[Solar-general] " ¿por qué robo películas , incluso en las que participo?"

Vie Feb 18 08:25:14 CET 2011

Genial:

http://gizmodo.com/#!5539417/why-i-steal-movies-even-ones-im-in

PIRACY

Why I Steal Movies… Even Ones I’m In
Peter Serafinowicz —  Like a billion other people, I download things 
illegally. I'm also an actor, writer and director whose income depends on 
revenue from DVDs, movies and books. This leads to many conflicts in my head, 
in my heart, and in bars.

From an industry standpoint, physical media has a great advantage: It is its 
own copy-protection. Even disregarding the DRM built-in to discs, to make 
copies is hugely impractical for the average consumer. But physical media is 
disappearing. We simply don't need it any more. Remember slinging out your 
VHS collection? That's how I'm now thinking about my DVDs. And don't think 
you're safe either, Blu-rays. 

With bandwidth and storage increasing exponentially, getting cheaper, and 
consumers becoming more tech-savvy, it's becoming easier every day to grab 
free copies of books, movies and albums. This is why Internet users are 
thrilled. Including me. This is why people in the entertainment industry are 
terrified. Including me. 

***

I live in London and many of my favo(u)rite TV shows are American. So if I 
want to see the latest episode of South Park or Friday Night Lights I'll head 
over to Pirate Bay or ez.tv and nab a torrent moments after broadcast. I once 
even downloaded Shaun of the Dead to use in my reel, because it was easier 
than ripping the DVD.

Torrenting is probably too hassle-y for the average viewer: Installing 
Transmission, VLC, perhaps re-encoding to watch on my TV—but I'm pretty techy 
(ok, a geek) and have been doing this for years. However, if a show is 
available on iTunes—as South Park is to me now I've set up a US iTunes 
account (yet another tech hassle I had to overcome…)—I'll click and buy. It's 
simple, quick, better quality, not to mention legal. It's also cheap. Graham 
Linehan (creator of The IT Crowd) described this situation to me as "better 
than free." Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park have always tolerated 
torrent sites hosting pirate versions of their show, as I imagine they see it 
as constant promotion. Also, they've realised there's nothing they can do 
about it.

The promotion argument makes sense. South Park for example makes money from 
from syndication, advertising, merchandising and DVD sales (although the 
latter market is dwindling) so perhaps the extra visibility helps. 

The visibility argument certainly makes sense for my short-lived BBC show. I'm 
revamping my website right now and my web team asked me if I would like them 
to hunt down and put and end to the torrents and RapidShare links to The 
Peter Serafinowicz Show, which was recently released in the UK on DVD. I said 
no because the show is still relatively unknown and I'd like as many people 
to see it as possible. In fact, I've used the torrents myself when I haven't 
had a copy to hand.

Much of it is already up on YouTube. If people like it enough they'll want to 
buy, to own, the DVD, which has lots of great extra stuff, but the DVD isn't 
even sold in the USA. The freely available content serves as a calling card 
for me, and for the other cast members and writers, hopefully enabling us to 
produce more hilarious stuff for the world's discerning comedy fans.

If you know where to look, the whole contents of the DVD, extras, menus, all 
in super quality, are available instantly, for free. Great!? Except I don't 
make any money, nor does anyone else involved with the show. The PS Show 
started out on YouTube, with me and my brother James shooting stuff for zero 
dollars, using basic equipment and making it look as good as we could. But 
all comedy can't be made like this. A slick show like 30 Rock couldn't exist 
without a huge budget to pay all the writers, actors, cameramen, production 
staff etc. Who's gonna pay these people in the future if everything is free?

***

"Ownership" is starting to change its meaning. If you buy a movie from iTunes 
you "own" the right to watch it on certain devices within certain 
constraints. When you "own" a DVD, you have the right to watch it whenever 
and wherever you want. However: you must watch ten minutes of promos, 
trailers and anti-piracy threats. I'll take the download, please.

But often you can't do it legally: I recently wanted to show my son Disney's 
classic Jungle Book and intended to get it on iTunes. Unfortunately, it is 
currently incarcerated within The Disney Vault.  So I'm afraid I simply DL'ed 
a pixel-clear pirate copy which arrived in seconds. My moral justification 
for this? I once bought the VHS. It's your own vault, Disney!

