This is a first!
I've been running the site for over 5 years now, and in that time I've received a LOT of email. I thought I'd seen it all, until this request came in today:
- ***** *** has sent the following email:
I am interested in obtaining a copy of the lottery drawing for November 8, 2006.
Please advise
Thanks
Yeah....wow....I guess I should add "Lottery Drawings" to the site as a show. Think she'd want a "Best of," or go all out and get the full season set?
Gord
posted by Gord Lacey @ 1/08/2007 08:42:00 AM
21 comments
21 Comments:
You could probably devote an entire website to posting humourous emails. Keep 'em coming.
This comment is in no way related to your post but...
I don't come here a lot, but tonight I didn't feel like reading the tiny print on my box of St Elsehwere season 1 to see if there were any eps with commentary, so I came here.
I clicked on Search.
You know what I found.
But I just want to say how much I applaud you for doing what you've done. Very, very impressive, taking a stand like that.
Good for you!
(and hopefully, bad for the jerks who are selling 44 eps of Man from UNCLE (a friend asked me) for $99 with warnings all over their site about how you had better not violate the copyright of *their site!*
Ick!
I've been trading tapes with friends for years, but I've never charged anyone or passed anything off as official commercial releases. This site's only hint that they might not be commercial was the warning that you will want to be sure your machine plays DVD-R.
So, Kudos to you.
(does freefind do the same thing?)
Pam
www.bakulanews.com
i was wondering if the weather channel was going to put out the entire run of weather since the beginning of time with commentary from God...hopefully in widescreen
LOL! Very funny! Well she probably was on that show and wanted to see herself win...or lose!
It's not a show though, it's a 1-2 min thing between shows where they draw the numbers live on TV.
Gord
LOL! Then that even funnier! (I was anon on Jan. 13th)
Question for you Gord: what's up with the Region coding? I mean why do they do it?
I just found bootlegs (of unreleased series) on eBay that are "Region free, Region 0". Supposedly they play in any DVD, any country. So why do they bother encoding DVDs for particular countries?
There are USA series only released on DVD in Germany (pilot for KF:TLC, for instane). If they made those region free, they could sell more in the international market! I don't get it! Do you have an insider 411 on this, or what's your take, Gord?
(Btw, nice to finally see a face, you're very cute!)
Region coding, whether on DVDs or video games or whatever, is born out of the idea that a different company may hold the rights in one geographic region than in the other. For example, Universal is able to release the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman shows on DVD in Europe, because they fully own the rights there. But in North America, a major part of those rights is now owned by Dimension, which is part of Disney. So Uni can't release these in Region 1 unless they work out a deal with the other rightsholders, but there is no such obstacle in Region 2.
By the same token, the cartoon Voltron is released in Australia (Region 4) by a company called "Madman", but more than a year later in the USA the rights went to a different company, Media Blasters, who took the time to deliver a better product that had remastered video/audio and more extras.
It was in recognition of this knowledge that there are different right-holders and/or license-holders in different parts of the world, that the studios agreed amongst each other that region coding was desirable.
For them. Myself, I have a region-free player. I'm gonna go home tonight and watch Col. Steve Austin do his thang! :)
LOL. Some "shows" don't need to be on DVD. Cool blog and great site!!
That's a real thorough explanation, thanks a lot, Dave! And lucky you, an evening with Col. Steve Austin! Love him too! :)
Well 70's Sci-fi fantasy TV was the best!
Do you guys recall this series? "The Fantastic Journey" (1977)- It starred Roddy McDowall & Jared Martin.
Please click on my name to sign the (2 days old) petition for the release of "The Fantastic Journey" (1977) on DVD. Pass it on to your fan friends! Thanks!
http://www.petitiononline.com/TFJDVD/petition.html
If you love "The Fantastic Journey" also visit this new website:
http://jaredmartin.bravehost.com/
LMAO! I would of asked you what the winning numbers for the future Lottery drawings would be. Now that would be something to know!
"The Fantastic Journey?" Hmmm...
I used to enjoy that show when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I ran across it on television a few years ago and I couldn't watch it. Maybe the reason it's not on DVD is that Gary Collins wants to hide it?
Is there any chance of a release of Facts of Life Reunion? My daughter, who is 7 yrs old, is a HUGE Facts of Life fan. I can't find the Reunion show for sale anywhere.
Please help!
I was just looking at the news regarding a possible MacGyver complete set...
