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Sunday, May 15, 2005

Another 'Broadcasting is Dead' Story

This article, Piracy is Good, over at Australian site Mindjack, is a good description of the effect technology is having on broadcast television. Author Mark Pesce discusses, in some detail, the use of p2p filesharing technology BitTorrent and, more importantly, proposes some interesting business models for how producers and advertisers can collaborate to create a viable business.

Mark uses a couple of good case studies, including recent download scenarios for Dr. Who and Battlestar Galactica, to make the case that downloading does not necessarily equate to lower viewership. He also offers good analysis of the economic situation broadcasters face – after 50 years of training viewers that TV is free, trying to suddenly convince them they should be paying for everything isn’t going to work.

This, of course, is not news to anyone who regularly reads weblogs, RSS feeds, or uploads pictures to Flickr. But Pesce’s is one of the first articles I’ve seen to dig into the figures around p2p distribution, broadcast viewership, and the relative impact for popular TV episodes.

I’m not ready to concede broadcast is dead – even the latest bittorrent clients are too geeky for mass use – but Pesce’s case for advertisers is compelling. And if one thing is certain, it’s that advertisers follow the market. A commericalized, ad-supported p2p distribution network with viewer tracking can’t be far away.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:14 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Business & Finance, Copyright, Strategy, Technology

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Frank Zappa Was THE Man

As Zappa would have said — “Poot”

But that Would Have Killed the Music Industry, Right?

Quoted

“We propose to acquire the rights to digitally duplicate and store THE BEST of every record company's difficult-to-move Quality Catalog Items [Q.C.I.], store them in a central processing location, and have them accessible by phone or cable TV, directly patchable into the user's home taping appliances, with the option of direct digital-to-digital transfer to F-1…

All accounting for royalty payments, billing to the customer, etc. would be automatic, built into the initial software for the system.

The consumer has the option of subscribing to one or more Interest Categories, charged at a monthly rate, without regard for the quantity of music he or she decides to tape.”

-- Frank Zappa invents Rhapsody, Napster in 1983 [Good Morning Silicon Valley, via Shawn] via Jenny Levine

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:24 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Copyright, Music, Technology

Monday, April 11, 2005

rethink(ip) blog

A promising new intellectual property blog (which will, no doubt, have a wonderful Terms Of Service) – rethink(ip).

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I will not hire a lawyer that does not blog. I’m currently embroiled with a dimwit lawyer for a bank. The lawyer has created a problem for me because he gave the bank an opinion on something he knew nothing about, and he was wrong. When presented with overwhelming evidence of his error (by my lawyer, who does blog) he refused to put his objection in writing, fumbled around, and then suggested we find another bank rather him admit to his client he was wrong. What a schmuck.

Blogging gives you some insight into a lawyer’s expertise, but also tells you something about how that lawyer relates to people. I guess, if you’re so inclined, you can also dig around for some sort of deep, personal insights but I’m not sure lawyers are worthy of that kind of interest. Mostly, you just want someone who knows their stuff, makes it understandable, is easy to do business with, and protects you from yourself. I’ve had great luck with Marty Schwimmer, the blogging trademark attorney, in that regard.

Thanks to Ernie for the link.

The Internet Bar Association's Patent Law Group

Steve Nipper, Doug Sorroco and Matt Buchanan all practice patent law.  They practice in different firms and have their own weblogs about patent law. Now they have a blog called rethink(ip) which seeks to talk about problems in patent law.  So why would they collaborate on a joint blog?  Maybe for the same reason that lawyers join bar associations and then form into sub-groups. [...]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:03 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Copyright, Policy & Regulation

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