Finally maybe they get the picture...

Recently posted on slashdot.org is a piece about a New York Times article that talks about the decline in movie goers and nothing about piracy. From the article itself:

"Multiples theories for the decline abound: a failure of studio marketing, the rising price of gas, the lure of alternate entertainment, even the prevalence of commercials and pesky cellphones inside once-sacrosanct theaters. But many movie executives and industry experts are beginning to conclude that something more fundamental is at work: too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough."

Are the movie studios finally understanding that if they put out crap people will not watch it, that if people continue to interrupt movies with their cell phones that we would rather stay at home. Piracy does not account for the massive decline in viewership and lost revenue. Now if we can keep DRM out of most things that they are trying to force down our throats we and the companies will be much better off. As consumers we will support what we like and dislike, if you offer a reasonable deal at a reasonable price people will purchase it rather than attempt to pirate it.

I created my MSDNAA account again so I can try some stuff that they have on there such as Vista/Longhorn beta 1 and the Visual Studio .NET 2005 or 2006 whatever it is Beta. Also to get me a legit copy of Windows XP64. Since my notebook came with XP Home I don't qualify for the free upgrade to XP64. When I purchased my notebook I paid for XP Home, if I wanted to upgrade I had to purchase XP pro (no thanks, I have home) then for the free upgrade I have to have XP Pro. BLASTED Microsoft.

What have we learned today: 1) Maybe the movie industry is starting to catch on that piracy isn't the problem, 2) Forced DRM is evil, 3) MS can suck my big toe.