Re: [TCLUG:12994] Local Media and DVD Stuff..

[Mike Hicks <hick0088@tc.umn.edu>]

Philip C Mendelsohn wrote:
> 
> While I may agree with any given viewpoint, I have been to enough DVD
> standards related things to know where the muscle and money are coming
> from, and the inertia of the mass market -- i.e., those who just want to
> buy a player and aren't particularly techy -- is large enough to let the
> bad ideas (intellectual property, dividing the planet into
> "regions," watermarking (one of the leading researchers, btw, is at the
> U of M), etc...) steamroll any sort of rational thinking.

It is amazing how non-techie people can do some pretty techie things
from time to time.  Nearly every dorm room on this campus has a
computer, and a huge number of those computers have MP3s.  Many of these
people either own DVD players or will own them in the near future.  I
think they may listen.

Also, the 'inertia' argument is one I don't like, as it is the same
argument used for not bothering Microsoft.  It could be easily argued
that the MPAA/DVD consortia are not unlike Microsoft in that they have
been promoting huge deals to get DVD off the ground.  There are also
rumors that DVDs will go up in price once a significant market has been
reached.

> [For *my* rant, someone ask about the FCC's *MANDATE* that TV go digital
> -- how is that not a pork barrel for manufacturing?  Don't even mention
> the specs for HDTV!]

I agree that the FCC was premature.  They should have produced specs
_first_, then made sure that the TVs would be inexpensive, _then_ run
their mandate (IMO).

> Anyway, not to be negative, and I may yet sign the petition, but I think
> that it's important to recognize the scale of the 'evil'.  This has been
> brought up before by those much closer to the development, and nothing has
> changed.

All the more reason to fight back earlier rather than later.

> Whatever... Pardon the bandwidth...

Heh.  Ditto.

-- 
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 [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088@umn.edu ]