For the sake of discussion, I think there are arguably several reasons that MLP's case is somewhat unusual as far as the financial case to be made for allowing fair use. It's on a channel almost nobody watches (which affects both word of mouth and commercial revenue), it had a terrible, one-day-a-week timeslot until the summer schedule, it had a fairly limited promotional campaign behind it, the earlier versions of the show were not well regarded, it had a tremendously damaged brand outside of under-12 girls, there was an extensive toyline coming out with the show that was expected to be the vast majority of the revenue source, the company has connections that allow it to rapidly roll out new merchandising lines, and finally the company needed to convince international channels to pick the show up. All of these features make free viral marketing unusually valuable to this show, and result in far fewer tradeoffs as far as things like revenue from commercials shown alongside the show.
While I think that many shows would actually benefit from going much farther along the fair use path, I would bet that old school marketing executives are thinking something along those lines. It's the only explanation I can come up with for doing something like dumping a lot of money into Thundercats, then playing the show's pilot exactly once at 9 PM on a Friday when kids will be asleep and young adults will be out of the house and then ferociously going after anyone who posts videos of it afterwards. I found I liked the pilot and I'm going to try to watch the show, but I had to work fairly hard to find the video. The executives are saying they would rather gamble on their marketing machine leading to me stumbling across a repeat of the show on cable for ratings/ad revenue at some point in the future rather than slapping it up on Youtube or Hulu with some ads and guaranteeing I pick it up from the start. Sigh.
Here's a good discussion of the commercial upside of allowing fair use for Hasbro (as of a few months ago), by the way.
Here's the part of the argument I don't fully understand.
Hasbo probably makes more revenue from toys than tv shows. So, fair use of their tv show doesn't fucking matter, as long as people aren't producing their toys. It's all more advertising to sell their shit.
I'm not sure fair use would apply as positively to anyone not selling physical widgets.
I'm not sure fair use would apply as positively to anyone not selling physical widgets.
Solution: Get on that shit! Name any entertainment property, and I can tell you what product to produce to rake in the cash.
I agree with you. However, most companies are slow moving monsters. Moving from intellectual property into widget production is entirely different for business processes.
Once more people have 3D printers, even low-tech widgets would be harder to sell. How does fair use work for, say, gaming miniatures when a person has access to 3D models, a 3D printer, and goop?
I, personally, am all about empowering the consumer and telling businesses to fuck off.
It's got to be fairly complicated, expensive, time-consuming, and therefore risky to hire artists to make merchandise and set up production and distribution relationships if you're not already a toy company. Look at how long it took say Cartoon Network to start even marginally supporting a hit like Adventure Time with merchandise. It's going to be extra risky if it's not an established toy line and you need to appeal to the mercurial young adult audience rather than the child audience. You could go a low impact route and license fan-approved t-shirts as Hasbro is doing, but I would bet that's not much of a cash cow.
That car cooling idea will not be very effective down here in Arizona. When you get into the car, it's 130 degrees Fahrenheit. When you cool it to outside temperature, it's 120 degrees Fahrenheit and you now have wet and sticky balls with your ass being scolded by the heat if you did not park in shade. At least it's a dry heat, the worst days of summer are the ones with 30% humidity
I used to really like the horror genre when I was a kid, but then I grew up and stopped getting scared. I have yet to find a movie that's tried to scare me and been successful. I barely even get startled when it's intentional. So I basically gave up on the genre because I felt that the majority of horror movies were bad movies relying entirely on fear. Movies like Dracula and The Shining are pretty good, but beyond that I haven't seen many I care for. I feel more fear when a well crafted character is on the brink of death. Since a lot of the horror movies I've seen have bad acting and bland writing, I basically gave up on the genre.
Mr. Boogedy scared the ever-living shit out of me as well. It gave me nightmares for about two years. P.S. The kids are David Faustino and Kristi Swanson. #TRIVIAWIN
If you're looking for some interesting horror games, Nanashi no Game (The Nameless Game), a DS game about a cursed game RPG that kills you in seven days if you don't beat it, just got an English patch. I haven't played it yet, but from what I've been told, it's a really good game.
If you're looking for some interesting horror games, Nanashi no Game (The Nameless Game), a DS game about a cursed game RPG that kills you in seven days if you don't beat it, just got an English patch. I haven't played it yet, but from what I've been told, it's a really good game.
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While I think that many shows would actually benefit from going much farther along the fair use path, I would bet that old school marketing executives are thinking something along those lines. It's the only explanation I can come up with for doing something like dumping a lot of money into Thundercats, then playing the show's pilot exactly once at 9 PM on a Friday when kids will be asleep and young adults will be out of the house and then ferociously going after anyone who posts videos of it afterwards. I found I liked the pilot and I'm going to try to watch the show, but I had to work fairly hard to find the video. The executives are saying they would rather gamble on their marketing machine leading to me stumbling across a repeat of the show on cable for ratings/ad revenue at some point in the future rather than slapping it up on Youtube or Hulu with some ads and guaranteeing I pick it up from the start. Sigh.
Here's a good discussion of the commercial upside of allowing fair use for Hasbro (as of a few months ago), by the way.
Hasbo probably makes more revenue from toys than tv shows. So, fair use of their tv show doesn't fucking matter, as long as people aren't producing their toys. It's all more advertising to sell their shit.
I'm not sure fair use would apply as positively to anyone not selling physical widgets.
Once more people have 3D printers, even low-tech widgets would be harder to sell. How does fair use work for, say, gaming miniatures when a person has access to 3D models, a 3D printer, and goop?
I, personally, am all about empowering the consumer and telling businesses to fuck off.
P.S. The kids are David Faustino and Kristi Swanson. #TRIVIAWIN
English patch.