Hollywood Studios Just Don't Get it Again!

This is insane! I don't know how I missed this ruling last month, but it's quite disturbing and yet another indication that Hollywood studios and the federal court system simply do not understand technology. Apparently, Cablevision lost in a ruling against technology that would allow them to roll out a new digital video recorder service that stores programs on servers in its network. The opposition to this technology was the Hollywood studios which included Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., Viacom's Paramount Pictures, General Electric's NBC Studios, CNN and Turner Broadcasting System. The basis of the opposition was that the studios claim that Cablevision didn't get their permission to rebroadcast the programs. Cablevision argued that because the control of the recording and playback was in the hands of the consumer, and not Cablevision, the devices were compliant with copyright law.

Well, the studios won and yet another technology advancement has been shot down by technophobes who would rather crush new and emerging technologies because they do not fit into their established business model, than embrace this new horizon and determine how they can make it work for them. The Napster syndrom, amplified. At least the RIAA had evidence of hemeraging revenues. The MPAA is just knee-jerking to everything that is different than what was being done 10 years ago. The worst part about this shotgun approach is the effect it will have on the next innovation. Unless it happens to come from within the Hollywood community (and honestly, what was the last innovation from those idiots) they will immediately claim copyright infringement and barrage the creator with a lawsuit. Generally, these types of leaps forward come from individuals with an idea, or small companies who don't have the budget to wage a legal war against the Hollywood Squares, so...this idea stays locked in someone's head due to fear of litigation.
The RIAA went through some serious growth in the past 6 years, and the music industry is better for it. The genie was out of the bottle already, and they were forced into adopting a new business model. They managed, and you know what? No one went broke! No label went under due to music sharing and the industry now has a new revenue stream. Online music sales! What a novel idea! However, Hollyweird has no intentions of letting that genie out. They have rammed a cork in that bottle deeper than your average prison cell mates'...well...nevermind that analogy...you know what I mean.
Please, what on earth is it going to take to wake these people? Generally, something rather large has to occur in order to shake up somethnig this established. Hmmm...'occur'.... I wonder... "occur"...'OCUR'... Perhaps thise large even will happen on the OCUR front when someone finally hacks the oppressive restrictions placed upon use of these devices. And yes, it will happen. Maybe when it does happen, and all of a sudden, the Napster effect slams these people right in the wallet, they will wake up and realize that these advances need to be embraced, not squashed. They need to change their business model to be moth, artist and consumer friendly, for without either, niether can survive...hmm...come to think of it, I can survive just fine without artists. So, who really needs who in this equation???