Phil's Tumblog

A 28-Day Window Before You Can Even *Think* About Renting A Movie

Ben Fritz for the LA Times Company Town blog:

Under a new deal between the two companies, Netflix users won’t just have to wait 56 days to rent Warner Bros. movies on DVD. They’ll have to wait 28 days to add the movies to their queues.

Creating a 28-day window between DVD release and rental period was ridiculous. When that didn’t work, doubling the window to 56 days was bullshit. But now creating a 28-day window before you can even add a movie to your Netflix queue is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.

I’ve vastly underestimated just how fucktarded Hollywood is.

Writes Marco Arment:

If I’m adding a movie to my Netflix queue, I’ve already decided not to buy the DVD. I’m adding it because it looks mildly interesting and I’d like to watch it sometime. If I can’t add it to Netflix, I’ll just forget about it and probably never see it.

I hope we all realize where this eventually leads: the banning of movie rentals entirely.

This is the MAFIAA we are talking about. They are completely insane in the way this think. I hope they die a slow painful and horrible death as more people turn to pirate their shit.

42 notes 1 hour ago

What $12.5 Billion Buys You These Days

parislemon:

Motorola warned their Q4 numbers would be bad. And boy are they ever. A rundown:

They shipped — shipped, not sold — 5.3 million smartphones in the quarter. As a reminder, Apple sold 37 million.

For the full year, Motorola shipped — shipped, not sold — 18.7 million smartphones. As a reminder, Apple sold 37 million smartphones last quarter.

They shipped — shipped, not sold — 200,000 tablets last quarter. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND. As a reminder, Apple sold 15 million tablets.

For the year, Motorola shipped — shipped, not sold — 1 million tablets. As a reminder, Apple sold 15 million tablets last quarter.

The company lost $80 million in the quarter — $70 million of that was by the mobile division. The unit lost $285 million for the year.

This is a company that Google is buying for $12.5 billion.

Sanjay Jha is a wizard.

I’m actually perfectly ok with this. Motorola hasn’t made a decent worthy phone since the StarTac.

71 notes 1 day ago

Steam Mobile for iOS and Android

2 days ago

Lord of the Rings Lego! I want some.

1 note 3 days ago

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought

wilwheaton:

Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what’s happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they’d better pass Hollywood’s favorite legislation… or else:

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,”

This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd.

Wow. Chris Dodd is not only an asshole, he’s a stupid, tone deaf asshole. And so are all the asshole Democrats who are on the wrong side of this issue because they want money from Hollywood. Guess what, Democrats? You’re finally starting to reclaim the populist mantle that could help you win back congress and keep the White House. You may want to, you know, get on the right side of public opinion you idiots.

It shows, yet again, that he just doesn’t get it. People were protesting not just because of the content of these bills, but because of the corrupt process of big industries like Dodd’s “buying” politicians and “buying” laws. To then come out and make that threat explicit isn’t a way to fix things or win back the public. It’s just going to get them more upset, and to recognize just how corrupt this process is. If Dodd, as he said in yesterday’s NY Times, really wanted to turn things around and come to a more reasonable result, this is exactly how not to do it

Not that it matters, and not that I’m some kind of rich mogul, but I’ll say this again: I have lost more money to creative accounting, and American workers have lost more jobs to runaway production, than anything associated with what the MPAA calls piracy. Chris Dodd is lying about piracy costing us jobs. Hollywood’s refusal to adapt to changing times is what’s costing the studios money. That’s it.