HomeWeekly News Roundup (13 July 2008)
Welcome to another issue of the WNR. I finally updated WordPress to the latest version over the week, and the admin interface is looking much better than before. Let’s not waste any time, here’s the news for the week.
Starting with copyright news, the RIAA’s witch-hunt against a home health aide who has never even used a computer was finally dropped, after three years of pursuit. If it takes three years for the RIAA to realise that someone who has never used a computer before can’t possibly be guilty of downloading music, just what other mistakes are they making in their pursuit of copyright violators? Viacom’s contined assault on YouTube/Google has caught the ire of YouTube users, who are posting protest videos on the video sharing site.
A study says that 1 in 3 people break the law by ripping DVDs. I don’t know who commissioned the study, but I suspect it is perhaps a company that would profit from a scare campaign that scares content owners into adding more DRM to their content. I say 1 in 3 people probably don’t even know their computers can play DVDs. A solution to this problem is to put a “copy tax” on blank media and disc writing hardware, to basically fine you for things you might do which may not illegal at all under the fair use provisions. Japan has recently decided against adopting an iPod tax, but that was mainly due to bureaucratic reasons, rather than a reaction to genuine public opposition. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be classified a pirate before I even buy a blank disc or an iPod.
But perhaps the biggest threat to the movie industry is not pirated downloads, but rather, legal downloads, which is cheaper but also makes less profit. That’s certainly what another study says, that digital downloads will dent Hollywood’s bottom line. I think this is inevitable, and the trick would be to get more people to buy downloads, rather than pirate them … you can do that by making prices fairer, and the increased number of buyers should then help make up for any loss in revenue. The traditional disc will still be sold for those who cannot download or still want a physical medium to enjoy their movies on.
In HD news, Pioneer demonstrated a massive 16 layer Blu-ray disc that can store 400 GB of data. Not sure I would want 400 GB of my data to be stored on a single easily damaged or lost disc, and given the price of current Blu-ray media, such a disc would cost hundreds of dollars (if it is capable of being mass produced, and not just a lab experiment). External HDD storage is still much cheaper, safer and flexible (not to mention faster in file read/write) – you can get 1 TB drive for a third of the cost of a Blu-ray burner drive, for example.
Sony is touting the new interactive elements of Blu-ray (funny how they made fun of the very same elements in HD DVD, and called it a gimmick, during the HD format war). But some of their statements in regards to future Blu-ray interactive features requiring possibly new hardware profiles is a bit disturbing. Many people are now contemplating upgrading their 1.1 players to 2.0, but if a new profile is coming out (and I’m not talking about the audio only profile 3.0), then when does the upgrade stop? I really don’t want to upgrade my HT equipment as frequently as I update my computer, because unlike computers, it’s very hard to find a HT component that’s exactly right for your system – having to do so every 2 or 3 years will be a (very expensive) pain in the butt.
And finally in gaming, Sony’s PlayStation site was hacked earlier in the week. Don’t know how this affects PS3 users, but it never felt right that the PS3 has a web browser but no anti-virus or firewall software (and the PS Store used to be just a website, as opposed to a fully closed system like Xbox Live). The PS3 2.40 firmware debacle was also resolved this week, after a fully working and non corrupting 2.41 version of the firmware was released. The lesson, of course, is to wait before applying new updates and let someone else be the guinea pig. PlayStation Home is still awaiting release, but there is a semi-confirmed date of a northern hemisphere fall/autumn release this year. There is also a rumour of a new PS3 model coming in September, but I don’t know if these last two news items are related or not.
What is certain is that the PS3 will not be getting a price drop anytime soon, while the Xbox 360 is gearing up for one just around the corner. The PS3 may also get a new motion sensing controller like the Wii, and the Xbox 360 will get one too. If the Xbox 360 can tie in the new Wii like controller with cheap HD motion sensing games downloadable from Xbox Live, then there might be a market there … Wii games are quite expensive, and not in HD, and for a quick spot of arcade action, the Xbox Live cannot be beat – add in a motion sensing controller, then that might be interesting. If not, then playing a Star Wars lightsaber game with such a controller would be ace.
That’s all the news that caught my eye this week. I’m sure I’ve missed plenty of important news items, but what can you do. See you next week!