Broadband and Downloading
Two recent articles that epitomize what's wrong with broadband service and content / DRM for media in this country.
Salon.com has an article which clearly delineates why connections are slow and options are limited; just your usual restricted competition, underpinned by a deeply stupid court case about Internet access being a data service, not a telecommunications service. Who fell for that?
And then a post with many responses on O'Reilly Radar about HBO putting the stink-eye -- or at least bad IP data -- in BitTorrent downloads of Rome. I can't say that my home computers are well equipped to do this kind of thing (my "broadband" connection certainly isn't, and the free time is an issue) but various people are right to point out that HBO is missing a trick here by not allowing downloads for subscribers.
I know that in the realm of reality, HBO isn't going to undercut the cable companies, bypassing them on their own infrastructure, but the whole approach to content distribution is ridiculous. A company finds an opportunity in the form of people who are accustomed to the existing revenue model and are volunteering to use it (unlike these stupid music subscription sites, a thought for another day). Instead of jumping on the chance, management tries to kill the behavior that is telling them what to try next.
Just goes to show that your various government regulators and corporate titans have resorted to defending the battlements rather than innovation. The cult of the free market is being strangled by its high priests. (Wait, is that a bad thing?)
Salon.com has an article which clearly delineates why connections are slow and options are limited; just your usual restricted competition, underpinned by a deeply stupid court case about Internet access being a data service, not a telecommunications service. Who fell for that?
And then a post with many responses on O'Reilly Radar about HBO putting the stink-eye -- or at least bad IP data -- in BitTorrent downloads of Rome. I can't say that my home computers are well equipped to do this kind of thing (my "broadband" connection certainly isn't, and the free time is an issue) but various people are right to point out that HBO is missing a trick here by not allowing downloads for subscribers.
I know that in the realm of reality, HBO isn't going to undercut the cable companies, bypassing them on their own infrastructure, but the whole approach to content distribution is ridiculous. A company finds an opportunity in the form of people who are accustomed to the existing revenue model and are volunteering to use it (unlike these stupid music subscription sites, a thought for another day). Instead of jumping on the chance, management tries to kill the behavior that is telling them what to try next.
Just goes to show that your various government regulators and corporate titans have resorted to defending the battlements rather than innovation. The cult of the free market is being strangled by its high priests. (Wait, is that a bad thing?)
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