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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: WhatsUpWithThat who wrote (34828)	9/14/2000 8:49:00 AM
From: Rande Is	Respond to of 57584

WUWT, Thanks for your Liquid thoughts. The difficulty in encryption, etc. is not the equipment or the operating system. . .they are ready to accommodate the demands. The difficulty is deciding on an industry standard. And every manufacturer wants THEIR idea to be adopted as the standard. . of course. Remember the VHS vs. Beta wars? Panasonic won BIG when the world adopted VHS. Every tiny decision in video direct-delivery could end up meaning many billions over the years. . . so they are all important. Then there is the question I asked before. . .about what part of the movie do you really own? That sounds silly, but is a CRITICAL issue of debate, which could mean tens of billions of dollars to the movie industry over the years. . .as decisions now would be precedent setting. And with the vast array of types of downloads possible. . .whether you get one viewing only for your money. . a set period of time or number of views. . . or complete ownership of the product for viewing whenever you wish. . . each of those require a different set of royalties, which must be argued separately. SIDEBAR: [Music performances over radio pay out a performance royalty which is shared between the publisher and the songwriter. . .but not the artist or the record companies. . . they get theirs when they sell the physical records. So when people would say "treat downloads like radio plays". . .it never sat well with record companies, who would be aced out altogether. This is the major bone of contention between people wanting to download for free and the record industry wanting paid for downloads of their music.] Movie performances likewise have a performance royalty that differs from the revenues that are generated from the physical purchase of the mechanical fixation of the movie. Now when the movie is pumped directly into your house, on a pay-per-view basis. . .it either will or will not allow you to record it for later viewing. . . if it is a single performance it may trigger one set of royalties. . .whereas allowing you to watch it a specific number of times would trigger another. . . and giving unlimited usage still another. Multiply all of these possible combinations times the number of parties involved in the process and you can see how complex an issue this is. And when you count the parties. . . don't forget the equipment makers. . .the encoders. . .the tape/disk makers. . .the movie companies. . .the theatre industry [that will be greatly harmed by this technology]. . . the directors guild. . .the writers guild. . .the screenactors guild. . .the many unions involved in the production and post-production process. . . the composer. . the record companies, publishers, artists, songwriters of the songs that appear on the movie. . .whether it be featured or incidentally playing on a radio within a scene. . . And when it comes to performances. . .don't even get me started on FOREIGN royalties for each of these areas. . . or the method of accounting. . .America has been ridiculously in the dark ages for decades with their "sampling" of performances. . . which hit the "multiplier" . . before royalties are split according to "formula". . .a very unfair accounting method. . . . whereas Europe and Asia have provided absolute accounting for all performances. . .and have so for decades. Yes. . .it is a complicated issue. It is REAL complicated. Rande Is