Saturday, April 13, 2013

An Open Letter to Joss Whedon

Dear Joss Whedon,

Today I was thinking about Firefly, and like many browncoats felt sad and angry at Fox for ending it so early. I am also perplexed that you chose to bring Dollhouse to people through the same people who killed Firefly, News corporation (aka Fox). I have an idea for how you should bring your next great idea to people around the world.

Youtube. Youtube now offers movies to people I found out today, and their ads can make substantial revenue if it gets enough views. Having your name on something will get many views for certain. By allowing people to watch your shows whenever they want as much as they want they will have to sit through the ads (if the show is 40 minutes long, 4 ads, one at the beginning and 3 placed at cliffhangers) which while it will be a little annoying will make sure that you and the actors who make the show will get paid well. Today people can just download it to their TIVO and while that is a great invention, you get paid only once. By making the show a pay per view many people don't want to pay a frequently obscene price (over $100 for a season of Doctor Who on DVD for example) once will have no incentive to go find it pirated somewhere else, because it will always be available. Movie studios and writers/directors like yourself lose a large amount of money to piracy every year and this is due to the very extreme prices that many fans of the shows can't afford to pay, and it is made so inconvenient to get access to the show that it isn't worth attempting to get legal access and to risk incarceration (because the odds are that the individuals who pirate a show here and there won't be caught). Right now the incentive to pirate is very high. This will eliminate that drain on revenues.

I think this is a real win-win for studios and creators around the world. I am certain I am not the first person to say it, but by taking the power away from corporations like News Corp. to deny content to people creators will be rewarded, everyone will be happier.

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