Dear Lopy:
I’ve got one of those so-called video iPods. It’s fine that I can download television shows and movies from iTunes, but I’ve already got a huge DVD collection. I don’t really see the need to re-purchase programs that I already own. It seems like I should be able to transfer my DVD’s to my iPod. iTunes is great about copying my CD collection. How come it can’t do the same thing with my DVD collection?
Signed,
Confused By iTunes
Dear Lopy:
I recently purchased a few movies from one of those “legal” video download services that you guys are always talking about. For some reason they won’t play on my video iPod and I can’t burn them onto DVDs. Hell, I can’t even watch these movies on my laptop if I’m not connected to The Internets. A friend suggested that it might have something to do with DRM, whatever that is. So, how do I remove DRM from my WMV files?
Signed,
Stuck With DRM (whatever that is)
Dear Stuck:
The limitations you’ve run into are typical of the current generation of downloadable video services. For what it’s worth, you’d have the same problem if you downloaded a movie from iTunes and wanted to burn a DVD or play it on a non-Apple portable.
While DRM is inconvenient, it’s been put in place for a reason — to control consumer access to digital content. In the pre-digital world consumers enjoyed a wide variety of rights that were generally considered to be “fair use”. For example, consumers could easily make copies of analog media for personal use, or to transfer media from one format to another format.
Dear Lopy:
I just made a pilot for a big (OK, big-ish) TV Network, and it was rejected for being different from other TV shows. How can I get it picked up by another network?
Signed,
Hapless in Hollywood
Dear Hapless,
Here’s how to get your rejected pilot picked up by another network, in six easy steps.
Dear Lopy:
My daughter just gave me a DVD with iTunes videos of the entire first season of Lost. How can I watch these programs on my TV? Is there some way I can burn the episodes to DVD?
Signed,
Waiting To Burn
Medialoper is dedicated to making the future of digital media safe for consumers everywhere.
Why not let us send Medialoper right to your inbox? It's free and we promise not to share your email address with anyone else.
Show The Man who's boss. Wear a Medialoper t-shirt to your next business meeting or industry conference. Available exclusively in the Medialoper Company Store.
Explore these links for a deeper understanding of the Medialoper Universe.
What the world needed: a remake of The Gong Show.
Except Jon Stewart isn't a pompous blow-hard who refuses to listen to other people when they speak.
Also, Neil Young about to embark on exciting experiment while simultaneously sounding like a cranky old man.
For us, it's the alcohol. Natch.
Arrrrgh!
Posting this because I know that some of the 'Loper women will be happy at the news, because they used to moon over him during the "Scarecrow & Mrs. King" days. And because of that, I'm almost ashamed to report that I've noticed that spoiler-boy Ausiello got the female lead of that show wrong.
RIAA spokesperson predicts DRM-limited subscription music services are the future of the industry. Never mind the fact that subscriptions services are the one area where digital sales are declining year over year.
The Deliverator will be at your door in 30 minutes or less.
A few things of note: 1) the Zune Insider blog remains alive and well; 2) despite pricing "flexibility", Microsoft is subsidizing prices to keep them competitive with iTunes; 3) NBC/Universal still doesn't get it.
Yes. Eventually another one will come along and break these records, as impressive as they are. Unless you think that gaming has peaked, of course.
If you've happened to see or hear this story, you've probably come to the same conclusion that we have: everybody involved with it is a total and utter scumbag. When we were students, instead of an $11,000 fur coat, how about paying a year's rent. A pox on all of these people.
Analysis of the week's biggest news. We're excited and skeptical, but that's mostly because our dreams have been dashed so many times before.
IODA develops ways to eliminate the middleman and bring artists and consumers together -- in a retail sort of way.
What happens when your street name is changed, but not every single database with your address knows about the change? Or you, for that matter?
The Internet Archive pushes back against a National Security Letter and prevails. Characteristically, Brewster Kahle had a muted reaction to his success.
Ron Hogan digs into a critical (get it, critical?) question raised by Seth Godin about media saturation of certain topics at the expense of others. Special to MediaBistro: fix your page titles!
But Beverly Hills 90210 makes the cut.
Huzzah to the EFF and ACLU for fighting this!!
Back in our day, MTV played music videos which were ads. Have times changed?
Because, of course, every single time that someone used TorrentSpy, they were taking money from the studios. Even if they were using it to download something that the studios weren't offering or had no plans to offer?
RSS
