Why the broadcast flag should go forward | Perspectives | CNET News.com: Dan Glickman, CEO of the MPAA is out this morning with a “perspective” on CNET talking about why the Broadcast Flag is a good thing for you and me and why we should support it’s implementation even though the MPAA has now lost their legal fight to shove this backwards technology down our throat by their lackeys at the FCC.
Glickman says that it’s you and me who will “suffer” by not having the broadcast flag.
His logic runs as follows:
“Our companies want to continue to show their movies and television shows to viewers who don’t or can’t subscribe to cable or satellite systems. But without the broadcast flag, that option will look less and less appealing. In the end, it will be the consumers who suffer the most if the broadcast flag is not mandated for the digital era.”
Oh, yeah, ok Dan, whatever you say guy.
You just don’t get it. You lost. Hollywood lost. You guys had and will continue to have your clock cleaned time and time again. Embrace the future. Learn to share the love. Give up control and move on.
Look, many Americans think the speed limit is a good thing. They like it. When cars come barrelling down my street and my kids are outside playing I think the speed limit is a good thing. When I’m on the vast stretch of lonesome highway between San Francisco and L.A. I think it’s a bad thing. But either way I don’t want some lawmaker trying to mandate that cars made be crippled and have a maximum operating speed of 65 miles per hour. Nor do most Americans. And likewise, I don’t want my technology crippled so that I can’t do whatever the hell I want with it, when, where, and with whomever I choose.
So you go ahead and flaunt your, “if we don’t get our way we’ll take our ball and go home” logic all you want. And I’ll call BS. Hollywood will still make blockbuster movies, big budget TV shows will still go on and actors, directors and artists looking for the flickering fame of the silver screen will be no less motivated.
You and your cronies may have less money to spread around amongst yourselves, but Dan, this is a good thing as you are part of the problem.
And you know what else, your big budget features will on their own become less and less successful and less and less profitable. This is inevitable as long tail economics take over and the very tools that you want to crush become the tools of liberation for new armies of artists and creators who bypass you entirely to bring their creations (and collectively their entertainment will offer you serious competition) to the rest of us.