by zutgorak | Feb 29, 2012 |
Mediacorporations want to make money. It is that easy, and I can see where that is coming from
of course, and piracy is a big issue for them as they represent a downloaded media file with a
lost sale. Now most of us know that this is not true, that you downloaded the file doesn’t automatically
mean that you wanted to purchase it just to see/listen to it. It has also been established that
media pirates are willing to pay for media in various ways if it has easy distribution.
(Look at spotify will you).
I saw a retweet from @janlindgren to the following image:
And the idea in general is sound, no doubt about it, but there are some things there that even I can see
as not being plausible, for instance to include boxart and extra content and similar issues.
So I gave the idea a few thoughts and a few minutes of my time and came up with this:
So what is that then?
Well, it is an application that can simplify distribution of movies and tv-shows.
You can easily choose the categories you wish to browse, you can choose resolution
and for those of us that has extreme bandwidth, stream both dvd quality and hd quality,
You have the ability to gift media to another person, you can sync to a device
or pherhaps to itunes for you apple-eaters. You can either stream the file through
the application (would make it pretty good for tablets and similar devices) or
download the actual file.
You can also order a physical disc and THERE is where the extra content should be stored.
Include special features like “how was it made”, extra box art, etc etc in these discs to make
purchasing the physical thing a viable option, also you can have the standard order X discs, pick
one or two extra for as a bonus.
Now how should it work. Well, to tell you the truth, I haven’t given that as much thought as I
would like, the quick thought that entered my mind would be that each file that you purchase
should in some way be branded with a unique “tag” for lack of a better word that would
be hidden from the users, only viewable from the mediacorporation and this should be embedded
somewhere in the file. No tracking software, no DRM, just a simple encrypted ID that in no other
way alters the file, making the removal of it redundant (if you can move the file as you wish between your
different devices, what’s the point of breaking it up just to get rid of some text, right?)
So that once you buy this movie, it is a file that you “own” so to speak.
Tether this ID to a string that combines creditcard number and one more factor like
social security number or similar. (means it can be crosschecked with card issuer)
So, lets say a file ends up on a file sharing network. Media company snags the file, reads
the user tag and promptly ban this user from further purchases and from using the network.
Now then, make this application in different formats, so it can be used directly on devices, for
Android, iOS, windows phone, Windows for pc, mac OS X and Linux and also for consoles like
PS3 and Xbox360. Do you see the market impact this has the potential to have?
So what you would do is instead of trying to battle piracy with methods that obviously doesn’t
work, causing disturbances and public hatred towards you, learn from them. Create a platform
that is fast, userfriendly and without hindrance for the paying user and you will see an increase
in generated money from people.
Of course there will always be freeloaders, there always has been, there always will be, but
once again, look at spotify. Music download has drastically gone down since the start of it.
Now, I am not sure how to pull all this together. I have to admit that is a bit beyond my
abilities, but isn’t this something that you, personally, might like to see and try? I know I would
by zutgorak | Nov 30, 2011 |
Now, I am no Apple fan by any stretch of the road, but read this out fully before
you mac addicts burst up in flames.
========================================================
iTunes is a vampire/leech/whatever bad description you can think of.
It has been stated by record companies aswell as artists, the self same companies
are also bashing spotify, however, they themselves own a majority in spotify.
It seems that the record companies really are scared that they are becoming
obsolete and that people are starting to realize it. Here’s a little thing about
those comments of “leeches” and similar that the record companies probably
doesnt want you to read, since reading may be caused by independent thought.
Ok, I can see that the artists that create a song wants to generate
a revenue stream. I dont begrudge them a revenue, but it is not something
that can be considered a “right” that just because you made a song,
you will make money of it. Let me give you a case in point:
The swedish edition of Absolute music 66 consists of the following lineup:
1. Born this way – Lady Gaga
2. In the club – Danny Saucedo
3. Just the way you are – Bruno Mars
4. Leaving home – Nicke Borg
5. Oh my God! – Moniker
6. Indestructible – Robyn
7. Price tag – Jessie J
8. F***in perfect – Pink
9. Like a prayer – Jay Smith
10. White light moment – Tove Styrke
11. Idiot – Lena Philipsson
12. 25 – Oskar Linnros
13. What the hell – Avril Lavigne
14. Heart and I – Robbie Williams
15. Loca – Shakira feat Dizzee Rascal
16. Are you leaving – Erik Hassle
17. Alive – Linda Pritchard
18. Desperados – Pernilla Andersson
19. The king – Playtones
20. 7 days and 7 nights – Brolle
21. I’m in love – Sanna Nielsen
22. E de fel på mej – Linda Bengtzing
23. Spring för livet – Sara Varga
24. Popular – Eric Saade
25. S&M – Rihanna
26. Me and my drum – Swingfly feat Christoffer Hiding
27. My heart is refusing me – Loreen
28. Hold it against me – Britney Spears
29. Higher – Taio Cruz feat Travie McCoy
30. Yeah 3x – Chris Brown
31. Dance alone – Love Generation
32. Baksmälla – Petter & September
33. Blow – Kesha
34. Just can’t get enough – Black Eyed Peas
35. Rocketeer – Far East Movement feat Ryan Tedder
36. I just had sex – Lonely Island feat Akon
37. More – Usher
38. Turn around – Flo Rida
39. Please don’t go – Mike Posner
40. Invincible – Tinie Tempah feat Invincible
41. Follow me home – Killabite
42. Animal – Neon Trees
43. The hunter – Melody Club
44. Like suicide – Christian Walz
45. I’m so happy – Salem Al Fakir feat Josephine Bornebusch
46. Jag vet vilken dy hon varit i – Håkan Hellström
It’s 46 songs, not bad you say, but take a look at the lineup again,
how many of these are songs that you actually would like to have in
your collection? For me, there are 1 song (maybe 2 if i stretch it)
and I will push it, its “Lonely Island Feut Akon – I just had sex”
But if I buy this cd, I will be paying off both Håkan Hellström
(in my eyes, a swedish version of the plague) and Britney Spears
(The american version of the plague) aswell as Salem Al Fakir. Nothing
personal about him, but …. no, i wont even start because I wouldn’t be
able to stop.
