According to the article:
"In 2007, the Conservative government amended copyright legislation. Under the new rules, making illegal movie recordings became a criminal offence punishable by six months in jail and a $25,000 fine."
Criminal offences are a big deal! I predict this will be an issue to debate. To monitor ones internet connection violates privacy laws. I did not personally realize that it was considered a "criminal" offence I assumed there was only a fine that went along with this offence. This shocks me because as Brand noted in the article, and I agree with him that it is about time Hollywood wakes up and jumps on board with the internet tools. Perhaps if it was available for us to purchases Hollywood movies online affordably we would start doing that? How would you like to see copyright laws change...if at all?
I’m not surprised the MPAA is cracking down on piracy just as hard as the RIAA. While I’d rather get my music online, I still prefer to watch movies at the theatre. I enjoy the theatre experience far too much to opt for a grainy, poor quality bootleg version. This is not to say however that the film industry should not adopt some kind of model that also lends its self to online distribution. However, whatever method that maybe, I doubt it will stop copies of newly released films to leak on the net. The only plus side to this (from the film industry's point of view) is that at least film makers have pirates to blame when their film flops at the box office, such as the case with Wolverine (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10211136-93.html).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post Erin. I completely agree with you, I prefer the theatre experience over a poor quality web version. Your link was also very interesting. I liked that in the article they stated "some say the Web can act as a promotional tool for films, provided that they receive positive word of mouth" as it strongly defends our views. For people like you and I despite what is put on the internet we'll go see it in theatres.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting change in film technology is the popularity of 3-D films today which require expensive technology and theatre experience to completely enjoy the movie. Perhaps this is their approach of ruining pirates opportunities to let the movie out online and take away from their box office sales. However at the same time this could ruin DVD sales later on as they are only now coming out with 3-D TV's and glasses(which are very expensive).