[mmastrac]

The studios and middlemen that bring content to people's doorsteps have created this incredible Gordian knot of contractual obligations and agreements. This industry showed up in the dark ages of connectivity where content was produced for a local market.

If someone else wanted to show this content in their jurisdiction, they'd just create a one-off agreement for it and be on their way. They honestly don't know how to sell to the entire world at the same time.

Piracy is the Alexandrian solution to this. Untying the relationships and legal contracts would take decades, but the threat of piracy forces them to offer solutions today to compete.

[imgabe]

I'm sure there's contracts and such, but really, what leverage does Zoltar's Romanian Film Distribution Inc. have over Sony or Disney? They can't just say, "Look, we really don't need you to drive truckloads of DVDs around the country anymore. It's been nice working with you, good luck."

Obviously they still need translations and such, but can't that be done concurrently while they're preparing for release anyway?