Now the price for this setup is as follows: (note that I am not a record
company executive, so I cant tell if these are actual numbers or not.)
Lets assume for simplicity that the artists on the disc will share what
the price is for the disc, IE not calculating store profit, cost for
packaging etc etc etc.
The CD in itself is 159 SEK, estimates to roughly 18-20 dollars.
There are 46 tracks. So, 159 divided by 46 is 3.45andalotomoredecimals.
So each artist is entitled to 3.45 per song. Some of these have dual
artists, so then divide 3.45 into with two (you have a calculator on your
computer, you do the math here) 3.45 ish or half of that per song…
3.45 is about 53 cent or thereabouts.
Now lets bring in the price for shipping, subract VAT (moms) and also,
the cut for the record companies and I am pretty damn sure that the take
would be a lot smaller, probably around half or even a third of those 53
cent so we are below 25 cent per sold disc per artist. And they think
iTunes is a leech? I dont know how much iTunes takes to list a song, but
I pretty much guess that at 99 cent per song, the artist will earn more per
sold song then these “collection CDs”
So .. since the price of this collection CD is about the same as a standard
one artist full length CD, it is still the same equation when you take in
effect that I mostly do not want ALL songs on a disc, there are 1 or 2 that
I really want. So, I have to by 12 pieces of what I consider to be crap
to get those songs. Not bloody likely. I would then rather listen to the
song through youtube or spotify, but guess what …. that is getting restricted
so, I am relegated to using iTunes or piracy, or if the device I choose
to listen to has streaming capabilities, spotify.
Now who is the leech? Itunes, or the record companies?
by zutgorak | Mar 2, 2011 |
The torrenttracker/site swebits is down. Most of you who tend to use this site has most likely noticed
the nice sign at the door regarding first, a DDoS attack and then faulty hardware in servers abroad
wich makes it a little harder to fix.
Heres a swedish article about it: http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2349481/fildelningssajt-har-lagts-ned
And just like the terror organisations in middle east, out comes Henrik Ponte’n and claims responsability.
To me, its a little similar to the movie “Life of brian” and the different
liberations groups that’s there and that they all take responsability
for the actions perpetrated.
Nowhere was there any “proof” that anti piracy firms are involved in this
and despite this, Henrik alledges that “The owner of the site has gotten
nervousdue to resent events” Now, correct me if I am wrong, but
wouldn’t the correct time to be nervous be around the time of the
#spectrial where Henrik so prominently figured?
I can understand that this man is a mouthpiece and it is his job to be,
but seriously somewhere, someone will have to draw the line.
Now, Henrik, I ask you: Has anyone on the swebits team been arrested,
that was actually on that team, or simply some poor sap with the hardware
to be a good seeder?
Has there been a seizure of the actual server hardware? and the million
dollar question: Have your “team” filed a claim against Google yet?
Of course there is propaganda involved in this. Do not be mistake, this is a kind of war that is being fought online, between filesharing activists and monetary interrests and unfortunatly, the casualties in this war is freedom of speech and personal integrity.
Personal integrity has already been locked up in a dungeon and has been severly beaten, to the point
of actually be in a coma and needing life support, but sofar, freedom of speech has managed relatively
unscathed… unless you count a few anal gangrapes…
by zutgorak | Feb 11, 2010 |
Again, several newspaper reports that the movie companies are trying to get access to someones
Ipnumber using the IPRED law. Well, I for one think that the law really is something that shouldnt
have been passed at all, but thats just my highly personal conviction, but hey, I am entitled to
an opinion, or… pherhaps not anymore. I dislike the fact that people can request information about
me as a person. Anyhoo, these are the newspaper articles:
Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen
This time its regarding the site “Swetorrents” that apparently are using Telia as an ISP and as the
article states, this has been up before, and Telia then rejected the claim and filed an appeal. I am
guessing that Telia, as a company know that IF they hand over the IP numbers, they will also
have an exodus of customers that will be switching to other ISPs and sending their money elsewhere.
