Gecko Bloggle

’cause we all know it’s wrong, and we’d never EVER do that.
Unless, of course, somebody told us we couldn’t.
Finger-wagging by groups like the RIAA directly increases the visibility of piracy.

RIAA: “Don’t download StarWars Episode III, or you’re bad!”
AverageJoe: “Dude, you can download movies?”
RIAA: “Yes, using BitTorrent, you can. So don’t.”
AverageJoe: “Let me get a pen, what’s it called again?”
AverageSteve: “What’re you doing?”
AverageJoe: “I’m gonna download movies!”
AverageSteve: “Awesome!”
RIAA: “Hey, cut that out! Don’t download new movies and music! Give that money to us!”
AverageJoe: “What money? I wasn’t going to see EP3 or buy the new Madonna album anyway – I was gonna wait for the DVD, and listen to the single on the radio 25 times a day if I want to.”
AverageSteve: “My nephew knows how to copy them DVD thingies.”
RIAA: “Cracking DECSS is evil and wrong, and using program like DVD Decrypter to make copies is immoral, so we shut them down, too.”
AverageJoe: “Wait, wait, let me get my pen again.”
AverageSteve: “What’re you doing now?”
AverageJoe: “After I download this movie, I’m gonna make copies of my Rogers rentals using some kinda DVDSS thing.”
RIAA: “STOP IT! Artists are starving in the streets! Look at poor Celine Dion! Bryan Adams!”
AverageJoe: “…”
AverageSteve: “…”
AverageJoe: “Do you have any blanks? I think it’ll only take a few more copies to kill off Celine…”
AverageSteve: “Here’s two, think we can take a chunk outta 50cent, too?”

Remember those levies on blank media? Why is London Drugs still charging them? I got a notification from Apple that I was owed $25 on the iPod Mini I bought last year, because the CDN courts had reversed some sorta ruling .

I find the little “You wouldn’t steal a car, would you?” ads at the beginning of DVD rentals sort of amusing.

Would I steal a car? No.
Would I copy a car, if I could, and leave the original where it was? Maybe.
If I could also copy the fuel that was in it, somehow leaving the environmental impact at zero? YEAH!

I think the RIAA is hanging on to the outdated idea that the money should go mostly to distributors, not the artists who created the work (or the producers who helped “polish it up”). I went to this symposium thing a few years ago where they were saying that the only way for musicians to make sure they were getting “pay for play” was to tour, since everyone at the event had paid to be there.

Now that bands are getting smart and doing things like selling CDs of the show you just watched at their shows, I think we’re seeing that shift coming to fruition.

For movies? Don’t know if there is such a thing as P4P, but having to pay per-person to see it in the theatres is pretty close. Hard for the RIAA and MPAA to control things like how many people are in your living room while you watch the rental of the Hegoly Sheggit Freakout 27-disc version of the Goonies, though.

Okay, I have to go back to work, supporting the godless monsters people who make sports games over and over and over and over….

Imagine when EA gets into film?

Godfather 2006 Special Edition
Godfather 2006 “I have a sandwich, you have a soda” Food Fight Add-On Pack
Godfather 2006.01 patch (fifteen minutes of dialogue without any swearing, free to Walmart customers)
Godfather 2007 (released in November of ’06, same movie with 1/3rd of the cast changed for no good reason).
Godfather Neon Nights (Starring the cast of the Sims: Rated R)

…and the kicker: $70/seat to see each one…
…and the other shoe: $120 for the “multiplayer” add-on, where you can bring a date…