[Ken H]

From Broadcasting & Cable, by Paige Albiniak


The Walt Disney Co. is changing its policy focus to find a technological solution that will allow it to comfortably distribute its digital content, instead of focusing so much on convincing Congress to legislate a copyright mandate.


"Many are paralyzed by the fear of digital piracy," chairman Michael Eisner said Monday, after accepting the National Association of Broadcasters’ "Hall of Fame Award" for The Wonderful World of Disney. "We are mindful of the perils of piracy, but we will not let fear keep us from innovating how our product is distributed. To be blunt, if we don’t distribute our products to consumers in a timely manner, the pirates will do it for us."


Disney’s Washington, D.C., office has spent much of the past two years working hard to get the government to intervene to force an industry solution that Congress could then write into a law.


But the bill that supported that notion, sponsored by Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), stirred a great deal of controversy among public-interest groups and technology companies, and it didn’t make much progress.


That bill hasn’t been reintroduced this Congress, and industry sources said that without strong support from Disney, it is unlikely to resurface.

 

[Kipp Jones]

I think this is good news and tells us Hollywood will probably have to follow their lead.

 

[trbarry]

Well, I'll be a blue nosed gopher.


- Tom

 

[Kir]

Computer games piracy was around way before the music and video industry knew how to spell it, and the sales of computer games in 2002 grew 200% (or 300%, forgot the exact number, but it's in this range).

Maybe, just maybe, somebody in the industry finally got the idea?


Kirill

 

[bfdtv]

I wouldn't read too much into this. It may simply mean that Disney will pursue other, non-broadcast means to deliver HDTV. This could simply mean that Disney will refuse to distribute HDTV to boxes that lack HDCP.


Didn't Disney just reach their first-ever deal with IN Demand for PPV distribution over cable last week, or was that another studio?

 

[trbarry]

Quote:

I wouldn't read too much into this. It may simply mean that Disney will pursue other, non- broadcast means to deliver HDTV. This could simply mean that Disney will refuse to distribute HDTV to boxes that lack HDCP.

But that is good. It would let market forces work. People will either buy protected boxes and watch that Disney material or they will use other equipment and watch something else.


I have no problem with that and I have never thought Disney or anyone else owed it to us to put prime material out in an unprotected fashion. I only object when it looks like they try to stop anyone else from doing that either.


We wait years (forever, George L? ) for some material to come out on DVD. So if Disney wants to make some material available only on protected PPV of some kind that I can't even receive I would be okay with that. If it has a long enough shelf life then I'll maybe watch it next year or the year after. Heck, I rarely buy hard cover fictional books on current terms either.


And if they want to copy protect material for OTA all they have to do is show a soft airplane version with logos, banners, and commercials enough to differentiate it from the PPV or HD-DVD product. They are already quite good at that. But we can either watch it or something else. Works for me.


- Tom

 

[Thomas Desmond]

In Michael Eisner's comments, I thought this was a key point:


> To be blunt, if we don’t distribute our products to consumers in a timely manner, the pirates will do it for us.


I think that he really does "get it", and think his comments are very encouraging for providing a break in the copy protection impasse.

 

[trbarry]

Quote:

I think that he really does "get it", and think his comments are very encouraging for providing a break in the copy protection impasse.

I hope you are correct but often these things occur when Hollywood has pushed hard enough to arouse significant resistance. Then they act moderate for awhile as they build up for the next lobbying effort.


But either way I take it as a very good sign. And Eisner's statement is indeed almost certainly true.


- Tom

 

[Dreamwriter]

Oh yeah it's true - that's exactly what's happening with Lucas, bootleg Star Wars DVD's are all over the place if you know where to look, some of them really high quality. Disney execs probably decided to solve their problem before that happens to them, before normal people turn into pirates because their favorite movie is taking so long to get released.

 

[Thomas Desmond]

> that's exactly what's happening with Lucas, bootleg Star Wars DVD's are all over the place if you know where to look, some of them really high quality.


You'd think that Lucas would have learned from the first time around. In the early days of home video, "Star Wars" was the most pirated movie when he was unwilling to make that film available in any sort of legal copy.


OTOH, it may be that Lucas has decided that the cost of lost sales to piracy now is pretty minimal -- most of the folks who buy pirated DVDs of the original Star Wars trilogy are probably hard core fans who will buy the legal versions when they come out. In which case, Lucas really isn't hurt by the piracy.

 

[rogo]

Disney tried to thwart DVD and -- in the end -- has made a fortune selling them. "Gettting it" would involve providing their content on all media in a way that people wish to pay for it. That is far and away the best way to make money.


Piracy is certainly a real problem -- particularly with music where the pirated version is in many ways better (it's more portable, it's easily converted into 100-track mix CDs, it's often tagged and easily catalog-able, it allows for wonderful playlists) -- but the content holders can still make a great deal of money.


I have a friend who has "pirated" every episode of a few TV series (actually, "archived" is every bit as accurate). He will buy the DVDs for them as soon as they are available.


Mark

 

[richardg]

Coming from a big player in the DIVX debacle, that really is shocking. Maybe this will lead to Disney's stock going back up.

 

[bfdtv]

richard,


If Disney is opening up, and I still doubt this is happening in the way some of you think, and piracy becomes a greater issue, the opposite will happen. Questions surrounding media piracy put a downward pressure on the stocks of companies like Disney, who have billions tied up in their libraries (assets).

 

[bfdtv]

The quotes in the article at Broadcasting and Cable is just excerpted from Michael Eisner's speach to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) this week. The comments were partly in reference to the new "Movie Beam" service that Disney will test market later this year.


"Movie Beam" uses part of the OTA broadcast spectrum to download encrypted SDTV movies to set-top boxes with hard drives. According to Mr. Eisner, "This will make it possible for consumers to choose from 100 different films to view [purchase] any time they wish, with all the functionality of a DVD."