Movies, Media and you

This is a topic that may or may not be relevant to my 21-month-old son when he gets older. I suspect though that it will be just as relevant with some minor word changes in the future as it is in the present.
A few of premises.

1. People like watching movies
2. People are willing to pay for movies on media or streamed over cable or internet
3. Some people would like to watch their movies in different forms - on disk, flash drives or whatever media may come up in the future - other than the purchased media version (in this case DVD or VHS).
4. Some people would like to make combinations of scenes of movies for their own and their friends amusment.
5. Some people would like to have archival copies of their movies - and store them in a separate place other than their house. So in the case of a house fire - they do not lose all of their movies.
6. Some people get advance copies of movies and release them on the internet.
7. Some people make copies of movies to sell in the flea market.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the music industry have made a critical assumption. They have decided the end of the philisophical debate in regard to are humans innately good or evil. They have decided that we are all evil and that they need to protect their products by making people who make copies of their movies criminals and making it impossible for the average person to be even mildly creative.

The industry has no problem with the people in premise number 1.

The industry make their money on people on premise number 2.

The industry does not like premise number 3, unless of course you purchase the license to the movie over again in the new medium, paying full price for each license.

The industry does not like the people in premise number 4, even though the source of new material in the future might come from someone in the basement putting together a nice symbolism of Star Trek movie - showing it to their friends and them liking it - and then getting the licenses for the clips and selling DVDs on a topic that many people might like. So the industry has made it impossible for people to even delve in to premise number 4.

Look for premise number 5 the industry wants you to re-purchase your entire collection of DVDs/VHS/and music CDs.

OK, now on prmise number 6 - I agree with the industry - this is very bad. If a new movie comes out on DVD - they deserve to make profit on the movie.

Premise number 7 - these people are really jerks. I suspect that if they put as much effort in to creating new content they would make more money than copying other peoples content.

But the real loser in all of this is the average consumer. I have a crapload of VHS tapes. I do not presently have VHS tape player set up on any of my TVs. Therefore, I am unable to watch any of my VHS tapes. Why is it that I cannot watch VHS tapes? It is because I have moved on to the next media format. I am committed to DVD video.

Soon, companies will stop producing VHS players. Then everyone that has a large collection of VHS tapes will be in a similar position that I am. They own a lot of (expensive) junk. And realistically, the VHS tapes are not going to last all that long in the first place.

So, now I have to replace (if I ever want to watch them again) all the movies I previously purchased in VHS format in DVD format.

I feel very ripped off every time I have to buy a DVD of something I already purchased on VHS. Especially my boxed set of Star Trek movies, my boxed set of Star Wars, my boxed set of Planet of the Apes movies and several boxed sets of X-Files episodes. And that is not even including the multitude of movies that I own that are not part of boxed sets.

Hundreds to thousands of dollars will be spent replacing licenses for VHS tapes. Now there are even more newer formats on the horizon. Doubtless they will offer benefits. Perhaps they will offer compatability with previous DVD formats. Perhaps not. If not, look forward to spending hundreds to thousdands of dollars again to be able to watch the movies and TV series you already own on DVD in whatever new formats may come out.

This is obviously a system designed to benefit one group - the MPAA. But what harm is there in making a little money?

Plenty.

Consider, that my VHS tapes are being replaced - they are going in to a landfill. And what will happen to my DVDs when they are no longer able to be played on any player device of the future? That is right, in the landfill. So the environment suffers every time there is a significant format change in media used to convey movies.

These companies produce thousands and millions of copies of movies based on guesses they make in terms of how many people will buy a particular movie. There is a lot of waste involved in a system like that. What happens to the copies of movies that are never purchased. Eventually after they make a stop at the under $10 rack - someone writes them off as a loss and off to the garbage they go.

Some of this waste to the environment is not really all that preventable. When you go from VHS to DVD - that is a major format change. But, do we really have to pay for the movie all over again. I thought I bought the rights to watch the movie when I got it on VHS?

I would really like to see a machine at any place that sells DVD movies. A machine that takes in media, certifies that it is in fact Star Trek The Motion Picture, and then destroys my VHS copy of the movie and (for a small operational fee, with a little bit of profit in it) provides me with a DVD version freshly burned and printed DVD jacket and all. Then my license to watch the movie is preserved - they get to make a little money on the way, and everyone *should* be happy.

And since all of the same item (VHS tapes) are going in to the machine, they can go to one place and have all the recoverable materials removed from the VHS tape and used again in something else.

But right now, all we have is the trash dump.

Me personally, I want to archive my movies off-site. Homes perish in flames every year. And it is a good thing to survive a house fire. But what do you get to look forward to if your entire movie collection has perished in the flames. Unless you listed the movies in your house insurance, it is unlikely that they will cover several thousand dollars of movies that you have to replace. So, you will either do without the right to watch movies you have rightfully purchased and unfortunately lost, or you will pay for those movies again.

I think the idea of making my own stuff out of bits and pieces of other movies - for comical or other purposes would be great. My goal certainly isn't to make money. Just to show friends. If there was even the possibility of making money on it - licenses would have to be purchased. But, what I want to do is not possible, my creativity is hindered, because I cannot grab bits and pieces of episodes of Star Trek to prove that certain characters are symbolic of certain things in the entire series.

And the things that the MPAA has done to prevent piracy, have they worked? Well, rather unfortunately, the only person they have stopped from being able to edit and in other ways mangle Star Trek, is well me. The career copier that sells bootleg copies of movies uses a machine that makes bit-by-bit copies of the DVDs, and his copies are identical to the originals. The guy that releases a movie over the internet, move than likely works at a theater, and video taped a movie on a late-night run with few people in the theater.

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