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Media Models Part 2 - DRM |
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Following on from part 1, our look at the challenges facing the media industry from new technology, we now look at DRM. DRM aka Digital Rights Management is arguably the digital extension of the existing 'physical commodity' model of media. By this, we mean that media is financed by selling a copy of the media artefact. For example, when you buy a DVD you are buying the limited rights to use a copy of the media artefact in a legally prescribed way; you can watch it at home on your TV but you can't screen it in your local cinema and charge for entry. When media started going digital it became apparent that there was an issue with this model. If I have a VHS video you are interested in, I can loan it to you. If I have a digital file of a film you are interested in, I can give you a copy. With the first there is still only one copy involved. With the second we get two copies. So DRM was developed to stop people using digital files in ways they were not supposed to; so echoing the existing 'physical commodity' model of media.
But right from the offset DRM hit problems. Some took issue with the name itself. The Free Software Foundation were unhappy with the use of the word 'rights', arguing that it is misleading and posed the alternative term 'Digital Restrictions Management'. Some DRM was implemented in physical systems that contained digital artefacts such as CDs, but they hit problems when some types of CD Player could not recognise and play the disc.
The proliferation of digital media and its formats have not only created more problems for DRM technology but also more potential areas they feel it needs to be imposed. In music there seems to finally be a slipping away of DRM; Apple now offer DRM-free music though iTunes (though the fact that it costs more than a track with DRM has been pointed to as proof that DRM lowers the value of the product ). At a recent conference on the subject (in December 2007) Ian Rogers, VP Video and Media Applications at Yahoo! Music stated ;
"Hopefully we all agree it’s good news that DRM is finally dead. Five years ago I started saying we were in the age of PURE CONSUMER CONFUSION...and it wouldn’t be gone until DRM was gone and digital media was interoperable. With proprietary DRM there are only two possible outcomes: PURE CONSUMER CONFUSION or Monopoly. We’ve been saddled with both in varying degrees. But now that MP3s are finally for sale we’re headed toward much less consumer confusion and a much better value proposition for sales. Please don’t look at this as the labels 'giving up'. It’s much better seen as an acknowledgment of the physics of the space and an appreciation that attempting to create scarcity only wastes precious time and money."
This does not mean that DRM has gone away; far from it. One could speculate that it does mean that in music, with so much available and the huge number of easy-to-use ways to get music; from legal free music given by bands on MySpace to illegally downloaded music though p2p, to legally purchased music via iTunes and the like; it does look the the ability to impose something that lowers the value of a commodity is a hard-sell with so many other options. Thus far, in the digital realm, what has happened to music has then happened to film - does this means DRM is in difficulty overall? One of the most prominent strands of DRM around today can be found in the new Microsoft operating system, Windows Vista - however its sales have not been great and it has come under intense criticism for its DRM, called 'Protected Media Path '. One analysis of Windows Vista's DRM noted ;
"[The analysis] describes in great detail the various measures Microsoft has taken to lock down Windows on behalf of Hollywood....in order to playback HD-DVD and BluRay content, Microsoft agreed to degrade video and audio functionality in Windows...leaving the user with minimal (eg VGA) functionality."
This may lead one to the same conclusion that a well-known blog Techdirt came to, when trying to fit an older model (the 'physical commodity' model) into a new hole (digital network media); "However, it's interesting to see that relying on the supposedly 'successful' old model is starting to come under stress from everyone else in the industry. It highlights, once again, that when we talk about these models, it's silly to compare the 'old way' and any 'new way.' It's more important to recognize that the old way just isn't sustainable. You need to compare the new models to what the old models are trending towards."
The paradigm of charging for reproduction seemed appropriate during the age of type-setters, however, we need to move on. This is a new digital age, with many media artefacts being reducible to code. The industries involved need to move on, to recognise its a different landscape and work with the artists and producers; allow the free-flow of media artefacts. With encouragement and a loose grip, who knows what new markets
could open up? |
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Stage 6, the YouTube-style site for high-quality video uploads, which we had flagged before as an example of a challenger to YouTube's crown has sadly decided to close as of today (28th Feb). The news was broken by a statement posted on the site; In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it's possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet....So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide....We couldn't continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high-quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down....Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue...
