Comments for Life as a Beta Geek

Comment on Copyright Infringement by Mark Majurey

Mark Majurey — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:34:26 +0000

George — some great links in your piece! I came across this blog yesterday which I think should be compulsory reading for anyone in the creative industries. Gives some added insight into the mind of someone who does this for no money reward. http://www.themillions.com/2010/01/confessions-of-a-book-pirate.html

Comment on Blue Skies Conference by Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:30:31 +0000

Re: the movie industry’s experience – it’s incredibly hard to work out how anyone can know what’s sustainable in film. The studios have a culture of stunning extravagance – by which I don’t mean red carpet stuff, but more of wild hiring and so on. A friend of mine took over a studio a few years back and immediately discovered that there were a dozen people with vague job descriptions who were paid over three hundred thousand dollars a year and did nothing which had any measurable impact on the company. He discovered that various departments had used development budgets to make actual (awful) films, and so on. Then again, movie industry accounting is some of the most occult in the world. Everything makes a paper loss if remotely possible. Movie contracts have no standard terms – words like ‘net’ are defined fresh each time. The whole thing is a patchwork – even before you start to ask about under-the-table deals involving sources of funding which are not entirely straightforward… (BCCI was fond of film.) And into the bargain, cinema ticket sales passed DVD sales last year. After a long time complaining that movies were dying because no one was going to the flicks, the industry is now complaining because they are.

UK producers have a different set of financial issues, of course – perhaps the most important of which is the distribution bottleneck, which makes it hard to grow a UK film production company to the point where it can put significant money into its own productions and reap industrial-level rewards, becoming moderately independent of the banks, rather than beholden to them. Digital could easily be a way ’round that… Anyway.

My point is that I question whether new models can be dismissed just yet. It’s not implausible to suggest that there’s some internal reform which could go on in the industry to make leaner models profitable…

Comment on Blue Skies Conference by George Walkley

George Walkley — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:07:21 +0000

Mark, thanks for the comment and additional context beyond my very brief summary. Good to see you today, sorry our conversation was brief.

Comment on Blue Skies Conference by Mark Carden

Mark Carden — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:55:50 +0000

I probably did say there is no such thing as the cloud, but to avoid a Mrs Thatcher (no such thing as society) moment, I should clarify that I meant that the cloud is not magic puffy thing that just happens, it needs to be purposefully constructed out of repositories and services, and enabled by trusted brands.

Comment on Start of Term by Ev

Ev — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:00:33 +0000

Hi George

Cory Doctorow’s Makers has some pretty good ideas about domestic RFID use. I’m sure the MIR:ROR could be hacked or adapted to find stuff in your house.

Comment on Copyright Infringement by Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:31:14 +0000

you are eric cartman and i claim my five pounds

Comment on Copyright Infringement by Matthew Gingell

Matthew Gingell — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:08:28 +0000

I agree with Hewson that content production will suffer, in particular in the film industry where huge upfront budgets are required to produce the films we love. If copyright can not be preserved what will be their incentive to spend the budget? I always ask people what is your favourite film? I then suggest that it would not have been made without a enforceable copyright regime.

I am calling the people who have already undergone the cultural shift, “Copyright Hippies”

Comment on Predictions for 2010 by George Walkley

George Walkley — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:31:28 +0000

Will, Liz – thanks for the feedback.

Comment on Predictions for 2010 by Liz Bury

Liz Bury — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:38:35 +0000

Brilliant – thank you! Should be fun to look back and see who said what at the end of 2010!

Comment on Predictions for 2010 by Will Hawkins

Will Hawkins — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:02:30 +0000

George,

What a useful table! It is going to be a fascinating year as things ’shake out’ in the publishing industry and it will interesting to see how this table develops.

Thank you

Will