

News Corp Fires Columnist for Reviewing Pirated Movie - lukas
http://www.businessinsider.com/confirmed-news-corp-fired-fox-411-columnist-roger-friedman-2009-4

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froo
It always astounds me when these film companies promote theft, even glorify it
(the italian job, gone in 60 seconds, the oceans 11 series etc) and then get
annoyed when someone goes ahead and pirates a film.

Here's a thought - stop with the ludicrous distribution agreements and make it
easier for someone to pay for a film at home than it is to click "download
this torrent" on your favourite torrent sites.

I've said it before and I will say it again, there is something seriously
wrong with the system when the path of least resistance is unlawful,
especially for those people who WANT to do the right thing and pay for that
privilege.

There will always be people who wont pay for content, so why not focus on
making it easy and convenient for those people who do?

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fireteller
The job of a distributer is by definition obsolete in the face of the
internet. Most intelligent people I've met agree that fighting the ability to
copy content has no future. Distributors may not be dead yet, but they are in
the ER hooked up to monitors, with lawyers running around trying to
defibrillate them with lawsuits.

For the most part they can't change either, because they are often under
contract to provide content to certain channels and certain times, so they
can't just start offering a pay or advertising based torrent service.

In terms of producing movies, music or other kinds of content, the only real
value that remains in the studio model is financing. That is, someone pays to
make your movie based on how excited you can make them in 10 minutes. With
distribution being replaced, there may yet be a business model in production
financing. Maybe "get enough people on facebook to like your script, and we'll
give you 60 million dollars to make it...."

Well I can dream can't I?

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njharman
Wow, I thought there would be more discussion here.

Finally, someone in mainstream acknowledging the problem with piracy is that
it's the most convenient, most consumer friendly option available.

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slackerIII
Bad headline. This is what the columnist said about pirating movies: "Later
tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man. It’s so much
easier than going out in the rain!”"

Perhaps "News Corp Fires Columnist for Encouraging Piracy"

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jibiki
"On Friday, Fox News entertainment columnist Roger Friedman watched and
reviewed one of the pirated copies of Wolverine floating around the Web."

