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With day 1 digital distribution of films becoming more prevalent, and movie theater chains going out of business, Hollywood and the MPAA are going to do everything they possibly can to kill or cobble illicit streaming. This could include increasing potential criminal penalties for individuals who operate "streaming piracy" services:
Movie Company Boss Urges US Senators to Make Streaming Piracy a Felony
In the United States, criminal copyright infringers can be sentenced to five years in prison. However, this is not the case for streaming piracy, which is seen as a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum jail sentence of one year. Millennium Films boss Jonathan Yunger is callling on senators to change this, so the Department of Justice can effectively shut down and prosecute streaming piracy operations.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property is actively looking for options through which the US can better address online piracy. During a hearing last month, various experts voiced their opinions. They specifically addressed measures taken by other countries and whether these could work in the US, or not. Pirate site blocking and upload filtering emerged as the main topics during this hearing. While pros and cons were discussed, movie industry insiders including Millennium Media co-president Jonathan Yunger framed these measures as attainable and effective.
After the hearing, senators asked various follow-up questions on paper. Last week we reported how former MEP Julia Reda answered these by stressing the importance of affordable legal options. Yunger, however, takes another approach.
In his answers, which were published before the weekend, he reiterates the power of website blocking. In addition, Yunger also brings a second, previously unmentioned issue to the forefront: criminal penalties for streaming piracy. "The second thing that we could easily do in the United States is close the legal loophole that currently allows streaming – which accounts for the vast majority of piracy today – to be treated as a misdemeanor rather than a felony," Yunger writes.
See also: Movie & TV Giants Sue 'Pirate' Nitro IPTV For 'Massive' Copyright Infringement
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 08 2020, @04:42AM (2 children)
Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like the production of new movies has fallen off a cliff. There aren't that many anymore. TV, too, seems to have suffered in the Age of Netflix.
So when content that's not produced by Netflix withers, and the content being produced by Netflix is available at very low cost there already, why is it necessary to go to these lengths? I can't remember the last time we actually watched anything on Netflix. Prime, either. The kids watch YouTube or play video games some, but what they really love to do is play sports, dance, or create art. Interacting with their friends and other kids is what stimulates them.
Perhaps we're nearing the end of the Age of Distraction.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 08 2020, @02:42PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Television_(2000s%E2%80%93present) [wikipedia.org]
"Experts" would not agree with you, although if you want to double down and use the "ALL TV AND MOVIES ARE SHIT" argument, nobody here will stop you.
There's also a huge fragmentation happening as the Streaming Wars have commenced. Netflix became gigantic, and other corporations (e.g. NBCUniversal) wanted a piece of the pie. So they pulled content from Netflix and started their own streaming [wikipedia.org] services [soylentnews.org]. Now you have possibly good TV shows appearing on platforms you have never heard of.
Maybe we can quantify a fall off in movie and TV production as this shift happens. And obviously, Hollywood took a very recent hit from coronavirus. Hundreds of movie theaters [deadline.com] nationwide may never reopen or could get bought up (including some by Netflix so they can get their movies in the awards shows that created anti-Netflix rules). Also, if Netflix wants to displace Hollywood films, they have to do better than Bright [wikipedia.org].
https://www.statista.com/statistics/187122/movie-releases-in-north-america-since-2001/ [statista.com]
https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ [the-numbers.com]
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 08 2020, @03:20PM
A couple of other thoughts.
Your kids' activity has probably changed given the coronavirus. No interacting with other kids outside of a phone or screen, I assume. So their use of streaming and YouTube could be peaking right now, for better or worse.
Production costs for a given "CGI quality" could plateau and even drop. You've got shows like Sanctuary [wikipedia.org] that extensively used CGI sets. The film industry sometimes reveals [electronicdesign.com] the hardware used to produce a big budget animated or CGI film. A given level of performance/quality will eventually be achievable by amateur/independent animators, especially given algorithmic improvements (like low-ray-count raytracing with machine learning denoising) and procedural generation to replace man-hours of work.
Various computer tools and tricks are also reviving 2D animation:
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/how-klaus-draws-on-centuries-old-artistic-principles-to-push-2d-animation-forward-182325.html [cartoonbrew.com]
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