Movies are Next!

I saw this article a while back and thought you’d all be interested. It goes on to disucss what I think we all already thought — the movie industry is next! Take a look and let us know what you think. I know that you are all very familiar with the downloading issues on college campuses (and beyond) as it relates to music, but what most of you don’t realize is that it is only the tip of the ice berg. Your problem assignment this semester is going to deal with this topic so you might just want to start getting your head wrapped around it. What can the movie industry, game industry, and software industry in general do to hit this head on and not end up in the download hell the music industry has found itself in?

17 thoughts on “Movies are Next!

  1. As students we are always told that the most important part of a business is to never rest on your laurels and always look for new threats, opportunities, etc etc. The music industry handled it all wrong. Instead of adapting to the technology right away, they ignored it. They continually decried how this was ruining them, while at the same time participating in the price gouging they have been using for as long as I can remember. I think that the movie industry and the gaming industry should gather up all their IT people and genius visionaries and figure out a way to adapt to the new environment, while also making their product superior to the one available on the net. Nobody (especially college students) cares for the “little guy gets hurt” campaigns that the MIAA has been running because we’ve been getting screwed with $20 dollars albums and $10 dollar movies for years. Its only a matter of time before ripping songs off Napster becomes mainstream and nobody will have to pay again. Companies just have to stay on step ahead of the game…thats the way it is in this new era of technology. Plus, I think that music and movies are two totally different animals. It may sound stupid, but they are. P2P music sharing is still just a radio station of sorts to me where you call up, request a song, its get played, and you tape it off the radio. Movies is a little more dicey because you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get it unless you paid for it to begin with.

  2. Going to the theater will have to be an event beyond just viewing a motion picture. The experience will have to make buyers want to continue to do so – plus – it will be hard to ask a date to get together and watch something on my notebook. Wait – a midnight picnic and movie under the stars at your favorite spot.

    The public service application of “say no to drugs” to this issue – really will have teeth only for those with a conscience. The current Legal action band-aids are kind of like stopping speeding on I-99 – Good luck.
    Brett

  3. I believe that music and movies should be allowed to be downloaded online. I mean it is a way for individuals to get their entertainment eventhough it is taking away from the artist or director. If I were an artist or director of a movie and my work was online where anyone can get access, I would probably be upset too.

  4. I understand all of the downloading issues and piracy acts but is there anyway to acutally stop it from this material getting on the net? Someone will eventually post it, no matter how they get it. I think napster has the right idea buy giving students the opportunity to hear 30 secs of the song…I have honestly bought more CDs in the last 2 months because I liked the parts of the songs I heard. Maybe they could do that with movies now and show maybe 15-20 min of the clip on a publicly posted site! That way, everyone would have access to them and still may be enticed to buy the whole copy. I am sure someone would find away around this and downloaders could still get their hands on full copies but it is worth a shot! Who knows, maybe by showing a long preview of the movie online, the DVD/video sales of the movie would increase!!

  5. This just was announced at the end of the holiday weekend.
    TiVo and NetFlix to partner for downloadable moviesThis bings up a lot of DRM-type issues here…like what happens after you download the movie? Does it stay on your TiVo forever until you erase it? Does it only stay on your TiVo for X number of days (which goes against the NetFlix creed)? Does it have some sort of DRM on it that locks it down, which someone will inevitably write an app that breaks that DRM so they can be burned? Should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

  6. It’s inevitable! Downloading will continue and that is something that the movie industry, game industry, and software industry are going to have to accept. The only suggestion I have in making it easier for them is to learn from the music industry’s mistakes. Go with the flow if so be it but don’t make downloader’s unhappy (and they won’t overthrow the industry all together).

  7. Ok I admit i have downloaded movies and it’s going to keep on going on. They really cant help it I mean its impossible its a free country and they really have no choice but to go wtih the flow. If i can get something for free or if i have to pay 14 dollars for the same thing I’m gonna get it for free. Its just common sense.

  8. Downloading music and movies is almost impossible to stop. But, if the movie industry just “goes with the flow”, what happens when everyone just stops going to the movies and just downloads them for free? Then the movie industry won’t make the money they need to continue making movies. I agree that something free is better than something that you pay for, but at the same time the movie industry is suffering from the free movie downloads.

