Hard News: The Mega Conspiracy
464 Responses
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Islander, in reply to
Well, partially: there is also the small matter of individual writers, and writers organisations in ANZ, being against the Apple set-up. Hint: the very expensive ANZ site for 'everything you can eat' of ANZ books is a fairly spectacular failure.
Backed by both CLL and NZSA (from which I have resigned), they are still begging people to sign up. VUP's site, Me.books got the jump on them years ago- -
3410,
The 'trusted advisors' make themselves available to help craft the legislation.
Even without all that, Sky now has the economic muscle to crush all before them (and will).
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Russell Brown, in reply to
The thing about Sky (and the other entities we tend to regard as ratbags in this area) is that they don’t have to behave corruptly to get the job done. They pay people to liaise with the government officials and ministers and that may be their entire job. Simply by being always available to talk on these matters makes them the authoritative voice, as far as the government is concerned.
Yes. Sky’s guy is Tony O’Brien, whose job is lunch and lobbying with MPs, officials, relevant industry managers and journalists. He’s pretty good at it. And we got some sense of the size of his budget during the election campaign last year – in a fairly unnerving blurring of boundaries, it actually paid for Sky’s election debates.
A former comms person for the New Zealand Rugby Union told me that whenever Jim Anderton started up about anti-siphoning laws for major sports events, he’d be required to call the New Zealand Rugby Union and tell them to issue a statement predicting The End of the World As We Know It.
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Has anyone else had the marketing questionnaire from Sky that sounds awfully like they're looking at setting up a Netflix-like service? It was interesting, spent a long time on a bunch of different pricing options.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
And here it is. Introducing SKYNET v0.5. Captions very welcome. Including, "we need your clothes. Your boots. And your Internet."
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nzlemming, in reply to
"All your TV are belong to us!", perhaps?
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I just remembered another goodie… “Doubleplusgood.”
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Sacha, in reply to
Meanwhile, we'll look like a bunch of wallies
and it won't help us attract and keep high-value creative/knowledge industry workers who expect first-world cultural infrastructure.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Yes. Sky’s guy is Tony O’Brien, whose job is lunch and lobbying with MPs, officials, relevant industry managers and journalists. He’s pretty good at it.
I'm sure I'm going to get crucified for saying this, but I don't have a problem with lobbyists - whether they're corporate, unions or single issue whatevers. But I'd sure like to see a public register of lobbyists and more stringent disclosure of their interactions with Ministers and senior civil servants.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I’m sure I’m going to get crucified for saying this, but I don’t have a problem with lobbyists – whether they’re corporate, unions or single issue whatevers. But I’d sure like to see a public register of lobbyists and more stringent disclosure of their interactions with Ministers and senior civil servants.
Not to worry Craig, the nails aren't coming out any time soon. Lobbying and political donations themselves aren't the problem. Not telling the whole story about them is.
And SKY supported the Skynet Act, but didn't seem to take any of the fallout, unlike the Govt of the day and Big Music and Big Film.
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I'm not sure how to think on this. One one hand, all billionaires are predicate thieves from the people and should be flung in jail, at least until they disgorge their ill-gotten gains.
On the other hand, I don't think NZ should be acting as America's colonial policeman. I believe that (a bit ironically) the Germans refuse to extradite to the US, presumably because they don't consider them to have a functioning justice system.
Also, if Schmidt is guilty of money laundering, is the NZ state complicit in this by accepting a cheap $10mln loan as payment for residence? Will we see Key, English or at least the head of Immigration arrested next?
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Islander, in reply to
Will we see Key, English or at least the head of Immigration arrested next?
O I rylly rylly hope so!
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SkyNet: Pay up, tune in, zone out.
SkyNet: Where we vampires always pwn you zombies -
Geoff Lealand, in reply to
A mild thrashing at best, Craig. I have real problems with a full-time lobbyist representing the interests of a monopolistic private company, rather than the interests a broad sector of the population, such as trade unionists. Indeed, the activities of O'Brien are really a corruption of democratic processes.
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What Geoff said.
In an ideal world, where all viewpoints are given equal weight, there might be value in commercial lobbying but that's not how the world works. Consequently, commercial interests tend to out weigh private interests or even national interests. Mostly, they preclude evidence-based policy-making as well, though not as badly as in the US. Yet.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Who's best for selling T-shirts online? Maybe CafePress for global sales, but I'm thinking someone more local would be ideal.
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Dylan Reeve, in reply to
Mostly with you. Dylan, but it already has changed a great deal. And we’ll see more change. NZ more-or-less missed the cable boom, but that fragmented markets in the US and Europe.
Lots of ‘shopping channels’… but also HBO making direct to cable shows- including some of the best TV drama ever produced- that have never been broadcast free-to-air in the US.Same thing... The content is first and foremost licensed for broadcast, internet rights are secondary to that (and usually bundled).
Although NetFlix is starting to commission original content - that could make a big difference.
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Dylan Reeve, in reply to
Unless a government with balls regulates otherwise.
No government will regulate away an entire business model. TVNZ, TV3, Sky - they all depend on the ability to exclusively license popular content.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
The content is first and foremost licensed for broadcast, internet rights are secondary to that (and usually bundled).
Youtube/Google are putting a few bucks in too. Worth a read, if this is an area that interests you.
Some of the channels here and another view here
It could turn to dust fairly fast, but I dunno- could work. I watch a fair bit of youtube these days- but nothing like as much as my kids. -
Sacha, in reply to
No government will regulate away an entire business model.
Telecom.
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NZ will have become a “bananed republic” if the application for extradition is a success.
I would suggest that the application was submitted in draft form for consideration of the Courts to see if it would be accepted and matter progressed from that point as it did.
After a deemed appropriate time to consider the issue has passed I feel Mr Dot Com and friends will sadly be on a plane to the good old USA.
The peril of innovation and making a fortune that does not involve paying children to make devices for less than 0.50c an hour.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Youtube/Google are putting a few bucks in too. Worth a read, if this is an area that interests you.
That is interesting. Certainly niche has been the way to go for some time in a number of industries - as long as the niche is big enough to make it sustainable. In physical terms, NZ has always suffered from scale issues, but when the world is your potential audience...
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Pete,
Anon seem rather grumpy - anyone know the local time for this shitstorm to happen, if it does?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5LlaF2AoL-o
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
A mild thrashing at best, Craig. I have real problems with a full-time lobbyist representing the interests of a monopolistic private company, rather than the interests a broad sector of the population, such as trade unionists.
Geoff: Trade unions represent (and lobby for) the interests of their members - some better than others, and a few in ways that make me wish a bus would jump the curb and put them out of my misery. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that; but while YMMV, I don't want Helen Kelly, Tony O’Brien or whatever toss-monkey is running the NZRU pushing draft legislation in front of ministers. I didn't vote for them - and they're not bound by the ethical and professional norms of the public service -, and I'd prefer all lobbyists operate in the full light of day.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Anon seem rather grumpy – anyone know the local time for this shitstorm to happen, if it does?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5LlaF2AoL-o
Here’s the update video. They seem to be keeping their powder dry so far.
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