[small][b]Hector Claudio wrote:[/b][/small]
[i]I'm not sure is if the movie industry is on the top of thier game. I know with the cost of placing all the crazy computer effects in some of the major motion pictures, plus the growing cost of actor's salaries are keeping over head on the film pretty high.[/i]
The overhead is unbelievable. At least the record industry says that a profit must be made before anyone gets paid. There's logic to that even if the motives are suspect. In the movie industry, profits aren't made. Everyone gets paid on gross. The accounting is shady and makes Enron look like angels. The clearest example of “paid on gross” is Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks made a killing because he took ~3% of the gross. The writer made nothing because he signed a contract that guaranteed him some huge percentage of the profits. 3% of 0 is 0. The movie studio told him there was no profit. While Gump had some interesting special effects, I don't see how they could have lost money.
Next time you flip to Extra or some other Hollywood show, pay attention to the terminology. They'll always say “highest grossing movie [this weekend/on a Tuesday/EVER]. _Never_ will they mention how profitable a movie was.
Because of this, how are we supposed to sympathize with the studios? Like the record industry, they can't come to grips with the fact that if the product consistently sucks, even the dumbest 10% will stop buying. That said, Hollywood does put out a few winners every year that justifies the daytime admission prices. However, if they start invading people's property (i.e., computer) without cause, I'll have _no problem_ never giving Hollywood my money again.
[small][b]Hector Claudio wrote:[/b][/small]
[i]I still feel downloading movies has no way hit main stream as music has. To this f'n day I have never down loaded a movie cause I don't have patience. And I am pretty sure there are plenty others out there. [/i]
Indeed. This is time consuming stuff. To get DVD quality takes a few hours under the best circumstances with a straight FTP connection. BitTorrent _might_ bring that number down to an hour but that depends on how many people are willing to be seeders. Anyone that downloads a movie off of P2P (i.e., KaZaA) is smoking some serious Sorkin-Brand(TM) crack.
Beyond being a waste of time, somebody needs to upload the movie. Hosting bandwidth is not cheap by any measure. The first five people to grab a movie can blow away any current market bandwidth limit. Movie piracy is not within the capacity of the average clone. Movie piracy is an inside job. I think people respect what it takes to make a movie. I also think people have no respect for what it takes to make music. That's not because they don't respect real artists but because they see a crapflood of assclowns that somehow find their way into record deals. There's no quality control in music at all.
[small][b]Hector Claudio wrote:[/b][/small]
[i]it's here…..and here to stay….but can't we all atleast treat it like shareware. Download, listen, and if you like it buy it!! I predict the cost of cd's will eventually go down[/i]
I think people are willing to pay for music, despite quality, without hearing the whole song first. Shareware isn't necessary. Reducing prices is the cure. Apple iTunes is the best (and probably the only) example of a profitable music downloading business. Remember when CDs came out? They were $15. The industry claimed “new technology” as their defense for high prices. That was 20 years ago. Now CDs are $18 to $20 or more. What's up with that?
I predict CD prices will go up.
——
Laws are for people with no friends.
