It’s a nice thought that companies like Disney and WB actually have a conscience and regret past actions, but I fear some of you are being too anthropomorphic. 🙂

gnash = no to flv. it is coming

and non-free Flash is a bad idea (x86 only + proprietary!)

Unfortunately, as you and others have experienced making Microsoft’s WMV work in places that aren’t Windows OS or Internet Explorer can be particularly tricky. Because of our focus on reaching the broadest audience, we are working hard behind the scenes to migrate to Flash as our default format. 80% of AOL Video usage will be in Flash in early February, and users should be able to watch AOL Video regardless of whether they are on a mac or running windows or linux.

It’s important for you and your readership to know that we are working very hard to make everything we do with AOL open and publicly available as broadly as possible. In Video, for example, we have made our Video Search APIs open to developers on very liberal terms – please see http://developer.aolvideo.com and let me know what you think about what we’re doing.

In the meantime, know that we are working very hard to make sure that you (or any other user) never has an experience where they don’t get the video that they are looking for. I hope you’ll come back to http://video.aol.com.

I run AOL Video –

As to Warner Brothers, I was thoroughly offended that their last cartoon release featured a 5 minute homily by Whoopie Goldberg about how these cartoons are so racist and we should look with pity upon those poor unenlightened bigots from the early 20th century. Personally, I didn’t find anything potentially offensive in Volume 3 of the Golden Collection except for that foul-mouthed shill for liberal politics preaching to me. What’s next? Rush Limbaugh hawking orange juice? Oh wait, that really happened.

Anyhow, it seems the media companies have this really odd double-standard about continuing to spew immense quantities of ever-worsening filth while being embarrassed at supposedly offensive works they were associated with in the past, that more often than not, were done in innocent fun with no ill-intent.

The AOL video worked seemlessly for me on a Mac with Firefox. I’ll try it on Linux tonight to see what happens there. I agree that ActiveX is evil, bit it’s clear AOLVideo does not require it.

I’m very curious to see where this trend of self-censorship will lead: Perhaps one day the Fox network will be showing hard-core porn but “The Simpsons” will still be forced to censor a naked butt (which is a new requirement they didn’t used to have). Perhaps Disney will be selling snuff films or kiddie porn (not too far off from some of the garbage from some-Disney owned companies), but you won’t be able to see Br’er Rabbit without buying a gray market VHS tape from Japan for 3 figures.

They say “All in the Family” couldn’t be made today in the current climate of political correctness, but I let my kids see “All in the Family” (usually) because they can understand what it’s really about (e.g., “Racism is wrong”, “Not everything old-fashioned is wrong, nor is everything new-fashioned right”, “Don’t let your daughter marry a meathead.”, etc), but there’s a ton of network TV now I would never let them watch.

With respect to copyright, it’s obvious the trend is that anything since about the time of WW1 will remain in copyright forever. Every time Steamboat Willie is in danger of going public domain, Disney will buy another Congress who will kick it out another 50 years. For the most part that’s not even so bad, but what is bad is all the “orphan” material that will never see the light of day and may be lost forever. As an avid music collector, I’ve spent years tracking down releases which the record company has decided to sit on for some capricious reason and the artist hasn’t got the wherewithal to purchase the rights to re-release his own works. Since music distribution has become all but free, there is no economic reason to do this.

Exactly how does behavior like that promote the common good?

I can see it now, I’ll be blogging in the year 2020:

I hope my MPAA-approved ocular implants show up in the mail soon. My Audience License Fee expired and none of my TVs will work. Whats even worse is that I’ve been wanting to go see a movie for months, but my old implants don’t support the latest DRM features, and I’ve already used up my alloted 3 firmware flashes, plus the HD-DVD region redistricting changed me from Region 45-b-7G, which means I’m in a region known for high levels of piracy in the early 2010’s so I need to pay about $500 retro-active fees to relicense the dozen or so movies in my collection. That’s not even counting the 6 I lost the week after backup software made illegal (the Piracy Capability Act of 2016, sponsored by Sen. Hatch (Utah-Viacom) and in the House by Rep. Chastity Bono (Calif.-Disney)).

Man, I miss the days when it was legal to watch DVD’s.

And while I am sure that you would love to see the cartoons for their technical merit and their cultural importance, you are more than a bit naive to assume that WB wouldn’t take tons of flak were they to release those cartoons. They’d be painted as profiting from racism now, and as profiting from racism then, and they’d become the Klan of the Week right after Michael Richards’ 15 minutes are up. It is a proper decision, from the standpoint of their shareholders, to not release those works. It is their toy, and their corporate goodwill, that they are protecting and ought to be permitted to protect.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer9/