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Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by Server6 on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @09:58AM (#27194630)
Its for MGM's IP and back catalog so Amazon can literally rent it for a monthly price.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by lotsofpulp on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:01AM (#27194656)
The better way to address this would be reducing copyright lengths to 20 years or something reasonable.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by bilbo0s on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:13AM (#27194813)
This.

Why is everyone ignoring these obvious solutions?

I feel like there are these enormous movements out there to advance byzantine solutions to problems we could readily address with simple new rules. What's worse, these movements champion things like break ups, which will never work for the vast majority of these firms. Many are not monopolies, and do not operate as trusts. (Though FB, Google, and Amazon come closest.) Meeting legal definitions matter to Supremes. No matter how silly the legal definitions may seem to us as laymen.

Two simple new rules. One, make the using of the private data of any user for commercial purposes explicitly illegal with draconian fines assessed per individual violation, not per user. Two, redo copyright in the manner you suggest. No more renewing for what becomes something akin to a copyright perpetuity.

These two rule changes would neuter the power of a lot of these companies.

Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by thiago_fm on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @11:45AM (#27196224)
Agree. Those copyright laws were put into place a long time ago and made sense in the context of the past. Nowadays, they should just create a new one that fits the new distribution ways.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by e3bc54b2 on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:52AM (#27195404)
That means losing out exclusivity on endless remakes, reboots and sequels. Since that's the majority of Hollywood money, I sincerely doubt it will change.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by WorldMaker on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @03:00PM (#27199406)
Remakes/reboots/sequels keep the brand fresh (add new copyrighted elements) and keep trademarkable items relevant and trademarked, so even if copyright terms were shrunk again, it wouldn't mean fewer remakes/reboots/sequels, nor would it reduce "exclusivity" of them, given the trademark moat. It would probably mean more remakes/reboots/sequels at standard intervals to "refresh" copyright/trademarks and keep the moat full.

(Even Disney has publicly recognized to their shareholders their mistake in backing the previous copyright extension act and have no further reason to back more extensions because they've proven the trademark and trade dress moat is plenty sufficient. Seriously, try to make a commercial Steamboat Willy derivative all you want without using Mickey characters or concepts from later shorts/movies/pop culture. Try to do it without violating Disney's long held trademark on Mickey's general head shape. Or to use a different huge empire's with a giant moat of properties, some of the earliest Batman stories just finally entered the public domain, but there's almost no way to commercially create a new Batman story without accidentally using later still copyrighted ideas/characters [early Batman used a gun, feels sometimes unrecognizable to modern expectations; most of his favorite rogues didn't show up for decades later] and without violating extensive trademarks on Bat emblems and the cowl shape, etc.)

Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by vmception on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @11:11AM (#27195692)
Many legislative opportunities just require shining a light on it.

Disney lobbied for copyright lengths and other protections because nobody else cared. And didn't ask for more over recent years because people cared.

You can do the same thing.

There are many neglected and unused regulations because markets never formed around them. Congress or a regulatory body thought they were doing something useful but werent.

Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by fuzzer37 on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @12:57PM (#27197567)
Yeah, because any of us have the same power as Disney.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by vmception on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @01:19PM (#27197923)
Right, you don't. I think people are overestimating the pushback they'll get from other lobbyists, and also overestimating the amounts that motivate elected officials.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by kevin_thibedeau on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @12:18PM (#27196859)
Trademarks would prevent derivative works after expiration.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by mikeryan on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:08AM (#27194737)
Not from the studios perspective. They want the exclusivity.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by lotsofpulp on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:13AM (#27194816)
Yes, so the proper way to help consumers is to remove the exclusivity and deal with the problem directly. Preventing mergers does not do anything, except add a middleman.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by JohnJamesRambo on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:00AM (#27194653)
What sort of good stuff does MGM have? I use Prime Video a lot since it is basically free with my Prime and would love some new quality content.

Edit: Posting this I found because my question was dumb.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer_fi...

Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by bryanrasmussen on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:02AM (#27194677)
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by ghaff on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:12AM (#27194787)
Yeah, a lot of it's older but it's a huge high-quality film back catalog which Amazon doesn't really have today.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by hellbannedguy on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:59AM (#27195511)
I found Amazon Prime movie section (good movies) better than Netflix.

This buyout makes sence.

Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by ghaff on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @11:07AM (#27195639)
Personally, I find the all-you-can-eat subscription subs all pretty bad for film. They have even good films but if you want to watch a specific film, it's unlikely they have it. Earlier in the pandemic I even reupped my Netflix DVD rental service for a while. (Sadly, Netflix is obviously not repurchasing a lot of older movies as the discs become unwatchable.)
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by xkjkls on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @12:29PM (#27197100)
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by fredoralive on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:33AM (#27195080)
Note that due to various deals back in the 80's, MGM doesn't own most of its older films, Warner Bros does. They do have the entire United Artists catalogue, and films from some other smaller studios like Orion pictures.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by fastball on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:23AM (#27194958)
Right but so can MGM. The rent-seeking is there anyway, don't think it's anti-consumer for the rent-seeker to be Amazon rather than MGM.
Re:Amazon is reportedly negotiating to acquire MGM for about... by ameister14 on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @10:50AM (#27195374)
As opposed to what, exactly? Is it currently available for free?