Cuban, probably best known for being the outspoken owner of NBA franchise The Dallas Mavericks, does know a thing or two about digital media and online distribution. The 48 year old billionaire first came to national attention when Broadcast.com, the company he helped run, went public and he became wealthy literally in one day. Later he made headlines again when the company was sold to Yahoo for nearly 6 billion dollars.
Besides YouTube, he also weighs in on the DMCA, file sharing, and the future of movie theaters. Regarding the DMCA he says "For example, say somebody came up with a different way of dealing with garage door openers, and they got sued over it under this Digital Millennium Copyright law. That's ridiculous."
He mentioned that he doesn't have the patience to download from a file sharing service, but apparently does check BitTorrent to see if movies from his company, 2929 Entertainment, are being pirated. When asked what he does when he finds them he responded "Nothing. Cause those kids weren't gonna spend the money anyways."
He was also an outspoken supporter of Grokster when they were being sued by MGM and eventually lost on the grounds that they were inducing users to copyright infringement. Regarding that case he says "We didn't lose completely, but we certainly didn't get the best of the ruling."
Cuban criticizes theater owners who complain that releasing movies on DVD simultaneously with their theatrical release will destroy their businesses, asking "you think you can't compete with someone watching a 27-inch TV, with the kids screaming, or the telephone ringing versus getting out of the house to go on a date?"
He should know what he's talking about, since 2929 Entertainment owns not only movies, but also a chain of theaters and an HDTV channel. He plans to release movies simultaneously to all three, allowing viewers to consume it whatever way they want.
Cuban's comments, especially in light of his own success in translating traditional media with new technology and business models, may be something that entertainment executives should be paying attention to, but if the litigious history of the industry against their own customers is any indication, he's not in danger of competition from them any time soon.
Source: IEEE Spectrum
Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 23 Jul 2007 10:32
