Well it might be true that the RIAA thrives on conflict but even they cannot deny that the masses want their media content online. Be it music, movies, software, television, you name it, it’s online. This is just the entertainment business responding to the demands of their customers, namely, you and me! The internet is the most convenient way to find the content you’re looking for, after all it was designed to be that way from the very start. So why are some factions of “Big Entertainment” resisting this change? I’ll tell you why. The big media companies are scared to death, I mean shaking in their expensive designer boots, scared of a level playing field.

Big Media doesn’t want to compete with you and me, and in the past they haven’t had to. It was nearly impossible for the average person to get a show on TV or get an independent film out to the widest possible audience. Not anymore. Sites like YouTube have made it possible for anyone to make a show on their own terms and put it out to the entire planet. So things are changing but lest we forget that the huge multi-national conglomerates that own the media companies also own your internet service provider!

And so, in case you haven’t noticed most internet service providers now impose limits on your monthly bandwidth. The upshot of this is that if you make the internet your primary source of home entertainment it’s going to get more and more expensive. Some service providers offer several plans at various prices, all the plans in reality feature the same upload and download speed. The only thing that really changes is how much you can download and the cheaper the monthly cost the more you pay per gigabyte when you go over your limit. Sometimes these plans are so out of whack that you can find yourself paying more being on the cheapest service that you would be on a service that is several rungs up the service plan ladder! Not only this many service providers have software in place to slow down your connection if they think you are downloading things you shouldn’t be. This software is so heavy handed in it’s application that it causes problems with online gaming and other perfectly legitimate uses of the internet. This process called “throttling” is prevalent in the ISP industry.

So what is all this subterfuge about? It’s about what will be, dare I say what must be! One day in the not so distant future there will be a levee imposed on the internet. It will be a fee that you will pay to your internet service provider as part of your monthly bill. This money will go into a giant pot. Anytime you download a movie, mp3, software or whatever it will be counted. This information will be used to determine what cut of the pot all the content creators will get from everyone downloading their stuff! It’s simple and the right people get paid. The better or should I say the more popular your content, the more money you can make.

In the meantime if you want to avoid bandwidth limits and throttling look to the smaller internet providers. They are less likely to impose these limits on your internet experience.

Tags: Levee, Downloading, Free content

Think Microsofty
It's about that time. My yearly subscription to Apple's Mobile Me is due and now that i've replaced most of the MobileMe services with cheaper or free services from places like Google etc It seems I am paying over $100usd for an email account! Seems kinda pricey for a single email account with 5 aliases!

In for a penny, in for a hundred bucks!
Hey no problem, just opt out of all those other services and just keep the email service right?

WRONG!

You have to take a minimum package that costs you over a hundred bucks. Nothing is optional except,..of course if you want to spend MORE money on their services! Apple used to offer email only accounts but suspended this practice some time ago. Unless you were grandfathered in on that old system, you're out of luck if you don't want to pay for these extra, basically useless services.

Wildly Intelligent, but not very smart

I think Apple has lost sight of the big picture. Nearly every day I get colourful ads from Apple. I have no choice but to look at them because that's part of the deal with having an email account from Apple. I really don't mind, it's always cool to see the new products coming out and the promotions and deals that are being offered. The problem is that if I don't renew my MobileMe account I don't see those ads, and the thousands out there just like me also don't see those ads.

Pretend you're Apple's CEO Steve Jobs

Correct me if I'm wrong but those ads are very effective in helping to sell new products, so don't you want as many people to see them as possible? Wouldn't it be smart marketing to have me pay some token fee like say $!9.95 a year for an email only account so that you can keep sending me those ads? I mean where's the downside? I pay you money. You stay connected to me so you can try and sell me stuff! If you're into making money that's gotta be a whole lot easier than counting cards in vegas! In fact that could almost be considered marketing genius.

Perhaps somebody's MENSA card got lost in the mail?

Tags: Apple, Mobileme, Mobile, Service