Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Aklyon]

While I probably could add something longish and decent to the discussion, I'm kinda tired and theres enough longish things here already, so we need a more direct responce:

Stop fucking whining, entertainment industry. You have plenty of money. You are still gaining money. The Internet, like the mp3 player, the DVD, the CD, the VHS, and the tape recorder, is not going to kill you (unless you continue to increase the ticket price to movies to the point where its cheaper to buy the dvd than watch it in the theater, but that's you own damn fault if it gets to that point).

[MetalSlimeHunt]

They are becoming obsolete though. Every time there is a leap forward they become a little less necessary and a business model for artists that involves more anarchy than contracts looms near. A lot of very rich people make a lot of very green money off of their practical ownership of artists, and they want to keep that alive as long as possible.

Otherwise, how will they commission giant gold statues of themselves and buy elections?

[Canalan]

They are becoming obsolete though. Every time there is a leap forward they become a little less necessary and a business model for artists that involves more anarchy than contracts looms near. A few very rich people make a lot of very green money off of their practical ownership of artists, and they want to keep that alive as long as possible.

Otherwise, how will they commission giant human bone statues of themselves and buy politicians en masse?

Edited for accuracy.

[Luke_Prowler]

Obvious they should do like everyone else does: Adapt or die. You want a free market, well this is how it works

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Exactly, but we don't have a free market anymore. We have a stagnant corptocracy where the rich have to be dragged kicking and screaming away from their existing money making schemes, human rights be dammed.

[Canalan]

Obvious they should do like everyone else does: Adapt or die. You want a free market, well this is how it works

They don't want a free market, they want a market dominated by them.  So they won't adapt much, if at all.  Because to adapt, they would need to acknowledge that the internet is eating into their market share, and that's bad for business.

[DrKillPatient]

Obvious they should do like everyone else does: Adapt or die. You want a free market, well this is how it works

One wonders if they'll bother adapting at all, or whether these desperate attempts at stifling the innovation that's now outdoing them are signs of these business models in their death throes. I don't expect such companies to truly fall for a long while, of course... Most likely, a cycle will continue for a while in which the media companies make an advance (e.g. taking down MU), and whatever internet community they anger or inconvenience will adapt around the restrictions they set up. Until something really big happens for either side (such as a major law that benefits one or the other), I don't see anything but a stalemate for now.

[darkrider2]

Internet is to the entertainment industry as what green energy is to coal and oil producers.

To adapt costs money, it needs an investment in capital from the company. They don't like that, its not even because they don't like progress, its mostly because greedy individuals with massive power are too short sighted and arrogant to consider the long term upsides to adaptation.

So they naturally don't want anything to change. Change is scary, change isn't exactly a sound business plan, unless you're the new guy, then change is awesome.

And if political bribing continues like this civilization itself will crawl to a halt because moving forward isn't approved of by the powerful 1%.

[DrKillPatient]

Precisely. The question is whether people will smarten up and eventually leave behind the non-innovators, or stagnate along with them. Time will tell, I suppose...

[SalmonGod]

And all they need to say is "jobs" to get the public on their side, who are desperately dependent on job security for basic survival.

Which is why our culture needs to get past this ingrained notion that a person cannot justify their existence unless they have a job.  Modern society does not need people working just for the sake of working.  That only causes most people to throw more than half their waking lives away on superfluous bullshit that often does more harm than good for humanity.

But as long as civilization continues to base its functioning on the accumulation of wealth, this isn't going to change.

[DrKillPatient]

That's an excellent point regarding the social component of all this. I've generally held that a major culture change is needed before we can really fix the problems caused by our completely profit-driven society (because, in my experience, selfish winner-takes-all capitalism tends to be seen as acceptable in all but the worst scenarios). I'm not sure how such a thing could even begin, however...

[Luke_Prowler]

I really don't think it has anything to do with money, merely power. It doesn't matter what system (or lack there of) you put in place, so long as their is free will there will be those who seek to dominate their fellow men.

[SalmonGod]

The question is whether or not the system legitimizes that domination.  Without a system of functioning that is accepted by the general population as 'the way the world works', that domination would be seen nakedly for the violence that it is and opposed appropriately.

A handful of warlords claims control of the vast majority of the planet and share only with those who prove useful to their own ends is seen exactly as they are.

A handful of ultra wealthy do exactly the same, but with legal contracts as their weapons, and they're seen as job creators...

[Rose]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

[Luke_Prowler]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

So when do you think he'll whip out the death ray? Because that's the only thing missing from the image of a James Bond villain he's trying to cultivate. Besides, you know, the intelegence, suave, and women