Number One Priority

One more thing regarding Bill Carter’s New York Times report on NBC’s idiotic new “free TV show downloads that only work on Windows, expire in a week, and have commercials you’re not allowed to fast forward through” initiative:

But, Mr. Gaspin said, “piracy was and is our No. 1 priority.” He said that the music industry had been devastated by the free exchange of music, much of it facilitated by iTunes.

That’s Jeff Gaspin, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group. So his number-one priority is piracy. Not making high-quality shows. Not forging a sponsorship or advertising model that is less annoying and distracting to viewers, such that they (the viewers) would be less likely to want to fast-forward the advertising messages. No, piracy, that’s his top priority.

And shame on Bill Carter for letting Gaspin’s statement regarding iTunes being a facilitator of music piracy stand undisputed. What Gaspin means is simply that iTunes allows you to play non-DRM-protected music (and video). In the entertainment industry’s mind, anything that can be used to play bootlegged copyrighted material is deemed problematic. It’s despicable.

★ Thursday, 20 September 2007