Charter Member of the Sub-Media

September 06, 2007

Yet Another IPR vs Technology Rant « Stuff Important to Me »

Ridley Scott says video players like iPod and PSP are ruining cinema. Silicon Hutong says they will save it.

In my opinion, Silicon Hutong gets it wrong from the very first sentence:

Because, you see, the problem is not technology.

But he comes closer as he continues:

It is Scott and people like him, people who really like Things the Way They Are, because Things the Way They Are have made them rich and famous and lets them make expensive movies and take home little trophies. These folks do not particularly like technology (watch Scott's movies - he hates tech), do not understand people who do, and are deep down in places they do not talk about at Malibu parties they are just plain scared of anything with a microchip.

They see all of this change happening and are smart enough to understand that it means The End of the World As They Know It. And they are terrified. Hence Ridley's mobile device fixation.

Which is all correct. But Silicon Hutong goes off the rails again when he says:

Technology, in its different forms, is getting set to bring about a cinematic renaissance. More people can make films, make them cheaper, and get them in front of audiences faster and easier today than anytime since Mayer, Zukor, Laemmle, Cohn, Fox, Warner, and Disney showed up in L.A. and started buying orange groves. Green screens, cheap gear, and powerful software means that you don't have to spend $200 million to make an epic - you just need a script, a camera, and a Macintosh.

Starting to see what's bugging Ridley?

I don't think that's totally correct.

Yes, technology is going to create a cinematic renaissance.

What bothers Ridley and his ilk is that what technology provided, technology also is in the process of taking away.

Technology allowed the recording of a performance; thus, a single person was able to create a "performance" of art that could be disseminated in near-perfect copy at a cheap distribution price to mass audiences (in the thousands and millions) at a high viewing cost.

How it all worked:
The performer only had to do it once, but the audience could experience it at another time, or even multiple times, without increasing the cost to the performer. But that required a massively expensive studio infrastructure that individuals could not afford, and the cooperation of the performer.

The next enabler was equipment that could reproduce the performances extremely cheaply, but was expensive enough to be a barrier to individuals (which expense became relative cheap when the costs were spread out through mass sales).

The supply was then limited to a single company that controlled the master copy of the performance. Some technology allowed other copies of the performances to be made, but the product was invariably extremely inferior. Thus, the production/distribution company could set whatever price the market would bear. Mass production and economies of scale allowed that price to be low enough to attract millions of viewers, but with a production cost that was a tiny fraction of the viewing price.

That process made the artist and the production/distribution company very rich.

But it is an artificially restricted supply.

Digital technology allows an individual with cheap equipment to make an extremely cheap near-exact single copy of a performance.

Digital emancipation from the production/distribution overlords. Now they can't get rich on a single performance. Now the artists can reach their audience directly without help...without an opportunity for a corporation to make money on each transaction.

And the artist is now under pressure to produce or perish. One performance can quickly leave the control of the creator. If he can stimulate demand, he has a window to make money while the supply is limited. But natural diminishing returns will end the cash train much more quickly than before.

And what's wrong with that?

Is there a rule that someone who writes a simple little three-chord song should become a millionaire just because someone 20 years ago could by doing the same thing?

Nope.

I am a creator, by the way. Not just by what you see here on this blog. I make music; I sing, I play guitar, I compose...you will be seeing some of that here soon. I hope you like it and decide to purchase some CDs from me, or individual songs. I think I can make enough money to make it worth my while before people start copying it (...or it might not be any good and I won't make any money at all). I can put low-quality copies, or truncate the performance to stimulate you to purchase the complete work. But eventually people will start "pirating" copies; I won't care, though, because each copy that gets made will be an advertisement for my future works. And there will always be people willing to pay for the convenience of getting the recorded performance directly from me.
I also write. And no technology can duplicate holding a book in your hand...I think I can eventually get published; and I will put some (or maybe all) of my books online for free after they are published, because I doubt it will make me lose any revenue. They will be advertisements for future sales.

Bottom line:
Don't depend on technology-produced artificial limits on supply.

Posted by Nathan at 10:10 AM | Comments (24) | TrackBack (0)
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