It's the people who buy season sets as they are released that make it feasible to continue releasing them, and ultimately a full set. Series bonus discs are well and good for those that buy the set, but what about us true devotee's that supported all of the previous releases? True, the M*A*S*H bonus disc is coming out; but there are other sets out (like Greatest American Hero) where we've lost out by being a loyal supporter.
Cheers to Gord! You're our greatest voice!
Me thinks this lady was having 'Menopause Moment'....
and ended up on the wrong blog...
Ms Guizmo
Can't think of anywhere else to ask this question where I might get an intelligent answer:
Background: Viacom just asked YouTube to pull all of the shows to which they own copyrights (MTV, NICK etc.) and YouTube complied.
I am trying to figure out how this benefits Viacom in any way since they have yet to release any of the shows I would want on DVD (read: just about anything but Spongebob and jackass) and rarely show them on TV anymore.
I'm all for protecting copyrights, but YouTube was the only place I (and others I'm sure) could watch some of them since I didn't tape them oh so many years ago. How does this co. benefit from pulling any public exposure from shows like Daria, Angry Beavers, or Rocket Power when they haven't released them and don't seem to ever plan to? It is not like they are losing money, in fact they might be hindering positive buzz. Copyrights aside, the only reason most companies make any decision is money right? Which way does the money flow here?
Unless you all think that pulling them off YouTube was a preemptive strike and they may now release these shows (dare I hope).
How much does it really cost to throw together a DVD set and distribute it? Do they put in the effort only if they think it will make them a couple mil $ profit and anything less they won't bother?
Maybe you all don't know the answer, but could hazard an educated guess?
Why hasn't Viacom released stuff like that on DVD? Because it does cost money to put those DVDs together, and if they don't think they'll make more money than they spend, then they won't make a DVD. And then, for the titles they could be profitable on, they may not assign their resources (people, factories, etc.) to developing those DVDs for the shows you're thinking of, because those resources are busy putting DVDs together that Viacom thinks will make them even more of a profit. Finally, just because a studio thinks a given show will sell on DVD, it doesn't mean that retailers like Best Buy or Wal-Mart would agree. And if stores won't agree to buy it from the studio and stock it on their shelves, then there's no real point in making it, is there? The latter is more of an issue than consumers think, esp. since there are so many TV-DVD titles now and stores have been running out of shelf space to stock it on.
So now back to the original question: if Viacom won't make a DVD with the TV show on it, why bother to restrict YouTube from being able to provide it? Because YouTube doesn't own the property, that's why. If you owned a show and saw another company - YouTube - making any sort of profit from it, and you didn't get a piece of that profit as the rightful owner of that show, then you would be upset, too. So Viacom tried to work out a distro deal with YouTube where both companies could profit from YT having these videos there, but they could not come to an agreement. That's not too unexpected, given the complicated nature of such a negotiation. So, when that fell through, Viacom sent YT a cease and desist order, pretty much.
Viacom - and other studios - aren't trying to hide their shows from being visible in the world. That's not in their self interest. But they can't do every show they own at once, because they can't hire enough people to handle all the gajillions of properties they own all at once. Someone somewhere is going to come out on the rotten end of that situation, and the shows you like are unfortunately it, baby. In the meantime, though, while the studio works to try to get through that and find time/resources to officially release the property some way (may end up being a similar route, like iTunes...hey, Power Rangers is available by iTunes now!), they are not going to just let any old person or organization usurp their property rights and profit off of stuff they own. If they don't protect their own property rights, noone else will. So it amazes me that folks are constantly surprised my moves like this one Viacom made.
On a similar note...how come studios have yet to (AFAIK) utilize some of the custom DVD sites to release product that they don't think is going to sell as well? A bulk order wouldn't leave them with an outrageous cost, and there'd be absolutely no need to promote it, just sell it exclusively at Amazon.com as orders come in. If the masters are in good shape, it shouldn't be a problem, and they could tack on any pre-existing (or new) extras if they see fit. The way I see it, that'd be a win-win situation for fans and studios alike.
As much as I would love to get the remainder of the Amazing Race seasons with commentary and bonus footage, I'd be ecstatic just to get the episodes at the very least.
If you do lottery drawings, maybe you could also do school closings.
I really enjoy that comment about the lottery tickets. Some people are just really out there I guess. Wanted to let you know that at Amazon.com I saw they posted a release date of May 1, 2007 for Season 6 Box Set of Will & Grace. Thought you might want the head's up so you could update it on your site. Thanks
Ryan
Some universities are recording television programs over the air. Two sites you might try are:
www.cimema.ucla.edu/collections/collections.html
and/or
tvnews.vanderbilt.edu
Wow! That's kinda funny!! Hahaha.
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