An interesting article on the whole “Oh my God, Star Wars II is available on the Internet! It’s the end of the world as we know it!” sounds from Hollywood, and why they make no sense.
The most obvious of its arguments: the current push to control unauthorized copying of digital media would do nothing about this bootlegging, since it’s done by making videotaped copies of movie theater screenings.
The second-most straightforward of its arguments? Hollywood can’t make up it’s mind how to publicly characterized pirated prints.
This leads to schizophenria on the part of Hollywood, which has never been conducive to mental stability in the first place. For example, while Jack Valenti attacks the danger of digital copying for being pristine, he simultaneously claims (in the press release regarding the DVD burner raid) that digital copies “dupe consumers into purchasing a wholly inferior product.” Even when making videocassetes from a DVD, the result “rob[s] consumers of a quality viewing experience by offering an inferior product,” according to Ken Jacobsen, Senior Vice President and Director, Worldwide Anti-Piracy, MPA. But wait, in another press release, Valenti states that, “Unlike traditional analog video piracy, a pirate digital disc is as pristine and pure as the original, further blurring the lines of legitimate and pirate product in the eyes of the consumer.” Wholly inferior product or pristine and pure as the original? Hollywood can’t seem to make up its mind.
Good stuff.
(Via BoingBoing)