There are some interesting issues regarding performance lurking behind recent IP news:
Jobs said he didn’t anticipate that the television networks or movie studios would similarly remove copy protection from their online video.
“Video’s pretty different than music because the video industry does not distribute 90% of its content DRM-free — never have,” said Jobs, Walt Disney Co.’s largest shareholder. “So I think they’re in a pretty different situation.”
The announcement came the same day the European Commission formally charged Apple and major record companies with restricting music sales by letting customers buy music only from their country’s specific iTunes store.
Although EMI is now relaxing its copyright stance (for a price), I was a bit surprised by the listing of “public” venues in a warning screen from a video I watched recently. Coaches? Oilrigs? [ sic] Schools? Does putting this on a warning screen make it so? Evidently some schools have bought into it. How do we differentiate “educational” uses of movies of schools from “entertainment” uses? Schools (and news broadcasts) clearly blur the lines with “info-tainment.”
Looking at the line-up of venues, it seems that they closely match the variety of viewing licenses marketed by Swank Entertainment (excepting oil rigs, of course— who insisted on throwing that in?). For those viewing films on motor coaches, they will provide a handy card to flash to the copyright police if you are pulled over. At issue is not just where copyrighted material is purchased but also where it is performed. As long as the spotlight is directed away from the question of venue, the motion-picture monopoly is safe.
Or perhaps as long as most people don’t call clubs, coaches, hospitals, hotels, oil rigs, prisons or schools home.