I am not surprised that the movie and music companies are still pursuing this old line because frankly,
they noticed loooong ago that the business model was slowly dying, but still they are beating the stick
at the dead horse and now try to make money by claiming that filesharing is costing them millions.
What they fail to realize tho is that one downloaded song isn’t the same as a sold single. I use spotify
for my music these days, so I am gratefully excerpt from these idiocies, but what people need to
realize is that I wouldnt pay money to hear a song that I might not like, because when I have listened
to that song once, I have broken the seal and I cant return the disc, and renting music, whoever heard
of that concept? The companies point their fingers to the younger generations and manages to push law
after law through that seriously jeopardizes the freedom of the web as we know it. Are we to be
censored soon too? Well, it sure as hell seems to be going that way. For all you swedish people out there,
let me give you a little scare with a possible vision of the future.
We now have the FRA law, wich pretty much stores whatever we send abroad for later analyzing.
Ok, all well, I can see that there is no escaping it, but, we also have nationalist and racist political
parties advancing pretty rapidly, and some of the larger political parties are OPENLY COURTING
these parties. Lets assume that a few years from now, one of these parties will gain control. It isn’t
unthinkable, and that in itself is a scary thought, but now, suddenly, they have the possibility to
push a change on laws out, and voila, they already have the perfect tool ready to track down dissidents
and other unwanted persons, such as immigrants and similar that simply expresses their right of
communication. Oh my.
Lets take it one step further.
The common man doesnt know how to protect their privacy online, that is a fact, and since the
messages have already been stored on some server, they also contain IP number, email adress,
possibly even MAC adresses and hostnames and now, its a very slim thing to actually locate this
individual and something goes bang in the night, and this party now has one less dissident.
Does this ring a bell? It should. It has already happened before in several nations, altho THOSE
NATIONS HAVE ABOLISHED THE BLOODY THING! But ooooh, not sweden. We want to control
everything our citizens do and lord help us if we step a toe out of line. When we do, we will be labeled
as terrorists, taken by CIA agents to Egypt, who has no laws against torture, and tortured til we admit
to being both reincarnation of Buddha aswell as guilty of both world wars and that the Titanic went to
its watery grave.
The more we let private actors claim the web, the more we leave the door open to misuse, and yes
I am taking this to extremes, but thats where you HAVE to go, because if someone can think about
it, then someone can make it happen and frankly, I think that Sweden is going to hell in a handbasket
and who’s fault is that? Well, I dont want to point any fingers towards any special political side. Do you
want to know why? Thats easy. They are both guilty of these atrocities.
Tomas Bodström from the left block put the idea forward, and when they lost mandate, the
right block claimed “We wont use this to hunt down the young population of today” and pushed
the laws through. Well, you kept your word. However, you didn’t think that others would break
it for you, did you? Bloody Morons.
by zutgorak | Dec 31, 2009 |
OK, we tried to protest against FRA… nothing happened, the law was passed and its now in effect.
We tried to protest to IPRED …. to no avail.
Now ACTA is starting to creep in, and people dont seem to care!? Ok, many people dont seem to grasp
the effect of ACTA, the new trade “agreement” between EU and US, but one of the things it is stating
is that after three illegal downloads, you are to be completely shut out from the internet. HELLO!
I am not sure how they are gonna solve that technically but it will be a tremendous job, and rest assured
that you as the end customer will pay the price. The agreement also states “in the family” wich in this situation
is a very loose term, but in effect, lets say I “borrow” some of the neighbours internet using their unprotected
wifi connection.. 3 downloads later, voila, their internet gets shut down. COMPLETELY. They wont
have to prove that it was anyone in that household that did it, because obviously it was from their
router. Thats all they need to know.
On top of it all, we now have the swedish government sniffing around our internet for whatever mails, instant
messaging and our surf habits of us of the populace, now we are gonna let the entire EU AND the US sniff around
to see if we are doing something that the RIAA doesnt approve of.
Now really, someone needs to set a stop to this foolishness of surveillance and turning entire nations
into objects of observation because frankly, this is all turning into STASI and GRU controlled nations where
you need to keep a constant eye on the population to discourage different thinking. This has got to stop
somewhere and I really wish I had the power to change things, but no, I am just a geek amongst millions
The only thing I CAN do is what I am doing right now. Voice my opinion and, in the spirit of the current
government, expect to have it summarily dismissed.
Sooner or later, I will be clapped in irons for voicing this, then thrown in some unknown jail!
No, I am not wearing a tinfoil hat yet, but thats the way we are heading. I think you have noticed
that extreme right wing parties are on the move forward, at the same time as the government is getting
more and more controlling. When the extreme right wing gets the power, because from the looks
of it, it will, they will already have the tools to find their opposition and do something about it. Cool huh?
I dont think so, and frankly, I am starting to get a little scared with the rulers in sweden and their indifference
to peoples opinion, and their obvious interrests of fattening their wallets with the lobbyists money.
I am sorry, but if the vote was today, my vote would go to “the one issue party” “Piratpartiet” again.
It might be a wasted vote in the eyes of some. How I see it, is showing my dissent by voting for the
only party that has something besides the same old regurgitated crap.
