Traditional Broadcasters Bring Their Spoon

I once heard a Los Angeles police officer remark that trying to win the War on Drugs was like trying to bail out the ocean with a spoon. That, to me, is what the recording industry has been trying to do for years. I once wrote a paper for a business class on the recording industry called "When Dinosaurs Sued" which I will someday find and post. But, back to the point! Trying to control what people do online, how they access content, from where and under what terms is like trying to 'bail out the ocean with a spoon' or trying to stop a flood with a sponge. Sure, there are casualties. You can pick on individuals, get a settlement from the courts that says a 16 year old owes you 10 million dollars, but it ultimately has no impact.

Now, according to the Globe and Mail Traditional broadcasters, having learned nothing from the recording industries ballet of blunder over the last 2 decades. and have come down to the beach, where the record companies sit waist deep in water and have brought spoons to help with the bailing.

Again, according to the Globe

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to regulate video programming on cellphones, ensuring there is still room for domestic content and local advertisers."

Not only will this never, ever work - but it will actually have the opposite effect. It will drive potential viewers/listeners directly to out of country broadcasters. One of the problems with, or rather great things about, the internet is it is not in any country - therefore it can not be controlled or regulated by any country - or even by any international body very effectively.

Broadcasters, like the record companies, need to stop lobbying, litigating and trying to enforce and devote all their energies to figuring out what their new business model will look like. Put the spoons down and learn to swim or, in other words: Evolve or die.