Re: If anime is "dying," here's why

On Feb 15, 11:41 am, you...@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:42:09 -0800 (PST), afedakendragon

<afeda...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 14, 2:12 pm, starc...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:37 pm, Doug Jacobs <djac...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

starc...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Which is what the RIAA is hoping to accomplish. ?Unfortunately, their
attempts to sue anonymous "John Does" at universities, and grandmothers
who don't even own a computer has failed miserably, and is trying the
paitence of the courts. ?Just recently the court threw yet another RIAA
case out of court and demanded the RIAA pay for wasting the court's and
the defendent's time.
Why doesn't the court just, then, strike down copyright law entirely,
since what the RIAA is doing is the only realistic defense?

Despite the stupid antics of the RIAA, copyrights are still important in
many other areas - not just for music and movies.

You sure?? Not the way they've been getting mishandled in the age of
Web 2.0 ...

Also, because of all the bad precdents that the RIAA has accumulated with
its myriad of cases, any case the RIAA brings into a court will receive a
much higher level of scrutiny than before. Judges don't like having the
court's time wasted, so the RIAA had better have done their homework
properly before hand...lest yet another case get thrown out of court on
its first day.

I just don't understand, at that point, why some judge just doesn't
take one look at the Internet and basically throw out all relevant
copyright law. If a copyright holder, or their representative, can't
legally find out who's stealing their product, then all they have is a
piece of paper. It's like a restraining order against a spouse who
wishes to kill you -- without finding, and removing, that person, all
you have is a worthless piece of paper.

I mean, why would I pay $25/DVD to an anime company if all they really
have is a "right" to it that really, in essence, no longer exists
because the enforcement of that right is impossible?

(And don't give me this "because I like it and want to support the
people who made it" ***... It riles me to actually defend the RIAA,
but they've got about the only model which can save an anime industry
where the only good will between fans and industry comes from three
words: "WIN -- FREE -- CRAP!!")

And the only reason they haven't succeeded in absolutely killing the
music industry once and for all (a desirable result to most fans)?
The RIAA.

LOL. Do you honestly think that even with all the piracy going on now
that the music industry is in any sort of serious danger?

No.

Answered in Rob's reply: Yes, I do. Just like the anime industry,
just like the game industry would be if there were enough mod/chip
technology out there

That's the rub. The Gaming industry isn't quite as hurt as anime or
music because they make it sufficiently difficult to pirate games such
that it's both more economical and convenient to purchase legitimate
media. Controlling the playback hardware and playback media make it
much easier to do this. When you don't do it, you get the Dreamcast.

If I were running the media industry, there's no way in the world that
I'd offer consumer recordable versions of my media. I'd make PC
compatible write-able media physically different from their consumer
playback counterparts, and jealously control access to the commercial
presses.

I might offer consumer recordables of similar quality, but I certainly
wouldn't offer commercial movies on that format, and I'd be sorely
tempted to employ something about as draconian as HDCP on my device
inputs.

In my magical business, like the DVD consortium did with DVDs, I'd
subsidize the cost of the commercial distribution media for a period
of time, both to crush competing formats, and to encourage wide
consumer adoption. I'd offer consumers at-cost mail-back
replacements, taking the wind out of the back-up arguments. (And
perhaps winning the hearts and minds of parents with small children
everywhere.)

I might create a writeable version of the commercial media, but damned
if I'd sell it to consumers. In fact, I might not sell it at all to
anyone other than replicators, perhaps to make those at-cost mail-back
replacements of titles not currently being pressed.

I'd also offer the licensing for the format for a minimum flat price,
but require a percentage cut from the sale of every player and media
sold. I'd do my best to make licensing of the format so attractive
that it'd be insane to pick any other format.

I'd jealously enforce licensing on the players. I'd make it a point
to use every available avenue to control playback hardware features,
and distribution. I'd sue unlicensed players out of existence.

But this is all just my "ideal" model, and there's no way to know if
it's viable.

This would never work because no one in their right mind would adopt a
technology that isn't easily recordable. For examples look at current
HD disc formats. HD isn't easily recordable and Blu Ray is. Guess
which one is winning.

Recordable versions of both HD formats are neither widespread, not
cheap. And both CD and DVD recordable media lagged their read-only
versions by significant time periods. This didn't stop the spread or
adoption of either format.

Getting back to the analogy, NDS game carts don't have a wide spread
recordable version at all, and that hasn't stopped its adoption. Yes,
piracy of the format exists, but its far from widespread.

Your scenario will only work if enforced by the Gov't as the only
allowed format.
Bill Gates has been using a form of your strategy for years and he's
not a well liked guy.

At what point did Bill Gates or Microsoft ever adopt closed hardware
format? MS has been peddling proprietary software for years, but I'm
talking about hardware.

Copy restrictions are pretty easy to do if you control the format.
Take a look back at the cartridge days. Piracy was never particularly
widespread for cartridge based systems, at least not in the profitable
developed markets.

Now that's not to say this couldn't get abused. Nintendo managed to
mostly stamp out piracy of NES and SNES carts here in the US. They
also managed to mostly stamp out Tengen. Same coin, two sides.

Piracy is a part of ongoing viability. Piracy is far overblown by the

I don't think it has to be a necessary or even significant one. Print
formats don't seem to suffer from too much piracy.

RIAA nad the MPAA which only have power in the US. outside the US
where I lived for a while it's a whole different world. Americans are

No argument there.

actually laughed at for things like the Digital Millenium Copyright
Act. They think it's insane we would allow such a law to exist.

No argument here either.

In short not only will your idea not work, it should never be allowed

Oh really? I take issue here. The car companies do this on a regular
basis. Is there an alternative air filter? Sure. But if you want
the ECU, you go to the dealer.

Customer lock-in is a pretty old tactic. It's not enough to save a
business, but so long as you're providing sufficient service, and you
don't get overly greedy, it's a pretty good customer retention
technique.

to. It is insanely restrictive to the point of lunacy all for the sake
of greed. The current Hi-Def wars are the result of similar thinking
and they will lose more over fighting with each other and late
adoption than they will to US piracy.
Just my opinion

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