Politech mailing list archives
FC: Buffy the Vampire Slayer finale tonight (& piracy, Godwin, Valenti)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 13:30:11 -0400
In honor of the Buffy series finale tonight, here's the continuation of our thread from some weeks ago:
"Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files!" http://www.politechbot.com/p-04586.htmlAnd in honor of series creator Joss Whedon, a brilliant fellow, here's a story for which I interviewed him in 1999:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,19927,00.html -Declan --- Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 12:23:15 -0500 To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic () well com>Famously in our little circle, I've been using "Buffy" as an example of TV worth watching, and at Cato I demonstrated how a "Buffy" episode could be captured and reshown on a laptop.
"Buffy" also tends to get mentioned in any of my pieces for REASON. The Cato event, which I assume the MPAA guys have all seen by now, is at <http://www.cato.org/events/030205pf.html>.
--Mike --- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 21:23:58 -0600 From: Mike Harris <wcitymike () rcn com> Subject: Re: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! To: declan () well com Declan, I would imagine they singled out 'Buffy' because it's particularly useful for Valenti in his "perfect digital copies on the 'Net" arguments (cf. his Duke speech). In order to make a particular "Buffy" episode, "Once More With Feeling", more palatable for Emmy consideration, creator Joss Whedon distributed free DVDs in an issue of _Variety_. MPEG recordings of those DVDs soon found themselves quite quickly on the 'Net. Mike --- Subject: RE: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 11:23:41 -0500 From: "Miller, Barry" <BMiller () wbklaw com> To: <declan () well com>, <politech () politechbot com> I recently attended a panel discussion at the CATO institute where one of the consumer-advocate panelists, for dramatic effect, showed the attendees a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that he had copied the previous night onto his Apple/PC using Tivo-like software. The MPAA was also on the panel. It was an uncomfortable few moments. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. --- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 18:05:58 -0500 To: declan () well com From: J Plummer <jplummer () consumeralert org> Subject: Re: FC: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20030325172618.01abbdb0 () mail well com>Buffy may have a higher profile among execs re: P2P after what happened in 1999 - some episodes were delayed after the Columbine incident. They had already been broadcast in Canada and the large Buffy fanbase flooded the P2P nets to see what they'd missed. Series creator Joss Whedon in interviews expressed his indifference or even pleasure at the fact that fans were able to watch the series in a timely manner despite the network execs.
-JCP --- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 15:15:40 -0800 From: Lizard <lizard () mrlizard com> To: declan () well com Subject: Re: FC: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! Declan McCullagh wrote:
[I know Buffy is popular (the runup to the series finale starts tonight). But I'm surprised that it was the only TV show to be singled out by the MPAA in its question-and-answer list about the broadcast flag. --Declan]
Because, why would I spend 50 bucks on a complete Season 3 set of Buffy with professional mastering, when I can watch a single episode, complete with commercials and station edits, in small, blurry, file which took 16 hours to download and is probably corrupt?
My experiences with trying to get anything out of PVP software have been extremely disappointing. It shows that people will work harder to get something "for free" than they would get it legitimately.
