Reading JD Lasica’s Darknet, about the clash between digital remix culture and Hollywood’s attempt to lock down content.
In one chapter, Lasica tries to clear rights to snippets of old movies for use in a personal, non-commercial video — the Mummy, Ice Age, Mary Poppins, Treasures of the Sierra Madre — and collects the rejection letters from the major studios.
What a missed opportunity. The studios should permit this as a matter of course. And they should require the inclusion of a little “credits” widget that has a link to rent or buy the whole movie. Little snippets of video have the ability to evoke the memories of the rainy Sunday when the movie was seen first, and the impulse to watch the whole thing.
What better way to stimulate sales of back-catalog content? No cost, and found money. The rejection letters are opposite of direct mail — targeted anti-marketing, designed to repel buying opportunities from primed and eager buyers.
How long will it take “long tail business opportunities” to really hack business models and buy back the law?
I agree with the “snippets” comment.. the studios are apparently a bit too paranoid to permit what is only good business sense IMO.