Craig Birkmaier wrote: > I am discussing the real issue at play here. No, you aren't. You're merely using this other opportunity to repeat what you've said time and time again, without taking all of the previous discussions into account. It's always back to ground zero. > While SBC and the rest of the RBOCS would love to succeed > in the walled garden arena, they don't have a chance with > this approach. ... > > All it will take is a few major content holders to refuse > to play ball and they will be shut out. > > But they do have a chance to play the ala carte card, I don't see any difference here. If they can't acquire the rights to a more traditional cable-like service, what makes you think they'll be more successful cquiring the rights for an a la carte service? *Perhaps* consumers will be more interested with this different form of walled garden, but the contents rights holders won't see any major difference, will they? > and to open their "gardens" to the content providers who > are being shut out by the existing gatekeepers. If these more marginal content providers are being kept out of the other media, because the bean counters don't think their content will bring in enough revenue, what makes you think the bean counters in this new TV service will think otherwise, or will be more magnanimous? More fundamentally than that, what makes you think that SBC or any other telco will go to the trouble and expense of creating acquiring the rights to this content, only to then open up their walled garden by relying, just as an example, on something as iffy as Bit Torrent (or some similar scheme that would circumvent the need to create a walled garden)? That's just silly. > As usual, you are hung up on mechanics. I get hung up on reality, technical feasibility, and on dismissing meaningless hype. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.