The Pipeline: NPR digs Grokster, Pogue models his PJs, Cringely wants his WiMax TV
Welcome to the Pipeline, where we take a peek outside of the blogosphere to see what's going on with the mainstream media. This week, David Pogue looks at NetFlix, BusinessWeek grooves on Sonos, and Forbes and NPR look at the roots of file-sharing.
The Grokster case has generated a lot of commentary, much of it citing the historical precedent of the landmark Sony Betamax case, which allowed home taping over the objections of the movie industry. Some looked further back — in some cases, much further. Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
commented to NPR's On the Media that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer mused that a lot of monks were probably unhappy about Gutenberg's invention of movable type (no, not the blogging software!). Von Lohmann, who argued the Grokster case before the Supreme Court, also cited a somewhat more recent precedent: "At the dawn of the 20th Century, no less a figure than John Philips Sousa, the famous American composer, said that the player piano would be the end of music in America."
In Forbes, Arik Hesseldahl looks at another 20th Century case that pitted the music industry against consumers: ?In April 1982, [Quincy] Jones told a hearing of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that the biggest threat facing the music recording industry was the audio cassette tape.? Hesseldahl goes on to point out that Jones ? who said that unless home taping was stopped, no album would ever sell more than 5 million copies ? proved himself completely wrong when he produced Michael Jackson?s ?Thriller,? which sold over 50 million copies. Hesseldahl channels Douglas Adams to offer some sage advice to the media industry: ?Embrace new technology. Find a way to use it to offer your content to consumers, who will reward you with their hard-earned money. ... Make them easy to use, as easy if not easier than those found on the file-sharing services you so dislike, and you?ll make a mint. ... But, most of all, don?t panic.?
NPR -The Shape of Film To Come
(MP3)
Arik Hesseldahl – History Lessons For The Grokster Age
Meanwhile, in his first post-Circuits column, The New York Times? David Pogue joins the battle between NetFlix and Blockbuster, and comes down solidly on the side of ? the consumer. Giving NetFlix the edge for customer service, and Blockbuster points for pricing and extras (such as store-redeemable coupons), Pogue does the math on the obvious advantages of DVD-by-mail services: ?If you watch and return three movies a day, you could theoretically watch 40 DVD movies a month, all for the same $15. True, you wouldn?t have a life, but you?d be paying only 38 cents a movie.? Sounds about right to us. Pogue also properly disses WalMart?s anemic service, declaring that ?unless you believe in rooting for the underdog ? has that word ever appeared in the same sentence with Wal-Mart before? ? there?s no good reason to choose it.? Finally, as if to prove that his move to the Business section hasn?t spoiled him, Pogue?s weekly online video features him, clad only in pajamas and fuzzy slippers, heading out to his mailbox to demonstrate the proper way to send and receive DVDs.
David Pogue -
In the Competition for DVD Rentals by Mail, Two Empires Strike Back
Over at PBS, Mark Stephens Robert X. Cringely invokes the much-in-vogue
long-tail
school of marketing (though he doesn?t actually use the term), suggesting that companies like PBS, which own huge libraries of archival material, could make that content available to niche audiences via the Internet: ?What I am describing is a whole new kind of television because it offers content that is literally unavailable otherwise. Sure,
it might hurt sales of Dragon Tales DVDs, but those producers could opt out of the system if they preferred. ... This kind of television would of course have an impact on all the other kinds of TV, but I can only imagine it improving the landscape, raising the level or discourse and forcing other stations and other media to raise their games.? Of course,
there?s the little problem of bandwidth. Cringely suggests
WiMax-based servers, managed by local PBS affiliates. Sounds great ? if WiMax ever manages to catch on, that is.
Robert X. Cringely – There?s No Show Like an Old Show
Finally this week, we pay a visit to Jay Greene at BusinessWeek, who offers a glowing review of one of our faves: the Sonos Digital Music System, saying it ?blends the sound quality of a fine stereo system with the elegance of an iPod.? His one gripe?
No, not the price tag (guess he earns a little more than we do); he justifies that by saying that it?s competitive,
given that ?a high-end, multiroom sound system can easily set you back $2,000.? Greene, however, points out that the system doesn?t work with DRM-protected music, though he suggests that this ?won?t be a big problem? for people whose collections consist largely of home-ripped CDs. Looks like the rest of us will have to resort to
PyMusique if we want to listen to our iTunes-purchased music through Sonos.
Jay Greene – Beaming Your Music From Basement To Attic
Also this week:
Edward C. Baig – Napster To Go gives music lovers new option: Rent-and-roll
Walt Mossberg – Two New Vertical Sites Tailor Web Searches, But Still Have Kinks
John Dvorak – Ghost of Y2K Haunts Business