Monday, 10 January 2011

Piracy aka file sharing


Please check out this first: http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/
The arguments presented in 'Steal This Film 2' are actually quite compelling; the fact that it's natural for human beings to share information, and that intellectual property is used to commercialise it. And yes, the printing press phenomenon is likened quite aptly to the democracy of internet, meaning we now have a generation of musicians that happilily create and distribute music for free. Thats all very well when you look at how one can master an entire album on a half-decent home computer, and arguably the same with film. But then the doc seems to evade a major flaw in its argument; the entire process of making a feature film is still a million dollars away from being on the level of an inexpensive process. Plus, you cant make a film from 'samples' unless its a documentary, since unlike music with its clear-cut structure (eg 128 bps for dance music), there is still no set formula for a film wherein you could cut and paste scenes whilst retaining its consistency.
Given that it now seems socially acceptable and even common sense not to pay for music as the interviewees proudly exclaim, how can filmmakers insist they pay for films? I wonder if this seems a realistic solution:
Distributers and exhibitors re-focus on ensuring a profit from theatrical release alone, whilst making the product available for free online so they can see statistics on demographics of people downloading the material. Its no small secret thay this doesnt happen because theaters demand so much equity.
Or, stop making DVDs altogether, and only stream product online (like Channel 4oD) so it cant be reproduced. My theory is that noone wants to do this given the still healthy profit made on DVD sales despite the fall in overall revenue.
Otherwise i aint gonna be able to pay for locations, filming equipment, or name actors that will ultimately make people bother to steal it in the firstplace!
Am I over-reacting?

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