Mon, 13 Jul 2009 Stephen Fry slams copyright holders at Apple iTunes bash

willduo said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

I wonder what a fair price is?

Paul said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

Price of video and films need to be looked at...some series are just way too expensive.

Tomskey said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

Well done Stephen!

It is very true! I do not agree to stealing by downloading illegally but.... surely there are MASSIVE cost savings from NOT manufacturing the item, packaging and Shipping it!! Why are these costs not passed onto the consumer! Fairer download fees would reduce HEAVILY the amount of illegal downloading

Pedro said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

Key driver in the pricing of digital distribution channels has to be that the decision makers are those who's obscene salaries would be hit hardest.

Qwerty said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

@Pedro

Sadly if only that were true. Most of the cost of music and computer programs is in the recording / development, with some extra for shipping, storage and retail.

The physical cost of making a commercial DVD, for example, is about 15p (including an Amary case).

And while it's all too easy to think of music industry fat-cats wallowing in cash; it's a comfortable lie. Everyone thinks of U2, and not the hundreds of smaller bands. Most of the money is spent on recording the album - not on duplicating it.

Qwerty cont... said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

The flipside of that is that once you take out the physical product; you also remove the incentive to have a physical exchange of cash. Precisely because most people (like you) think the CD, or DVD, or Book, or whatever, was worth much more than it actually was in the first place.

That comes as little comfort to the hundreds of thousands of people working in lots of industries (music, movies, tv, books, etc) who are going to find themselves incapable of doing whatever it is they've been doing to make money for the last oh-so-many-years.

Still, it's all progress, eh.

Cpt Obvious! said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

BREAKING NEWS: Stephen Fry states the obvious at iTunes Festival.

Simon Day said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

Absolute shame no-one takes a slight bit of notice of Mr Fry.

Hypocritical said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

I for one have to agree with Mr. Fry. I have torrented his own readings of the Harry Potter books because they are twice the price of the hardcover editions of the books. I woud be more than willing to pay a fair price. $450 list is not a fair price.

Maybe my patents would be good for 117 years instead of 17 if I could afford to buy off congress too.

Tell the Truth said on Mon, 13 Jul 2009

The whole case - let alone the conviction - of the Pirate Bay 4 is very much in question after it was discovered that the judge wwas a member of a Pro-copyright group. Which only goes to show how much of a sham these trials and sentences are.

gjane58 said on Tue, 14 Jul 2009

Well done Stephen!

Rick295 said on Tue, 14 Jul 2009

Think music and movies are expensive? How about golf? ...or skiing?
We should all sneak onto golf courses and ski hills until the management comes to their senses.

Haku said on Tue, 14 Jul 2009

Fry is absolutely right. Why do music and movie downloads cost so little less than their physical counterparts? It's just stupid. Aside from the physical costs of producing a DVD or CD there are transportation costs, costs for shelf space (or warehouse space for goods bought online) and overheads for both the premises where the items are sold and the vast numbers of staff to deal with it all, in all the areas I just mentioned.

It's simply not credible to me to say that encoding a movie or an album and storing it on a server for people to buy online should be costing similar prices to the physical discs (or in some cases even more!) whilst at the same time the downloads are of a lesser quality.

That said, I don't support infringing copyright - but I do totally understand why so many people just see the situation as such a silly backward one that they turn their backs on obtaining media they want legally.

Dave52 said on Tue, 14 Jul 2009

@Haku

I don't think "recording costs" refers to the cost of capturing the music per se but more to the costs associated with creating & performing the music for capture.

It's easier to picture with film production: the costs of pysically recording scenes on film (or tape or disc) pale when compared to the cost of the actors, writers, director, crew, etc.

wt said on Tue, 14 Jul 2009

This is not about the price. This is about availability. Stephen Fry was able to buy his episodes of House, I am not - nobody is selling them in this part of the world. If the content online would be available without geographical restrictions, it would surely help reduce piracy.

Peter said on Tue, 14 Jul 2009

This from the man who "slammed" the BBC iPlayer at a press conference. Something's not right.

Haku said on Wed, 15 Jul 2009

@Dave52

I was already taking production costs into account, talking more about the pure profit added to a finished, paid for work. In the case of a TV series for example, it's been funded already, probably got or getting a lot of its money back through ad revenue and syndication.

But it's irrelevant. As Fry demonstrates, the choice is not physical Vs download, for many people it's 'free' Vs 'too expensive', the former of which means no-one is getting paid, so it's a false economy.

andreas said on Thu, 16 Jul 2009

just set it down to 1 dollar and everybody will buy