They’ll catch on when they go out of business; “they” being the slow-dying dinosaurs known as the networks that once were in the land before time. I cross-posted on your piece to http://blog.innovators-network.org The Innovators Network is a non-profit dedicated to bringing technology to startups, small businesses, non-profits, venture capitalists and intellectual property experts. Please visit us and help grow our community!

Best wishes for continued success,

Anthony Kuhn
Innovators Network

@Dheeraj Sultanian

“I have personally never gotten anything of value from bittorrent”

Well then it is clear that you don’t know how to use it, or where to look for content. What did you do, install a torrent client and then expect it to read your mind and download your desired content automatically?

@AnonTroll

“I finally installed uTorrent last week and had to open up ports in my router and local PC firewall”

Actually you didn’t. uTorrent supports Universal Plug and Play which (as you should know) is a feature available on nearly all modern routers and deals with the router firewall problem automatically. This makes things easy for “Joe Public”.

As for the PC software firewall, if they are clued up enough to have one then they will be clued up enough to allow a torrent client. I.e. When the prompt pops up saying “uTorrent.exe is trying to access the internet” all one has to do is click the “Allow” button. We are not talking “rocket science”, my cat could do it.

@S

“All of these restrictions are designed to protect MASSIVE revenue streams”

Errrr, yeah. Do you really think we give a sh*t?

Please remember. Bittorrent clients are getting easier to use. Content is getting easier to find. Broadband is getting faster and cheaper every year. More and more members of the public are getting PIG SICK of corporate greed and joke copyright laws. Also it is now common knowledge that the risk of getting caught is less than the risk of getting stuck by lightning (even if you don’t take any precautions). Thus, the “MASSIVE revenue streams” will continue to shrink year on year.

So ….. Here is a message for all you cigar chomping Fat Cats sitting behind your big desks. You need to wake up and realise that you are no longer the ones in control. There are lots of us who are happy to pay, but only for things that we want. All your attempts to bully us into paying for things we don’t want will fail.

When it comes to media ….. We want it as soon as it is released, in our format of choice, at decent level of quality and without DRM, and if you won’t sell it to us then we will get it from someone else. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but that’s the way it is. If you want to stop producing content then that’s fine. I’m sure that there are plenty of savvy, less greedy business people who would be willing to “step up to the plate” and become very rich by delivering the desired product.

End of message.

All valid arguments, but what you refuse to see is that the “big TV” companies have enough power to change the rules of the game, and that in the end, it’s going to be to their advantage.

if all the network companies change their business model to an international, ad based service, who’s there to stop them?

network companies in the world (Australia, UK, etc) might try to stop it, and you know what, they might even succeed for a limited time, but they will fail at the end. American network companies just have too much power to be stopped.

It all sums to money. if NBC can promise roughly the same amount of money to the producer company as they’re world wide contracts, then NBC will get exclusive rights. My guess is that the world is rapidly getting there because the international crowd is moving into getting their content through the internet, and the American network companies got a chance to fill this gap and get revenue from around the world.

Also, good to know that Hulu is up for ‘combating privacy.’ (graph 3) Glad someone’s finally working on that here, too.

It will be used soon by independant movie producers in the US…

As for a lot of the bitching in the comments here, I think most of this comes from Duncan’s point of view as an Australian versus the prevailing point of view of the mostly American audience here.

What Americans don’t get is that torrenting shows is becoming increasingly popular in places like Australia, UK and other major western countries because we have high speed broadband (to various degrees) and we want to see the US shows as quickly as possible. Americans don’t get this because they don’t have to resort to this. It is American viewers that are offered every legal alternative, from iTunes to Hulu to every other broadband initiative, and every time the rest of the world is blocked out.

We (I’m Australian too) have never been offered any of these choices, so more of us turn to torrents (or YouTube), because it’s the only choice we’ve had. Americans who don’t believe this is becoming more mainstream haven’t seen it become mainstream in the US because it hasn’t needed to — you guys get the other options already.

The ratings for most foreign shows in Australia have gone down (sometimes significantly) in the last couple of years, while local shows are rating better than ever. It’s hard not to see increasingly downloads as a major cause for this — and if we were offered quick and legal options, networks here and overseas would see the results. But they’d have to be options that offered the same convenience and lack of DRM as we have now (I’d take ads), otherwise no one will change their habits (and we know how likely this offer is in the current climate).

Even if torrenting is somewhat complicated, take everyone with a PC, and everyone with broadband, and assume they have at least heard of downloading TV shows. And if that amount of the population can do it, soon enough they will (if they actually want to watch any of the stuff, of course). That sounds like mainstream to me.

I believe that smaller, niche content providers will lead the pack with interesting, high-quality content. When the big boys see their customers turning to this new low-cost venue, then they’ll be forced to join the party.

http://www.zipityzap.com is seeking financing

About 80% of the people I know (ages 20-35) download some of their shows from p2p networks, some of those 80% (and the numbers are rising each year) don’t have Satellite or Cable TV - just p2p shows, so the world is changing - the International crowd doesn’t want to wait more than the American crowd for tv shows - they want it now and they don’t want to pay for it.