  9. I think that downloading movies and music is wrong. However, I have done both because although I think it’s wrong I also think that the entertainment industry is wrong. Although two wrongs don’t make a right I would rather get movies and music for free then have to pay the ridiculous prices that they charge. I would pay for movies and music if the prices were lower. My friend just started using Bearshare for $3 a month to download songs, I find that reasonable and would be willing to pay for the privilege and quality product. So I feel no remorse for the movie industry, they should figure out a way with all that money they made for $9 a ticket to make movies available for sharing online at high quality for a reduced price.

  10. I don’t think that there’s much they can do just like the music industry they’re going get hit and hit hard eventually. They should find a way to use it to there advantage. But as far as the decline of movie goers, I think that’s bull because nothing can replace the experience of going to see a new flick in the theaters. I wait for certain movies to come out like each part of the Lord of the Rings, or Spiderman 2 etc. to come out just to go to the movies to see it. It’s the experience and it can’t be replaced by watching a new movie outside of a packed dark theater. I guess since I’m not involved w/ the file sharing stuff it doesn’t really bother me.

  11. I think that going to the moives will never die out. Yea I could download a moive on my PC and watch it, but I am not going to enjoy it as much as if I were in a theater. As for the downloading, there is no way to stop it, the net is world wide and any law that they could make to stop it here, doesn’t mean that another country will. I can download the program from some international source, which is what I do now anyway.

  12. Like a few other people have said already, the companies claiming to lose money through illegal file sharing are wasting time .. They should ALREADY have a plan in place to make money in new ways from their products. I don’t know if it’s just stubbornness or what, but they have the upper hand when it comes to distributing — They need to capitalize on that. Personally, i like having things before they’re released, but have it on my computer or a generic cd-r just isn’t the same as having the real thing. Not to mention, you can’t get special feature either. It’s those types of things they need to focus on.. What they can still offer to the consumer to make their product worth paying for, outside of just the product alone.

  13. I am a movie donwloader, and sometimes I feel guilty but why not use whats available to you? No matter how hard people try to crack down on this, there are always ways around it. I think it lies on the producers shoulders to find creative ways to make money and factor in the fact their will be downloading because thats the technology available now.

  14. Downloading movies and music will continue to happen. It is impossible, especially with the technological advances to put a complete end to the downloading process. I understand that artist and directors are missing out on their earnings but they must realize that everyone cannot afford to run out and by a CD or go to the movies every time they hit the stores.

  15. I believe there is really nothing that can be done to prevent downloading of music, movies, etc. The technology available to us today is just too great and no matter what the companies or producers try to do there are people out there that will find a way around it. Movies are already on thier way to the same level as music downloading…its easy to get them, so why not? Penn State recently put up a firewall in the dorms that was supposed to disable filesharing programs like Kazaa. However, as many of us know, it didn’t do a very good job because it didn’t block the filesharing programs completely, it only filtered it a little. The producers and companies are just going to have to find a way to deal with it, or if they’re smart, profit from it somehow…how?..it’s up to them to figure that out

  16. From someone who has downloaded enough music, I don’t believe that downloaded movies throught the Internet will pose as big as a threat as the MPAA thinks. The prices to go see a movie have sky rocketed, making it an expensive way to spend your free time. Even though you can download movies, I haven’t yet, and I don’t think I will. There is still something to say for seeing the movie on the big screen with the surround sounds, munching on the movie popcorn. That’s alot different than watching on a 15″ monitor will bad sound quality. Even though people have been downloading movies, people still have been going to the movies, there is still something for the experience of going to the theater.

  17. Ok, I am a firm believer that P2P sharing should be allowed! Even if you wanted to keep files from being shared on the internet, I don’t think that it is possible. I agree that really the only way of keeping movies in the theater and not on the internet is to make the theater experiance more valuable. But you then have to realize that once the movie is out of the theaters, people are going to rip DVD’s and save them as files. Once as files, they will ultimately be sent to the internet and spread. Like I said in the beginning, it is impossible.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.