Like, duuuuuuuuuuuuude, anyone under 50 much prefers walkin' down the street squintin' at a teeny tiny screen and playing fidgety-fidgety with the fingertips, and scrollin' and swipin' and lah deeeeee dah.
And so FIVE more magazines are going "all digital," which is a nice way of saying "going bye bye."
The "new paradigm" is that going digital is the answer. No, it isn't. It's just the morphine drip before the plug is pulled entirely.
Bonnier is the company and the titles it owns, now going down the train, are Wakeboarding, WaterSki, Sport Diver, Dirt Rider and Baggers. Dozens of people have lost their jobs and others...are now realizing they haven't got long to search for something more secure.
Good lord, SPORT DIVER...who would be dumb enough to carry a MAGAZINE on board a boat when you have the possibility of dropping a $2,000 laptop overboard instead?
Yes, duuuuuuuuuuuuuude, I know, I know, people live online. Their hand is attached to their cellphone or their laptop or some other electronic DEVICE. It's simply the way it is.
And it is part of the new "trope" of the zeitgeist, called FREEEEE. You ever try to xerox a magazine and then hand it to somebody? No. Did you ever e-mail somebody an mp3? Ever download an entire book, movie or MAGAZINE. Hell yeah.
The big problem with digital files is they can be easily copied. Crapathetic copyright owners shrug and pray that more honest people will BUY instead of "SHARE." But more and more, people have gotten the message that "SHARING" is not STEALING.
Where have they got the message from? From the bloggers who Zippyshare everything, and the not-so-secret forums where "generous" people steal the latest magazines and books and movies and music, hoist it to Rapidgator, and expect to be paid a few pennies each time the item is downloaded. THEY deserve it for their "hard work," and fuck the staffers who are laid off or looking to the government for food stamps.
You've noticed websites whining lately, "You are using AD BLOCKER, please don't do that. We need ad revenue." The response? Screw you, I'll go find another website that has the same information. There's no shortage of Decider and Newser and Daily Beast sites around. If SPORT DIVER tries blocking people from their site, or wants people to pay...hey, there are blogs, forums and torrents happily offering the latest issue the minute it comes out.
What's the answer to the layoffs and the chaos in the world of copyright? Tougher DMCA laws. Politicians with the balls and the brains and the honesty to push aside the billionaire members of the Internet Status Quo. It's time to tell the idiots they're WRONG when the fight for stronger DMCA laws is viewed as a challenge to "freedom of speech" or "Internet Freedom" or some other ridiculous phrase.
"Keep the Internet Free" is the slogan on pirate websites. They contribute nothing to the world. They make a few nefarious people rich. They make normal "honest" citizens think they are entitled to all copyrighted material. They push the excuse that every publisher, musician, movie studio worker and janitor in a recording studio is a millionaire, and nobody is hurting.
Crapathy is when people shrug at the latest news of magazines going digital or bookstores going under, or record labels and movie companies being absorbed by some Comcast-type Internet giant. It's blinking with surprise at how well the American Dream has turned out for Bezos and Suckerberg. Oh, and that Kim Dotcom fellow, he's not in jail yet, is he? Is he the one who did the sex change after stealing government secrets, or is he the one who may have raped some women but waiting out extradition by hiding in a Banana Republic's embassy? Whatever...IT'S ALL GOOD.
Today we have strange heroes, and bad news like magazines doing digital and bookstores going under...is not such bad news at all.
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