First, let me just preface myself with a little...
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Ok, now that I've got that out of my system (well, almost), I should be able to avoid using profanities... Or at least while I type...
So there I am, at a video site and I'm thinking things are looking good. There are videos that I can rent online and view online. Pretty cool. And they're only $0.99! Hey! That beats the 2,000 won I pay otherwise at the video store. ($1 is about 940 won.)
Checking out the selection, it's not the best, but what the heck. It's a buck. So I find a movie that I haven't seen and that isn't available here (not all movies come out on video here in Korea - only a few select “hit“ movies come out in the theatres, but a few more come out on video). Even if it sucks, it will still be fun to give this a spin. Ok. Click the link to the movie... There's a “Rent” link - that looks good. I click that...
We're sorry, but our system indicates that you are not eligible to purchase the item you requested for one or more of the reasons listed below.
- Your internet browser is not Microsoft Internet Explorer (Firefox compatibility coming very soon!)
With our sincerest apologies to non-United States and Apple, Linux and other non-Windows users, in order to enjoy the GUBA Premium service, you must be located in the United States, and use Windows 2000 or XP with Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher, which support the Windows Media Digital Rights Management System as required by our premium content providers. We will add other DRM support as soon as it becomes available and approved by major premium content providers.
Huh? My money isn't good enough? Geez...
Well, yes, I'm on Firefox and they plan to support that. That's good. They've got a mark in my good books for that. I could switch to IE anyways, so it's not a huge deal.
Now on to the second part... The part that just screams GIANT GROWTH - BERSERK - BLOODLUST! (An old Magic card game thing from long ago that killed your opponent on the first turn...)
“As required by our premium content providers...“
I've got the OS.
I've got Windows Media Player.
I've got Internet Explorer.
I've got the support for DRM.
I LIVE IN SOUTH KOREA!
So I can't give these people money! Now to me, that just seems capitally stupid. I have the money (in USD even) and I'm willing to shell it out.
Hello? McFly?
What's wrong with this picture?
Is the money here poison or something?
Well, no. My money isn't poison. The content providers just want to segement the markets as much as possible to maximize revenues. I can see how that works in some ways. They have to make a buck too. I've got nothing against that.
But for the love of Pete! I live in South Korea. It's not a third world nation with rampant starvation. People make real money here. $0.99 isn't a big deal. It's affordable. Hello? Hollywood? There are people with money outside of the USA.
The truth is that the idiots making decisions for the major content providers don't understand technology in the least and they're just scared. They're scared of piracy and people stealing from them. Well guess what? THEY'RE FORCING PEOPLE TO STEAL FROM THEM BY GIVING THEM NO OTHER OPTIONS!
IP address allocations are pretty straight forward. Getting them isn't very difficult. You just go to the *NICs and get them (basically). All IP addresses are assigned to specific regions and inside those regions they are assigned to providers. This is the same the world over. (There is at least 1 exception that I know of with AOL using USA IP addresses inside of Germany, but that's a minor detail - those things can be ironed out easily.)
Content providers could easily negotiate licensing with their regional distributors to work these things out. A world-wide price could work for everyone outside of the “USA“ and in regions where it was too expensive, well, they'd have to look to their local distributors... or just steal it. (Can we say BitTorrent?)
The technology for this is bloody easy! (Ooops, was that profanity?) It's the kind of thing that you can write in a day. It may take a few weeks to hammer out some other back end details, and maybe a bit more to do some Q & A, but it's very, very far from difficult.
These guys would rather pay lawyers to sue 10 year old kids than actually pay to solve the problem. Ummm... D'ya think sumthin' maight be wrong her'?
Right about now I'm really hoping that piracy starts to hurt the music and film industry. Maybe a little bit more pain may get them to rethink their positions and actually offer their products for sale.
Selling sand in the desert is silly. Nobody needs it there. Selling anything in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is moronic. There are no people there. Selling hotdogs and beer at a sporting event is probably a better bet. There are people there that will likely buy it.
Selling to people where they are isn't a lesson that has been learned yet by the “entertainment“ industry.
Spam works because it takes almost no effort. The recipient can click, buy their viagra, then go on about whatever they were doing. It's easy.
This is all just NTFH - Not That F***ing Hard.
But for the meantime, here are a couple good thing to get movies and the like that actually work right, or almost right: 1, 2.
I'm not looking to be a hypocrite here. I fully believe that the people that work to deliver us all the great movies and music (and software) that we love should be compensated for that. (Lord knows I spend a LOT on it...) What I have a problem with is when they leave people no choice but to steal.
It's all pretty simple - give me the opportunity to pay and I will. Don't give me grief. Don't give me fuss. Just give me a nice, simple, easy way to give you my money. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Cheers,
Ryan