Torrents – friend or foe to whom?

Bit torrents. The easiest way to get the latest movie. Even before it’s released. Are pirates an essential part of a capitalist system?

“Torrent freak, a dedicated torrent blog, unsurprisingly places The Dark Knight, the highest grossing film of 2008 with over a billion dollars taken at the box office, as the most downloaded torrent with over seven million downloads. With these levels of illegal downloads occurring it’s no surprise to find that Warner Brothers, along with MGM, Colombia Pictures Industries, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI took a stand against one of the largest torrent search engines  Pirate Bay (a Swedish site).” (from IABUK)

Does there have to be a degree of creative destruction to usher in better technology?  Whatever happens, the distribution methods are changing rapidly.   Maybe Torrent Freak’s April Fool’s news that WB bought Pirate Bay for a massive sum is not very far from future truth.

So, my questions, related to my previous post on bit torrent: is movie piracy a crime to be punished or an inevitable new form of distribution which should be embraced.  If you can’t beat them, join them?

And, a recent podcast on TWIT (This Week in Tech) was bemoaning the plans Time Warner is rolling out for metered broadband… charging for broadband internet usage by the gigabyte, instead of by the month. Is this a clever attempt to reap some benefit from movie piracy?

There is going to be an interesting forum on the future of media in Madrid for Universidad de Navarra students and alumni on May 5th.  I wonder if we’ll touch on the film piracy subject.

Questions?  I’ve got plenty more.  Thoughts?

Show Biz Families

Interesting connections. Who new that Jennifer Aniston’s father was an actor from Greece whose birth name is Yannis Anastassakis, and who made a guest appearance in My Big Fat Greek Wedding?
Or that there are three generations of Frank Capra?

And why didn’t I know that Norah Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar?!

More about families and siblings in show business:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_show_business_families

I don’t see Rhodes.

Inspiration and Education

INSPIRATION: imagine something similar to the Australian show Hollow Men (clip below) set in the White House.  It’s a whip-smart comedy that basically thrives on the inefficiency and tail-chasing of government.  The Office meets West Wing.

Hollow Men

ok, and a bit of EDUCATION:  Stand on the shoulders of giants.  Learn all the tricks of those who succeed, and beat them with agility and learn from their mistakes.