Comments on: Tell the US Trade Rep: don't let Hollywood set America's foreign relations agenda http://boingboing.net/2012/02/02/tell-the-us-trade-rep-dont.html Brain candy for Happy Mutants Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:32:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Brett Kaplan http://boingboing.net/2012/02/02/tell-the-us-trade-rep-dont.html#comment-1335889 Brett Kaplan Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:32:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=141941#comment-1335889 The food industry lobbies a lot too,  but they focus more on continuing programs of subsidies, I think. Also that whole "pizza is a vegetable" thing... The food industry lobbies a lot too,  but they focus more on continuing programs of subsidies, I think. Also that whole “pizza is a vegetable” thing…

]]> By: Ayzad . http://boingboing.net/2012/02/02/tell-the-us-trade-rep-dont.html#comment-1335833 Ayzad . Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:41:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=141941#comment-1335833 Excuse me for asking a possibly stupid question, but I guess this is the right place to try... Can anybody kindly explain exactly why and how the interests of movie majors are so important as to justify such ingerence in international politics, technology, etc.? I have no doubts about the movie industry financial power... but it has to be just a fraction of other industries' weight after all, isn't it? In other words, if Hollywood can raise up such a fuss, it is scary to think what could happen when, say, the American food industry will fancy to militarily conquer and annex a country "because it would be useful to us to have larger crop fields", or some other asinine private interest. Of course it is obvious that the real interests in this whole "antipiracy" ruse are political and about information (and thought) control, and the movie thing is just a nice excuse to try and silence the Net - yet I wonder why nobody ever questions the concept of one relatively small industry bullying the whole world.  Excuse me for asking a possibly stupid question, but I guess this is the right place to try…

Can anybody kindly explain exactly why and how the interests of movie majors are so important as to justify such ingerence in international politics, technology, etc.? I have no doubts about the movie industry financial power… but it has to be just a fraction of other industries’ weight after all, isn’t it? In other words, if Hollywood can raise up such a fuss, it is scary to think what could happen when, say, the American food industry will fancy to militarily conquer and annex a country “because it would be useful to us to have larger crop fields”, or some other asinine private interest.

Of course it is obvious that the real interests in this whole “antipiracy” ruse are political and about information (and thought) control, and the movie thing is just a nice excuse to try and silence the Net – yet I wonder why nobody ever questions the concept of one relatively small industry bullying the whole world. 

]]> By: Florian Bösch http://boingboing.net/2012/02/02/tell-the-us-trade-rep-dont.html#comment-1335694 Florian Bösch Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:09:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=141941#comment-1335694 Well that suggestion has argumentative holes, for one they'll (rightly so) claim that withdrawing from a country will just bolster piracy. Funny thing is, the same reasoning doesn't seem to apply when they phase releases for countries according to zones, and when the least favorable zones have the highest piracy statistics, so maybe it'd be time to overthink the whole "release zone" thing and just put out content globally everywhere. Well that suggestion has argumentative holes, for one they’ll (rightly so) claim that withdrawing from a country will just bolster piracy. Funny thing is, the same reasoning doesn’t seem to apply when they phase releases for countries according to zones, and when the least favorable zones have the highest piracy statistics, so maybe it’d be time to overthink the whole “release zone” thing and just put out content globally everywhere.

]]> By: digi_owl http://boingboing.net/2012/02/02/tell-the-us-trade-rep-dont.html#comment-1335672 digi_owl Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:35:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=141941#comment-1335672 Either that Boingboing shop ad is context sensitive, or entropy got a weird sense of humor... Either that Boingboing shop ad is context sensitive, or entropy got a weird sense of humor…

]]> By: Chappai http://boingboing.net/2012/02/02/tell-the-us-trade-rep-dont.html#comment-1335666 Chappai Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:17:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=141941#comment-1335666 What big media (movies, music and TV) need to be doing is this... any foreign county that has not shut down illegal servers that are providing ill-gotten content no longer will be able to see movies in theaters as new releases, no longer will be able to purchase new music in stores and will not have access to the latest episodes of television series. What pocketbook will take the larger hit? The big media companies screaming about piracy or the big media companies screaming about their bottom line when they stop distribution of product in non-compliant countries? What big media (movies, music and TV) need to be doing is this… any foreign county that has not shut down illegal servers that are providing ill-gotten content no longer will be able to see movies in theaters as new releases, no longer will be able to purchase new music in stores and will not have access to the latest episodes of television series. What pocketbook will take the larger hit? The big media companies screaming about piracy or the big media companies screaming about their bottom line when they stop distribution of product in non-compliant countries?

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