R.I.P. Stage6.com |
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Media Models Part 1 - Show Me the Money |
The end of January 2008 saw the expanding of YouTube's partnership scheme to the UK , which was designed to share ad-revenue with producers. The scheme only targets a few of the tens of thousands of filmmakers' who use the site to share content, but YouTube claims that some are now earning several thousand dollars a month from videos on the site. Nice work if you can get it. And that's the key - how do you get it? you have to be picked by YouTube. This scheme has not been without its critics ;
"So basically what YouTube are saying is, go away and work hard to create great content AND build an audience to win the grand prize which is an ad-revenue deal with us....Sounds a lot like a record company to me where bands slog it out for years, usually at a loss, hoping to appear on the industry's radar...So why not open the scheme to everybody..."
The key issue does not seem to be so much 'what can technology do?', but 'how can it pay?' But therein lies the question - pay whom and how much? The music industry still seems to be in free-fall about how to deal with the networked age it finds itself in;
"U2's manager yesterday called on artists to join him in forcing the 'hippy' technology and internet executives he blames for the collapse of the music industry to help save it...He was speaking at the Midem music conference in Cannes, which has been dominated by talk of new revenue models that might save an industry brought to its knees by piracy and falling sales."
The continued focus on copyright law as a way to enforce business models is having a rough time. ThePirateBay is under attack , (again ) yet the use of torrents is growing, new frontiers have opened up, even before the closing of this front; witness QuickSliverScreen , akin to VideoHybrid we reported on before , streaming full length films over the net; (at the time of writing this you could see In The Valley Of Elah, Sweeny Todd and hundreds of others! ) It seems a never-ending battle. (Much of this seems to be powered by the frankly impressive Stage6 by DivX.)
So what are the revenue models that are breaking though? We looked at this a while ago in the plugincinema book, and much of what we said stills holds true, so for the next couple of blog entries, we are going to look at the ideas and practices being talked about and used at the moment... PS: Feel free to contact us with ideas and suggestions for the blog.
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plugincinema recently published some torrent files where you can get plugincinema films, as part of the catbot.org peer-2-peer project! These are the first public torrents on the project (and are a bit of a test, so if you have any problems or questions, please contact tom at fluffylogic.net, thanks! The following are now online;
break_it_down
This short documentary takes a look at the emerging Breakcore music scene and its battle with copyright. Breakcore is a form of irreverent, mashed-up music typified by sampling and broken beats. The film features artists such as Parasite, Donna Summer (aka Jason Forrest), Rotator, Bong Ra, Kovert, DJ Ripley, Knifehandchop, Anarchic Hardrive and Public Enemy.
plugincinema Short Film Collection No.1
4 short films from the plugincinema website: Andy Lomas's underwater breakcore video, 'Deathsucker', Anakissed's play on compression 'George the Mewvie', early viral email film 'Teasecat' and super-super short art film by Paul Rit's 'Tuned'. Enjoy!
Machinima Skate Dreams
This film is an experiment in on-line, low-bandwidth/resolution filmmaking using Tony Hawk's Skateboarding as the original inspiration. This edits bits together using Premiere and some snazy transition and captured VHS footage. It uses some original music by Parasite to edit the footage to.
Fighting Women II
This film is the continuation of a project Ana started in the spring of 1998. The result of this was a half hour documentary. the Northern Lights Film Awards. Since then Ana's attention has been focused on producing films for the Internet. Fighting Women II is an attempt to create a short web piece that still has many of the concerns of the original documentary.
If, upon reading this, you are a bit confused as to what this is all about then the following links may help; If you want to know what a peer-2-peer system or cat bot is, click here .
If you want to know more about torrents in general, try this.
There are links to software here ; (If you just want to download the films above, then you first need a BitTorrent client, see the link ontthe page!) |
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Joost , the peer-to-peer TV system, also being called 'Telly 2.0' (as a nod to Web 2.0) has been subject to lots of rumours following the departure of its Chief Technology Officer recently. Just a few months ago Joost was in the enviable position of having 'legitimate' online video from television networks, as well as a lot of buzz surrounding their beta, which promised free 'broadcast quality' online television viewing. Since then, however, it seems to have quickly faded into obscurity, overshadowed by direct offerings from network websites, new services like the joint venture from NBC Universal (NBCU) and News Corp. called Hulu, and more recently Apple TV.
