Monday, September 10, 2007

Blatant free content or Patriot Act scheme

"Free" being exactly the way I would describe it to you if we were chatting in person.

I'd hold my fingers up and make the quotey gesticulation as to indicate that it's not really free.

Universal has just leveled a lawsuit against Veoh, a company that hosts video content, like YouTube, because of alleged copyright infringements.

Another company, ssupload.com, apparently draws video content hosted at Veoh (per the explanation on the ssupload.com) and allows site visitors to watch new release films. The site also offers additional tools which would allow a user to download content from the ssupload.com, for a fee.

You can catch a glimpse of a cam-held version of "Superbad", "Death Sentence", "3:10 to Yuma" and other recent, still-in-theater films. Some are copies uploaded from cam footage taken in the theater, while others are apparently leaked production copies.

I say "free" because, we know that the movie industry doesn't feel the same way, and quite honestly, I can't see why sites like ssupload.com and veoh.com wouldn't expect some kind of litigation from Universal or other such companies. This activity directly impacts ticket revenue generated from moviegoers.

I'm wondering if sites like veoh and ssupload would exist even if movie tickets were not the wallet-raping prices they are today, or if the overall movie quality was more improved? I would think so. We're becoming more and more acclimatized to expect immediate gratification: instant content available ubiquitously, and the information infrastructure is in place to support our cravings. This behavior isn't going to go away.

This got me wondering...what if this is all a Homeland Security ploy to accumulate data to profile would-be terrorists who view pirated certain content. Maybe after applying their algorithms they'd be able to say that people who viewed "28 Weeks Later" in Indianapolis, IN between August 1-10 within a specific ZIP Code are more prone to detonating a homemade explosive device in a public place, than are those people who watched "Superbad" in Seattle, WA. Maybe ssupload.com is a tool used by the Homeland Security...

...nah...that's too creative for this administration. The evil quality is there, but not the creative. They're more of a "you bad, me good, me crush you with club" evil than an "you inferior mortals will cower beneath my god-like stature as I wield the most destructive power ever introduced! muah-hahahahaaa!"

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