SHELLY PALMER REPORT: Shameless, Illegal & Not Possibly Profitable: Browsing QuickSilverScreen.com

When it comes to filesharing piracy bootlegging or whatever name you like to call the act of infringing on other peopleamp8217s intellectual property IP rights there is a general rule Those with more time than money steal those with more money than time buy Although it is a gross oversimplification of a very complex issue it has certainly held true for the music industry as well as most other content that is packaged as amp8220downloadtoownamp8221 Chapter and verse has been written about the promotional value of pirated content Thereamp8217s an entire bookshelf about the process of discovery and how it is helped by bootleggers and social networks In fact I have personally argued both sides of this issue for various clients over the years Let us not argue this point today Suffice it to say woefully inadequate as our copyright laws might be they are the law Sharing files outside of the legal concept of amp8220fair useamp8221 is a violation of the current statute The RIAA simply loves filing lawsuits against suspected lawbreakers In fact rightholders of all kinds have been suing people and companies for the past few years Viacom is suing YouTube EMI is suing Google and Veoh has been in Universal Music Groupamp8217s crosshairs The list is not endless but it is very longIn late 2006 Fox noticed a website called QuickSilverScreencom QSS and they were pretty upset It was the year of online video and YouTube was all the rage There was a ton of bootleg content online and lawyers were working overtime to get a handle on it It was clear that copyrighted content that was uploaded without the copyright holderamp8217s permission was problematic What was less clear was the legality or illegality of linking to that content This was QSSamp8217s gimmick They created a website that simply linked to content from other sites In this case most of the content was pirated video from other sites but amp8211 at least in QSSamp8217s mind they had found a loopholeFox came down on QSS like a ton of bricks and forced the site owner to amp8220give the site awayamp8221 I remember this story pretty well if you take a few minutes to Google it you can grab all the detailsI havenamp8217t really thought about QSS since then but today a friend sent me an email with a link httpquicksilverscreencomwatchvideo25043 to the full version of iRobot yes the movie starring Will Smith from 2004 and a quizzical amp8220This has to be illegal doesnamp8217t itamp8221A quick click and I was watching a full screen extraordinary high resolution DivX stream of iRobot You may need to download the DivX codec or player for your browser it only takes a second The page says that the movie is hosted by Page6com and that you may need to download the player For me the embedded player worked just fineA DivX stream of a pirated movie Big deal Obviously this is not news This type of stuff has been going on since online video has been available But if you have a decent broadband connection you should treat yourself to an upclose personal view of high quality piracy It is very instructive to emotionalize the experience This is not a small grainy low resolution picture amp8211 it rocks Iamp8217ve had television sets that did not tune in a picture this goodNow hereamp8217s the truly unfortunate part The only money associated with this particular value chain is the cost of the bandwidth to serve the video There is no advertising revenue no subscription money no payperview amp8211 nothing The people responsible for this particular experience are doing it because they can Of course they are also stealing from the rightsholders and breaking the law but this is not news either The geekiest among us have been illegally downloading HDquality movies for years This is different for only one reason amp8211 at QSS today you donamp8217t need to be a geek to be an exceptional piratePrinting presses have been around for well over a thousand years And although scholars identify the amp8220Diamond Sutraamp8221 circa 868 AD as the earliest printed book the art of printing most likely predates this work In 1041 movable clay type was first invented in China and more known to western culture Johannes Gutenberg invented his famous movable type printing press in 1436 By 1450 Gutenberg was printing up a storm and if asked he would not have had a problem creating a personalized printed letter addressed to every land owner in Germanyamp8217s Rhine Valley The cost a dayamp8217s wages for a master and an apprentice for several years would not have been a practical use of time or money Thankfully for everyone junk mail was not invented until the beginning of the 20th Century when Mr Sears created his first amp8220direct mailamp8221 campaign The cost of personalization was still out of reach Your name was amp8220occupantamp8221 and if you were greeted with a letter you were amp8220Dear Friendamp8221 or amp8220Dear Customeramp8221 It was not until the advent of the highspeed laser printer circa 1977 that seriouspersonalization became so inexpensive that there was no reason not to treat every piece of printed matter as if it were a personal onetoone communicationYes the printing press profoundly changed human behavior from 1436 to 1977 but its evolution from a movable wooden type printing press to highspeed laser printer enabled an entirely new set of behaviors and completely destroyed several businesses that were part of the value chain Has anyone ordered any photo type recently If you are under the age of 20 you have probably never even heard the termOnline streaming video has been around for over a decade thatamp8217s a hundred years in Internet time QSS in and of itself is no more or less dangerous to the content business than any other filesharing filelinking site Whatamp8217s bothersome is the exceptional quality of the bootleg content and the advent of the emotionally satisfying newbeeeasy interface More people will have faster broadband connections tomorrow than have them today More people will have better computers with better video cards tomorrow than have them today When honest people can make honest mistakes and enjoy themselves while breaking the law and stealing from you amp8211 things need to be rethoughtBy the way Iamp8217m not sure if you are breaking the law by watching iRobot online through QSS Actually I am sure youamp8217re breaking the law See how easy it is to be a casual criminal I bet you didnamp8217t think you had it in you Shelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2006 Focal Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards He is the ViceChairman of the National Academy of Media Arts ampamp Sciences an organization dedicated to education and leadership in the areas of technology media and entertainment Palmer also oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmyamp174 Awards which honors outstanding achievements in the science and technology of advanced media You can read Shelly39s blog here Visit Shelly39s website at wwwShellyPalmerMediacom or reach Shelly at shellypalmernetCheck out the Shelly Palmer Report archive

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SHELLY PALMER REPORT: Shameless, Illegal & Not Possibly Profitable: Browsing QuickSilverScreen.com

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