[MPlayer-users] Re: Rescuing a scratched DVD

[Jeremy Maitin-Shepard]

"HR" <haavroed at online.no> writes:

>> [mailto:mplayer-users-bounces at mplayerhq.hu] On Behalf Of 
> [...]
>> How about what the production of the film costs?  Are you suggesting
>> that film producers should 1) operate at a loss, and 2) continue to
>> produce films?
> You left out several other obvious options;
> * they could stop paying actors rediculous amounts of $
> * they could operate with "some profit" instead of "a heck of a lot"

(Note that ``some profit'' is very different from ``charging the
marginal cost for DVDs'')

You seem to be advocating increased government regulation over the film
production industry, specifically price controls.

Yet in your previous post,

> It's a widely acknowledged fact (at least among intellectuals in my
> country) that extensive micromanagement of the population by laws and
> criminalizing the common man by passing laws that most people do not
> agree upon or understand [does not benefit the population.]

In any case, the only place that there seems to clearly be economic
rent is in the actors' salaries, which a price control could
eliminate, but since actors are reasonably popular, it is not clear how
popular such a measure would be (there is often much talk about
excessive salaries for professional athletes, but not about the
salaries of actors) or how `fair' it would be.  Furthermore, some might
argue that actors aren't earning much economic rent.

If price controls are added elsewhere (where there is not economic rent
earned), there would be fewer films produced.

> Ang btw, there are lots of other intermediaries helping themselves to
> big chunks of the cake, so we shouldn't neccecarily aim the cannon at
> the film companies...

[snip]

> Since when did "copyright" and "reasonable pricing" become mutually
> exclusive? There's nothing wrong with copyright, however, there is
> something wrong in using a monopolized market to charge unreasonable
> amounts of money for a service. There is usually an independant gov.
> apt. organization supposed to take care this does not happen. In many
> cases they fail miserably, though.

In the United States, there is the FTC.  But it does not seem that
there is a actually any collusion among the film companies to keep the
price up, nor is there a monopoly (rather, there is an oligopoly.)

> We're traying so far off topic now, that I'll allow one horrible
> copyright example from scandianvia. In Denmark, some author some time
> ago (1981 I think) created a character in a childrens book called "gummi
> tarzan" ("rubber tarzan"). Recently, the Disney corp sued everyone for
> infringing their copyrighted character "Tarzan". So now, through a
> settlement out of court, it is illegal for the next TEN YEARS for
> anyone, even children in a school play or in the kindergarden to set up
> anything with that character. Now, no one even try to explain to me why
> this is right.

I agree that in many cases, copyright and patent time limits should be
reduced.  Furthermore, certainly some things like software patents
should not be allowed. (Algorithms can be researched by universities
with government grants, just as other `basic research' is funded.)

But, I do not see price controls as likely fixing much; rather,
competition is the only viable, efficient way to have reduced prices
both at cinemas and for DVDs.

-- 
Jeremy Maitin-Shepard