Free stuff!

I was browsing my Facebook the other day when I came upon a news post by the "Chuck" fan page (the TV show, for those who are confused). They said that the latest episode would be available for viewing. I took this to mean torrenting, or at the very least, watching it on nbc for a hefty fee. It happened to be neither. I was able to go to nbc.com and find full episodes of Chuck, The Office, and other shows. Now, this might be available only to you in the US, or I might not have the right player, since it didn't play for me, but the concept of it is something that should have come along a long time ago.

Another thing I found out was that two of my textbooks for next semester, for both my computing science courses, are available for free download in an online library, with a valid student code. This is another big help to me, and saves me at least $200 in theoretical textbook funds.

I decided to go on a sort of "quest" to see how much content on the Internet I can get for free (without breaking the law). Truth is, there's a lot, provided in the US. All four major broadcasters provide free full episodes of shows that they show on their channel to citizens in the US. A number of authors give permission to have their work distributed on the Internet for your enjoyment on your Kindle (I actually laughed a little typing that last word), and of course there are a large number of games on the web, if you don't mind playing flash games. Even Internet radio is catching on.

The two areas behind the line are feature films and music. I can kind of get both, but there are ways to get around those flaws. The main flaw with movies is the wide array of distributors, and their unwillingness to communicate on an open medium. The movie distributors only ever release their film on reels (never seen the screening room in a theatre, they might use different technology now) and DVD/Blu-Ray discs (does anybody distribute on VHS now?). They control the supply, until someone gets a copy on Pirate Bay. The best way for them to save their hides would be to overcome that fear, and either put flash advertising throughout an internet-distributed movie (financially viable since there is no cost going to the movie theater or theater workers) or subscriptions.

Music. Sigh. You might know how much I despise the RIAA for wanting money over distribution if you've read earlier posts. Just wow. But anyway, I think that we'll be seeing more independently distributing artists. This won't be as much of a problem as independent films, since it costs relatively little to make an album over, say, Avatar.

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