My advice, and I hope one of the execs are reading this:
a) create a new file format which is close to .avi - this format, and you’ll probably screw this, should be OPEN, meaning - every one can make a player to read the format, I’m saying open because what I secretly want is that I’ll know that you won’t stick any DRM or spyware into it. I know its tempting, but I won’t use it if I feel you’re trying to trick me, and frankly, the bad publicity of such a stunt will cut you deep - look at sony.
b) the file format above will have the same quality (or better) of an avi file, but will also contain ads downloaded per IP (city) on the first play.
c) create a free tool to convert your format to avi with the ads inserted into the stream - for those who prefer to watch the video on their dvd player or ipod.
d) upload the files to emule, bittorrent and make sure that I will be able to know that you are behind those files (for example, publish the links on your web site).

so what do the big TV gain from this? targeted ads per city - get the money from the advertisers, skip the cable companies - who needs them?
they’ll also get true statistics on viewers taste - which amounts to money in deciding which show to produce and which show is worth more money in ads.

what do I as a consumer get? first, I’ll know that I’m not pirating the show, I’ll get it at the second it’s on the air, and I’ll have the ease of mind that my copy is high quality.

Duncan is a SORRY excuse for a journalist - oh wait, he’s a “blogger”.. right

dave,
what makes you believe michael cares? here’s how i see duncan being REALLY valuable:

1) Duncan writes a crappy article
2) logical people like u and me get pissed off, write comments (that involves us visiting the TC blog)
3) Readership increases
4) TC increases CPM rates because of increased readership
5) TC makes more money!!

Get it? It’s the FOX model - but how would TC know to use this model? Oh wait, they hired someone from FOX

They are not playing the same game with their TV broadcast model and their is a new audience in town. We are a high tech on demand bread of people and they are not changing to support that.

Here in Finland high-speed internet is everywhere and thus torrents are used even by not so tech savvy to watch US TV shows we would wait several years to see otherwise.

Instead of thinking about how to fight against the pirates they should think about how to give their users what they want (for free or for a reasonable price) without a delay.

I have say that I’ve seen many non-geeks using it (People who have problem with installing software or turning on the computer, knows how to download musics and movies via torrents).

That’s alone show the real pain imposed to users today, prices are too high, too many limitations of when/where/what to show/listen.
I wouldn’t give this industry too much time to live if they don’t morph soon.

http://www.octabox.com

As for people who “understand” torrents, that’s much fewer, but it doesn’t matter. Many don’t “understand” computers, but still manage to produce web-sites, blogs, upload to flickr, belong to facebook etc..etc..

Using bittorrent is no longer the underground black art that it used to be. It’s mainstream. My nephew probably does it, downloading (and uploading) stuff while he potters off to play pirates or watch the latest tellytubbies clone on TV. He doesn’t understand how he’s doing it, or where the stuff comes from. He doesn’t need to.

He probably doesn’t know its free, because he doesn’t know he should have paid for it in the first place. That nice cardboard and plastic box with the DVD inside that contains pictures of the cartoon stars of the show he just downloaded, and the plastic toy inside, and the pretty booklet with pictures…that’s something that he has to pay for (or rather my sister does). He sees the money (or the card) being handed over in the toy store.

Watching something on TV (sorry on the computer screen)? That’s something that happens for free…

Those are the people the networks are afraid of, because they are growing up with an attitude and a behaviour pattern that’s turning the networks revenue model on its head. They don’t care about the pirate dedicated to seeding and “sticking it to the man”, because in the long term, they are irrelevant, and never were a revenue stream.

Kids will take the place of these pirates if the networks do manage to shut them down…then machines will be created that can do the same thing automatically. The thing the networks are afraid of is that people stop giving them their money. They need to stop that from becoming everyday part of our culture almost at any cost.

Chris Too.

You said: “Almost all of the offered solutions amount to ‘give consumers everything they want for free, and worry about how to make money later’. Hardly a workable strategy.”

I know of at least 2 guys who would disagree with you — they are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and they founded a little company called “Google”.

Furthermore, differences in speech laws make things even more difficult. Yahoo found this out with auctions (Nazi stuff), and I suspect that in the broadcast world things are similarly tricky.

So let’s put ‘Big Government’ at the top of the list of those ‘limiting choice’. They are hardly friends of consumers.

As is too often the case, you put forth simplistic arguments to complicated issues and claim that the industry is just being stupid. For once, put yourself in their position and try to see things from the eyes of a studio or network executive (or even a record label president, but that’s off topic). Almost all of the offered solutions amount to ‘give consumers everything they want for free, and worry about how to make money later’. Hardly a workable strategy.

Once again you show yourself to be an idiot.

All of these restrictions are designed to protect MASSIVE revenue streams.

Simple as this: if full archives are available on Hulu, and Hulu is open to all of the world, then DEALS WITH INT’L BROADCASTERS SIMPLY WONT BE MADE. You think they’re going to license content when its available on their website?

On top of that, who is going to distribute or buy DVD box sets when its all online for free? The ads are not anything CLOSE to the money they make with these deals.

BT is not a big threat for TV shows. The reason is that the people who download full seasons are in small amount. So, they can still syndicate heftily. BT is still hard to use because of the fact that you have to know how to open ports on your router in order to get speeds above 1 kb/s.

Streaming sites are more of a threat but still, these restrictions you whine about are in place because it makes FAR MORE sense to do that then to cannibalize big time syndication money.

Think like a business man, after all, isn’t this a business blog? It’s not a freaking consumer rant blog, and that’s what this post is.

Duncan your articles continue to piss me off and I don’t know why you still write here. Nothing personal but I don’t think this is your thing. I’m sure you’re a nice, educated guy but come on.