AMVs: Easy as 1, 2, 3!

I accidentally stumbled across this stuff years ago, and would like to add that some people do this without anime (Buffy episodes, for example.)

Fun stuff. A cool one I like takes the Cowboy Bebop episode about the creature in the fridge and combines it with the Weird Al parody "Living in the Fridge." It's hysterical.

Another Weird Al favorite uses Evangelion and "I Think I'm A Clone Now."

The Japanese are handling digital content copyright and sharing much better than our corporations in the west are imo.

The Japanese seem to understand rule #1 of good consumer affairs, which is DON'T PISS OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Where-as Here (in the West - Ed) they launch lawsuits ATTACKING CUSTOMERS?!

(a history-will-record "WTF?!" U.S-corporate-moment if ever there was)

_there_ they award prizes.

^Raise-Eyebrow.

Norman Co-Ordinate.

Personally I think the biggest problem with our corporations is that -They're Run- by CRIMINALS.

Or at least the criminally minded with Mafia mentalities and mafia tactics (such as price-fixing - do they think we don't know the Recording Industry was taken to court for price-gouging and price-fixing and had to send off paltry compensation cheques to every U.S citizen a couple of years ago?)

My point being because these organizations are run by people with criminal mentalities they tend to come to criminal-minded conclusions.

Such as:

"Americans will steal product X if they can"

..ergo the industry refrain and their rationale for sending Big Lou out with a baseball bat uh I mean sending if-you-don't-pay-us-a-couple-of-thousand-dollars-you-will-regret-it "no-sharing-mp3's! legal-letters")

But personally, I do not accept their premise as valid.

Though I understand -why- they think as they do.

In fact I would stipulate they couldn't possibly come to any other conclusion primarily because they're applying their own criminal minds to the problem.

They're effectively -projecting- their own criminal behavior onto the masses, and extrapolating that we'd behave as they would.

Sitting next to me on my desk here is a Nine Inch Nails CD ("with Teeth" -Ed), Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston's Megatokyo (american web-comic manga), Takami and Taguchi's Battle Royale, this months issue of Shonen Jump and Warren Ellis' New Universal.

What these things all have in common is that IF their premise were valid, I would NOT have
bought these things. After-all I could download them all for free.

And as soon as NIN's new CD "Year Zero" is released, I will download it (I already have 3 tracks thanx to Reznor who himself released them into the wild this month)

and then I will -buy- NIN's New CD, most likely at a Future Shop.

(provided it isn't over-priced, which it won't be, if Future Shop and Trent Reznor have a say in it)

and it will sit next to me on my desk, taking the throned spot his last CD has occupied.

and this is _even though_ I will have (allegedly - Ed) downloaded it, just as I (allegedly - Ed) did with his last CD.

Point being I -bought- every one of these things, in large part because not only didn't the authors piss me off with some retarded attack on their customers/my person, but they all went out of their way to treat us well, in some fashion.

(whether it be by way of putting the effort into delivering a quality-product, how they've kept the price reasonable, or in how well they otherwise treat their fans)

Megatokyo is offered FREE at their website, and it's quality product; in great part because of those 2 reasons, I wanted to pay-them-back and so I forked out $15.00 for Megatokyo.

Reznor's With Teeth CD was on (permanent) sale, which is to say it was properly priced; consequently there was no perception of price-gouging and so I picked it up without thinking about it (at $9.99)

Shonen Jump and New Universal are solid bang for the buck.

Western corporations need to understand that there are a LOT of us that think along this axis.

But more to the point, is how the inverse effects the sale.

For us the number one reason We/I will REFUSE to buy a CD (or any other product) is if it is needlessly jacked up an extra 5 to 10 dollars.

When they charge an extra 10 dollars for a new CD for some transparently manufactured money grubbing faux-rationale like "but it's 2 CD's!"

(yes, nice try rupe-rect, problem is the second CD is either filler crap or excrement that was going to be cut from the album that you shoved onro a second CD for the _sole purpose_ of increasing the price so you could argue it was justified - nice try but all you've really done is create animosity towards you and the artist/band, where as if you're going to add an extra CD of filler and you -don't- increase the price, you have a guaranteed sale and you generate good-will)

I and I suspect many others immediately process these things and see through them and will adopt a staunch,

you-wanna-price-gouge-me-an-extra-$10-motherfucker? frack-you-RIAA-I'm-(allegedly - Ed)-downloading-it.

$5 extra conversely is perceived as an let's-see-if-we-can-get-away-with-it-by-squeezing-every-last-dime-out-of-them RIAA pricing-strategy.

I bloody HATE the record companies pricing strategies.

if they pissed off with that and everytime I went to the store they were -ALL- $9.99 I would pick up what I wanted without even thinking about it.

(which is precisely what I do with all CD's that I want that are $9.99 - I have no idea how widespread it is but that's the price-point at which I just grab the CD without thinking heavily about it)

End of story.

It's the extra 5 to 10 dollars that they try to con out of us that is the REAL cause of the circumvention of their sale; I know price-gouging stops me dead from purchasing more CD's.

Every ..Single ..Time.

Well, I appear to have run off on a rant tangent.

(there's a point in there someplace. But you might want to find it - Ed)

'aye, there is, and it is this: The Japanese have the right idea (though it's not exclusively Japanese) obviously Sony hasn't figured it out, their PS3 price is not just too high, it's OFFENSIVE and insulting to the consumer. They've gone past that "this is a cool luxury item, and I am worth it" (previous Sony price-point) over to the "these dicks think I'm such a bloody retarded easy mark" animosity territory.

The bottom line (to me) is this:

The more fans are encouraged or even are left-alone-in-peace to mix, mash, and yes even _share_ your product, the more you will recieve FREE POSITIVE ADVERTISING for your product by way of word of mouth, the more you are seen to be benevolent and respectful towards your fans, consequently the more your fans will be inclined to BUY your product.

The good-will generated pays great dividends with Western audiences, in particular.

and we are inclined to support what we like with our cash.

(hint: blowing our disposable cash is what our western consumer society lifestyle is BASED ON)

The money's going to go *somewhere* mates, you want to be where it goes, yes?

I hope Western corporations take a cue from the Japanese example here and treat their customers with more respect.

..yet somehow I doubt they will.

They need a radical shift in how they think and behave.

We are far more sophisticated and juste as consumers than they currently are able to understand.

imo.

- mXm