The Internet vs the Entertainment Industry

In school, I was taught about things like the freedom of speech, choice and free assembly. Then we were told to sit down, shut the fuck up and do as we were told. In the free world, people have a lot of rights. One of them is the right not to be screwed over by someone else. This where copyright law and protection come in. It is a necessary law to make sure that the people who create an intellectual property actually get paid.

Take the case of Night of the Living Dead as a classic example. George A. Romero and his partner forgot to put a copyright on the actual print of the film. Without that copyright, any theater owner in the country and the world could show Night of the Living Dead without giving George Romero a single cent. The film was a massive success and created a whole new sub genre for the horror film community. But George Romero was unable to capitalize on the success in any way. It is an unfortunate and cautionary story. Luckily George Romero was given the opportunity to make Dawn of the Dead and that film was just as successful. Roger Ebert gave Dawn of the Dead four stars and called it "superb".

Now this brings me to the music and movie industry and its fight against online piracy. It is a much talked about subject and there are numerous studies and opinions on the matter. It's a topic I have much to say about and will in the future. Mostly about how the entertainment industry's battle has more to do with their obsolete business model and their own stupid decisions than it does when it comes to how a handful of people downloading The Last Airbender will hurt their bottom line. But I think there is one aspect of this ongoing debate that is not getting the proper space on internet blogs the world over. Porn.

There is nothing on the internet more pirated than porn. Since the dawn of the modern internet(roughly 2000 with the growing use of cable modems) and even before, the internet has been used as a tool to find free porn. In fact, it baffles me that in this day and age anyone actually pays for porn but yet, they do. Most people I know have never paid so much as a dime for internet porn, yet its one of the biggest growing businesses of our day. If piracy was as much of a factor as the legitimate entertainment industry claims, then by all accounts the porn industry should be dead and buried. But it isn't.

The thing is, the porn industry is the most adaptive industry in the free market. They had to adapt because they couldn't just run to Congress and cry foul. What US senator would actually give a shit about the porn industry losing millions to internet pirates? The porn industry changed its business model to suit the new technology and and culture of the internet. The entertainment industry not only hasn't adapted its business model, but refuses to do so. Because of that, with each passing year the mainstream entertainment industry is becoming more and more obsolete. So, if you ever find yourself testifying in front of Congress about the new over reaching copyright laws that could very well impede such things as freedom of speech. I want you to look that US senator straight in the eye and say these exact words:

"The porn sites are doing fine and the internet pirates the shit out of those. What makes these assholes from the RIAA any different?"

Oh...oh shit...

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while, even having some ideas for posts and all of that. Now I have actually gone and got one and I can't think of a single God damn thing to post. It is not for a lack of having shit to talk about, there's plenty of that. But now that I'm here, I can't help but think does the internet really need one more asshole spewing uninformed opinions that no one cares about?

The obvious answer is yes. If people on Fox News can spew out their mental diarrhea then so can I. Anyone with at least a third grade education and basic concept of language has just a much of a right to force their opinions and misinformation on the world as anyone on TV. As a matter of fact, cable news would probably serve humanity better if it was run by children. You see, children are in a constant state of learning. Their view of the world and their opinions change with each new piece of information and data they acquire unlike say....Congress.

So with that, this is as good as a first post as any. It doesn't make much sense and has no intellectual value what so ever just like the rest of the internet. Except porn. Porn always has intellectual value. I think I know what I want to talk about.