For awhile now, 99% of the films generated have essentially gone unseen. The film industry is finally waking up to this overall change.
Are we now prepared for the next step? And the appropriate one at that?
Tag: Net Neutrality
The future of is at stake. Please sign this petition:
Verizon struck the final blow against Net Neutrality when a federal appeals court ruled in its favor and struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order. The FCC must take action now to stop the corporate takeover of the internet.
If you didn’t notice this is a new year. It is also a new age. My resolution is to help all filmmakers and members of the film industry to understand it. Hopefully we can also all get started on adapting for this Age too.
This is The Age of Access & Surplus.
This is no longer the Age of Control & Shortages (that was last decade).
These times require New Rules & New Emphasis:
- Discovery
- Participation
- Demystification
We need to conceive of both our creative and business practices in terms of how they incorporate these three elements.
When 45,000 films are made globally each year
If your ability to earn a living as an Indie Filmmaker is not a big enough issue to catch your attention, how about considering that your freedom is at stake? What if you knew that the principal and practice of free speech was at risk, would that wake you up? How about if you knew that corporate interests were once again being favored over those of the people? Well, today is the day that all those things are happening, so whachagonnnado?
The FCC meets today and proposes regulations that could seriously undermine net neutrality. It generally appears that corporate interests are being looked after, and we are headed towards a tiered internet where providers can favor some content over others. Prepare to get really upset. Prepare to do something to fight back and protect a free and open internet.
Al Franken says it is the most important free speech issue of our time. VC fund, Union Square Ventures, recommends prohibiting “application-specific discrimination”, and that seems to make good sense.
You can watch it all live right here starting at 1030A EST.
Thankfully, Taylor Hackford recognizes that the film industry needs to wise up and educate itself on piracy. He and I agree on that. And I think we agree on the goal of it all, but I suspect we have completely different approaches to solving the problem. And that is where I am really concerned. To solve it, Hackford seems willing to sacrifice greater principles in the service of business, and that is a shame. I hope I am wrong.
Mr. Hackford, president of the DGA, was recently speaking at the Content Protection Summit and Variety reported on it. Reading the article I remain unclear as to what Hackford’s point is about piracy beyond that it is bad and we need to make it a real concern of the industry. He seems to be saying that if we want to protect our content, we have to be willing to give up on a free and open internet. He claims groups like Public Knowledge and Free Press as enemies. Shutting down a free and open internet is not the path to solving the piracy problem; it is the path to a closed society that favors a class or capital over access and opportunity — and that is the antithesis of what we need to do.
We can not create a system that favors the powerful, the connected, or the well capitalized.
Troma’s mastermind Lloyd Kaufman is quite a serious man. Seriously. He puts in a great deal of time and passion trying to preserve and enhance the life of Indies everywhere. He most recently penned a good rallying cry for Net Neutrality that you should not miss.
The Internet, the last free, open and diverse democratic medium, is under attack. Net Neutrality, which provides that no content is favored over any other, and that content creators have an equal opportunity to freely disseminate their information, is being imminently threatened by media mega-conglomerates and their vassals. It is urgent that we fight those who would sacrifice our freedom for a profit. Net Neutrality will be the savior of independent art and commerce if we preserve it.
Read all of it on Save The Internet here.
Today’s guest post is by John S. Johnson. The Harmony Institute, a research group that John runs, is offering a free new guide to help combat the Telecom’s tales in their efforts to end net neutrality. Here he explains a bit of the why and wherefore you need to download it (for free!) and read it NOW.
In 2010 it’s easy to forget how profoundly the Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate, interact and access information. When you logged on this morning to check your email, bank statement, or local news you may not have noticed that there are very few limits placed on the sites and services you have access to. While some people must crash the couch of their best friend to catch the latest HBO release, since he’s subscribed to all premium cable channels while they’re still stuck with rabbit ears on their TV, no one has an edge over anyone else when it comes to what we can access on the Internet.
Yet this principle of net neutrality that allows all sites, services and applications on the Internet to have equal access to consumers, and vice versa, is being fundamentally threatened. Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking to revise rules that have kept Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at bay for decades. These companies, like AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon, would love to become the gatekeepers of the Internet, reserving preferential bandwidth for those sites and services that make them the most money.
And I can guarantee you HopeForFilm is not one of those sites.