Now NewTeeVee weighs in with some suggestions of how to 'save' Joost - assuming it needs saving that is - there are some intriguing ideas for Telly 2.0:
- Integrate Hulu - almost every single comment made on our recent articles about Joost involves a complaint about the lack of quality content....Sure, the interface will need some tweaking, but that’s a small price to pay if you get instant access to tons of quality programming in return.
- Turn Joost into a podcasting client. There are literally hundreds of great video podcasts out there...So why can’t I watch any of them with Joost?
- Build a web version. This is pretty much a no-brainer. Sure, P2P won’t work on the web, and there are plenty of competitors out there. But it’s about offering your users the convenience of being able to watch your content where they want and how they want..
- Build a Firefox plug-in. Consider it the next step in merging the web with the Joost app. A plug-in could make use of Joost’s P2P network, its widgets and its community and at the same time allow access to any other content online...
- Get Joost on the Wii. Forget about Apple TV. The real home entertainment powerhouse is Nintendo...Give me the ability to control my videos with some wild Wiimote gestures, and I’ll chose Joost over Hulu any day...
Lots of interesting stuff for consideration... We have recently been looking at a number of online video projects and the associated systems that will supply them and one thing is clear, even if Joost fails, p2p delivery for content is growing. The BBC iPlayer uses p2p technology 'under the hood' and the p2p method is being mixed with the web method (as suggested above) with interesting results. This, and the p2p world continues to innovate with new search systems , new software , new ideas (such as online secure storage ) and the Ipsos study that shows users prefer to download rather than stream ... |
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The 21st Century Format War: Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD |
In a re-run of the 80s VHS vs Betamax (which Betamax lost) former Betamax allies Sony and Toshiba are now engaged in a battle for control over the next generation of DVD formats, Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. In the red corner is the HD-DVD camp , as well as Toshiba are many others such as Sanyo, NEC and Mircosoft (who used HD-DVD with the xbox360). In the blue (of course) corner is Blu-Ray with Sony (and their PlayStation 3), Disney and Sun Microsystems and others. (Some companies are hedging their bets and are listed as supporters of both.) Earlier in 2005 Sony and Toshiba held talks to try to unify the formats , but the talks failed and the war began in earnest. Later in 2005 research firm Forester declared Blu-Ray the current winner. More bad news followed with Warner backing Blu-Ray and rumours of Apple jumping in with both feet . Toshiba responded by cutting the cost of an HD-DVD ;
"Toshiba America Consumer Products said it cut prices of its HD DVD players effective January 13 to boost market adoption of its next-generation DVD players by mainstream consumers after what it said was a successful fourth quarter in unit sales....Toshiba's players will now start as low as $149 going up to $399 for the top-of-range player."
Things were looking bleak as reports circulated that the HD-DVD group has cancelled many of their meetings at the major consumer electronics show CES. However, it is of note most people in the industry recognise that this technology is a transitory stage in the process;
"We can use HD discs to train consumers to move into digital, but it's a transition," said Dan Silverberg, vice president of high-definition media development at Warner Bros. "Downloaded content will come, but the consumer will get quicker tutorial into video-on-demand, etc. by owning a Blu-ray player or HD DVD."
If the industry knows this is a temporary stage, will consumers see that too? Mike McGuire, a vice president of media research for Gartner noted ;
"Just as we've seen with audio, where audiophiles tend to prefer analog LPs or tape to digital downloads, we could see Blu-ray or HD DVD discs being the province of cinephiles..The problem with that is the cost associated with maintaining a niche format. Ultimately, though, downloads and streams [will likely] win out, and I think what you find is that the majority will opt for the temporary ownership of a movie or TV show.."
As more and more people spend less and less time watching TV and more time integrating games and the internet into their home systems as well as the ever-increasing media in portable formats such as mobile phones, is this a pyrrhic war that will costs the combatants huge sums but leave a tiny crumbling kingdom of physical discs eclipsed by the always on-line systems now emerging and dominating? As one blogger noted ; "...it is only a matter of time before Blu-Ray and HD DVD are both obsolete." |
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