Big media is scared of social media
There is another aspect to the recent TechCrunch stories (first one, follow up) about social media spamming that has not been focused on yet: the young entrepreneur/student who does all the dirty work has, as it seems, high profile clients paying him to do this. Comment no. 23 on the first TechCrunch story says:
“From LinkedIn:
Notable clients include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros Records, Fox Atomic, Walden Media, Yari Film Group, Nike, Oakley, …”
Interesting, isn’t it…? It looks like big media is scared, does not trust its own products and needs to play dirty in order to get the attention it seeks. This is the real story that we need to focus on! Forget the little fish, this guy still studies and, while I think he is wrong in doing what he does, he is still learning and maybe might change his business practices now that he sees how others think of him…?
What we bloggers, podcasters, vloggers, indie film makers, social media entrepreneurs, indie media publishers, P2P specialists, open-source coders and all those who think playing fair is not a luxury but a necessity (and of course the right thing to do) – what we all need to do is to stand up and let big media, Hollywood, the music industry, the MPAA, the RIAA (or is it the MAFIAA…?), let all of them know that:
• their time is running out
• we are prepared to play fair – as long as they are prepared to play fair
• we are powerful and we are everywhere: we have our blogs, podcasts, vlogs, social networks, mailings lists, forums, zines, mags, news networks, indie media distribution channels and of course free and open-source operating systems, office packages, 3D software, content publishing solutions and so much more
• we have the money because we are the consumers, they depend on us, not the other way round!
A consumer’s ultimatum
To further illustrate what Hollywood and the music industry is up against here the full comment from a digg user on a recent story titled “The Pirate Bay Cancels OiNK Replacement”.
Before reading any further note that:
I do not necessarily agree with everything that this digg user writes.
I personally do not download Hollywood movies from P2P networks for mainly one good reason: I almost stopped caring about Hollywood movies at some point after seeing “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” and “The Matrix Reloaded”. Those who were unfortunate enough to spend their time and money to see those movies will know what I mean…
Also: the following was a comment made on digg.com and the author uses rather strong language! But I do think it is funny and a very interesting read for anyone who tries to sell music or movies to consumers:
You know what! Seriously fuck the MPAA & RIAA.. Here is why.. they
are so far behind when it comes to distribution of their content.
Recently, I’ve tried to make an effort of purchasing the movies and
music I’ve downloaded off bittorrent, and that’s alot of content that I
was willing to legally purchase. I saved up to 1,000 $ and was ready to
pay back my dues. I was only paying for the stuff I enjoyed, and stuff
worth purchasing. That is the beauty of bittorrent.
Tried all the different online stores, and places where I can legally
purchase or view their content (Zune Marketplace, iTunes, Amazon,
Spiralfrog, Hulu, etc.. , and failed at every attempt. Why? Because
this content is always only available for you to download if you live
in the US. I live in Egypt! and I have no idea why you would fuckin
restrict your content only to the US, if you are against piracy, and
trying to reduce piracy. It makes no fuckin sense! And also wtf are all
those restrictions. You can only watch the content 5 times, burn it 6
times, cannot transfer to this or that. FUCK YOU! A BIG FUCK YOU!
You can’t say I didn’t try MPAA RIAA, whoever the fuck you are! I even
tried to order a dvd off Amazon, but fuck you I aint paying 45 $ for a
DVD + Shipment!
Here is my list of demands MPAA, RIAA, IFPI, whoever you 4-initials bitches are..
1. No geographical restrictions whatsoever
2. DRM-less, no restrictions whatsoever
3. Make your movies available for rent, and purchase. Reasonable
pricing would be 2-3 $ rent, 6-8 $ purchase. (c’mon you are only paying
for bandwidth)
4. CD Quality DRM-less music (320 kbps or kpbs whatever that shit is)
5. make it easy, hassle-free,
If those demands are not met by let’s say mid 2008, I am purchasing 4
2TB WD External Hard Disks, and you’ll never see a penny from me.
**Sorry fellow diggers for my grammar, swearing etc.. english isn’t my first language and im a lil bit high…
Conclusion
The music industry and Hollywood still don’t get the internet, they now use dirty tricks to push their content on sites like YouTube, consumers are ready to write lists of demands to “MPAA, RIAA, IFPI, whoever you 4-initials bitches are” and let them know that “If those demands are not met by let’s say mid 2008, I am purchasing 4 2TB WD External Hard Disks, and you’ll never see a penny from me.“
Maybe it is time for Hollywood to focus on what they used to be good at: making good movies that people care enough about to buy tickets and DVDs…? Of course good movies need good scripts. Coincidence that right now there is this tiny little disagreement between the studios and the script writers…?
Hollywood, learn your own lessons: “If it’s not on the page it’s not on the stage.” Spamming YouTube won’t help your business.
Music industry: people stopped buying your music not because of BitTorrent but because there was nothing worth buying. Look at your content, look at your “stars”. We stopped caring. A while ago.
And think twice before spamming our networks with your content in the future!
Think twice before stealing someone else’s chances of having the “most viewed video” of the week.
Think twice before stealing our time when you make us watch content we don’t care about.
We, the internet users, we the bloggers, podcasters, vloggers and all the others now know your dirty tricks and we will watch you and document all of your moves. The recent TechCrunch article was only the beginning. Be sure of that.
hollywood, music industry, mafiaa, youtube, spam, social media, indie, media