Originally Posted by Mutt

They've lost half of their bottom line the article says - simple math - reduce budgets by half. Will Smith and Tom Cruise can get by on 10 mil per movie rather than 20. The music industry has been gutted, now it's the movie industry. I read the other day that Madonna was the highest grossing music entertainer this or last year - all from her tour. And do you know how much the legendary pop diva made from her recorded music last year? One and a half million dollars, which is nothing - doctors and lawyers make that.

Creators and producers right now are at the mercy of the middle men - ITunes, Netflix, the cable companies and cable channels - that isn't going to last much longer, the big studios will sell directly to consumers.

I find it incredible that Hollywood can't get Congress to tear up the DMCA and come up with a new law that redefines the safe harbor to protect copyright owners rather than pirates and those who profit from them, making sure to be specific enough so that the pirates in sheeps clothing, Google, Facebook, YouTube et al can't threaten again to shut the Internet down in their noble attempt to save free movies, music, games .........er..........speech for all on the Internet.

There's a federal obscenity law in the United States, but no real definition of what constitutes something as obscene - Potter Stewart, sitting on the Supreme Court of the United States couldn't define obscenity, declined to even try to, as it pertained to hardcore movies but wrote the famous words 'I know it when I see it'. I trust judges and juries presented with evidence could come up with the right answer most of the time as to what's real piracy and what isn't.

DMCA is pretty much useless, I don't know why lawyers don't avoid that piece of shit law in piracy cases and just sue for theft, tortious interference and whatever other laws are applicable when somebody steals from you and ruins your business.