OH MY GOD! THIS IS AWESOME NEWS!!!

[Blues 0]

Anyway from today's Straits Times:

"Tough action aimed at large-scale piracy

 

Home users who make one or two illegal downloads are not the target

By Chua Hian Hou "

here: http://www.straitstimes.com.sg/sub/topstor...0132,00.html? So I assume if we download one or two tracks just for evaluation purpose it should be pretty safe.

 

and this..

"..Under the scheme, which begins today and ends on Dec 31, five major software companies - Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia, Symantec and Autodesk - will offer SMEs discounts of up to 40 per cent on their products. Ipos is hoping to attract other software firms to the discount programme."

At least they are trying to cut down their price too..

Edited October 20, 2004 by Blues

[bpribadi 0]

...SMEs discounts of up to 40 per cent on their products.

 

That's what I call good news!

[Mackie 0]

For those who believe the music industry is flourishing, I hope the following insights will be helpful. What's on the surface, all the glamour and expenditure are deceiving, much akin to wannabe models who think they will take the walk of fame and money by being one.

 

Since I've friends in the music industry in HK where I used to reside, I shall use what I've seen, learnt and heard as core examples. For a start, look at Japan. Why do stock prices of Ayumi Hamasaki's recording company Avex Trax knee-jerk to lows when the media took one of her comments as an intention to retire? That's because she's the one and only key to the company's balance sheet. Watchers expect the company to slip into the red if it loses this artiste.

 

Moving on to HK, international labels such as Universal, EMI, Sony and the likes are trimming and only concentrating their investment on only a few and proven pop stars. Of note, we see lots of albums comprising of greatest hits and an occasional new tracks being released in recent years. Another signal is hotshots like Faye Wong etc no longer produce two albums in a year and more like one in one or two years. Wah Sing which churned out local stars in the raw like Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Andy Hui etc went bankrupt while the biggest local HK label Emperor succumbs to releasing teeny bopper groups like Twins, Boyz and soloists like Yumiko to stay in the black. Incidentally, their only respected singer by matured audience is Joey Wong.

 

Despite the doldrums facing the music industry, HK's movie industry is a lot worse. Investors are far and few but the few movies that made it to production have improved drastically e. Infernal Affairs, Running out of time etc. Yes, we do get better quality films from HK relative to the crap in 80-90's but the artistes, film crew and production companies are suffering. In fact, most movie stars make their money from advertisement than salary from movies. The worst sufferers are production crew.

 

Why is the movie industry taking more of the brunt than music industry? It's not the economy nor post SARS for these factors will duly affect both sectors. It's piracy, period. HK movies need to be approved by mainland Chinese media regulatory body before they are allowed to be released. Rejection means massive loss of income. Do U know that Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer" was rejected in China? However, the cinemas were able to attain pirated copies of the film and screen it to the public. Moreover, pirated dvds/vcds are alive, kicking and rampant in industrious parts of China. This should give U an insight of the severe loss of income. If piracy of music in any forms were to persist, the same will happen and expect lower quality, lower frequency of new works from music artistes.

 

Is P2P a sin? I can't say I'm not attracted to good stuffs that are free. Is it illegal? Yes and we should abide by the law. Will it persist no matter the measures taken by relative industries? Certainly no. In order to make pirated music, movies and softwares less attractive, I propose lower prices for originals and companies should make their dues on economic of scale. That's to say make the same amount of money but at larger scale. Of course, they could make more by hiking prices for the same volume. However, I reckon most would shun pirated DVD (S$9) if original copy sells around $20. Similarly, original cd priced around $15 should look more lucrative over pirated copies.

 

In summary, I don't advocate P2P downloads (personal principal) but I DO understand its immense popularity as prevailing prices of originals are just too high, especially in S'pore and duly so for DVDs. That's the reason why most of us who are into home theatre order all our copies from amazon and the likes.

 

Disclaimer: Aforementioned regions are not specifically targeted but merely to raise awareness of piracy which pervades across the globe. All observations and proposal are solely mine and by no means to offend anyone who disagrees.

Edited October 20, 2004 by Mackie

[av98m 0]

So when will the grossly ovepriced CDs be discounted as well?

 

Hang on..Mackie, you're saying Amazon will ship DVDs to Singapore nowadays??

Edited October 20, 2004 by av98m

[Mackie 0]

Hang on..Mackie, you're saying Amazon will ship DVDs to Singapore nowadays

 

Of course, dude, we've been doing it for years. I recently got the Region 1 Star Wars trilogy boxset for S$76. The same version is being sold at S$99.

