Comments on: Film premieres online

By: sil

sil — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

Is “real world” sharing (as opposed to online sharing) really a problem, though? I mean, people can do that with double-deck video recorders now. And people taped CDs for their mates for ages and the RIAA barely said a word; it’s mass online downloading that they’re worried about.
I’m not convinced that my solution can’t work with music. I am convinced that the recording industry won’t try, which is not the same thing…

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

‘Contrariwise, people who think that downloading films from Kazaa is bad will happily pony up their couple of quid and then pay attention to your note which says “please do not give this film to all your mates“.’

What about those mates who don’t have broadband, or don’t want to watch films on their PC? There are plenty of DVD players that can play DivXs, and in that case I can see plenty of people lending a CD-R around. They won’t be downloading it from KaZaA, but they will be ‘sharing’ it with their friends.

(I am, of course, playing Devil’s Advocate here: I would far prefer your solution. It’s just that if this can’t work for music yet, with far smaller file sizes, then it’s not likely to work with films.)

By: sil

sil — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

Sean,
The relevance of illegal downloads is this. If you tell people “pay two quid on your credit card and we’ll give you a download link“, then people who will be prepared to grab the download for free and give it to their mates will also be quite happy downloading a film via Kazaa, so you wouldn’t have got their business anyway. Contrariwise, people who think that downloading films from Kazaa is bad will happily pony up their couple of quid and then pay attention to your note which says “please do not give this film to all your mates“. So you’re not actually losing anything.
I entirely take your point about the Street Performer only working on new stuff. However, at the moment, that’s not the problem that the Love Song people are trying to solve; they’re trying to sell a new film online. Perhaps there’s a completely different marketing method and sales method for old films, I agree, but I wasn’t particularly thinking of that.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

‘Firstly, in a world where you can go and download real films as much as you like’

Illegally? If so, I’m not really seeing the relevance.

‘Secondly, why not use something like the Rational Street Performer Protocol to get the money?’

That’s a good idea, but—and I apologise if I’m reading this wrong—it’ll only work for new or popular films. I also want to watch old films.

Oh, and for a premiere, you’d have to whip up enough pre-release hype so that those that contributed wouldn’t be left hanging. At the moment, I’m guessing that’s not likely to happen too often.

By: Jono

Jono — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

I agree with here, and believe that the concept is good, but the implementation is bad. They are fundamentally limiting the film to Windows users, and as a Linux/Windows and Mac owner, this means I can only watch the film on one machine. This is stupid, and it kind of detracts from the point of the Internet. I don’t think this is so much anti windows media, but anti non windows.

If there was a windows media client that worked well for Linux and Mac I would not be as adverse, but would still prefer something such as Realmedia.

By: sil

sil — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

Sean,
Well, a couple of thoughts. Firstly, in a world where you can go and download real films as much as you like, why not just release an AVI and get people to pay for a download? Most will probably do so. Secondly, why not use something like the Rational Street Performer Protocol to get the money? My objection is not DRM per se, but that it’s MS Windows only and so I (and people with Macs) can’t watch it, even though I’d like to support their experiment.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

So if they don’t DRM it then how do they even attempt to make people pay for it?

For the non-DRM averse Transmission Films offer some real classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Temptation of a Monk.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

It’s written by the chap that wrote The Full Monty, Simon Beaufoy, not directed by Monty‘’s director.

(_This is not a love song_ was directed by Billie Eltringham. Monty was directed by Peter Cattaneo.)

By: bakiyaa

bakiyaa — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

iwant this film to watch

By: hassan

hassan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0000

what the fuck is this place