Ah ha, you bring up some very good points as to market strategy and product of the big industry mogals. On Monday 30 December 2002 18:44, jfweber@bellsouth.net wrote:

** Reply to message from Curtis Rey on Mon, 30 Dec 2002 14:24:04 -0600

...

or the cellphone market suddenly dry up for M$, not to mention what might happen to the MediaCenter PC that MS and certain OEMs are producing.

ummmm, maybe I've just gone to level 3 blonde , or something. Dooes anyone actually WANT MS to own your cellphone AND those rip offs of Tivo ( granted they added the mp3 "management") And the ability to burn a dvd of whatever you saved;if you bought the thing w/ a dvd burner ( last nights hot flick ?) but, of course, to make certain your *enthusiasm* ( for said flick) doesn't take you off into the hinterland of Non DRM complience, the dvd is only useable on the box where it was burned.. meaning, of course you need one for each telly in the house.... naaaaaah, I musta got all that comletely bolloxed , right ? ?

The object is to get people, lay people if you will, to buy into the "M$ makes it easy" scenario. But I suspect there are deeper motives. As for the cell phone this is strictly about new revenue streams in light of the desktop PC market being saturated - M$ can only sell so many copies of Windows, but cell phones are the next big thing (ever been to Japan?). Now, the issue of the MediaCenter PC has many aspects as I see it. A) it wants to be the all in one device sitting in you living room. You watch tv, listen to music, play games, etc, etc,.. on the M$ MediaCenter. B) keeping people from using there now very powerful home PC's to produce anything that would cut into the M$/RIAA/MPAA/etc's market plans or revenue. Now on the issue that ties into the plans (and worries) of the RIAA and the MPAA. I have been a musician for over 20 years and a few of my former associates have made it big (talking record deal and a fair amount of money here) while others have not. The way the record and movie industries locked in their market and talent was due to the fact that it used to be only they had the hardware and expertise to make industry standard wares. Take for instance the recording houses. They had the studios to record the product - it required advances (and exclusively expensive) devices like 24+ track mixers, 4 track master devices, and all the ancillary stuff one associates with the big record houses, as well as the technicians to runs this stuff and put something that people would actually buy. They also had the manufacturing and distribution channels locked down. Take for instance the actual vinyl record - do you know anyone that had the equipment to take a 4 track stereo master and transfer it to a device that would cut the record and then pump out thousand (or more) copies? This is now a thing of the past. With present technologies I can use software that will produce an industry standard product on my PC, take this master to a place that will burn ad nauseum copies of CD roms and DVDs for the pitance that the record house used to charge the musicains (this was also the means to which the big houses would hook the performers under contract and basically own them - its long, convoluted and nasty - we won't go into that here). But suffice to say my need for the record companies has diminished considerably and I don't even need them for distribution now because of that damn thing called the internet and direct marketing and sales (hence why going after MP3.com was just as important as bringing down Napster). This can all be translated to the MPAA and motion pictures. With the technologies available to non industry (but skilled non the less) people, one could concievably produce a great movie without the use (or need) of the big movie houses as well. Now this is what DRM is really about. Locking in markets and Locking out anyone that threatens or circumvents the Big Entertainment houses money machines. Hence if your using the M$ media center to make a "home" movie you can't concievably run off a myriad of copies for sale. True this would put a crimp in pirating but do you really think a serious bootlegger would use this machine in the first place? This is so Joe Average doesn't get any bright idea (unless if it's really a bright idea and worthy of the market then he's forced to go through the big entertainment machine - and they will get their cut - usually the biggest cut). The other side of the coin is the revenue stream of locking in consumers. Like you said, have one of these for each set in the house. Each one with a subscription to MSN online email/webserfing over the cable that feeds the TV channels. Of course using the new M$ routers/hubs (that call home constantly and let them know what you watch and were you "serf" - pun intended) so they can get you to go to their "preferred" partners to do you online shopping, etc..... Of course the technologies that Sony and Philips are coming up with aren't quite the same as those of M$ and the xxAA's plans. And Sony and Philips would most likely have to cut a deal or compromise with M$, especially in America. Now with this looming these to guys can have the big stick in which they can beat M$ and the other media giants into submission (though Sony Corp has a big piece of the record and movie industry). Like I said this could be interesting. Cheers, Curtis

or are we all in agreement "better the devil (MS) you know .... etc" </aside> I certainly hope those attemtps to control my living room go into the outer darkness , along w/ his umpteenth try at having folks web surf thru the telly , buy only w/ MSN , of course ...

-- Billboard Writer vs. Literature = Micorsoft vs. Computing,

On Tuesday 31 December 2002 05:09, Dylan wrote:

On Tuesday 31 December 2002 02:52, Curtis Rey wrote:

...

Ah ha, you bring up some very good points as to market strategy and product of the big industry mogals.

Even more than that, under the /marketing strategies/, /revenue streams/, etc... is the fact that a small cabal of (prediminantly NW US) companies show a clear intention to control our intellectual freedom by distributing brainless pap masquerading as entertainment and mis- and dis-information purporting to be news, and then restricting what we are permitted to do with that it.

Call me a paranoid conspiracist if you wish...

I could see some advent of this actually happening. Look at MSNBC and then look at what M$' own internal emails say regarding their use and strategy relating to this network broadcaster - they call essentially a marketing portal.

Dylan

-- Billboard Writer vs. Literature = Micorsoft vs. Computing,