I recently got an iPad while I was in the US (my Gizmodo review is coming 
soon) and have been using its excellent iBooks app. The backlit screen isn't 
perfect for reading, but it's close. I bought quite a few books but there was 
one in particular (recommended to me by the comedian Tim Minchin) that I was 
super keen to read: Ian McEwan's latest, Solar. It wasn't available in the 
iBooks store, so I tried Amazon via its (inferior) Kindle app. As I tried to 
check out, it told me that it was unavailable in my country (I have a UK 
account). Exasperated, I downloaded a pirate copy and was reading it within 
minutes. My moral justification for this? I will now advertise the 
book. "Solar is a sun-tastic read!" (Seriously, it's great.)

I own a physical copy of Anthony Lane's brilliant collection of New Yorker 
reviews, Nobody's Perfect. It's a heavy read (around 3 lbs.) and I wanted to 
get a copy for my iPad. I tracked down an ePub version of the book at the 
Barnes & Noble site, assuming, since iBooks also uses the format, that I 
could tranfer it to my iPad. Only the iPad doesn't read Adobe-encoded ebooks, 
not now at least. With the help of some sympathetic Twitter followers I then 
spent around ten futile hours installing Xcode and obscure Python scripts 
(not the funny ones) on two different computers in what seems to be the only 
method one can use to illegally decrypt Adobe ebooks. My moral justification 
for this? I've paid for the book twice.

***

Frank Zappa once said that Communism could never work because people like to 
own stuff. I felt a similar way about CDs when music began to arrive in MP3 
form. Now, my music happily resides in my iTunes library, spread over various 
computers and iPods.

Music's purpose is to be heard. It doesn't need to live on discs in boxes on a 
groaning shelf any more. When I go into a Virgin Megastore or HMV (a rare 
occurrence now, a vestigial habit) I just see a huge room filled with 
redundant plastic. Now with Spotify and other streaming services I'm even 
starting to begrudge the space taken up on my hard drive.

I recently directed the music video for Hot Chip's "I Feel Better." 
Contractually, the video had to be hosted on EMI's official YouTube channel, 
which disabled non-UK users from viewing it, limiting its audience by around 
80%. Frustrated, I put it up on my own YouTube channel with no region 
restrictions, and at time of writing is just shy of a million views. EMI then 
remotely disabled embedding on my version, thereby limiting its audience 
again. If you're in the business of promoting a band, why would you want to 
stop people watching their promotional video?

***

I don't understand business, but I can see that the old model needs to change. 
Perhaps it'll involve direct micro-payments. Perhaps you'll pay Apple or 
whoever a monthly flat fee to license all their content. Most importantly, I 
believe that the direct and deepening connection artists now have with their 
fans, be they independent bands or Hollywood talkshow hosts, will play a huge 
part. But one thing is for sure: artists will always make art, and 
money-makers will always find a way to make money.

In the meantime, I'll be suing myself for pirating my own show. And I'm pretty 
scared, because I have an amazing lawyer.

***

Peter Serafinowicz, a celebrated British 
writer/producer/director/actor/musician/comedian/voice model, is joining us 
for a few weeks to talk about the tech issues that delight, frustrate and 
motivate him every day. He recently launched his Peter Serafinowicz Show DVD 
in the UK—also on YouTube—and will soon release his Look Around You DVD in 
the USA. This fall, he will be starring with Will Arnett in a Fox sitcom 
created by Arrested Development's Mitchell Hurwitz. If you don't already 
follow Peter on Twitter, you should be ashamed of yourself.

-- 
                   Marcos Guglielmetti
                            ▲
::::::::::::::::::      M U S I X   :::::::::::::::::::::                  
                            ▼
		    www.musix.org.ar
	             www.ovejafm.com

_______________________________________________
Para encontrarte con activistas del movimiento social del software libre envia 
un mail a solar.general en librelist.com y luego respondé el mail de bienvenida.

PD: usen dukgo.com 
es genial y va camino a ser totalmente libre ¡y no te espía! :-D

¿Cuáles serían las libertades esenciales en Medios de Comunicación Libres? 
listas, sitios, etc.
0) La libertad de usar los medios de comunicación con cualquier propósito 
(uso)
1) La libertad de auditar los medios de comunicación y adaptarlos a tus 
necesidades. El acceso a los paneles de administración es una condición 
previa para esto. (estudio)
2) La libertad de crear otros usuarios y medios de comunicación, con lo que 
puedes ayudar a tu prójimo. (copia)
3) La libertad de modificar en los medios de comunicación y hacer públicas las 
mejoras a los demás, de modo que toda la comunidad se beneficie. El acceso al 
panel de administración es un requisito previo para esto. (mejora)

"our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of 
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its 
beauty" Einstein