MPAA Still Wants to Control Your Consumer Electronics and Theater Owners HATE it!
An interesting article appeared in the LA Times the day after Christmas. It details the current friction between theater owners and the big studios over the period of time in which a motion picture is exclusively shown in theaters. Actually, the theaters deserve some exclusivity as the experience often is better in a theater and they are local employers (even the large chains employ local teens and managers).
In the linked article it is revealed that the studios plan to charge $30-$40 PER VIEWING if they successfully get the FCC to approve their request to control the electronic equipment in your home and selectively turn off analog outputs on your cable/satellite box.
The MPAA effort to control the cable/satellite boxes has nothing to do with piracy. Movies appear on the internet BEFORE the motion pictures are even released in theaters. The MPAA really wants to control/regulate all methods of distribution of motion pictures. In the internet age, distribution is practically free, so if they fail to regulate all routes of distribution the studios will lose a major portion of their revenue based (that is skimming for the distribution of the movie).
Thus, (as stated above) if the MPAA successfully achieves its goal to regulate YOUR home entertainment equipment, they will be able (in the near term at least) charge OUTRAGEOUS $30 -$40 a viewing in YOUR OWN HOUSE (see the linked article). Readers will also be interested in how the major studios put this in their own words. The studios will then also be free to keep DVD discs high in price. Once you monopolize/control distribution you can artificially keep prices high. Oh – and DirecTV and cable operators should pay VERY close attention to the MPAA as it has already stated the “early” window will also contain a Blu-Ray release. If the FCC grants the studios with the authority to use SOC (to turn off the analog outputs on your set top boxes), the MPAA will gain the unfettered right to turn off all component outputs when they stop releasing DVDs.
If you have an opinion on the MPAA filing, you can file your comments to the FCC here.
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