The Long Road

12/14/2004 Archived Entry: "Consensual Sodomy is Wrong"

Anything that can be digitized can be copied and distributed over the internet. That is the current and future reality that content providers are fighting against. Digital content on demand is the way of the future but there is no way to control distribution short of tracking all activity of every computer connected to the net.

Like legislation against consensual sodomy in certain states, laws that govern the distribution of TV, movies, music, and books over the net are morally outdated. Policing these activities is costly, time consuming, and creates resentment in public opinion. Fighting against this movement is awfully shortsighted; decrying its immorality is a meaningless exercise in futility. Clearly, there is a market for downloadable content; instead of trying to stifle this new channel, content providers should embrace it and find a way to make profit from it.

In parts of Europe, drugs and prostitution are legalized, controlled, and heavily taxed. This plays a large part in keeping drugs and prostitutes off the streets. The solution to digital piracy is similar. Content providers should make electronic copies of their products available at the same time as they are through traditional means. With a framework like Bittorent, bandwidth and server costs for the content provider would be kept at a minimum.

Imagine you’ve just heard of the best show to have ever been aired on television, Lost. It is eleven episodes in and going on a 3 week hiatus. ABC would have to air it 4 times a week over the next month for newcomers to be all caught up before the show’s return. Such an aggressive broadcasting schedule would not work over the holidays. So imagine that instead of relying on ABC’s incomplete rerun schedule, all you have to do is get onto ABC’s website where they’ve seeded all 11 current episodes in different formats and qualities allowing you to catch up on the series at your leisure and at the time of your choosing; and when January 5th comes along, you can watch episode 12 along with the rest of North America and not be lost during watercooler conversations the next day. Imagine being able to do that from anywhere in the world; that is the future.

The linchpin in this plan is to charge the hell out of consumer internet access. The majority of high bandwidth users are not using it legitimately. Like the Canadian levy on blank CDs and DVDs, the new costs to consumer bandwidth would go towards studios, and publishers. This also meshes with the drive from MS and Sony to provide all-in-one set top boxes.

Implementation of this plan would be a little difficult though. The internet is worldwide, so there has to be agreement between all service providers and network operators everywhere, and a model for profit sharing has to be worked out for content providers. I think the initial effort would be worth it – global, superior quality content on demand. The internet is the future of all content and has been for years, the sooner we all learn to accept it, the sooner it’ll get here.

Replies: 13 comments

sure abc could offer its shows on the internet ... but would they charge for that service? otherwise, how will they make money? would they have commercials throughout the shows? and if ppl could get them digitally so easily ...they could collect and burn whole seasons of shows without having to dish out ludicrous amounts for dvd season sets (a rather profitable venture these days). businesses must get revenue to survive ... and to continue into the future and to be able to grow into the future, they must make profits ... i'm unsure if the current set-ups will allow for much profit to be reaped from such a set up ... in the future though they'll figure something out.

taxing or putting higher levies on internet access is unlikely to work. certain tax experts have suggested that there sould be a bit-tax on internet access so that governments don't lose out on revenue that is owed but not paid on digital goods. this is probably not the best way to tax electronic commerce though. throw into the mix that the americans seem rather reluctant to tax internet access period. the internet tax moratorium (specifically deals with levying taxes on isps) was just renewed once again in the states (they got yet another 3 years).

right now we're at the crossroads where we want to profit off the internet and the specific business opportunities it allows us ... while at the same time, we don't want to stifle the growth and innovation associated with the internet with excessively high prices or taxes.

ok, i'm done now. :D

Posted by melpie @ 12/14/2004 11:33 AM EST

Mel, I currently have all 11 episodes of Lost and ABC ain't getting a penny. Perhaps if they did what Thai suggested and provided me with an easier means of obtaining the episodes (as well as allowing for faster downloads) then I wouldn't mind paying a modest fee for downloading priviliges. They could also implement some sort of banner ad as you're downloading.

BTW Thai, good post. Sadly I have nothing more to contribute...:P!

Posted by dAN @ 12/14/2004 10:41 PM EST

A system like the one fileplanet uses could work. Queues for non-subscribers with ads on the download/line up windows. No waiting for subscribers(not sure if they have ads on these windows tho)

Posted by Anonymous @ 12/14/2004 11:08 PM EST

What I was trying to say was that even if movies and tv shows were made available online by the studios, piracy would still be rampant (and maybe more so). The only way, I think, to really nip this whole piracy thing is to charging bandwidth on a usage basis, like electricty or gas.

With that in place, content providers just start dumping videos/books/music on the net and work out some kind of profit sharing with Internet Service Providers.

And while, yes, there's a lot of collaboration and obstacles to overcome, like Melpie said, but she missed the point I was making - that everyone should suck it up and get over these obstacles so that we'd have the greatest media distribution channel possible.

Posted by Rayne @ 12/15/2004 12:44 AM EST

a bit tax like you're suggesting is extremely inefficient ...

the downloading of music/video/books etc is only a very small area of the "commercial" applications of the internet.

most of the tax would be on intermediate flows - for example edi's for businesses, etc (b2b ecommerce still accounts for a good 80 - 95%, depending on whose estimates you use of global ecommerce) ... taxing these intermediate flows is extremely inefficient.

there also is the problem of transparency ... it becomes more difficult to see who is paying what. that is rather undesirable undemocratically.

the idea might be nice, but in practice ... it wouldn't conceivably work in the present, that's all.

Posted by melpie @ 12/15/2004 11:01 AM EST

Taxing by usage is stupid.. that would mean that the studios would probably let P2P networks stay alive so they wouldn't have to offer up the bandwith, while still making money off the users (even users who don't download their content)

Why not just stick with the current solution of offering online content for reasonable prices? iTunes has been a huge success, with many wannabe's following suit. I'm sure similar services could be offered for TV - the thing is right now, most ppl do not download TV shows. , so there's not that much of a market for it.

Posted by Zamir @ 12/15/2004 11:39 AM EST

i agree with zamir ... itunes has been a huge success (who'd a thunk it?), although, differences in jurisdictional taxes and copyright laws might make services such as that slow to enter canada (itunes was slowed down by sales tax and copyright issues... but still, a year and half after its original release ... we have a canadian version! go us)

Posted by melpie @ 12/15/2004 01:15 PM EST

In a related story...

Posted by Rayne @ 12/15/2004 02:55 PM EST

I think the solution to this problem is already available in Canada, although only in limited form.

Currently, Rogers on Demand only offer a few shows for free (Music Video Countdowns, some Documentaries, and a Atom Films).

However, spurge on TMN on Demand
(http://www.themovienetwork.ca/ondemand/)
and you get tons of free shows. And they keep a fairly large backlog so you can catch up. For instance, While they only have the last 4 episodes of Dead Like Me, they have Stargate:Atlantis episodes 1-15 until the new episodes are released in January.

As the cost of bandwidth and storage comes down, this is only going to get cheaper and easier to get (as long as the content providers are willing).

Posted by ian @ 12/15/2004 03:29 PM EST

with respect to the copyright levy on canadian recording devices ... http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1103237410445&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

hopefully the appeal stays so we can knock a good $25 off ipods.

Posted by melpie @ 12/17/2004 09:38 AM EST

Mel, you and your Toronto Star posts...:P

Posted by dAN @ 12/18/2004 02:30 PM EST

(i.e. we can't access them)

Posted by dAN @ 12/18/2004 02:30 PM EST

sorry dan ... i'm just always logged in automatically to the star ... i forget that other ppl can't see the posts.

here's one that's accessible for all:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/12/17/Arts/levy041217.html

Posted by melpie @ 12/19/2004 01:47 AM EST