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Julia Reda, the only Pirate in the European Parliament, who has been mentioned here in various contexts now blogs with more good news.
[June 16], the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament passed an amended version of my copyright evaluation report with a broad majority. (Find the detailed breakdown of the votes on my overview page. The final adopted text is not yet available--I will link to it as soon as it goes online.)
The amended report was supported by all political groups--the only two opposing votes were cast by MEPs from the far-right French Front National.
In this report, the Parliament recognises that copyright reform is urgently needed not just to improve the Digital Single Market, but also , to facilitate access to knowledge and culture for all people in Europe. It calls on the Commission to consider a wide variety of measures to bring copyright law up to speed with changing realities and improve cross-border access to our cultural diversity, going further than the plans so far announced by the Commissioners.
For the first time, the Parliament asks for minimum standards for the rights of the public, which are enshrined in a list of exceptions to copyright[...]
- to allow libraries and archives to digitise their collections efficiently,
- to enable the lending of e-books over the Internet and
- to allow the [automatic] analysis of large bodies of text and data (text & data mining).
Related: Julia Reda, the Only Pirate in the European Parliament, Weighs in on Copyright
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 18 2015, @10:28PM
The clue that his conclusions would be messed up was in the existence of the word "economics" therein.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Interesting) by physicsmajor on Thursday June 18 2015, @11:55PM
It doesn't cost that much. Movies and their accounting are hilarious. Think of them like money sponges; they suck up everything available and clamor for more.
Ex Machina was made for 11 million Euros. It is more technically impressive than the Avengers.
Mad Max was made for 150 million USD. It's mind blowing how much better that is than the latest Iron Man.
Oh, and both of these more than doubled their cost from their theatrical run alone. So have all recent Marvel films. So a copyright term as little as 6 months would still have them immensely profitable. The conclusion here would be that movies need shorter copyright terms, not longer ones.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Friday June 19 2015, @09:56AM
Even assuming Hollywood accounting was rational - the movie would still probably profit or flop within the first year. I seem to recall a study stating that the vast majority of films generate 80% of their lifetime profit within the first year or two - if a film can't turn a profit after 14 years, another 75 is unlikely to make any difference to the bottom-line considerations at the time it's being made.
The big profitability boost of extended copyrights (assuming there is one) is probably not in generating income from the protected work itself (well, barring a few classics with multi-generational appeal), but in keeping that work out of the public domain as long as possible, and thus reduce its ability to compete for audiences with new films. How many new movies would you buy if you could legally download every movie made before 2000 for free? Even if only 10% less, that's 10% more profit for new works.
Not to mention all the remixes that would be made. We've got some clever editors releasing interesting works on Youtube today, mostly under the radar. Imagine what might be created if everyone, including professional-grade talent, had unrestricted legal access to all that older footage.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday June 19 2015, @05:04PM
keeping that work out of the public domain as long as possible, and thus reduce its ability to compete for audiences with new films.
Somebody actually gets it. That's also the reason record labels fight piracy. Their competition, the indies, rely on it while the majors have radio.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday June 19 2015, @06:35PM
Imagine what might be created if everyone, including professional-grade talent, had unrestricted legal access to all that older footage.
Hmm, that might almost promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts. Can't have that happen!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday June 19 2015, @04:36PM
You're looking at the wrong metric. Look at revenues, they're WAY up.
Personally, I think non-commercial sharing of electronic media should be legal. As such, all I charge for is physical books -- reading has always been free. I've read tens of thousands of books in my lifetime, there's no way I could have paid to read all those books.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org