-- =========================================================== Evolution doesn't take prisoners: Lizard Blog (yeah, I'm on the damn bandwagon): http://www.xanga.com/lizard_sf Website: http://www.mrlizard.com --- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 15:28:05 -0800 From: Seth David Schoen <schoen () eff org> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> Cc: politech () politechbot com Subject: Re: FC: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! Declan McCullagh writes: > [I know Buffy is popular (the runup to the series finale starts tonight). > But I'm surprised that it was the only TV show to be singled out by the > MPAA in its question-and-answer list about the broadcast flag. --Declan] > > > > http://www.mpaa.org/Press/Broadcast_Flag_QA.htm > > Q: I know people offer Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other programs on the > Internet now. Is this illegal? Why? > > A: Yes, it is illegal. Current laws state that redistribution of > copyrighted materials without express permission from the copyright holder > is illegal. Buffy is a copyrighted program that 20th Century Fox produces > and UPN broadcasts for its audience's personal use and have not authorized > the redistribution of their programming via the Internet. If unauthorized > copies of programs are widely available on the Internet they cannot be sold > in ancillary markets and the owners cannot cover the costs of production. There is a famous example of another technology that was going to destroy the ancillary markets. http://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm (e.g., search for "6 out of 10 films") Lardner's book on the VCR reports that there was even a broadcast flag proposal back then! http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000139.html [A]n engineer, one Richard J. Stumpf, [...] had conceived a system that could render a Betamax incapable of recording a program unless the broadcaster -- presumably on the copyright holder's say-so -- chose to let it be recorded. The system relied on a simple jamming device at a cost, Stumpf was prepared to testify, of less than fifteen dollars a machine. Expert or no expert, Stumpf could not persuade [Universal v. Sony trial] Judge Ferguson that such a thing was workable -- or relevant. If he were to order Sony to install a jamming device, "as sure as you or I are sitting in this courtroom today," Ferguson said, "some bright young entrepreneur, unconnected with Sony, is going to come up with a device to unjam the jam. And then we have a device to jam the unjamming of the jam, and we all end up like jelly." Judge Ferguson even anticipated Bruce Lehman's concern about circumvention. I urge everybody to read _Fast Forward_, because it's basically all there already, twenty years ago. -- Seth Schoen Staff Technologist schoen () eff org Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org/ 454 Shotwell Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 1 415 436 9333 x107 --- Declan, Please omit my email address. Personally, I can see not allowing distribution - as in file swapping or re-selling - of these television programs. That's what syndication is all about. I guess Buffy is as good an example as any. Perhaps a better one might have been Star Trek, since it is not only in syndication, but is sold as collector sets. I happen to have recorded every episode of ST on VHS and have a library of them in my book case. I have never provided copies for anyone else, but would certainly hate to be considered a criminal for having made the archived copies for myself. I do intend to transfer them to DVD or VCD when I have the time. I also have VHS personal recordings of operas, plays and other favorites - hundreds of them. How about my cassette tapes of all the vinyl lp's I plan to transfer to cd-r's? Must I now worry that I'll be prosecuted? What a sorry situation this has become. However, I rather disagree with them when it comes to time shifting and sharing with friends at a party or with kids, an overnight... You get the point, I'm sure. Wasn't that always considered fair use or am I wrong? I guess one would have to define "distribution." I don't see a comparison to copying cd's and providing copies to friends, which is clearly a violation of the specific copyright. OTOH, making an audio mix and providing that for a party (just an example) should be fair use. DJ's do it all the time. Regards, Leah G. --- Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 12:43:20 +0000 From: Ken Brown <k.brown () ccs bbk ac uk> Reply-To: k.brown () ccs bbk ac uk Organization: Birkbeck College Central Computing Services To: declan () well com CC: politech () politechbot com Subject: Re: FC: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! Declan McCullagh wrote: > > [I know Buffy is popular (the runup to the series finale starts tonight). > But I'm surprised that it was the only TV show to be singled out by the > MPAA in its question-and-answer list about the broadcast flag. --Declan] Buffy is easily the most popular current US TV show amongst techy geek types over here in Britain. Way ahead of anything else. Seems to hit an audience demographic of middle-aged males with too many computers :-) --- Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 09:23:03 -0500 From: Max Vilimpoc <max () vilimpoc org> To: declan () well com Subject: Re: FC: Jack Valenti on the Hellmouth: Stop swapping Buffy files! References: <5.1.1.6.0.20030325172618.01abbdb0 () mail well com> In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20030325172618.01abbdb0 () mail well com> Declan, Part of the reason Buffy might have been singled out may have to do with an event called "Battle over the Broadcast Flag: The IP Wars and the HDTV Transition" at the Cato Institute on February 5, 2003. Mike Godwin of Public Knowledge was playing back an episode of Buffy to the audience on his Powerbook as a way of demonstrating reasons why hardware should remain open. Fritz Attaway, of the MPAA, was sitting at the opposite end of the panel from him. See: http://www.cato.org/events/030205pf.html and: http://www.cato.org/realaudio/cpf-02-05-03.ram Cheers, Max Vilimpoc -- from the desk at vilimpoc.org http://vilimpoc.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- FC: Buffy the Vampire Slayer finale tonight (& piracy, Godwin, Valenti) Declan McCullagh (May 20)