[av98m 0]

Thats very strange indeed . I've tried in the past to order DVDs from amazon and gotten a message saying they would not ship DVDs to Singapore. I've always thought it was because of the censorship issue. So the CDs do get to you direct without being hijacked by the local censorship board who will hold them hostage until you pay a ransom..I mean censorship fee? What happens when you order movies that have scenes cut when shown in Singapore?

Edited October 20, 2004 by av98m

[lekguan 0]

Indeed the CDs are slightly pricey locally, but can still be considered reasonable to buy a few copies.

 

The real question is not about money, but really about IPR. If you tried so hard to market a product, spent so much effort in it, and I buy a copy, then copy for my friends, you will feel very disappointed. Of course now that you aren't one of them you can say all you like, "I won't mind", anyone can say that. But its only when it happens on you that you will feel it.

 

Actually I think the real problem behind p2p is the pop market, where people follow the trends, of that ever changing new songs and only that one or two from each album. If one happens to like a lot of different songs, it's unlikely that he will buy all the albums for that mere 1-2 songs each album, and keep on buying every month, because of the ever changing fashion. Besides if you were to download 192kbps MP3s on the net, more likely than not they'd be very close to the quality of CDs. But I do think that for these people paying to download licensed MP3 should be pretty reasonable.

 

I know people who download albums upon albums and store them in their computer. It's quite saddening to see that. I think its time to put an end to massive downloaders.

 

That said availability is another problem. I guess if you can't find the product locally, and you'd have to miss it for life, it'd be quite disappointing. I guess thats something to work on.

 

With temptation just a click away it's kind of hard to resist, but we should try to.

[sigma 0]

Pre-recorded cartridges and cassettes, newspapers, books and magazines, films, video tapes/discs, laser discs, CD-ROM and video games are under controlled goods. You have to declare them and get an import license/etc.

[N3w_Typ3 0]

hope that good things will come .. COME on japan ... air your stuffs in Singapore .... i wanna watch them first hand !! DON'T just TARGET your OWN Country !

[Blues 0]

N3w : don't think that's ever going to happen. Not unless they are tempted with a very large offer

[N3w_Typ3 0]

sorry but well .. i not too sure .. cos japan always targets their own people .. for some reasons .... look at the Cd3K cans you can only find in Japan so far japan artist had not make any comment on the on going Dl of animes out of japan

 

but maybe one day it will come ... hope i am not old by that time

[av98m 0]

Pre-recorded cartridges and cassettes, newspapers, books and magazines, films, video tapes/discs, laser discs, CD-ROM and video games are under controlled goods. You have to declare them and get an import license/etc.

Bah! No wonder piracy is still rampant.

[Mackie 0]

Thats very strange indeed . I've tried in the past to order DVDs from amazon and gotten a message saying they would not ship DVDs to Singapore. I've always thought it was because of the censorship issue. So the CDs do get to you direct without being hijacked by the local censorship board who will hold them hostage until you pay a ransom..I mean censorship fee? What happens when you order movies that have scenes cut when shown in Singapore?

I have not encountered issues regarding Amazon's shipment to Singapore but there are cases when the dvds were checked by the courier service (compliance to our custom laws?). Also, titles disallowed by the censorship board would be rejected if discovered. Make sure U only order titles that are appropriate for general consumption but U could squeeze in disallowed titles at your own risk. Finally, try to avoid the express shipping mode for the assigned courier service is very on the ball in checking your stuffs, if U know what I mean.

 

All region 1 titles are uncensored and we have very high success rate in shipping these to our homes. The risk is greater if U order Region 1 of a particular title, in which even Region 3 (censored) version is not allowed to be sold here.

Edited October 21, 2004 by Mackie

[Mackie 0]

hope that good things will come .. COME on japan ... air your stuffs in Singapore .... i wanna watch them first hand !! DON'T just TARGET your OWN Country ! 

 

Choose HK and Taiwan as your shopping destinations. For instance, there are at least 2 levels in Sino Centre, Mongkok, HK, that sell latest Japanese anime (VCD/DVD) and soundtrack. The 2 regions capture all trends from Japan very quick..........in a matter of weeks. The respective local publishers also generate magazines solely on Japanese fashion, music and anime trends. Every year in Aug/Sep in HK, there's a comic covention where U can buy Japanese/local comics and collectibles.

 

It's truly sad that a lot that is going on in North-East Asia is sorely missed here.

[Blues 0]

N3w : move over to HK quick ...