Dear FCC: No Special Favors to Hollywood!
This the latest installment of 5 Minutes with Harold Feld, Harold explains what “Selectable Output Control” means, why it’s bad for consumers, why Hollywood is promoting it, and why the FCC should tell MPAA, “No!”
Hollywood's the holdup, not the FCC
The only thing stopping Hollywood from releasing movies to VOD earlier is… Hollywood. They could do it if they wanted to. There’s no law stopping them, there’s not technical limitation. They’ve imposed an artificial limitation as a lever to get what they want. If there were actual serious demand for movies on VOD sooner, I seriously doubt Hollywood would leave the money lying on the table. I want facts and figures. How many people want these movies sooner? How much money is Hollywood losing because they aren’t releasing them sooner? How much of that revenue isn’t actually lost because people buy the DVD anyhow? How much would SOC prevent piracy? How much would it increase revenue, counting the fact that not every act of piracy is a lost sale? How much would it cost Hollywood to compensate the millions of Americans who would have their existing equipment broken? Would it cost more to the millions of law abiding citizens than would be earned by a few corporate entities? If so, is that really in the best public interest?
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