Stupid Congress...

[adrian]

(oh wait, when didn't congress do something smart?)

Anyway...

Bill Could Make It Illegal To Skip Ads On DVDs

A new bill before Congress could make fast-forwarding through ads and previews on a DVD you watch at home illegal.

The bill allows for technology that lets families edit out explicit scenes or material. But broadcast companies have lobbied hard to keep commercials and movie trailers off-limits.

"Their concern is, if it becomes easy for people to skip ads, then their whole business model goes down the drain," said Gigi Sohn, of Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C. advocacy group

Media executives said their goal is not to throw people in jail for skipping ads, but they are trying to protect the motion picture business.

More info here

[Miulang]

Re: Stupid Congress...

(oh wait, when didn't congress do something smart?)

Anyway...

Bill Could Make It Illegal To Skip Ads On DVDs

More info here

I don't see how they could enforce this unless they had spies everywhere. Or maybe they could invent some technology that would self-destruct the movie if it detected you were trying to delete the ads (James Bond, move over). I think if you pay $20 to buy a DVD, then you should be able to do whatever you want with your personal copy (except make copies of it for your friends, which would be piracy). Renting a DVD is another story.

Miulang

BTW: Most DVD players allow you to fast forward through all the ads at the beginning already. Where it would start to raise hackles big time is if they inserted the ads during periodic "commercial breaks" like on TV.

[kimo55]

Re: Stupid Congress...

BTW: Most DVD players allow you to fast forward through all the ads at the beginning already. Where it would start to raise hackles big time is if they inserted the ads during periodic "commercial breaks" like on TV.

They already know how to get around this, M!

it's called product placement and it is all pervasive and unrepentant.

best example to date:

Cast Away. Basically it was a 90 minute commercial for fedex starring Tom girlieman Hanks.
(oh and voit soccerballs too. I think it was a soccerball...)

[Miulang]

Re: Stupid Congress...

They already know how to get around this, M!

it's called product placement and it is all pervasive and unrepentant.

best example to date:

Cast Away. Basically it was a 90 minute commercial for fedex starring Tom girlieman Hanks.
(oh and voit soccerballs too. I think it was a soccerball...)

Product placement is at least subliminal. What I object to is the 15 minutes of ads at the front of a movie (besides the obnoxious ones from the theater itself telling you not to smoke and to keep your cell phones and pagers on stun) when I actually go to a theater. If they start inserting 15 second commercials in the middle of a DVD that I paid $20 for, then I'm gonna be more than a little upset!

Miulang

[kimo55]

Re: Stupid Congress...

Product placement is at least subliminal.
Miulang

oooh, I dunno. When two characters are sittin tawkin story, and you see one guy holding a pepsi can so the logo it just right; exactly/ clearly/ fully visible. It jumps out at me.

Like that scene in Sleeper where woody allen tries to subdue a cop and all he has is a bag fulla groceries; we see him squishing limburger cheese or similar into the cops face, and his fingers move out of the way very obviously so we the viewer see the label "limburger"

Or how bout "absolute power"; that flik with Clint eastwood.
Ed Harris asks Scott glen ;
"Tums?"
he answers;
"no thanks got mah own."


to me that doesn't add realism. It ads nausea. cuz i wanna escape commercialism. I want to esacpe the world where we are forced to see advertising on the floor of supermarkets, on walls of bathrooms. IN-side the urinal (sorry) and escape INTO a movie that does not distract with commercial placement cuz i am too detail oriented to miss this junk. I work frame by frame in postproduction & video editing, and none of this junk gets past me. I (almost) envy others who are inured to it.

[Miulang]

Re: Stupid Congress...

Eh Kimo, you work with this stuff on a regular basis, but me? How often do I go to a movie (mainly because I don't really think Hollywood has that much to offer in the first place), I notice the Pepsi can but it's not going to distract my attention to the point where I can't follow the story. One way I get around this is to concentrate mainly on watching foreign movies. They still haven't caught on to product placement in other countries...yet!

Miulang

[Linkmeister]

Re: Stupid Congress...

Little do you know. To you they're just cigarettes in a blue box; to the French they're Gauloise. And those cardboard boxes in British films? Balmoral or something.

[Miulang]

Re: Stupid Congress...

Little do you know. To you they're just cigarettes in a blue box; to the French they're Gauloise. And those cardboard boxes in British films? Balmoral or something.

Smoked Gauloises in college for awhile. Geez but they tasted horrible! No wonder the French are so grouchy all the time Yes, some foreign flicks do have product placement, but rarely have I seen a foreign movie where an actor gulps from a bottle of Michelob or a can of Pepsi!

Miulang