actually pay good money for a subscription to this service in the same was as people subscribe to cable and sattelite TV.
Re:RSS + Bittorrent (Score:2)
Repeat after me...lost potential sales is a MYTH (Score:5, Interesting)
It is simple as that.
Re:Repeat after me...lost potential sales is a MYT (Score:2)
Re:Repeat after me...lost potential sales is a MYT (Score:2)
Re:Repeat after me...lost potential sales is a MYT (Score:2)
+ everyone has DC++, eDonkey, BitTorrent, etc. installed on their computers (don't care that most people simply don't have time for searching for warez);
For example, I have almost NONE (ok, BitTorrent for Linux distro CDs) of these programs. And I am serious computer geek for 11 years.
+ everyone will try to check out dark corners of Internet to find 'free stuff';
I think most people stick with working formulas to find music - record shops, Amazon, iTunes - be
This is actually what scares them... (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering how much the big conglomerates (TV and Movies) spend to secure your attention, a show capturing everyone's attention through somehting like BitTorrent scares the bejeebers ought of them. It means that they can't just slap something together and, "since its the only thing on..." expect to keep an audience. It means that in order to be successful they are going to have to take risks and provide a high level of quality in what they do. I think the pirating card they keep playing is more mcguffin (sp?) than anything. What they really want to avoid is having to be creative, innovative, and responsible to their audience.
The "other" side (Score:2)
That makes me sad.
It's just letting people publish things (Score:2)
The big media people are really saying that they don't want people to be able to do that. If bittorrent is bad, then letting average people publish to large audiences is bad.
I can understand why the media companies are saying that. Piracy is a big problem for them, and they have business models that depend at least in part on being able to control distribution.
But I think we have to stand firm on the idea that letting average peop
"Thumbnail sized" versions might be legal (Score:2)
So a "video search engine" which displayed low-rez videos with low-bit-rate audio might be permissible. That would actually be useful for sites that sell DVDs of old and foreign movies.
Re:"Thumbnail sized" versions might be legal (Score:2)
I could be wrong.
I'm confused... (Score:2)
The the "downside" (illegal trading) is the original side?
Wow. (Score:2)
Why didn't I think about this?
Wired sucks. (Score:2)
You know, I naively had the idea when I read the title of the article in Wired that it might be about distributing Linux with BitTorrent, or something else legal. I should have known better. Wired is a sellout... any tech magazine with articles for vodka and ads for Parade magazine (in Wired magazine--advertising for their competitors?! whatever...) with the caption "Ever seen a magazine decode the digital world?" is a tech magazine that has lost its way.
Re:Wired sucks. (Score:2)
Parade isn't a tech mag, but it is still another magazine. I find it odd that Wired, a tech magazine, advertises tech articles in other, less-techy magazines.
One-Sided Attack (Score:2, Interesting)
So when do we start hearing more about companies moving their attacks to the source of the problem? The movies don't spontaneously appear in P2P search queues. Someone had to take a movie and convert it to a share-able format, and stuff it up on the P2P networks.
If you ask me, that should be the major focus of the industry. BT has legal uses. Either way, all the companies are doing by attacking BT (and any other P2P app
Legal or Illegal (Score:2)
That's true.
However, society's opinion can change, sometimes overnight. What was illegal yesterday may be completely legal tomorrow if the majority demands it.
There is no Universal Moral Code stating that creating your own original work by fansubbing a broadcast and distributing it to people unable to receive it otherwise is, or will always be, illegal. As a result, I always use those terms w
Only works for GOOD shows (Score:2)
For the crappy stuff, Bittorrent is very harmful, since it illustrates just how crappy the stuff is before you actually buy.
So, Battlestar Galactica (the new one) profitted greatly, but The Hulk (more precisely the studio's potential profits) was greatly harmed.
So, the problem with bittorrent (again, from the studio's point of view) is that it interferes with their ability to profit from viewer's ignorance
wow (Score:2)
My buddy who helps me maintain our gaming servers used to grab these episodes and then create english subtitles for them and then destribute them using bitorrent and our gaming server as a master seed.
It was always kind of a side project for him as he was a big fan of the series (anime soap opera basically) and wanted to share it with other friends, I believe he even had a dedicated IRC channel for the
Back in the old days of console gaming... (Score:3, Interesting)
The cartidges weren't cheap, either.
So we used a few unique ways to help make an informed purchase:
- Rent the game from a video store.
- Borrow your friend's cartridge.
- Read game reviews in your trusted game magazine.
There was no "downloading" of these games possible. And certainly no burning ISOs to discs to "try" a game.We had to buy the game (or at least incur the expense of renting it).
People today are using BT to download games for their modern consoles and PCs. Instead of relying on game reviews and rentals, they're making their own digital duplicates and then deciding if it's worth their money.
That's not how it's supposed to work.
You either make an informed decision or gamble. Either way, you pay for the game.
Re:Back in the old days of console gaming... (Score:2)
Would that this was the modus operandi of the sellers as well...
When did the idea of risk become unacceptable to businesses? Why is it the customer who shoulders the burden of risking whether a product is any good or not?
Re:Back in the old days of console gaming... (Score:3, Insightful)
How can you assert this? The free market is just that free to do as it pleases. Right now the RIAA/MPAA are using their money to make the market less free; attempting to force hardware providers to include hardware that the customer do not want/need, increasing the copyright time far past anyone should reasonably expect to profit from a single work, and those are just two. The free market it reacting to this. The RIAA/MPAA have been investing more resourc
I can't wait untill the networks wake up (Score:2)
As it is, the two main shows I download are Dr. Who and Call For Help, neither of which are available in the US. If they were on my cable, I would watch them, but since they aren't this is the only way
Legal anime bittorrents... (Score:2)
Relatively obscure? WRONG! (Score:2)
Re:I don't get it... (Score:2)
It takes a truly monumental change to upset the apple cart.
Re:I don't get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why don't *they* (MPAA ETC) use BT to their advantage and get on the bandwagon. Their day of controlling content is over, no matter how harsh they make the laws.
Because they don't actually make the movies, they just market and distribute them. Bitttorrent is a functional, if imperfect, replacement for half of what they do and a threat to their dominance of the other half. All they do is control content, without that and their marketing ability movie producers would just cut them out entirely.
Re:I was afraid I'd never see the day.... (Score:2)
You must not be an anime fan, then. We've thought like this since the beginning.
I wish you were right... (Score:2)
Re:Innovation (Score:2)
Re:Fans must pay eventually (Score:2)
DVDs are nice, but the producers, artists, etc. are also earning themselves a name ("Oh, the guys that made Naruto made this? Nice!"), and many other goodies with the free distribution.
But yeah, I g