Don't Block Our Torrents!

On MSNBC, I read an article about Comcast blocking some internet traffic. Tests show that Comcast is interfering with some peer to peer (p2p) network traffic. While I'll admit a lot of p2p traffic is of copyrighted material, it does have its major uses as well. For instance, pretty much all Linux Distributions can be acquired from a p2p network (usually through torrents). Internet companies should stay competitive, and neutral on data. Don't think for a moment that internet companies aren't being pressured by media companies either. I tend to rant about the media companies "not getting it". So here it goes.

Torrents provide a way for anyone, especially "the little guy" to provide content to others, while avoiding high costs of servers and bandwidth. Torrents are one of those revolutionary ways of distributing files, and I think some people just can't grasp it.

One way for media companies to avoid many illegal downloads would be to provide a legal way of obtaining them. Of course, the prices should be void of any manufacturing, shipping, or packaging costs. The media companies that have tried to digitally distribute content can't seem to grasp this. Other than ease of use, why should you have to pay full price for half a product, when everyone else can get it with packaging? And, especially when a torrent of the full, non-protected content is a search away.

You must overlook the people who say, "Well, then get up and go buy it". These people can't seem to grasp the idea. Look at it this way. In a brick and mortar store, would you normally sell a product to someone at the normal sale price, even if it was missing its packaging or damaged? Any legitimate store would be negotiable with such an item. The damage in this case would be the extreme DRM (digital rights management).

So take this in mind next time you set prices on digital media:
"Digital Media = Open Box Content. Price accordingly."

Half-Life 2: Episode 2!

You heard the title. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is finally out! I played it today, and as I suspected, it was a complete success. I enjoyed it immensely, and urge anyone who's into the Half-Life series to go catch up with it. It's well worth it. The story is deep, and I'm guessing a lot of thinking goes into the story, with elements that appear to come from many great pieces of work.

So, login to steam, and grab this game. If your a fan of Half-Life, you will not be disappointed!

Another thing, when you purchase off of steam, you'll enjoy the benefits of digital downloading that Valve is helping to push main-stream. Steams ease of use has gotten better, and as more games become available on it, it is eliminating the need for those annoying CD-keys and CD's that are so widely despised throughout the gaming community.

Apple Wants to Slash Prices, I Agree

Apple wants to slash their tv show prices on iTunes to 99 cents. This would be a great way to encourage the adoption of legal downloads over the internet. I'm certain consumers (including me), would take it very well. I don't have tv show downloads available here in Canada from iTunes though (if I'm mistaken, please tell me!). There are many problems with lowering the prices, including the people from Hollywood. I don't think they will take this very well.

Just recently, NBC left iTunes because they couldn't get the prices they wanted for their shows. Apple claims NBC wanted to charge 4.99 per episode! What is happening to the entertainment industry? Do they really think they can screw the consumer that bad, and not expect consumer retaliation or increased pirating? If anything, prices should drop. Apple is on the right track. What are we paying the same price as retail for? Packaging? I don't think so. So what for?

I've talked before about increasing media downloading. Its the way of the future, and the industry has to start getting on board. So, I hope NBC has fun being the supreme loser of the online industry. Thanks for stopping legitimate watchers from obtaining shows with THE multimedia downloading powerhouse. No one minds multi-platform show downloading. So, have fun losing profits NBC. And this should be a lesson for the rest of the industry.

On the other hand, I applaud Apple for sticking to the prices, and not letting anyone screw the consumer. This of course, has a business reason as well. It wouldn't make the top dog of music and video downloading look good if they charged the outrageous price of 4.99. People would have blamed the price on Apple.

Digital Downloads: The Grass Is Greener On the Other Side

Digital downloads are starting to take off, as technology makes it easier for the everyday consumer to download content without any deep understanding of technology. Content is starting to appear more and more on the internet, and is available to anyone at the click of a mouse. Larger companies are starting to see the benefit of the digital age, even if, they still insist on digital rights management. Media companies are always afraid of jumping to new methods of distribution, if you want a definition of conservative, look no further. In this article, we shall examine a couple benefits of digitalization, as well as some possible downsides. In the end, it will hopefully be clear, that going digital favors everyone.

Ease of use is one of the reasons why technology is being developed so rapidly. The computer is now becoming the central controller of media in households. Whether your streaming video to an Apple TV, downloading music, or watching the latest trailer or political campaign on websites such as Youtube, a computer can be used as the final destination for anything media. This central hub is eliminating the use of physical media, no more getting up and putting that damn disc into a player. So it's only logical to start putting the major media on it.

The most significant benefit of digitalization has to do with earth itself. As our population grows, our needs and wants are starting to impact the earth's resources in a large way. Forests are being cut down at an enormous rate, our small supplies of fresh water are being polluted by industries and deemed unsafe. Littering from excess packaging is starting to cover our land. Digitalization of media can help slow down the process of destroying our planet. There would be no more need to package DVDs, music cds, software, or games. Stopping this excessive, and unnecessary mass production could be a big helping hand to returning earth to a better state. And who knows, it might help a few people tidy up their cluttered homes!

With every positive solution comes negative ideas. Because of the internet architecture of openness, some people enjoy downloading content without paying, or in any way benefiting the producers/owners. Now, some say this is killing the industry. I stick with the idea that the people who watch the content without giving back their support would not have payed for it in the first place. While people argue that this is a very ignorant way of looking at it, I believe this to be true. The market is not affected if the people who watch the illegally downloaded content were not going to buy it in the first place. I also think of the content as a free trial. Chances are, if someone enjoys the content, they will likely want to support the provider to create more of it. And they might not have otherwise seen it if they hadn't downloaded it. Its a give and take circle that, in my opinion, benefits everyone.

Maybe, we're accusing people of stealing without looking further into the issue. Perhaps the downloading of illegal content is the result of lacking a decent, easy to use, unobtrusive service. Take a look at iTunes. Before iTunes, music was taken off the internet from peer to peer programs like Kazaa. If all people were taking music off the internet with the sole intention of theft (which companies try to make it look like), would iTunes have then boomed? There are many other services coming with the same idea in mind, provide a service with a legal means of downloading content. Yahoo Unlimited is a promising idea based on renting music. There are some services in the works that plan to give away music for free, using instead, advertising revenue to pay for it.

Most of the technology is here already. Most people have a computer in their household. Hard drive storage space is increasing, and bandwidth is becoming cheaper everyday. Consumer internet speeds are increasing as content on the internet demands more speed. We are approaching a tipping point, one which will fall towards virtual instead of physical content. Even if downloading times aren't instant, you can see there is a demand by looking at systems such as netflix. If people wanted their movies right now, they would go to a movie rental store and rent them. Instead, they order online, and are willing to wait for it to arrive in the mail. So, with this attitude in mind, people wouldn't be bothered much if they had to wait a few hours for downloads to finish. Digital content is the future. Its environmentally friendly, and people want it. So, the only question that remains is, how long will the corporate world keep consumers waiting, trying to push away the inevitable? How much money will companies lose staying out of these new markets that are being created across the internet, one of the few markets that has little regards to borders?